Homeschooling equestrian athlete

Martha’s story

Fourteen-year-old Martha is a homeschooling equestrian athlete who started homeschooling in 2018 to enable her to juggle her equestrian training, competing and studying.

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Martha is a homeschooling equestrian athlete

Why do I homeschool?

“Before I started with Wolsey Hall I was returning home from school at 4:30pm with, on average, five ponies to ride (each for 45 minutes), and by the end of that I was sitting down to do homework. It was just a physical impossibility. At that time I had every intention to compete abroad and it was still a goal that quite a few months later I achieved.

“I now compete on the international circuit with my pony Star which involves us travelling and staying away for a week at a time. This year we travelled to Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.”

Juggling commitments

“Homeschooling with Wolsey Hall has brought flexibility into my hectic lifestyle and it has really made all the difference. I can split my day so that I do several hours of study in the morning and several hours of study in the afternoon so that horses and school can work around each other.

“To begin with I found working around Canvas and uploading assignments tricky as there were lots of terms such as ‘PDF’ and ‘MP3’ that I wasn’t familiar with, but once I got to grips with it all, it’s fairly easy and I do it without thinking. I also had a new laptop which literally spoke in gibberish!

“My preferred subject is English as I love creativity and ‘thinking outside the box’ (which is a skill I use every day with the horses!) I love involving myself in political debates which I can incorporate into my work with two sides to a story.”

Martha is a homeschooling equestrian athlete

Tips and future plans

“My biggest tip to any homeschooling student with many commitments is to plan your day. Set yourself targets and reward yourself for staying motivated.

“My future plans academically is to do the best I can and hopefully do well in my IGCSE exams, which are still a couple of years away. Equestrian wise is to keep competing abroad and improving my scores at each competition!”

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