My daughter has had a rough couple of years with anxiety, and coming up to her final year of GCSE’s we’re likely to be homeschooling, and playing catch up with some of the core subjects.

Does anyone have experience of things like this https://www.my-gcsescience.com/pricing/ online tutorials, supported by tests? Are there good and bad ones, or one in particular that you’d recommend. We’re going to be on a combination of some medical needs tutoring, some private lessons, and whatever else we can do to get her through the year, so its very much to be part of a package- not the only solution.

Any views or real life experiences very welcome. Thanks

My daughter did her gcses at home. She had chronic fatigue which also led to anxiety. The school provided 3 or 4 hours of home. She is exceptionally bright (but too ill to work hard) and it worked well. She got good gcse’s. Had she been well they would have been better. She then left school and did 2 open university units at home instead of a-levels. These got her into university. Fingers crossed she’ll get a degree next week.

I haven’t directly answered your question. I am a teacher. If the school won’t supply what you want I think you need live lessons or 121 live sessions

YouTube is full of great content for free. Plus have bitesize is a huge free resource

Just checked the link. Physics and maths tutor have papers for free including questions by topic for gcse. Most exam boards do free papers. Science shorts is a good youtube channel

Practical assessment outside of a school will be tough and or expensive

Khan Academy is amazing where it covers the stuff you need

Someone I know had a daughter with similar issues, went down the home schooling route and just took the hit and split her GCSEs over 2 years. She’s now at 6th form college and much happier with the environment there, and not that worried that she’s a year older than most of her classmates.

Probably doesn’t help the OP, but thought it was a different and interesting way round the issues, rather than pressuring her to catch/keep up.

I’m currently having 1-2-1 online French Lessons via Skype (ironically with a teacher who lives just round the corner). The work really well, as good a being in the same room. Being 1-2-1 you can focus on just the things you need to work on and skip anything you’re already good enough at.

Thanks all very helpful.

For maths, English and science you should be able to find a decent local in-person tutor, even if that’s just one session per subject per week.

It’s not as good as one to one but the government put free online lessons up at the start of the pandemic.

https://www.thenational.academy/

I’m a physics teacher, The GCSE physics is very good. If your daughter is self motivated it would work well.

However there is no substitute for asking questions when you are stuck and getting asked questions to check you understand.

I’d imagine there are a load of GCSE teachers doing online lessons now. They will have had a load of practice recently!

We found my daughter a chemistry tutor on Tutorful. I think we were lucky in that she got on well with the first one we tried, but if it doesn’t work, it’s easy to try someone else.
We also use a couple of other tutors that were recommended locally. Ask around.

The only thing matters for GCSE is giving the answer expected even if patently a lie.
You just need to teach them lying is good so long as it gives the answer expected and the purpose of GCSE is to lie your way through.

After that its simples…..

Our eldest was in the same position a couple of years ago and has this week just completed his final assessments and evidence gathering.
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster and to be honest I’m glad we’ve got to the end. He’s already been offered a place at college for his A levels based on the GCSE results he attained before the pandemic but has still been quite stressful for the boy.
We found a Facebook group, Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives which has been an invaluable source of information and support. A good few members have a lot of experience of homeschool and were able to give us some sound advice.

Great advice thanks everyone for your time and wisdom

I’d also add that there are quite a few teachers on here and I’m sure we would be happy to answer questions.

I teach GCSE maths (foundation) and A level Physics.

We are in Germany at the moment, and the state virtual tuition has been predictably terrible..

So we’ve been topping up with UK based online classes throughout the last year. They’ve been
superb, to a point where I could see them as the future. The classes have been organized ad hoc
via the wife’s what’s app groups, but have been great.

There are now , full online schools in the US/UK which look v. good. I really think it could become an alternative to brick and mortar schooling.