Home Schooling

Questions to Ask Yourself

Now for some of the questions you really must ask yourself. Before you commit to home-educate it is worth asking yourself the following questions:

Why are we considering home-education?
How many more months/years does my child have remaining at school?
Will I be reducing opportunity if I reduce the number of GCSEs my child takes or foresee a negative impact on the grades they are likely to achieve?
Can I replicate the school offering in terms of the number of qualifications my child is likely to achieve, eg. 9/10 GCSEs, both in terms of time and cost?
Do I have time each day to manage their studies including research and support?
Am I able to gauge if my child is learning effectively? How will I know what good looks like?
Will my child need access arrangements for the actual exams? If yes, you may have to have your child assessed and this will also cost money (£300 plus in some cases). Please note some centres don’t charge for this but they do usually have increased entry fees instead.
Do I have the budget for exam entry fees? Current costs (2023) per GCSE/IGCSE are around £175/£200. Each centre will have its own approach so you may have to pay more but you may be lucky and pay a little bit less. You could be in for a spend of £2,000+ per child to cover entry fees in 9/10 subjects, text books/other resources and stationery.
Quite often a child will have to change exam boards when switching to home education. Am I prepared to face the challenges of my child needing to switch exam boards and learn new content? Are they happy to do this too? Note that some qualifications are not available to private candidates (e.g. where there is a substantial amount of teacher assessment).
Am I willing and able to help my child to maintain friendships, take my child to clubs and create a manufactured parent-led social life?
Will my child feel they have missed out on the other bolt-on attractions that schools offer? Some home-educated children can feel a little isolated and creating a good environment for mixing and joining clubs etc can be a major undertaking.
Am I prepared to run my own educational programme with no official guidance or support, left pretty much to my own devices? This may sound liberating but schools have infrastructure for a good reason. There is a lot of ground to cover across GCSEs and effective home-education calls for an organised mind! The responsibility will be all yours.
How old is my child? Will it affect my child benefit position if they are not in full time school? Children usually have to have been in home education before the age of 16. If you are planning to miss the last year of GCSES (Year 11) please check with HMRC before you inform your school that your child is about to be deregistered. A child opting to home-educate through A levels who has conventionally been to school through to age 16 will no longer be eligible for child benefit. If they stay at school they will.

Making the Decision

Please try to take the emotion out of your decision. Many parents choose to home-educate due to adversity or frustration with their child’s school. If you are contemplating home-education due to mental health issues, bullying etc, that is totally understandable and it may be a wise choice but it is important to approach this new phase of your educational journey fully aware of everything that is involved. You may be swapping one set of problems for another and the weight of angst and worry may now be on your shoulders rather than your child’s – so be prepared.