15 years old, is home education an option?

[jammydoodarh]

I?m fifteen years old and I am in my final years of GCSEs at a Grammar School. I?ve found, especially within the last two years (the GCSE years) that am not happy with the academic structure of the school curriculum and the school in general. I want to continue to A-Level (?) with the intention of following that with higher education (university), however, I?m not entirely sure what my options would be if I left my school at the end of this year. After speaking to my parents home education is becoming appealing as they are fully supportive of this. I?m writing on this site in the hope that throughout mainly the HE threads there might be people willing to share experiences, offer opinions and also advice. Thank you in advance.

[julienoshoes]

YES!

There are a few ways of going about things if you do deregister-but firstly I have to tell you that your parents must send in the proper letter to free you from school-I'll bump up the threads about deregistration for you shortly.

We deregistered our children eight years ago and have home educated them through their teenage years.
Like us you could be very informal and follow your own interests and then go on to FE college and do GCSE and/or A levels, post 16 as our son did (and achieved very good results)

OR you could use a distance learning package such as the ones offered by Oxford Learning, The National Extension Collegeor The Little Arthur School or you could go to the AQA website, download the curriculum, study it yourself at home and find a place to enter as an independent candidate to take the exam, this is the cheapest option, but I believe finding the exam centre to take independent candidates can be the most challenging-although some independent schools may be coming forward to help in this area soon. Your present school may even be open to allowing this, you never know.

OR you could skip GSCEs and A levels altogether and go for an OU course. This is the route increasingly being taken by some home educators. You could find subjects you are interested in and start on a university level course right now!
Our youngest daughter started an OU course aged 15. The feedback and support she has received has been brilliant and we would highly recommend it as an option.
We have several friends who have followed this path and then applied to go to 'bricks and mortar' Uni aged 18 with degree level qualifications to prove their ability to study independently to the required level. Universities seem to appreciate this-and there is one well known top uni that apparently reserves 60 or so places a year on it's science courses for applicants with OU qualifications.
We know of two home educators who are studying law at Oxford by taking this path-and neither have any GCSEs or A levels.

Lastly I would strongly recommend you get hold of the book Teenage Liberation Handbook :How to Quit School and get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn. Although it is written for American teens to read, the ideas and themes fit well with home educated youngsters in the UK. It is this book that really showed our family the freedoms that home ed could bring.

Does that answer all of your questions?
Happy to help if you have any more.

[AMumInScotland]

Hi, my son is also 15 and is home educated at the moment - in his case he is studying for iGCSEs through an internet school.

Are you planning to carry on at school until you have done the exams for your GCSEs, or are you hoping to leave before then? If they are coming up in the spring and you are not terribly unhappy at school, then I would guess that carrying on to get them under your belt would be the simplest option, as you then have a set of qualifications which show people that you are capable of studying academic subjects.

Do you have any idea yet which university and course you might be interested in? It might be worth looking at their websites to find out what they say about qualifications, and even contact them to discuss how they feel about non-standard qualifications - they can often be quite flexible if they think you have the skills they want.

There are ways of studying for A levels - through distance learning courses, through colleges, or by studying at home and just sitting the exam as an independent candidate. Or as Julie says you don't have to do A levels at all, but could do an OU course in a subject you find interesting, if you want to have qualifications.

My son is likely to be going to fulltime college after the iGCSEs, but the college we have looked at also has an option which it calls "Flexible learning" where you have a college tutor and access to their library and computers, but you can work when and where you like - that might give you the kind of freedom to study in your own way.

[jammydoodarh]

Thank you, and i will come back with more questions, and answers to the ones i have had in return, once i have read through all the articles and had a look at the resources suggested.
Also, as a quick question; i would love to finish my GCSEs in this school, however would anyone know wether the school would be able to remove you from aa course even after 1 and 1/2 years, and without a request to leave the course..?

[AMumInScotland]

Hi, I think schools are entitled to remove students from courses, but they would normally only do it if the person was not making enough progress to have any chance of passing, or if they were somehow disrupting the class. If they are suggesting they will drop you from a course, it's worth meeting with them properly to discuss what the problem is and see if you can agree a way forward.

It would seem a shame halfway through your second year working towards GCSEs to miss out on taking them because of an issue like this, unless it's part of something bigger which is making you miserable at school - qualifications are valuable, but not at the cost of being completely miserable to get them. But it may be worth your while finding a compromise with them, even if you don't think their views are fair, in order to get what you want out of them - ie the teaching which will help you to get the qualififcations you want. If you know that you'll be able to leave after the exams and can do things in a way that suits you better from then on, it may be easier to put up with issues for a bit longer.

[jammydoodarh]

You?re exactly right; it is part of something bigger, which is making me miserable at school. It?s the, well I would say icing on top of the cake, but icing would imply it is the end of the situation, which I highly doubt. I am trying to make the compromise, and I think I will follow your advice on putting up with the issues from my school (assuming the school will allow me to), until I am able pursue an education choice more suitable to me at the end of the year.
Thank you

[julienoshoes]

Hi Jamy
If the school will not let you stay on until the end of the year, ask instead if they will allow you to sit your exams as an external candidate.
You could download the curriculum if it is an AQA exam, and work through any uncovered areas yourself, but anyway should be able to get workbooks and revision books from the likes of WHS wouldn't you? Worth asking I would have thought if it comes to that. You will have lost nothing by asking.

[julienoshoes]

Forgot-

Good luck!