Home Educating My 13 year old Daughter

Dear Sarah, 

it shouldn't matter that she doesn't have moderate learning difficulties. If she has a diagnosis she should have Individual Educations Plans (IEP) at her schools as well as Annual Review. At these Reviews you can ask for a specialist like an Educational psychologist or Occupational Therapist to evaluate your daughter and when you talk to them, explain about her difficulties. Even if they don't offer a provision but produce a report stating her difficulties, then you should be able to put her almost in any other school. Maybe there is a smaller school in the area with a better SEN provision, there isn't much advice on the internet, you will need to search for the schools yourself. 

If she didn't have IEP or Annual Reviews, then there are other things you can do. You can talk to the Local Education Authorities (LEA) yourself, (go on your local website)and they will provide Home Education officer who can give you some advise, not that it's very good. This person will visit your home and give you a package with information about local websites/ local home educaiton groups that meet in your area and so on,, some of that advice might be valuable to you. 

There is Home Education and then there is provision when teachers come home to teach your child. My child is at a special school but before that, when he was 9, he was educated at home for 1.5 years and had teachers coming to our house every day. Ask LEA if this might be available to you. 

You can also ask your daughter's school to talk to LEA about home support for your daughter. It's better if they speak on your behalf, because, what I found out through our years of educational battles, if a concern comes from a parent, it is not taken seriously. However, if it is coming from school, even if it's a nurse, who's seen your child once, then it would be taken seriously and usually is followed. If you can get anyone at school to call or talk/refer your daughter to LEA or  CAMHS, (Child and Adolescent menal health centres) then your task will be easier, because once you have a referral to a specialist you can ask for an evaluation of her current needs.

All schools have SEN teacher, talk to him/her about different schools your daughter can attend, there aren't a lot of them that provide education with proper qualification, like GCSE or A levesl, but there are some. 

There is CAMHS, (Child and Adolescent menal health centres), which also can help you to get proper referrals or help with finding a new school, I think a GP can refer your daughter there or maybe, once again, the school your daughter attended. 

Finally, if finding another school isn't an option for you, then turn to the internet. 

First of all, there are some websites, like mumsnet, that provide lots of useful practical advice on their forum; There are LOTS of educational websites: the best one is BBC bitesize, that provides most of the GCSE topics subject by subject; there is a government webisite that provides full information about current curriculum and they have links to the educations websites as well: www.aqa.org.uk/.../teaching-resources

I also spend lots of time on the Amazon and usually buy text books that are last years or older which mostly are almost the same but might cost under £3 and your daughter can use those. American Amazon has lots of advice for home educaiton books, apparently it's very popular there and going through the reviews on the educationals books I found some home educational webistes that supply software and books that are much better than here, there are lots of discussions there as well that could be helpful. 

Lastly, there is an online home education here, one is with Oxford university, GCSE and A levels and it's not very expensive compare to the independent schools or tutors: www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk/.../

There is also an internationals website doing the same, I don't remember it now, but I'm sure you can find it yourself. I did my research about 2-3 years ago, there might be more online schoos available now. They have tutors and virtual class rooms, so your girl wouldn't feel isolated. 

There is also Khan Academy online, that is free and lots of educational websites that you can subscribe your daugher like : https://www.mymaths.co.uk/ or http://www.conquermaths.com/ - they aren't free but probably cheaper than tutors. I know that they cover GCSE, not sure about A level.

There are some american educational websites in specific subjects, all you have to do is to choose carefully, e.g. some websites might provide support only in science but there are some that provide full school curriculum or wide variety of subjects. Some of them have online tutorials with virtual classes. 

I hope some of this was helpful. 

Dear Sarah, 

it shouldn't matter that she doesn't have moderate learning difficulties. If she has a diagnosis she should have Individual Educations Plans (IEP) at her schools as well as Annual Review. At these Reviews you can ask for a specialist like an Educational psychologist or Occupational Therapist to evaluate your daughter and when you talk to them, explain about her difficulties. Even if they don't offer a provision but produce a report stating her difficulties, then you should be able to put her almost in any other school. Maybe there is a smaller school in the area with a better SEN provision, there isn't much advice on the internet, you will need to search for the schools yourself. 

If she didn't have IEP or Annual Reviews, then there are other things you can do. You can talk to the Local Education Authorities (LEA) yourself, (go on your local website)and they will provide Home Education officer who can give you some advise, not that it's very good. This person will visit your home and give you a package with information about local websites/ local home educaiton groups that meet in your area and so on,, some of that advice might be valuable to you. 

There is Home Education and then there is provision when teachers come home to teach your child. My child is at a special school but before that, when he was 9, he was educated at home for 1.5 years and had teachers coming to our house every day. Ask LEA if this might be available to you. 

You can also ask your daughter's school to talk to LEA about home support for your daughter. It's better if they speak on your behalf, because, what I found out through our years of educational battles, if a concern comes from a parent, it is not taken seriously. However, if it is coming from school, even if it's a nurse, who's seen your child once, then it would be taken seriously and usually is followed. If you can get anyone at school to call or talk/refer your daughter to LEA or  CAMHS, (Child and Adolescent menal health centres) then your task will be easier, because once you have a referral to a specialist you can ask for an evaluation of her current needs.

All schools have SEN teacher, talk to him/her about different schools your daughter can attend, there aren't a lot of them that provide education with proper qualification, like GCSE or A levesl, but there are some. 

There is CAMHS, (Child and Adolescent menal health centres), which also can help you to get proper referrals or help with finding a new school, I think a GP can refer your daughter there or maybe, once again, the school your daughter attended. 

Finally, if finding another school isn't an option for you, then turn to the internet. 

First of all, there are some websites, like mumsnet, that provide lots of useful practical advice on their forum; There are LOTS of educational websites: the best one is BBC bitesize, that provides most of the GCSE topics subject by subject; there is a government webisite that provides full information about current curriculum and they have links to the educations websites as well: www.aqa.org.uk/.../teaching-resources

I also spend lots of time on the Amazon and usually buy text books that are last years or older which mostly are almost the same but might cost under £3 and your daughter can use those. American Amazon has lots of advice for home educaiton books, apparently it's very popular there and going through the reviews on the educationals books I found some home educational webistes that supply software and books that are much better than here, there are lots of discussions there as well that could be helpful. 

Lastly, there is an online home education here, one is with Oxford university, GCSE and A levels and it's not very expensive compare to the independent schools or tutors: www.oxfordhomeschooling.co.uk/.../

There is also an internationals website doing the same, I don't remember it now, but I'm sure you can find it yourself. I did my research about 2-3 years ago, there might be more online schoos available now. They have tutors and virtual class rooms, so your girl wouldn't feel isolated. 

There is also Khan Academy online, that is free and lots of educational websites that you can subscribe your daugher like : https://www.mymaths.co.uk/ or http://www.conquermaths.com/ - they aren't free but probably cheaper than tutors. I know that they cover GCSE, not sure about A level.

There are some american educational websites in specific subjects, all you have to do is to choose carefully, e.g. some websites might provide support only in science but there are some that provide full school curriculum or wide variety of subjects. Some of them have online tutorials with virtual classes. 

I hope some of this was helpful.