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Planning High School

Planning your child’s high school years can feel daunting even if you've been home educating from the beginning. The planning process doesn't need to be complicated and, to be honest, not every home educator has a plan, let alone a formulaic version! 

One of the beauties of using the HSD route is that it works even for families jumping in midway. You can incorporate the work your young person has already completed in the preceding years at home or at school. Its framework can be shaped around the student, rather than shoehorning him/her into a rigid system.

What 'high school' means

The HSD 'high school' typically covers Grades 9–12 (roughly ages 14–18) in America, but often can be started at UK Year 8. [See What about academic ages and levels.]

Unlike the GCSE system, the HSD is not tied to a single exam year or two. Instead, it is built gradually through credits across a range of subject earned over several years. Each course your child completes contributes to an overall transcript, which becomes the record of their secondary education.

Start with an end in mind

Planning with your off-ramp, as it were, in mind, along with the equivalency you need is important. You don’t need all the answers immediately but having a general direction helps you make wise choices about subjects, qualifications and how much structure you might want to build in.

Is your child aiming for university (UK or overseas), an apprenticeship or a more flexible route into work or further training? Are A Levels at 6th Form part of the plan? Or heading straight to university at 18 and so in need of some APs instead of A Levels? 

Do you need to emphasise STEM skills or humanities? What health or learning challenges are being faced? Does s/he have a one-subject focus and you  need to tease out motivation for other subjects?

My Engineering-focused son struggled with dyslexia challenges. I knew that a typical GCSE and A Levels route into engineering would throw up huge hurdles to stop delight-led learning in its tracks. Our end goal was a BTEC-type gateway into engineering at 16, with a Level 3 Engineering Apprenticeship being the dream. 

This meant we planned to finish the HSD in Year 11.  I only really started planning for the off-ramp towards the end of Year 9. This looked like making sure he had enough credits in each required area and the types of skills included in his HSD that apprenticeship recruiters would look for. 

For the first two years, he continued with things he would have been doing anyway. One external course, weekly music lessons and daily practice, some Maths and English, a business project and lots of interest-led engineering-type projects. I quantified and laid these out formally after he had completed each project. We had a few areas to top up as his HSD came to a completion.

What about UK exams?

Most families will choose either UK exams or the HSD route. However, it is possible to blend GCSEs and the diploma as you can absorb GCSEs into the credit accumulation. For example, a student might take GCSE Maths and English, while building the rest of their education through the diploma structure. 

The umbrella school, Homeschool Directive, counts an exam as one credit and the course study as another credit. To graduate from most umbrella schools, you would still need four separate years of English study.

My personal concern with blending the UK and US system is that you may find future employers or education providers scratching their heads as to why you didn't commit to one method. The GCSEs would have to be fully incorporated into the diploma and ENIC will not take into account UK exams when giving the Statement of Equivalency. 

Unless you are jumping in halfway through and already have one or two I/GCSEs, my advice would be to stick to one path or the other rather than create extra work trying to jump through UK exam hoops alongside the HSD route.