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One of the difficulties of starting home Education in the middle of the GCSE years, is that home educated children can't always take the same exams as school children. You are likely to have to switch syllabuses, take an extra year to finish GCSEs and/or even drop some subjects.
As well as the disruption of having to change syllabuses or drop subjects, there are a few other important things to be aware of if you want your child to do exams.
* Exam centres - You will be responsible for finding an exam centre and making arrangements to register for exams. It is getting harder to find centres, as some centres are closing doors to private candidates, especially following the covid upheaval of 2020.
* Financial costs - home educators pay for exam costs as well as any courses, tuition or textbooks. £150 per subject just to sit the exams is about average, but can be quite a bit more.
This isn't meant to put people off, but leaping into home education for the last 2 years of school isn't straightforward, so do your research. Read this wiki and ask questions on the HE exams and alternatives group, if you are not sure about something.
Considering Home education for Qualifications is a good place to start for an explanation of the differences between taking exams in school and taking them through home education.
TheQuick Start Guide gives an overview to what to do, if you want your child to take traditional qualifications through home education
Advice for contacting exam centres.
If you are looking to do this at the moment do remember it's been a long and very hard summer for exam staff and no sign of things slowing. They might not be quick to reply. Email is often a better way of contact.
Are you booking your exams for the first time? If you have an exam centre nearby, who is able and willing to enter private candidates, then chances are that the way has been paved for you by other home-educating families.
Sadly however, every year some exam centres decide that the hassle is no longer worth it and close the doors to HE families. Definitely been and increase in this post Covid. There is rarely much, if any, profit to be made by the exam centres in these cases.
Don’t have unrealistic expectations of exam centre officers about giving you excessive support and guidance. Exams officers are not there to give advice about which syllabuses or subjects you should study or what resources to buy. That isn’t their role. Ask those sort of questions in the HE exams and alternatives group.
Please pay it forward to future home-educating families and treat your exam officers with respect and expect to do the necessary decisions around exam choices for yourselves. And if you do get an exam officer willing to go the ‘extra mile’ do make sure they know it is appreciated!
Here are things you might ask/expect of your exams officer.
1) Do you accept external candidates?
2) What exam boards are you registered for?
3) How much are the exams?
4) When is the deadline for registering?
5) Do you do autumn or winter sittings, as well as summer ones?
If you are planning to do any subjects, which have practicals, coursework or speaking components, do ask about these in plenty of time. Fewer exam centres can facilitate these components.
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