Today I booked my son’s first GCSEs as a home educator! He’s 13 years old, and I had to sit still for a moment before pressing confirm, because this was never meant to be our story.
When Covid hit, Noah was in Year 3. We didn’t boldly decide to become a home educating family. We didn’t have a five-year plan; heck we didn’t even really have a one year plan in the traditional sense. I just knew when we watched the 5pm Boris updates, and it was announced I could send one of my children back to school safely but not the other that I just couldn’t send either! So we simply decided to step out for what we thought would be one year.
One year while the world navigated lockdowns and constant disruption.
One year while we escaped to Dorset for sea air, space, and to live as a family for the first time ever.
One year to slow down, catch our breath and steady ourselves.
We fully expected to return to school; I even stayed in the class WhatsApp groups!
Instead, one year became six.
And now here we are, booking GCSEs as a home educating family.
When “Temporary” Becomes Your Life
There wasn’t a dramatic turning point where we decided to continue. It was quieter than that.
Noah was thriving, I was calmer, our family was happier and learning felt alive.
Our days had rhythm, but also connection and freedom that I didn’t realise was even missing, or that everyone was craving.
The kitchen table became our classroom. Nature walks and the allotment became science lessons, and we had time to go deeper into subjects instead of faster.
Of course there were doubts. There always are; and if I’m honest 6 years on and there are still doubts. I’ve just accepted that’s part of our journey now.
It was easy for me to feel confident when my children were six and eight. GCSEs feel far away then. Abstract. Future.
But eventually, that future became our present, and the question of “What about GCSE’s” began to linger in the background!
Booking GCSEs Without a School
When you home educate in the UK GCSEs are optional, there’s no school automatically entering your child for exams. No exams officer. No automatic system carrying you through.
If you choose for your child to sit exams, then you choose the subjects, you choose how many and when to take them, and you choose the exam board.
You find a private exam centre, register as a private candidate, and you pay the fees yourself.
It’s doable, and it’s a choice, but it feels very official.
Typing in his name.
Selecting the subject. Triple checking you’ve entered the correct exam code, and choosing
the summer exam series (side note whilst GCSEs are taken in May / June, most IGCSEs have the option to be taken in the Autumn series – but always check first as it’s not all subjects)
This isn’t hypothetical anymore. This is real.
Sitting GCSEs at 13
There’s another layer to this — his age.
Most children sit GCSEs at 15 or 16. If he was at school he would only this term be going through his options and making choices about what GCSEs to start studying in September. As home educators, we have flexibility. If they’re ready, they can sit them earlier, we can spread them out, and we have a much broader choice of exams and qualifications to choose from, whilst feels empowering and amazing, it also feels very overwhelming- because who knew there were SO many GCSEs and IGCSEs to choose from? To be honest
I hadn’t even heard of IGCSEs before I started researching GCSE options as a home educating family. If you want to understand the difference between GCSEs and IGCSEs please head over to our previous blog https://homeeducatewithhayley.com/?p=464
However knowing it’s all a choice doesn’t stop it feeling overwhelming and scary – actually part of me thinks it makes it worse because you don’t want to make the wrong decisions.
At 13 Noah is still my little first born. Still full of ideas and half-finished thoughts. Still growing into himself.
And yet this year he’s stepping into formal qualifications — something measurable, structured, externally assessed, with someone else officially deciding if he’s good enough and in a way if I am good enough!
It feels exposing.
Not because I doubt him.
But because when you home educate, there’s always an unspoken pressure. A sense that one day you’ll need to “prove” that this has worked.
That they haven’t fallen “behind”
That I covered enough, and taught the right things, that those days spent reading in pyjamas and planting carrots were not a waste.
That stepping outside the system wasn’t reckless.
Booking this GCSE stirred all of that up for me.
And then — beneath the fear — there was pride.
Six years ago we made a decision in uncertainty. I didn’t know what I was building. We were just responding to the moment in front of us, a moment that none of us had ever navigated before – there’s was no blue print to successfully surviving a global pandemic!
We weren’t trying to craft an alternative education model.
We were just trying to create stability during chaos.
And somehow, slowly, gently, that decision shaped who he is becoming.
Curious. Independent. Thoughtful. Capable.
This exam isn’t about proving anything.
It’s simply his next step.
The Emotional Weight of This Milestone
I think what caught me off guard wasn’t the logistics of booking GCSEs as a home educator.
It was the symbolism.
GCSEs feel grown up. Final. Significant, the end of our journey almost.
Up until now, our education has been fluid. We could pivot. Pause. Dive deep into interests. Take breaks when life demanded it.
GCSEs have introduced a forced structure and deadlines. They have brought the outside world into our bubble, and I must say it’s been a big adjustment.
This was never supposed to be permanent.
Yet here we are — six years later — entering our first GCSE.
If you’re home educating and somewhere in the messy middle, wondering how it will all work out…
You don’t need to have the entire path mapped.
We didn’t.
We just kept taking the next step praying it would be the right one.
Today, that step was booking a GCSE.
It felt emotional.
It felt vulnerable.
It felt like growth.
For both of us.
If you would like a future blog about the process of taking exams as a home educator, please let me know. I see the question asked in panic in home ed groups daily, and whilst it can be overwhelming once you know the process it’s actually pretty straightforward, and definitely not as hard as you first imagine it to be. My advice however would be to start by reading the HE exams wiki page – it really does have everything you need to know about choosing and sitting exams as a home educator https://he-exams.fandom.com/wiki/HE_Exams_Wiki
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