Alternative education

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have been considering the possibility of home educating DD for some time. It seems that this school is following the spirit of HE. My only reservation is that by not following the standard curriculum and exam process, that the children's options will be limited. The education system (and potential employer) is geared towards grading and assessing in terms of exam results. I really do want to HE, but I can't help feeling that it will ultimately limit the choices available to DD. Any opinions?

Reply to
hicks
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Apolgies - posted to wrong newsgroup.

Reply to
hicks

A different kind of diy!

Reply to
Andy Burns

You don't seriously think that will stop anyone, do you?

Reply to
Joe

So which ng did you intend to post to?

FWIW I know a few kids who've gone or are going to the Acorn and by all accounts it's brilliant. Our own kids are/were at the local Steiner School and amongst other parents etc it's regarded as practically a Steiner school in all but name (though there are differences of organisation e.g. Graham is the head and owner whereas Steiner schools are usually run as charitable businesses with a college of teachers and no head).

I gather a significant number of Acorn pupils are accepted at Oxbridge on reputation of the school despite not doing exams, so I wouldn't worry about their prospects.

From the HE POV there are always quite a few parents ar our school who would be HEing if the school weren't available, and some who move from HE to Steiner, and some vice versa.

Reply to
John Stumbles

uk.people.parents it would seem

Reply to
chris French

uk.people.parents

Thanks. It turns out that the school is located not far from us!

Reply to
hicks

I would never have had some of my best employees if I took much notice of school exam results. These days they are little more than an exercise in ensuring that everyone leaves school with a bit of paper.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

Really. That's interesting. What industry are you in? I know exams seem to have been devalued with the recent grade inflation phenomenon, but I wonder is it generally the case that employers are starting to disregard exam results. Would it be so bad if our child didn't have any conventional exam passes? That's the question I'm wrestling with.

Reply to
hicks

Currently:

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I am looking to diversify.

However, the main point is probably that they are small enough for every employee to have been interviewed by me personally.

I would say it depends on your child's aspirations [or your aspirations for your child :-)]. If they are to become a cog, even an important cog, in a large organisation, then bits of paper are necessary. However, there are lots of businesses in the small and medium enterprise range and, in those, persuading the boss that you are the person for the job is often far more important. If you own and run a business, your qualifications don't matter anyway. My guess would be that anyone who went to a school like the one you are looking at would be temperamentally more suited to the last category, rather than the first, and probably better equipped than most to get there.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

In message , snipped-for-privacy@bigmailbox.net writes

I don't think it is the general case, I suspect that smaller employers are easier going , and probably always have been, Larger organisations probably look for them more. If nothing else, it's an easy way to filter out people when you have lots of applicants.

Depends on her intended or potential future career. The are plenty of career routes where some GSCE's etc. are pretty much essential (not necessarily the 9-10 many kids leave with).

I certainly don't want to put our children in a position where they can't get the qualifications they might want/need. But there is no reason Home Education should do that. Plenty of them take GCSE,s either at home (often spread out over a number of years) or go to school for a couplle of years, or go to college for a year etc. some know what they want to do and follow other qualification paths.

But HE a child a 5 is not going to close down any of those paths in the future.

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Reply to
chris French

I would no longer regard exams as being proof of much academically, but a clutch of passes suggests the holder at least attended school fairly consistently, paid some attention in the lessons, and did some work.

One aspect of home education is the child missing out on the school experience and mixing with other children, but there are ways around that of course.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

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