We’re in it for the long haul. I have never had uni or even qualifications of any sort as an intended end result for HE. I’m of the opinion that at some point in the next 4 years or so (ie by the time they hit 14) they will have some idea of what they’d like to do in life and we can find out what they need to know / prove / experience to make that happen. If it’s qualifications then we’ll work towards those in managable, sensible chunks over time – either as private candidates / college at 16 / OU or something. I’m guessing knowing my children that it will be more about experience in the fields they are interested in so we would probably focus more on building that with some paper qualifcations as back up if required.

They have a pretty diverse mix of friends, locally and nationally and various ‘after school’ groups too so the odd child here and then disappeaing off to school doesn’t really hit their radar. This will change again for us next year going off travelling and then no doubt change again depending on what happens next in our lives.

For now, school is something neither of them are remotely interested in, offers nothing that they seem to require or want and just doesn’t seem relevant. I would have no qualms about my ability to support them or find the right support for them to get to at least A level standard in anything they might want to study – but TBH even at GCSE I recall a lot of the learning starting to become self driven and motivated by pupil effort rather than calibre of teaching and I’m hoping motivation, effort and passion will be qualities never lacking in the way I am raising my kids.

Of course they could end up having some sort of crisis, chucking everything in and bumming around the country for a year, but it’s a risk I’m prepared to take ;).

Seriously though Helen, I have always considered the education you provide for SB and BB to be child centred, passion and interest led, resource rich, broad and varied and presented as an adventure you are embarking on alongside them. I don’t think it is possible to offer much greater than that.

Getting qualifications doesn’t concern me too much I think at the moment. There are always ways and means. If you just want to get a wodge of GSCE’s then going into school in years 10 or 11 seems one way to do it. Someone in Leeds went into school in year 9 for that reason IIRC.

Another local HE-er’s daughter went somewhere, might have been a private school or colledge for year 11 to do GSCE’s – a bit intense doing it all in one year but seemed to do ok. (now at a local FE colledge doing A levels). Though a motivation for that was also making some friends. They came over from the US when she was about 13-14 where there we are lot more HE-ers but founhd a paucity of HE-ers of her age range around here.

IIRC their son, who is a older did A levels at home – now doing Maths at Cambridge.

Doing ‘something’ at a round 14 for starters seems a potential move. OU or GSCES’s I’m sure SB could do science stuff at that point.

@kirsty, yeah we’ll will abe looking jealosuly at you as we draw our pensions