Is there anyone in Scotland who can give me advice about home schooling?

Question

I have withdrawn my daughter from school due to bullying and was wondering if anyone could tell me how they are getting on. Also how does it go with sitting GCSE'S. My daughter should be sitting them next summer.

Kind Regards

Anne

Answer 1

Well, HSLDA is an American organisation.

The national, independent group for home schooling in Scotland is called Schoolhouse; they're at:

http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk

You don't say whereabouts in Scotland you live but there's likely to be a local homeschooling support group somewhere close by whose members can fill you in on what's available in your local town etc. Try a web search; checking your local paper, magazines, community website; or ask at your local library for their contact details. Actually, your local library is a pretty good place to ask anyway as the librarians are very likely to be aware of which families are already home-educating and can introduce you.

Most UK based homeschoolers seem to either do the IGCSE courses (the international version of GCSEs) - for their lack of coursework - or they simply eschew GCSEs entirely and go straight to A Levels, vocational qualifications etc. If your daughter is doing those GCSEs which involve coursework, you will have to find and pay someone, who is acceptable to the exam board, to oversee and mark her coursework. Hence home-ed'ers general preference for the 'no coursework involved' international GCSEs.

Or, like us, they go for autonomous learning (aka unschooling) and don't bother with taking any formal qualifications, exams etc.

However as your daughter is so close to finishing her GCSE courses you may want to check with local colleges, private schools etc to see if they will allow her to take her exams alongside their own students. You *may* also find the school she currently attends will be willing to allow her to sit her exams there as an independent candidate. Wherever she sits her exams though, you will have to pay the fees and do all the organising and paperwork yourself.

(don't you have Standard Grades and Highers, rather than GCSEs, in Scotland though.)

Answer 2

Depending what she wants to do with her life she can skip the GCSEs, it's one of the great advantages of home education. If she's academically inclined maybe jump to A Levels or the new Pre-Us. Universities are even starting to offer places to students who skip A Levels and do OU modules instead! (see below).

Don't feel tied to what she would have done in school, taking exams just for the sake of it when she could be doing something useful instead. Ask her what she wants to be.

Answer 3

Home schooling can be very expensive but she can get tutored, my friend did this and it really helped when she was being bullied, she arranged to go to school after closing times and got tutored then, she got it for free because teachers offered to help her before exams. When the exams came she could go into school as though nothing was going on and if she didnt feel comftorable to sit in the big hall, shed get to go into another room. Im sure if she said she would much rather they came to her house to tutor they wouldnt have bothered, as long as she is willing.

I think if you just speak to the teachers and make it clear that you arent going to be forcing her back into class and would like to look into other options, all they can do is help.

Good luck.