Year 10/11 options?

[BuntyB]

15 year old has missed a lot of school due to bullying and currently only accesses one subject where she feels 'safe'. She has dx of AS and is academic; always being ahead of her peer group. Now she is studying just 3 other subjects that she is 'allowed to do' in the library on her own as some eg science, verbal French, IT are not possible to study there.

I feel so sorry for her as she is getting more and more stressed about the amount of work she is missing and that she will fail her exams. CAMHS have offered 5 hours home tuition but this is in the library.

 

i know it's not the end of the world if she has to resit, but it feels like it to her and would like to give her the best opportunity to succeed.

 

the lessons are at all different times, sometimes work isn't delivered etc and she is finding it totally stressful.

 

CAMHS have suggested a specialist setting for children with anxiety problems but there's no guarantee she will get a place, and this is basic education.

 

If we were to home tutor, does anyone know where she would sit them as an external candidate? How/ when would we enquire?

 

It's a long time since i was at school! We had different exam boards; some had continous assessments, but some were purely exams on the day- is this still an option? If not, how would we find what work needs to be done and where to submit it?

 

Hoping some of you will know!

B xx

[bid]

Hi Bunty

 

Have you taken advice from either IPSEA or ACE?

 

I think the main thing is that the LA and school are failing in their legal obligation as she is not accessing the national curriculum.

 

It's quite a few years ago now that my son was out of school prior to going to a residential specisl school, so I think I'm probably out of date, but there are others here who have an excellent understanding of the education system and parental rights, etc.

 

Just to say, I finally got the appropriate provision for my son when he was 15, and he went to special school in the start of year 11.

 

Hope you can find a positive way forward.

 

Bid

[Kathryn]

CAMHS have offered 5 hours home tuition but this is in the library.

 

Camhs are part of the health service and aren't responsible for home tuition, do you meant the LEA? Does she have a 1-1 tutor in the library with her?

 

I'm not sure whether your daughter is in y10 or y11?

 

You could put pressure on the school and LEA to come up with a better solution if this particular arrangement isn't working. If she feels the school environment to be unsafe, would she be better off with a tutor at home? 5 hours (per week?) is derisory for a young person at GCSE level. The LEA has a duty to provide suitable education for a child unable to attend school due to illness and guidance says they should get full time hours - but I've yet to hear of anyone who has achieved this.

 

There may be other options available,like online learning - some LEA's provide access to it but it's unusual. You could deregister her from the system and explore home education options yourself. The National Extension College offers GCSE and A level courses by correspondence and online and if you google you will find others - they will also give guidance on how to find a centre to sit the exam. Schools or local colleges may agree to accept external candidates to sit the exam there.

 

All this is assuming she can cope with greater academic pressure at the moment. Above all, don't despair - there are many routes into education and some of them don't require that you do the "right" exams at the "right" time. My daughter was signed off sick at the beginning of y11 and never went back to school. She still hasn't got a single GCSE or A level, but has had 5 university offers for next year.

 

Hope things work out for your daughter.

 

K x

[BuntyB]

My daughter is currently in year 10, which is why I am hoping we can get something sorted for next year. The 5 hours tuition was organised by CAHMS but probably provided by the LEA? because she was finding it hard to go into school.

I've found it hard to get anyone who's attended meetings (inclusion, senco, cahms etc) to take her academic ability seriously. They suggested that she transfer to college as they have an arrangement with them for vocational courses and I said none of them would be suitable (hairdressing, plumbing, carpentry etc) because she is academic and not interested in these things. They said it wasn't about the courses, it was about developing social skilss as she won't get anywhere without them. When I said she would need her GCSEs and A levels (hence why she wanted to come to that school) to go to Uni, they looked shocked and asked WHO was putting those expectations on her, and wasn't it up to us as parents to suggest something more realistic!! (I put angry on here, but they didn't see me angry- I went home and cried, it was so hurtful) The things is my daughter is SO like me. It took me til I was 40 to get to Uni and I really want to back her up if it's what she wants to do.

Kathryn what you say about the offers is encouraging. What did they do to decide they could offer places? Go on previous marks?

[rannoch]

If we were to home tutor, does anyone know where she would sit them as an external candidate? How/ when would we enquire? It's a long time since i was at school! We had different exam boards; some had continous assessments, but some were purely exams on the day- is this still an option? If not, how would we find what work needs to be done and where to submit it?

If you're in England, there are three main exam boards (AQA, Edexcel and OCR). It would be useful to find out which board the school is using for each subject and the specification. Note that they may use a different specification for different year/ability groups, e.g. lower sets may be following a coursework-only course. If she will be sitting the exams as an external candidate, the exam boards' websites have a downloadable "private candidates' handbook" and a list of exam centres that accept them, plus the last dates for registering to do the exams. If you home tutor, you can usually only do courses that include coursework if you go through a distance-learning provider like NEC.

 

I'd recommend buying GCSE revision workbooks that are very closely linked to the exam content, clearly structured and straightforward to work through. Perhaps it might help your daughter's anxiety to make a timetable and work through some workbooks for a set amount of time each week. Online revision sites like BBC Bitesize are also good. It will bring some structure and routine into her learning (which she's clearly not getting at school). Hopefully, she'll be able to see exactly how much progress she's making and not worry so much about falling behind.

Hope that helps.

Edited May 8, 2011 by rannoch

[Mumble]

They said it wasn't about the courses, it was about developing social skilss as she won't get anywhere without them. When I said she would need her GCSEs and A levels (hence why she wanted to come to that school) to go to Uni, they looked shocked and asked WHO was putting those expectations on her, and wasn't it up to us as parents to suggest something more realistic!!

I just wanted to say how much I admire your determination to help your daughter get where she wants to be, although I'm afraid I don't have any answers about how to go about things. I was in a similar situation to your daughter, struggling at secondary school, excused from some lessons, learning by myself in the library and the school said I'd be lucky to get any GCSEs. Unfortunately my mother agreed with them, so I didn't have anyone, other than myself , to fight my side. I found a way through () and I'm now completing my Ph.D. Don't accept the schools expectations limitations.

[BuntyB]

I just wanted to say how much I admire your determination to help your daughter get where she wants to be,

 

Thanks Mumble, that's really kind as I sometimes think everyone around me believes I'm in cloud cuckoo land, but they don't see the potential that I do.

 

I didn't have anyone, other than myself , to fight my side. I found a way through () and I'm now completing my Ph.D.

 

You must be an amazing person to do that by yourself!

[Kathryn]

Kathryn what you say about the offers is encouraging. What did they do to decide they could offer places? Go on previous marks?

 

Long story which I won't bore you with here, but she went to the local FE college and after a few false starts where she was adamant she wasn't going to uni and tried a course that was tolally inappropriate, she did an Access to Higher Education course. This is designed for direct university entry for those who haven't gone down the conventional GCSE/A level route. It's a broad course and you study some A level eqivalent subjects and some GCSE equivalent subjects. Maths and English are included at level 2 (GCSE equivalent), and the higher level subjects depend on the kind of degree you are aiming for - eg my daughter is doing English, History, Psychology and Sociology as she wants to do a degree in English.

 

She applied last year (2009/10) to unis and got 2 offers based (I'm assuming) entirely on her personal statement and reference from the college as there was no other academic history to go on! She was meant to complete the course in June 2010 but became ill and had to defer - so she didn't complete the Access course. So, having returned to college last September to finish off the Access, she reapplied to universities for Sept 2011. She was in a better position this time around, as she had by this time achieved distinctions or merits for most of her work and so the univerities had a lot more evidence of her potential. One university requested an interview - she thought she'd done badly but they made her an offer so she can't have done that badly! All universities of good repute too, I have to say. The offers are all conditional - i.e. she has to complete the Access course (obviously!) and they have each asked for a certain number of distinctions and merits - it's a bit complicated!

 

More info about Access here:

 

http://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/FAQ/students.asp

 

It has its flaws and for some, A level may be a better way to go, but for those who never got GCSE's it's probably the swiftest way in to university.

 

K x

Edited May 8, 2011 by Kathryn