In this article, Karen Binedell, mum to ‘Our Travelling Family’, talks about tracking homeschooling progress.
It’s a new year, a new decade and with an ever increasing number of children moving from mainstream school to homeschooling you too may be considering taking the plunge. But even if you manage to get past the initial concerns most parents have-
• Will I be able to support my child’s learning?
• How will I keep my child motivated and focused?
• Will socialisation be an issue?
You may still be wondering, without traditional exams and assessments, will I be able to keep track of my child’s progress?
With Wolsey Hall Oxford the answer is Yes!
Sebastian, Aiden and Ella homeschooled with Wolsey Hall Oxford for 18 months while they travelled around Europe in a caravan volunteering.
Our family has been proudly homeschooling since April 2019 and I can honestly say, as parents, we have never been more aware of our children’s progress.
On any given day I could tell you what they are studying in each subject, where their strengths and interests lie, what they are finding more difficult and how their Tutors are supporting them in those areas.
By logging into the parent platform on Canvas I can easily see what they have achieved for each assignment, feedback from their Tutors and their current average for each subject.
If I am being completely honest I don’t feel the need to visit the parent platform all that often because the kids have access to all of the above and involve us at every opportunity. Due to the personal nature of the correspondence between student and Tutor and the detailed and constructive feedback, our children actually look forward to receiving their results and gladly share the information with us.
When it comes to coursework Wolsey Hall courses are structured in such a way that children build on their knowledge and understanding as they go along. They complete a module and quiz and then submit an assignment which is marked by their Tutor. If they are struggling this will become apparent very quickly.
We had one such moment last summer.
Our 14 year old son, Aiden, submitted a maths assignment and scored 68%. This was about 20-25% lower than what he usually achieves and his Maths Tutor, picked up on it immediately*. She very politely, but firmly, told him she felt he had rushed through the module as well as the assignment and asked him to please cover the topic again before resubmitting the assignment.
He did and he scored well over 80% this time.
*I think it’s important to mention that his Tutor’s assumption was absolutely 100% correct. We were staying at a beautiful campsite in France and Aiden held his hands up and said he had rushed through the assignment as he had wanted to spend more time with his friends.
Another person who is always waiting in the wings is the Student Progress Manager. The role of the student progress manager is to design a schedule of work to ensure all the coursework is completed in the allocated time. They check in on the children, provide encouragement and step in if they feel timings are slipping- especially if IGCSE’s are just around the corner. Once again, we can personally vouch for this!
I hope this post has helped to dispel the myth that because homeschoolers aren’t constantly undergoing tests, their progress cannot be monitored. I also hope it has illustrated how the partnership between student, parent and Wolsey Hall comes together to ensure the best outcome for each and every child.
If you’re thinking of enrolling your child at Wolsey Hall Oxford and you’d like to know more about what we do or how to enrol, please get in touch. We’re ready to enrol new students throughout the academic year.
