Skip to main content

Exams

Once you have decided to home educate your child, you should be aware that you assume sole financial responsibility including the cost of any public examinations.

The internal assessment component of many standard qualifications and courses, such as National Vocational Qualifications and GCSEs, can make it difficult for home educated children to access some qualifications.

There are a number of different examination boards that offer GCSE qualification with different syllabuses. It is crucial that before starting on a particular GCSE course, you ensure that you first identify a centre, such as a school or college, which will accept his/her examination entry. You may find it helpful to consider the following:

  • If you have an existing and positive relationship with a school or college you may wish to enquire as to whether your child could be entered there for the exams and that the school or college will be willing to undertake to assess any coursework.
  • If you do not have any relationship or contact with a school or college you will need to contact an Examinations Board, which may be able to arrange a local centre on your behalf. If you do this you should also ensure that the board can arrange for any coursework to be assessed.

Examinations Boards can supply syllabuses and copies of previous exam papers at nominal cost or they can be downloaded from the board’s website.

GCSE courses are usually studied over two years but can be completed in a single year. Examination entries need to be finalised in the January prior to the exam (in June).

GCSE Examination Boards