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hi ...@bigmailbox.net
Just read this item http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4808906.stm We have been considering the possibility of home educating DD for some time. It seems that this school is following the spirit of HE.
My only reservation is that by not following the standard curriculum and exam process, that the children's options will be limited. The education system (and potential employer) is geared towards grading and ***essing in terms of exam results.
I really do want to HE, but I can't help feeling that it will ultimately limit the choices available to DD.
Any opinions?
Chris Bacon chrispba...@thai.com
If home ejumacating works well, then the exams will be a mere formality, surely? That's if anything even vaguely resembling a "test" will exist in a dozen years or so.
hi ...@bigmailbox.net
How can you be sure that exams would be a formality? As I see it, a conventional school's main purpose is to prepare pupils for exams, and they have a lot of specialised knowledge to do this. I'm not sure that I can provide this level of support.
Of course the system might have completely changed in a dozen years, but maybe not. I must make decisions based on the current system, which revolves around exam p***es.
Alison ali...@home-educate.me.uk
That school looks lovely :) You can certainly do whatever exams you or your child want to if you're home educating - it might take more organising, but it's possible: many HEd children do GCSEs, A Levels and go on to college or university.
Anyway, HE doesn't have to be forever - you might find it suits you all to go back into the education system at some point to do exams. If you feel you can't provide the appropriate support youself, that might be the best course of action when your daughter's 14/15/16.
My eldest is 9, and atm wants to pursue a fairly academic path, she wants to "get good qualifications", as she says. I could imagine her going to school for her GCSEs, as the simplest (and cheapest!) way for her to do 9 or 10 in one go. Or she could wait until she's 16 and go to the local FE college to do them - there's no rule that says you must be 16 to do GCSEs and 18 to do A Levels. Or perhaps we will do them at home, either spread out or in a concentrated fashion.
And as Chris said, things might have changed so much by the time your daughter's in her teens, I really don't think the hypothetical GCSEs should affect your decision to do what you feel is right now!
Alison
Alison ali...@home-educate.me.uk
Actually, I think HE can *widen* your choice, not limit it - for example, you could do IGCSEs, International Baccalaureate, go straight to an OU course, and can even do GCSEs at the same time as your contemporaries, although you're not tied to that as you would be in school (except places like the Acorn School!). What's limiting about that? :) Alison
hi ...@bigmailbox.net
What I meant by limiting is the situation where DD did not achieve the same spectrum of exam p***es as her contemporaries. I could see that happening if we attempted GCSEs at home.
I agree with what your other comments about doing a combination of HE and conventional schooling. I believe DD has learned so much from us so far, that I really couldn't imagine a school achieving better progress.
In some ways I think sending her to school at 5 would actually hold her back!
Our plan currently is to HE at least for the early years, then consider going into mainstream education for exams.
Alison ali...@home-educate.me.uk
Well, that really is up to you - I don't believe it has to happen that way. But I also don't believe that, say, 'only' doing 5 or 6 (compared to the normal 9 or 10) has to necessarily be a handicap anyway. 5 is generally enough to get you into any 6th form, college or university still isn't it?
I think that universities these days are prepared to look at HEd students as individuals - if they have *something* else to show for their time, not having the extra handful of GCSEs shouldn't be a major barrier. And this can only become more so as more children are home educated! Counting A*s might come in handy when trying to sort through a large number of homogeneous applicants, but an HEd student would already stand out - hopefully to their advantage ;-) Alison
Penny Gaines pe...@gaines.net
[snip] I knew someone who did this: she started school when she was 13 so she could do GCSEs.
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Penny Gaines UK mum to three
jenn' skates j...@shadowdale.demon.co.uk
According to our lodger, Uni's now no longer just look at the grades -
so many people get a large number of A*'s that the selectors are starting to look both at % marks and marks in specific units of study.
She also had to do tests for each uni she applied to, so I think that A levels are on their way out soon!
Going back to GCSE's though, it seems to me that schools only offer an extremely limited choice of GCSE's - my niece is currently choosing which to take and out of the 9 she HAS to take she has a choice for 2 of the slots.
Whilst I can see that having a broad range of GCSE p***es is indicative of an ability to study and apply oneself, I do not agree that having a generation of kids whose GCSE's are 80%+ the same is a good thing - it leaves so little scope for exploring your interests to a qualified level, gives a far greater risk of kids becoming bored with the enforced selection and not p***ing or learning, it also makes it much harder than it needs to be - if a child has an interest in a particular subject why not let them study it to a qualified level?
My niece has been told she can do History OR Geography, French OR Spanish OR German, Dual award science OR Biology OR Chemistry OR Physics, there are so many paths closed to her! If Spanish is OK for some kids to take, why not in conjunction with other languages? Why insist that the scientists either specialise or severely water down the individual components?
I can only see positives in being able to choose freely which exams to take and which to skip, but I do think it needs to be an informed and pro-active choice (i.e. knowing what you need to get where you want to be, and planning in advance).
Whilst it may seem worrying and unfeasible that a parent can support a child taking GCSE's in subjects they don't know, it seems that there are a huge number of revise guides, web sites and text books available, most GCSE boards have syllabuses available for a sort of check list along the way, and by the age a child is doing them I'd expect them to be able to study effectively in a self directed sort of way - one thing to help that is if the child in question knows why they will need the exams and how high a grade they need etc.
Hmm, that got rather longer than I intended and I haven't time to edit it - sorry, need to go and cook cakes!
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Jenn UK Mum to L - 01/99, M 04/02 and J 05/04
Alison ali...@home-educate.me.uk
I've heard similar to this recently from a friend who's son has been choosing his options - it seems completely shocking to me that a pupil can't do decent GCSEs in Biology, Physics *and* Chemistry, or cover several languages, or whatever. It just seems appalling, and I can't imagine any rationale for it - any secondary teachers her that want to explain/defend it?
Last summer I kept reading about how more independent schools were doing IGCSEs for maths and sciences, as the courses were more demanding than GCSEs. They're probably good for HEors too, as they didn't involve any coursework, which can be a pain to get moderated.
Alison
mogga d...@NOSPAMPLEASEmogga.com
Course work.
More and more exams are being replaced by course work.
Exams are stressful apparently.
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Chris French newspost-c-...@familyfrench.co.uk
Well, it's nothing new to restrict the choices, it was happening when I did mine at school/college - (too long ago).
I think the reason normally is the practicalities of timetabling -
remember, that Maths English and Science for example are all compulsory to start with, that is big chunk of the time gone already
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Chris French
Chris French newspost-c-...@familyfrench.co.uk
Well, not having to follow the restricting and limiting National curriculum is one of the benefits, not a limitation, and as others have said there are plenty of ways for children to get GSCE'S if and when they want them. And by starting off HE, you aren't stopping them going.
to school in the future if that si what they want to do.
As with other HE-ers, we are of the opinion that we are widening our child's choices.
I'd suggest signing up to a few of the HE email lists where yopu get support, or just read and learn :-) If you have (as I ***ume) a littley, then the Early Years list (formerly Muddlepuddle) is good.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EarlyYearsHE/> As a general HE list this is as fairly good: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eo/>
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Chris French
mogga d...@NOSPAMPLEASEmogga.com
On Wed, 05 Apr 2006 20:23:01 +0100, "Dave {Reply Address in.Sig}" I agree that coursework has serious flaws which probably can't be resolved. Exams can be stressful but they have to be a better indication of what the child can do not the parents.
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hi ...@bigmailbox.net
I don't believe that being able to regurgitate a series of memorised facts in a two hour period is necessarily an indication of a high intelligence level anyway. It bears little resemblance to the way I work in my profession. What children would be benefit from is more emphasis on self-directed learning and reasoning, rather than being spoon-fed chunks of knowledge which may or may not be applicable to their interests.
Chris Bacon chrispba...@thai.com
It also bears very, very little resemblance to what's involved in answering most exam questions.
hi ...@bigmailbox.net
As I recall, a lot of my teachers advised that there were 'banker' questions that come up on most papers. Memorising the answers to these questions could rake in marks. Some kids would memorise entire essays, to be regurgitated in the exam.
mogga d...@NOSPAMPLEASEmogga.com
Questions which involve essay writing to require a certain amount of facts for subjects like history, geography etc but also skills like writing, spelling, punctuation.
Of course if exams consist of mainly multuple choice then they are of little value. However the exams I remember doing weren't like that at all.
Exams also measure the ability to work towards a deadline - something vital in many parts of life.
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Penny Gaines pe...@gaines.net
As long as the questions had variations, this isn't necessarily a bad thing: it means the student has to see the similarities and differences between the standard question for which they've prepared and the actual question they've been asked.
The 'gift' question was the one where the meta-question was "write down everything you know, with a certain spin". The one example I can remember was something like "explain the similarities and differences between the Earth and the other planets in the solar system".
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Penny Gaines UK mum to three
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