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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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United Arab Emirates
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184 responses
Hi
I will be doing IGCSE (grade10&11) next year. I plan on completing it in 1 year with grades A-C. I want to write off at least 2 of my 5 subjects in May/June and the rest at the end of the year. Would it be realistic to spend maximum 3hrs a day on homeschooling? 6 days a week
Thanks
Hello there,
Yes, it is ok to spend 3 hours a day for studying. Since you are learning at home, you will decide on the number of hours you would like to spend.
Hello. Is there an age limit for doing IGCSE? Can you possibly do IGCSE year 11 at home ? My child did year 10 at school. Is it possible for her to do her last year at home?
Hi Emma,
The IGCSE examination is equivalent to Year 11 or 10th Grade, depending on where you?re from. Typically, the examination is taken by students age 14 ? 16. However, there is no minimum age requirement, as long as the candidate is judged to have the ability and confidence to sit the examinations. You can read more here: https://www.skolatis.com/what-is-igcse/
Hope this clarifies 🙂
Hi, i am from malaysia. Im 16 and i have been studying with the local school. I took UPSR and PT3 but recently i went through some problems and injured my legs. I have missed one whole year of school and will continue to due to surgery schedules. It will take me along time to recover. Thus, i have considered homeschooling. I don’t really know what to do. Most options are going to private centres but the problem is that i struggle going to places. Is there anything that can help me with my problem? This is supposed to be my last year of school and i would love to study IGCSE. Please help and thank you.
Hello Aysha,
You can always purchase any reference books from Amazon UK site, and study at home. At the same time, you may also enrol into the online courses to help prepare for your exams: https://www.skolatis.com/cambridge-igcse-revision-courses/
Hello,
Firstly; kudos to your team for puttig up this fantastic page and replying with patience to all the queries. Speaking of queries; here goes:
I have 3 kids: 10 yr old (completed Grade 5), 6 yr old (in Grade 1) and 5 yr old (in Foundation stage 2).
I’m looking to move them all to Home schooling; preferably IGCSE.
How do I start? Which grades will they go to in IGCSE and who chooses it? Where do I select the subjects? Where do I get the books and what do they cost? What are the other costs involved? (Apologies for the deluge here).
Thank you!!
Hello Mateen,
Here are the suggestions to your questions:
1. First, please read the above article carefully and follow the step-by-step guide.
2. You can start the IGCSE programmes at any time as you wish, if you’re referring to home education.
3. You decide the subjects, together with your children, based on what your children want to study in the future.
4. You may get the reference books from Amazon UK site. Just browse through the site and find out more on the costings.
5. Here are some exam resources that might help you:
Model Answers: https://www.skolatis.com/igcse-exam-resources/
Online Revision Course: https://www.skolatis.com/cambridge-igcse-revision-courses/
Hi, my daughter took the Edexcel IGSCE in May 2017 at British council malaysia. She need to repeat one paper in january 2018 but unfortunately the paper is not available in Malaysia but available at BC singapore. Can my daughter with Malaysian Passport register and take the exam at BC sinapore.
Thanks
Hi Azlan,
We do not have any information on Edexcel. Please visit Edexcel website. Alternatively, you may contact the British Council in Singapore for this matter.
Hi there, can I know what is the minimum subjects to be taken in IGCSE in order to get the official certificate from CIE?
Hi Woo,
There is a minimum of 5 subjects that you need to take. You can refer to this page: https://www.skolatis.com/what-is-igcse/
Hi,
I’m a mother of 12yr old child, want to do homeschooling for her.
I need some help with my doubts.
1. Is she eligible for IGCSE ?
2. She will give exam after two years.
3. Can she write directly A level without giving IGCSE exam?
4. What is the Difference between A level and AS level?
Thanks in Advance.
Vimala.
Hi Vimala,
Here are the answers for your questions:
1. There is no maximum age limit for homeschooling, nor for sitting for IGCSE exams. You may start the homeschooling programme at any point of time. However, please make sure you have read the above article properly.
2. As long as she is ready, you may proceed to register her with your local British Council. You might need to find out what are the requirements for your local British Council.
3. We do not think so. The entry requirement for A Level is IGCSE or equivalent.
4. Please read more here for AS and A Level: https://alevelcentre.com/what-is-asa-level/
Hi,
I am a mother of 10 years and 5 years old kids. I am residing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I am not happy with the curriculum being taught in the top schools. I want my children to study IGCSE curriculum. I have decided to homeschool them but the problem is that I am not understanding the whole system of appearing in exams and being promoted to the next stage as a private candidate. I have to assess my children myself? or there is a test taken at the end of primary and lower secondary stage from British Council? I am also unable to understand the textbooks for lower secondary stage. Should I teach my child books 7,8, and 9 for lower secondary stage?
Please help or share any resource that can help as I am still novice.
Hello Memoona,
First, please follow the step-by-step guidance above, to find out if home education is for you.
If you are looking for official tests at the end of primary and lower secondary, then home education is not for you. As we have stated very clearly in the above article, there is NO official tests available for private candidates at the end of primary and lower secondary. The only official test is IGCSE.
As for books, you have to make research and find out the required books for each year 7, 8, 9. You may get some help from CIE, which is the exam board. Their website is: http://www.cie.org.uk.
Greetings,
I’m a malaysian citizen. I’m age 17. I have graduated from primary school with the UPSR results. I attended Form 1-3 in secondary, however, I only completed Form 1, from start to finish and I didn’t fully complete Form 2-3. Thus, I did not participate during the PT3 exams last year. I intend to restart my secondary education in home school and proceed to participate in the exams from schools who accepts private candidates. This is my plan.
Could you clarity to me whether if I’m doing it the correct way, and could you provide me with some suggestions and further insight on how to proceed from here? Please, tell me everything you know and let me know how and where to continue in my current situation. Thank you.
Hello William,
Please read through the above article, and follow the step-by-step guidance. Once you have selected your subjects, you need to check with your local British Council for the available subjects in your local area. At the same time, you must find out the key dates for exam registrations, exam fees etc…
Hope these help.
Hi, I have 7 year old twins, whom I am intending to homeschool from Grade 3( Currently they are in Grade 2 in local board) under IGCSE Curriculum.
My question is that if I happen to move to any other country at their primary level, say in Grade 3 itself or Grade 4 and , in that country, I decide to put them in a formal school under Cambridge or IGCSE curriculum, would it be possible ? I would not have any certificates or formal documents to show that they are being homeschooled. So would this admission be a challenge ?
Secondly, as I understand from your article, I would need to decide at the start of Year 5, if I really need to put them in an IGCSE school, for minimum a year, in order to get the Year 5 completion certificate, so that incase I need to continue formal schooling in lower secondary, this certificate would be required.
Request your assistance to clarify on the above.Thanks.
best regards
Rashi
Hi Rashi,
Here are some guidance for you:
1. If your twins are currently in a formal school, please get a school leaving certificate at the end of their school year. When you move on to homeschool them, you can register with your local education authority to get a formal certificate / acknowledgement from them that you are homeschooling your children. If you are in the UK, this is a required process by the government. In this way, you have both formal school leaving certificate and the government acknowledgement on homeschooling. These would definitely help you to enter into a formal school in a foreign country. Entering a formal school in Grade 3 or 4 is still relatively easy, provided the school is not having “waiting list” – most of the popular schools would have “waiting list” for example 1 year waiting list. That means, if you want to enter Grade 4, you must start your application at Grade 2. Some schools would have entry tests, and the whole process would take minimum 6 months to 1 year. We urge you to find out from the school on this.
2. The second part you did not get it quite right. If you intend to register your children with a formal school in primary level, you ought to register them latest at Year 5. This is because the Primary Checkpoint test is at the end of Year 6, and no schools would accept new students in Year 6. You are right that you need a Primary completion certificate in order to register them with a formal school in lower secondary. The Primary completion certificate is Year 6, not Year 5.
Hope these clarify your doubts. Please feel free to write to us if you need any further assistance.
Hello,
I would like to get the primary program curriculum. We are in Malawi and are planning on homeschooling our children.
regards,
Victor
Hi Victor,
Unfortunately we do not have any primary curriculum at the moment. We would suggest you to obtain one from any Cambridge School. You may locate any Cambridge School here: https://cie.org.uk/i-want-to/find-a-cambridge-school/