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Home schooling (homeschooling) or home education is a form of education based at home. Parents teach their child at home, either full-time or part-time, with or without assistance from tutors.
Follow this comprehensive home schooling guide to get your home schooling journey started well.
Parents give many different reasons to home-school their children. The three (major) reasons selected by parents of more than two-thirds of students were:
Numerous studies have found that home-schooled students on average outperform their peers on standardised tests. Here are some statistics for reference:
* The correct usage of the “home school” term:
Home school is on its way to becoming a compound. For now, when home school functions as a noun, it is still two words, without a hyphen. When it functions as a verb, it usually takes a hyphen (－) e.g.: I home-school my children; my children are home-schooled. “Homeschooling” is the term commonly used in North America, whereas “home school” or “home education” is more commonly used in the United Kingdom, elsewhere in Europe, and in many Commonwealth countries.
Home schooling is legal in many countries. Some countries have highly regulated home schooling programmes, some have outlawed it completely. Therefore, here are a few important things to check from a start:
Choosing an appropriate curriculum for home schoolers is extremely important. Parents that chose home schooling are usually not satisfied with their local schools’ syllabus. As such, home school programmes that are based on international school curriculum have become increasingly popular.
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) and International AS/A Level (IAL) are suitable as home school curriculum due to their high quality syllabus, being recognised worldwide, and are accepted by top universities around the world.
Another advantage of choosing IGCSE and IAL as home schooling curriculum is, home schoolers are able to sit for exams at any time whenever they are ready for exam. There are many exam centres around the world that home schoolers can choose from to register for exams. Since people are traveling and relocating frequently, the flexibility of education plays an important role.
Generally, IGCSE and IAL exams are available twice a year: June series or November series. The exam timetable is being divided into different administrative zones. You may find the Edexcel exam timetable, and Cambridge exam timetable on the respective pages.
It has come to our attention that many private tuition centres in Malaysia are offering IGCSE programmes as “Home School” / “Homeschool” centres.
These private tuition centres are running the centres as a school. IGCSE is used as the main teaching curriculum, and there is a full-day “schooling schedule”, from Monday to Friday. Thus many parents misunderstood it as an alternative “school” to the Malaysian traditional school.
Since the fees are way much cheaper than the international schools which also offer the same IGCSE curriculum, parents are rushing to send their children to these private centres ? thinking that they are sending their children to a “formal school” offering IGCSE curriculum. They started this process from Year 1/Grade 1.
After some years, for some reasons, when these parents wanted to send their children to an international/private school or national government school for Secondary education, they could not admit their children into any formal secondary school. These formal secondary schools were asking them for a formal Primary school certificate, which is not available from these private tuition centres.
The below message is just one of the many messages that we received all these years from the desperate Malaysian parents who do not know what to do.
*****
Subject:
Please help!
Message:
Hi, my son is 12 years old and currently studying in a small learning
centre taking Cambridge curriculum / syllabus for his full day
learning. I am trying to apply a bigger private school for him where
they also offering Cambridge curriculum, but the problem here is they
now reluctant to accept my son as their reason is they prefer Malaysia
public school (which they don’t offer Cambridge curriculum at all). Can
you please help us to direct to them (since that bigger school also
using the syllabus of IGCSE), or give my son a test and get a primary
IGCSE certificate in order to have strong supporting document? Please
help. Much appreciate for your prompt reply.
*****
It is important to know that, when you start home schooling your children, either part time or full time, you as a parent is going to take up the responsibility to ensure your children is having the needed education.
If you are not able to educate your children full time, you could always get assistance from some private learning centres / tuition centres in your local area. But please bare in mind that these private learning/tuition centres are there to help, they are NOT a formal school.
Home education is a marathon. You can’t give up halfway before reaching the finish line. For example, wanting to send your children back to school when you feel you cannot or do not have time to continue the responsibility anymore. Chances are, your children would get rejected due to the absent of formal primary school certificates.
So you may wonder, when/what is the finish line?
The finish line is the final exams at the end of the secondary level education (either IGCSE or O Level), and at the end of high school level education (either A Level or IB).
It is NOT at the primary level. Most parents make this mistake, thinking they could home educate their children up to the primary level, then send them to a formal secondary school later.
This is called ‘half way marathon’. Primary level is not the finish line.
So, make up your mind that you will finish the marathon. You can also take the ‘half way marathon’. Please continue reading to find out how to do that.
You can always follow your local national curriculum. Otherwise, Edexcel iGCSE, Cambridge IGCSE or O Level , Edexcel International A Level, and Cambridge International A Level, are all good choices for home schooling.
Edexcel’s iGCSE syllabus and International A Level syllabus are more suitable for the current international audience. You will find interesting content addressing the global arena, stable and well-developed syllabus, and with highest standard as universities’ entry requirements.
Children who learn global facts at an early age would be more likely to be open minded and able to mix with and respect other cultures.
Once you have chosen your curriculum/exam board, you need to plan your teaching programmes from start to finish.
It might sound intimidating for a start, however, if you plan well, it would be very fun and rewarding.
Here are some suggestions you could use:
Generally, primary Year/Grade 1 would start from age 6/7, depending on which country you are residing. In our example, we will stick to age 7 as the standard Year/Grade 1 age for most of the countries worldwide.
You may choose to educate your child for 6 year primary programme, which is a norm practice and minimum requirement internationally.
Your child would finish primary programme at age 12. However, your child would NOT obtain any primary school leaving certificate, nor any formal primary exams certificates at this stage.
If you think these certificates are important, please plan to register your child into a formal primary school at Year/Grade 5. In this way, your child would be able to proceed to Year/Grade 6 and sit for the formal primary exams.
You must register your child at Year/Grade 5. As there is no schools in the world would take new students in Year/Grade 6.
These certificates might be helpful if you suddenly can’t cope with the teaching, nor have anymore time to complete the secondary programmes by yourself. If you want to register your child with any formal secondary schools, you certainly need those certificates.
This is for the ‘half way marathon’. Please put this in mind from the start.
Once you have accomplished primary programme, it is time for you to start Lower Secondary programme. At this point of time, it would be Year/Grade 7 for schooled children
Lower Secondary programme can be quite flexible if your child has very strong basic and could cope faster.
The general Lower Secondary programme lasts for 3 years, e.g.: Year/Grade 7, 8 and 9.
If you think your child could do 2 years only, then proceed to the Upper Secondary programme, you are more than welcome to do so.
But please know that, we do not encourage speedy zooming through this stage just to get your child graduate faster. What is the point at the end of the day? Is entering university at very young age a vital and meaningful goal to achieve? Guess not.
If your child follow the normal 3-year Lower Secondary programme, he/she would be 15 years old at the end of the programme.
If you make a short cut, just do a 2 year programme, then your child would be 14 years old at the end of the Lower Secondary programme.
Again, your child would NOT obtain any formal Lower Secondary certificates, nor this is required for the final exam in IGCSE / O Level.
This is where the stamina to keep going on for home education gets low, and problems would arise if you want to send your child to any formal second school. Since your child does not have any formal primary certificates (assuming you did not get one for them from the suggestion above), no schools would accept him/her.
This is a 2-year programme, generally. This is where the IGCSE / O Level programme starts. For the schooled students, it would be Year/Grade 10 and 11.
Again, you might accomplish the whole IGCSE / O Level programme in just 1 year － that is entirely up to the capability of your child (not how parents want it, sorry 🙂 )
Once your child is ready to sit for the final exam, search for the nearest exam centres in your local area. Your local British Council is the best option for private candidates. If you cannot find any British Council near you, you can always try to approach any registered school which accepts private candidates to sit for the exams.
It is always good to know all the exams registration key dates, so you don’t missed out the registration closing dates. Bookmark this exams registration key dates page, and know all the dates by hard.
If your child follow the normal route, he/she would be 17 years old when he/she sits for the final exams. Otherwise, cutting short a year, would make him/her sitting for the exams at age 16 － that is the benefit of being home educated.
Finally, this is where your child obtain the official IGCSE / O Level certificates as a home-educated child. This marks the end of your journey in home education for your child, congratulation!
As you can see now, home education is a marathon actually. You need to have the strength and stamina to keep going for 10/11 years (starting from Year 1-Year 11) until your child obtain the one and only official exam certificate in your child’s life. This certificate will be used for further studies, either A Level or any other equivalent level.
Normally top tier universities would require A Level certificates (or its equivalent such as International Baccalaureate (IB), sixth form etc.) as entry requirements. At this stage, your child would be able to continue A Level self-study; since he/she has completed the final stage of secondary school home education.
Read further on Edexcel International A Level and Cambridge International A Level guides respectively.
Getting ready for exams can be stressful. Follow our guides on how to handle your stress when exam is approaching. (We guarantee you will feel lighter after reading the post 🙂 .)
Our valuable A* resources had produced thousands of A* scorers around the world. Check them out below.
Our internationally loved exam model answers had helped thousands of students in scoring A/A*. Schools and teachers worldwide have used these resources to aid in their teachings. Learn what an A* answer like, copy the style and score A* in your exam.
Our word-renowned IGCSE and AS/A Level courses had produced more than 1100 A/A* scorers worldwide. They are suitable for schooled or home-schooled candidates, and as full course or revision course.
We have the most complete past exam papers library on earth (no kidding!). Choose your exam board and download everything with one click.
Get the latest exam syllabus and plan your study accordingly.
Find out the exam registration and results released key dates for IGCSE and AS/A Level.
Check your administrative zone, the exam dates and time. For both IGCSE and AS/A Level.
Find and locate the nearest exam centre for your location.
Need more guidance? Feel free to read the homeschooling FAQs to understand more on what you can do. Alternatively, simply drop us a message at the comment box below, one of our friendly team members will attend to you within 24 hours.
We hope this article could save some lives, as we are heart broken to hear stories like the above Malaysian parents.
All the best in your marathon － just remember that we are always with you in your marathon! 💪
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Lanja Omer
United Arab Emirates
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184 responses
Dear IGCSE,
I am a South African currently working in USA. I completed grade 10 in south africa via intec college. I would like to do 10 over and do 11 and 12 internationally recognized while i am here. Im am looking for something online/part time.
Hi Zack,
Does grade 10 in South Africa equivalent to IGCSE? If yes, you may proceed to AS/A Level. You can read more on A Level here: https://alevelcentre.com/
If you intend to obtain IGCSE certifications, you may enrol into the online courses here: https://www.skolatis.com/cambridge-igcse-revision-courses/
Can you please direct me to which website should I contact for admission?? My son is 13 yrars old and I am looking for a valid website to take this curriculum for him as a home schooler.
Hi Rupa,
Just click on the “Contact” page, and write us your queries. We will reply to you via email.
Hello team,
I would like to enrol my son for IGSE homeschooling in grade 10 .
We live in kuwait .
Who do I need to contact to register him starting next month?
Could you help please.
Thank you
Hi Souna,
We are very sorry that we do not have grade 10 courses at the moment. However, you may register him for our online revision courses, as many year 10 candidates are using our courses for learning.
Hello,
Thank for all this information. I was lucky to have found it.
I am currently homeschooling and my son, 12 has finished Grade 8 (Year 9) through an American academy. How do I really know if he is ready for IGCSE’s? Is there some sort of placement/assessment test he can do? Also,can he not take 3 one year and write his exams then 3 the next year or must he take 6 for the duration of two years to receive his Certificate and be considered University-ready?
Best Regards from KSA
Hi Adam,
There is no “placement” test for one to take IGCSE. You can just start him with the IGCSE programme anytime from Year 9/Year 10, the British system. He can always register for 3 subjects in one examination session, then another 3 subjects in the next examination session. It is entirely up to you.
If you want to find out the required subjects for university, you must get the confirmation from the university that he wishes to apply for. This would let you have clearer picture on which subjects he should take.
hii , my child too wants to do home schooling at home.so how she do her practicals at home ?
Hi,
I am thinking to homeschool my son after his primary education. What is the difference between IGCSE and GCE O-level? Would there be any practical exams for science? We are from Singapore.
Thanks
Hi Tan,
There won’t be any practical exams for private candidate. Private candidate will take the Paper 6 called “Alternative to Practical”.
Please read more about IGCSE here: https://www.skolatis.com/what-is-igcse/
Hello,
She won’t be able to do practical. She will take the Paper 6, Alternative to Practical.
Hi there
I have a 9year old daughter I’m currently homeschooling. Are there any specific books/courses/curriculum she should be studying in order to take the IGCSE in 6 years. How should we be preparing?
We are based in India.
Thanks
Kalden
Hi Kalden,
Yes, you must obtain the right syllabus from CIE if you wish to enrol her into the IGCSE exams. Just write to CIE about this, the website is: http://www.cie.org.uk
Dear Sir,
My daughter is about to complete 8th Standard (in Bengaluru) and we plan to take her through Home Schooling for 9th & 10th Standard under IGCSE board.
Kindly let me know what kind of support can be extended by your organization so that my daughter completes the course successfully.
Thank you,
-Gopal
Hi Gopal,
We are sorry that we do not have any homeschooling programme for grade 9 & 10 at the moment.
Dear IGCSE,
I’m a student about to enter the 9th grade in India. I’ve completed 11 years of my schooling from the USA, until we moved to India 3 years ago. So, from 6th to 8th grade (my finals start in a bit), I’ve been studying in DPS, a CBSE-oriented school. To say that I am dissatisfied understates the matter dramatically.
If I want to return to the United States, can I be homeschooled, using the IGCSE curriculum LEGALLY? If I obtain a degree using this board, will I face trouble in the future? Is it even possible to be homeschooled in a rural area using this board.
Thanks,
Anonymous
Hello there,
You can always do homeschooling with IGCSE and sit for your exams with any local British Council. IGCSE certificates are “legal” 🙂
Homeschooling is basically study on your own. You could study at any place in the world.
Hello I am planning to do home schooling for a number of children from primary upto A level. How may I have materials to start my home school. the students will be writing their exams at Cambridge registered institutions. I am in South Africa
Hi Bethel,
It is best to get the syllabus from CIE directly. You may also ask for assistance with regards to materials.
Hi I live in Malaysian and am considering to home school my 6 year old son. Is there a complete curriculum available for year 1 right through secondary school?
Hello Dionne,
We are so sorry that we do not have the information you required.