If you decide to enter your child into private examinations, you will hopefully find the following guidance helpful.

Setting up a pathway for examinations when electively home educating (EHE) is the biggest challenge for our families in Torbay, however, over the past 5 years (excluding the two COVID years!) a small number of parents have been successful in entering their children for GCSE’s.

The most important thing to arrange, in the first instance, is where a child can ‘sit’ their final examinations.  A child can only ‘sit’ an examination at a registered ‘centre of examination’.  Schools are registered ‘centres of Examinations’, however, very few schools offer this provision to ‘private candidates’ and your son or daughter, as an EHE child is known as a ‘private candidate’.  A few years ago, I believe, that The Spires College were one of the only schools that did accommodate ‘private candidates’ in Torbay, however, this is no longer the case.  If you wish your child to complete examinations, they will be expected to sit examinations at an accredited examination centre, in the normal way.  So it is important to investigate appropriate examination centres at the earliest opportunity.

There are other centres located in Devon, these can be found on Examination Board websites.  You will then need to check with the centre if they offer the course or subject you require.  A list of examination boards can be found at GCSE Exam Boards (projectgcse.co.uk) You can then google each examination board to check out the examination information.  For example, AQA page is found at AQA | Student and parent support | Private candidates

Transport and planning ahead are essential to ensure a successful examination takes place.  I recommend discussing your requirements early with your chosen ‘examination centre’ so that late examination fees are avoided.  There is no funding made available, therefore, all arrangements and costs are organised and funded by parents privately.

You will want to align the examination subject chosen, the examination board, course code and syllabus, to match any tutoring your son or daughter receives.  A good quality teacher, tutor or online provision, should be able to teach to the course requirements if this is initially known in advance.  Check that online schools support examinations.  Most online schools, still expect parents to arrange and pay for any examinations.

Some GCSE courses are unavailable to private candidates, just because they cannot practically be achieved, such as, some GCSE Science courses which require completion of coursework and practical examinations, therefore, it is important to investigate the most popular courses that EHE children access and complete.  Many families choose IGCSE courses for this reason.