College Interviews - round 2

This time last year D was having interviews to choose where he wanted to go to college. He happily settled on the one that was the furthest from home but, as they had let him in to do Adult Education 2 years too early, I was ok with that.

This year it is K's turn. Yesterday she had an interview at D's college. They were quite rigid in their requirements that K would need 5 GCSEs to do A-levels or she would have to do a BTEC instead. Neither option really appealed to us. If she opted for another GCSE then she would have to get the coursework in by February as well as working like a slave to get the syllabus covered. If she opted to do an IGCSE instead (no coursework) then she would have to be ready to sit the exam during April/May. Again, these courses are supposed to be for 2 years so the workload would be crazy. K had it in her head that somehow BTECs were second-rate compared to A-levels and didn't want to do it. You know how intractable she can be about some things.

Today we went to a different college, one that was at the top of her list to go to. They were more than happy to let her do her choice of A-levels as long as she got at least Grade Cs in her GCSEs/IGCSEs. She has already passed 2 of them so it should be fairly easy for her to meet this requirement. K has now decided that she is definitely going here and can't wait for September.

It's done! And other educational ramblings

At last! All the coursework for the upcoming exams in May/June went in the post this afternoon. We are all feeling light-headed and very silly, and very relieved of course.

I always thought that coursework would give my two the chance to get some marks squirreled away before the exam proper. It's worth an average of about 20-30%, though in ICT it is much more (60+%). Instead it is the source of much head-banging (by me), tears and tantrums (by K), and leaving everything to the last minute (by D & K). D got his tears and tantrums out the way two years ago when he did GCSEs in maths and chemistry. He still wants to leave it to the last minute but at least understands (vaguely) what is involved. All in all the stress levels in this house climbed exponentially as the March deadline approached. So tonight I will be making inroads into a bottle of wine - if any of you catch me on MSN then please excuse the wild sense of humour and awful spelling.

Getting the coursework done and marked seems to be the hardest bit of doing exams when home educated. The powers that be don't consider us 'alternatives' when tinkering with things educational. I understand that coursework is to be dropped and replaced with some sort of in-school tasks. Quite how we're supposed to manage that I don't know - makes me glad that mine will be beyond GCSEs by that time.

Next year (2009) K will be taking IGCSEs instead - in maths, chemistry and maybe physics. There are two different exam boards that offer them, Edexcel International and Cambridge International. There are more exam venues that sit the Edexcel version. The difficulty lies in finding somewhere willing to accept you as a private candidate. We've been quite lucky there. A secondary school in Portsmouth will happily accept private candidates for GCSE. However my two are doing the Cambridge IGCSE for English and my options are tiny. There are very few places in the UK that do them so we're invading Bristol on two Friday afternoons in May.

My friend B keeps telling me to just skip this stage and go straight on to Open University. It certainly hasn't held her 3 boys back to have no GCSEs. One of them is off to university! I know she's right but part of me just can't let go of the traditional mentality. D has done and passed an OU short course but I don't think K is quite ready to try them yet. We may give one a go later in the year.

We have man flu

D was snuffly yesterday but said he felt ok. This morning he is full of cold and has gone back to bed. Let's hope this passes quickly as he's got to get his Geography coursework in the post this week. He is well-trained though. No lying around the house moaning and groaning. If he's that ill he has to stay in bed.

It's only in the last year or so that he has been able to take tablets. Before that it was Calpol, and it takes a lot of Calpol to medicate a teenager.

Incoming Storm

According to the Met. Office there's a big winter storm heading our way. Oh goody! (Note the heavy sarcasm). Why is it that whenever I have something good to look forward to something intervenes. Tomorrow is the last day of my narrowband UVB photo-desensitisation and to celebrate I'm supposed to be meeting some friends for lunch at Croydon IKEA, but because of the storm it's been cancelled. The last time I was supposed to get together with these friends it was shortly after the July bombings in London - it got cancelled then too. Hmmmm, wonder if it's down to the fact that I'm invited. Maybe next time I'll say "No, sorry I'm busy," and then turn up anyway.

Looks like I'll be having a stressful day helping K finish her Biology coursework instead. Coursework has to be the biggest bugbear of home education, so much so that I'm going to devote a post to it one day (when I can summon up the energy after this coming week's marathon efforts).

Or I could bury my head in the sand and go and do lunch with B in the New Forest instead. But if the wind gets up like they're promising then maybe driving somewhere with lots of trees isn't a great idea either.

Decisions, decisions.