Educating your child at home (elective home education)

There is no obligation to teach the National Curriculum nor study chronologically the same way that pupils in school do. It all depends on your child. You could spread sitting qualifications out over a number of years rather than studying the traditional 10 GCSEs schools do in year 10 and 11. Furthermore, there is no requirement to do exams as you would ordinarily in a school. However, you will need to consider what impact this will have on your child's choices at post 16.

You may want to think about your educational philosophy  - what approach do you want to take? 

It is important that you encourage your child to explore their future options around career choices as this could inform the approach that you take. If you would like your child to access some careers advice, please contact the Elective Home Education Service (details below) who can complete a referral to Prospects (age dependant).

Exams for home schooled children

If you want your child to take exams, such as GCSEs, IGCSEs or Functional Skills, you should plan in advance for this. You will need to investigate which syllabus you will follow for each subject and what resources you will need to teach it.

Some subjects may have coursework, which will need to be marked by someone the exam board has approved. You will need to pay someone to do this.

You will need to contact an exam centre directly and register your child for the exams. You will be responsible for the fees. There are 2 approved centres in Coventry. The links below are to the main exam boards and their private pupil pages:

• AQA
• OCR
• Cambridge International
• Pearsons/Edexcel

Please note that there is no funding to pay for examinations from local or national government for home educated pupils. Home educators assume full financial responsibility for the cost of their child's education. However, please contact Coventry City Council's home education team if you would like to talk through your options regarding this as we may be able to draw on some financial support, dependent on circumstances.