Home Schooling

[2sp_]

How do you go about home schooling your children? Not for me, but a friend is thinking about it for her wee boy.

Do you have to be trained or hold any particular qualification to do it? Do you have to follow a set syllabus?

(She's in Scotland, if that makes any difference.)

[boxtops]

Good luck to your Sharingan - you may be younger but at least you have a plan, which is commendable these days.

[Sharingan]

I've got several plans actually because I'm not at all sure any of the first few will work, but I'll keep my fingers crossed :)

[FredPuli43]

Never mind, Shari. I saw ' maybe' for 'may be' on here once. Honestly, I nearly died.

Yes, how do you go about A Levels? Actually, you seem the type to do the International Baccalaureat, but let's keep it simple. One plus may be that, given freedom of choice in tutors, you could pick whatever A Levels you like,which you couldn't do easily in most schools. In my day, you could do one exam which counted as two A Levels. That sounds cushy, but it was Latin and Greek translation; you had to read a classical Greek text and render it to Latin, and vice versa

[jim360]

Even better Shar!

I first formed my plans when I was twelve... and while it's worked out in the end it was a far bumpier ride than I expected! Would always recommend keeping options open.

[2sp_]

Thank you all for your fantastic replies, I'll pass all that information on to my friend.

And if ever anyone needed an example of where home schooling has worked perfectly, stand up Sharingham.

[2sp_]

Or Sharinghan, even.

Sheesh.

[FredPuli43]

Acting, eh? Many years ago there was a young man who wanted to be an actor. His father said "Do law and read for the Bar; if you fail as a barrister, you can always become an actor. You won't do that the other way round". The young man took law and ended up as Lord Chancellor. Never did discover how he would have done as an actor. He probably sat on the bench and thought "That Larry Olivier; that could have been me"

[Sharingan]

Well I might shoot myself in the foot a bit with my first plan which is to do nothing further academic until I see if I get into RADA etc, then if all that fails going down the A level route to law with an Eng lit and History maybe because those are very strong subjects for me. Language is a poor area for me and the thought of my very limited Latin and virtually non existant Greek being looked at fills me with horror.
If I do decide to do anything I'm very competative so I'd be pleased to hear what you think might be the best route towards the bar.

[Sharingan]

It's funny a huge amount of actors are also trained in law- seems to go hand on hand :)

[jim360]

A good route to the bar is straight down the road, left, right, second left, over the roundabout and there's one a hundred yards down...

[FredPuli43]

Best route to the Bar? Law degree, ideally from Oxford or Cambridge; that still has kudos, though any university noted for law will serve; and join Inner Temple, or Middle Temple,though Lincoln's Inn will do. Do not join Gray's Inn. It shouldn't matter, but Gray's, historically, has not been regarded as a choice for serious students, though its dinners are traditionally riotous. (The others' are almost sober). Good if you speak Welsh though; for some, probably forgotten, reason, it has attracted lots of Welsh over the years.

You can have some degree other than Law but you have to do an extra course. Some great lawyers have had other degrees; Lords Denning and Atkin were both brilliant mathematicians first, but both had to do a Law degree as well. Don't believe people who say barristers are just actors. They only become that when they make it to the bench !

[gness]

May I add my twopence worth 2sp? My daughter attended a very small school until the start of GCSE. For those two years she and four other girls were home schooled together by tutors we employed..not parent taught but a similar situation. It worked extremely well but the girls, like Shar, were well motivated.
For exams the girls had to attend a registered school under independent invigilation.
My daughter had written in her first school book at five that she wanted to be a geologist. She is now a scientist working in geology.
It won't work for every child and it's so important to know how the child will respond to home schooling......my son would have shouted whoopee and seen it as a holiday. He was still mulling over what to do at sixteen.

[FredPuli43]

PS I joined Inner because a) practitioners assured me that the food was better; important when you eat dinners, and b) it was the only Inn that didn't want a cheque with the application. (I think (b) appealed to my father more)

[tamborine]

some info that may help

Home education

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6636569.stm

Exam boards & fees

http://www.nwilts-he.org.uk/he_exams_wiki/index.php/Finding_an_exam_centre

[FredPuli43]

As gness hints, it helps if you do have a vocation. I could equally have been a jockey but decided that clearing up when a horse made a mess was not as attractive as clearing up after humans when they'd made one. What clinched it was my father being involved as a lay client in litigation. I was twelve then, and instantly hooked.

[DTCwordfan]

Well done on having plans and options, Shari. My advice for whatever you do, is to get into the best Uni or place like RADA that you can......that was what I was told at your age and it worked reasonably well. Folk wanted me to do Maths - even though it came reasonably easy, I didn't get any "kick" from it, and ended up doing Geog, Geol, Chemistry and Biology at A - looking back, I could have easily done English, Geog, Geol and possibly Chemistry, History (though the O-level teaching was awful), and Art. In English, I surprised myself and my teachers by landing grade ones in both Lang and Lit.

The point of all this waffle is follow your heart and what you feel is your excellence. Belief in yourself (realistically) is just as valuable as the brains!

I agree with you, and was going to question you about science subjects and practicals, though I must say that I am appalled at the lack of practicals, or rather the simplicity of what they do at As....

2sp, I think one major conclusion is that it very much depends on the character of the candidate and their own 'drive.'

[Sharingan]

Thank you Fred and DTC. My mother went to RADA and she says exactly the same thing, realistically if it's not RADA, Lambda or Central then do something else. I have got an agent talking to me at the moment which might make a world of difference, so fingers crossed:)

[sebhfhion]

2sp -why is your friend thinking about homeschooling and what age is he? I am by no means an expert on this but know quite a few families who home school and this has swayed me to think its not a good thing. It usually produces well-educated and knowledgeable children but they tend to have difficulty interacting with their peers. They tend to interact socially with people of the same 'type' ,nearly always children of middle class well educated adults and do not get exposed to 'real life' within a school environment. This is a generalisation, of course, and there be exceptions, and this is just my opinion.

[2sp_]

The wee boy is due to start school this Autumn, so is just coming up for 5. She's thinking about home schooling him as the local school is a bit rough and she's struggling to get him into one further away.

She's only considering it as an option if she doesn't get him into a decent school.

Thanks again for all the answers. I've never known anyone home schooled, so I've no idea of how it works or what effect it has on the child - good or bad.

She also toyed with boarding school for the poor little sod! But I think I've managed to steer her away from that. I do know people who went to boarding schools at 7, seems a bit harsh to me!

[sebhfhion]

2sp I can understand your friends concern if the school is rough , but if she were my daughter I would advise her to try him in there for a couple of Terms and if it doesn't work out look elsewhere. Children have very different ideas of what is rough and what isn't. At 5 he's hardly going to be led astray. Boarding school starts at Prep which is 7 years old so she still has a couple of years to try out the State System though i would never ever advise anyone to send a child away at that age. I was banished to boarding school at 13 but I loved it as I had a flaky family life and the School became my family. Hopefully she can make the right choice , children are so precious ;-)