I have been asked quite a few times how the twins will take exams. For me this is an important question as exams are the whole reason we home educate. As with someone who sends their child to school, the whole school purpose and end goal is to take exams and be ready to get those qualifications that will open those big thick steel doors to those careers that will afford the twins a better quality of life.
I have extensively researched options outside the school system and few of these alternative to school options are free at the point of use so home educated children are at a disadvantage to their peers who attend school, the school system affords school children free run to exams funded by the taxpayer, for us we will have to find the cash, somehow, but on the bright side at least there are options to take the required exams.
For me there is a slight advantage in that the twins can take the exams they really need and concentrate on getting good grades in the exams they do decide to take instead of taking as many exams as they can just to satisfy some social score card.
GCSE is the most widely taken exam board in UK but more and more Independent schools are opting for IGCSE and there is an increasing number of state schools that are also opting for the IGCSE route. For Home educators GCSE consists of a lot of coursework for many of the exams which is impractical for many reasons but most IGCSE subjects have an optional coursework element, whereas with many GCSE subjects they are compulsory, in addition many IGCSE subjects can be taken as individual subjects or as
qualifications towards the International Certificate of Education, unlike UK GCSEs, in addition IGCE content of IGCSE subjects are tailored to the multi-cultural,
multi-lingual audience they serve, in a way the UK GCSE does not.
In this age of technology there are many online options for taking exams and below are a few of the many options to choose from:-
You do need to bare in mind that you will most likely need to find yourself an exam centre:-
For Edexcel :- https://batchgeo.com/map/Edexcel
For further reading Ed Yourself has some useful information:- Ed Yourself
For more information about attending college between 14-16, Ed Yourself again has some very useful information:- Ed Yourself
There are also Groups that can give GCSE and exam support and advice:-
There are obviously many more places to find exam info for home educators this is just a small selection to show exams are not a pipe dream for home educators, it does take a bit more hard work than if they were in the mainstream school system but it is certainly available and if you are flush with cash, accessible, if all else fails they can sit exams as an adult candidate with the myriad of adult educational options or they could complete an apprenticeship.
We are obviously not there yet at the exam stage but time will fly and doing some thorough research now will stand me in good stead when they do come of age, things may be a little different by then but I will have a head start on getting to grips with the exam situation.
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