Wigan S.T.E.A.M SciArt Stem Cell Explorers

We have been attending a two day art/science workshop at the Wigan S.T.E.A.M Hub, what a fabulous place Wigan S.T.E.A.M is, they provide workshops to both adults and children and also have exhibitions to connect people to Stem, culture and heritage and a few other things that you can find out about on their website (here).

Some of the large range of activities they provide is coding, digital and interactive arts, game design, 3D printing and loads more. Some of their more recent workshops have included:- Draw a Circuit using conductive paint to draw a light up circuit, 3D Pixel Art and of course the workshop we attended over two days The SciArt Stem Cell Explorers, which I will tell you more about shortly but I have to tell you about some of their exciting up and coming workshops first, which include Stop Motion Animation, Light Up Canvas Bags and Catapult engineering.

I found Wigan Steam by chance on eventbright and thought the workshop looked interesting so obviously booked on, I am so very glad that we did. I have to say this is in our top 5 events we have attended whilst home educating, definitely worth the two hour trip there and back.

When you walk into the building you immediately feel relaxed with the fabulous entrance up to the reception area. It feels very informal and welcoming with the gallery just to your left as you walk in, you get a sense of calm and creativity.

Vicky the facilitator greeted us with a big friendly smile and immediately put us at ease and a lovely hot coffee was plunged into my hands not long after.

The learning/workshop room itself is lovely, such a cosy room which has a really uplifting atmosphere, kitted out with everything you need for a workshop, including a projector.

The room has a fabulous shelf area with lots of things to discover, these items would be for the use in other workshops, such as the lego stop motion and robot workshops and there was a fabulous book shelf full of fascinating art books. Even though these items were for other workshops and not this Stem Cell workshop, there was no problems or eyes batted at the kids bringing them out throughout the two days on the Stemcell workshop and having an informal play with them, which I thought was a really lovely touch, the kids were just allowed to play with them and just discover for themselves, nothing was out of bounds on the shelves.

There is also a lovely comfy sofa to sit on too, which my bottom graced for two days with its presence.

I should get on and tell you a little bit about what the kids did for two days on the Stem Cell workshop, which was presented by a fabulous young lady called Gabby York-Salmon who is currently doing an MA in art and science at Liverpool John Moores University.

Over the two days Gabby introduced the kids to Stem Cells, they watched slide shows  on cells and some fascinating videos of magnified cells whilst learning about the components (if that is the word) of cells, they also learnt about Science Artists such as Stelark (definitely check him out, he is a very interesting figure) and they created their own pieces of art work using different mediums such as using dried clay to create cells which they painted with colourful UV and Florescent paint, they also used wool on paper to create cells and used felt pieces with beads and various other things to create cells and they peered through a microscope.

The twins were very happy that they got to show off their cell project that they did a couple of years ago and some of the felt cells were created using some images that they had on their project cover, they also got to show off their video that they made, the blog post about that is here if you are interested. 

They learned all sorts about stem cells and did some fabulous artwork over these two days and we will be going over some of it and doing some more writing, googling and arty things around these fascinating cells.

Gabby and Vicky were very engaging throughout the two days, they covered so much in such a short space of time and they were naturally great with the kids, I would recommend anyone go to at least one workshop there or arrange one with Wigan S.T.E.A.M, either one for the adults or one for the kids, but you will definitely not regret it and certainly add a fantastic experience to your life's tick box, we certainly will be going back!...

With permission of parents here is the Stem Cell Sci/Art Gang!..

Science Overload

I have been under a bit of a science overload this past few weeks, I feel slightly drained by the pace the kids have gone with this one, the twins have been asking lots of questions that I have had to google the answer for, but good old Google has come up with the answers for me and not let me down. 

With Easter Weekend coming up the kids asked the all essential questions that they do at this time of year, such as what is God?, how do we know he exists!

This lead onto learning a little about Quantum Fluctuations:-

I also discovered a series made by Morgan Freeman entitled the Story of God, which looks at what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked, this is a long series which we left on in the background and  dipped in and out of to the questions we wanted addressed.

This opened up the discussion about the different perspectives people have and how Quantum fluctuations relates to this, well we had to look further and found the Wheeler- DeWitt Equation...

This lead us onto looking at the different mathematical equations, Olivia being the maths wizz recognised PI and was very excited to see so many equations and as they had done the Greek Alphabet with Badgers and were very excited and inspired to see that the Greek Alphabet was also included.

We talked about the different science disciplines and looked at some great videos explaining what each discipline covers. Olivia keeps saying she wants to be a doctor so I asked her what she wants to be a doctor of? I explained that to be a doctor means you have done a doctorate, so we looked at some of the things she could specialise in, her favourite discipline is within Biology, so she was extremely excited when I showed her the following video about all the different elements of Biology that she could explore.

Oliver became curious and although he seems to have a very physics based interest in science, once we had watched the Chemistry Map video and the Physics Map video, we discovered that we have in fact covered more on the Chemistry side. 

Because we do not break what we learn down into subjects, it is often quite difficult to compartmentalise what we do, until you look at things this way. Usually we go with whatever the kids ask about or what we find out about in passing or whatever catches our attention and I go back to what we have learnt and try to put that into a perspective and fit it into a legible useful form that connects what they have learnt and layer it on top of what they have previously learnt, like building blocks.

Don't even ask me how but a familiar name kept popping up so we learnt a bit about who Archimedes was:-

And then watched the Bill Nye The Science Guy video about Buoyancy:-

As you can imagine the kids now have plenty of experiments in mind...

Phew I am exhausted, but no rest for the wicked, we have the SCI Art Stem Cell Explorers two day workshop to be getting on with tomorrow!...

Amongst all that the kids have been busy making Easter themed pictures..

and we have been reading together the fabulous A Wrinkle in Time (click the picture to buy)

We have enjoyed a fabulous trip on the CBBC Interactive tour where the kids found out what it was like to be at the other side of the camera..

There are lots that I have missed out but it has been a busy few weeks...

Chess and Fibonacci Numbers

Oliver started at his new chess club 3C's, what a fabulous club. I was a little worried about Olivia getting bored but she was far from bored as she sat and joined in a conversation about maths and was struck by Fibonacci Numbers and Da Vinci.

Wherever you find a chess board you find people with fabulous ideas and a gentleman named Carl who I was nattering away to was talking about maths and demonstrated Fibonacci numbers to Olivia

Olivia loves maths but she also loves art so the combination of learning the Fibonacci numbers has introduced Olivia to something new in the world of art, she can combine her two greatest loves.

So far she has been working out the Fibonacci numbers with great enthusiasm since she got home, and I will hopefully introduce her to how we can put that into a piece of art work.

Carl also introduced her to the genius of Da Vinci  and showed her some you tube videos of the maths within the Mona Lisa Picture, her little brain is spinning with ideas, it will be interesting what she comes up with and learns about numbers and art over the coming months.

So although the chess club is firmly on Olivers radar I really did not expect Olivia to get anything out of watching her brother play Chess but clearly she has and it looks like an environment where all of us can flourish, we felt very welcome, we were shown the ropes and the achievements of the club which are pretty impressive and we are all looking forwards to going back again next week.

Pneumonia when home educating!

I was so pleased that I did not go to the doctors before the Halle event as I never would have got there, although allowing the kids to force me into taking them to the Art Gallery and finding food afterwards would not have happened either, which would may have been a good thing really as being diagnosed with pneumonia is a definite deal breaker..  

I feel so poorly and unfortunately our yearly trip to the Birmingham Science Festival will have to be cancelled, there is no way I can drive to Birmingham in this state. The kids are less than happy but unfortunately I am not superwoman and will make it up to them somehow. 

Its early days for the penicillin to be kicking in but I promised them I would take them to see the Terracotta Warriors at Liverpool to make up for it in a few weeks time, time enough to allow me to recover.

I had to cancel hub explorers that should have been today and tomorrow we were supposed to be going to a glass blowing workshop in Fleetwood that I know I will never be able to make it to, which we are extremely disappointed about as we really wanted to go to that one.

I am not really too sure when I will be back on my feet again, although I did try today and I took some ebay orders to the drop off point and did some paperwork and tried to sort some boxes in the stockroom but doing even just  that made me feel worse and I spent a few hours afterwards with a fever, sweating and ended up soaked through, exhausted and with a massive headache, my cough is getting slowly more frequent.

The kids have been practising their life saving skills they have learnt at badgers, they have been rehearsing what to do in an emergency, I am not quite sure if they expect me to croak it or not, ha ha... it did make me laugh but I am very impressed at their proficiency.

It looks like any structured learning is off the cards, for a little while at least but these two have an inbuilt learning button so am I sure they will not stop learning just because I am down and out for the count.

Halle For Youth - Back to nature 2018

All my panic disappeared over the Halle for Youth event yesterday. I was feeling so poorly, weak, temperature and with a terrible painful cough and just felt all round terrible. I managed to get there to ensure everyone had their tickets and the concert was fantastic. I have organised these Halle events since 2014 and they are always fantastic and seem to get better every year.

The Halle For Youth Concerts are an annual educational event from the Halle Orchestra. They give school age children the opportunity to engage with and experience orchestra at it's finest.

The program was engaging and had a theme of Nature this year.

The program was as follows:-

CONDUCTED BY JOHANN STUCKENBRUCK
PRESENTED BY TOM REDMOND

SIBELIUS †*Finlandia (cut version) [TUNDRA]

BATES †*Anthology of Fantastic Zoology: The A Bao A Qu [JUNGLE]
BARRY †Out of Africa [GRASSLANDS]
WILLIAMS Star Wars, Return of the Jedi: The Forest Battle [FORESTS]
SONG: MARSH/Orch PICKETT Earth, Sea and Sky
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS *The Lark Ascending (cut version) [BIRDS]
Soloist: JORDAN GARBUTT (violin)

SMETANA †Vltava (cut version) [RIVERS]
PICKETT ‘Elephants move in mysterious ways...’ (for Halléoojamaflipaphone and orchestra)
URBAN LANDSCAPE: Audience participation
DEBUSSY La Mer: Finale (cut version) [OCEAN] 

 

Lets talk charity!...

I thought I would do a small post about supporting charity.

Supporting charity to me is something I have always done and I would like the kids to also support charity effortlessly and regularly as a normal part of life.

Since I was a small child I have been involved in charity in some capacity, starting with Carnival queens and church queens raising money for local charities, fundraising has always been there.

The twins had their first dip into raising money for charity when we started an appeal for the children of Syria when the conflict began, we raised money by people donating their no longer needed items and sold them on to raise funds to pass onto the charity.

Personally we do not have a pot to piss in but we still manage to support our local charity who do some fabulous work. We manage to do this by buying goods in bulk from their local charity shop, selling them on ebay and raising more money to put back into buying more stock in bulk from the charity shop.

Circular economy, when we do this it demonstrates to the twins that we are having an effect far wider than just helping support the charity that we choose, we are keeping things out of landfill and playing our part in helping our mother earth.

Ellen Macarthur Foundation was established in 2010 with the aim of accelerating the transition to the circular economy. You can find out more about them here.

Fashion is considered to be one of the most polluting industries, the chemical waste is not always discharged according to proper measures causing water pollution worldwide, for a single t-shirt the average water footprint is 2500 ltrs of water (30 bathtubs) 

We can't do very much as a small family but we can play our part and at the same time help charities. 

 

Learning more about the weather.

Olivia asked the question of 'how do the weather people know what the weather will be like'?. This was asked after we saw the snow weather warning come up.

So.. We watched a few videos..

 

We also got out our weather kit that we have had sat on the shelf for the past few years that we picked up at a charity shop.

One of my clients on ebay was saying how she had no snow so we talked about UK climate and why it could be different for different parts of UK.

My Street Greater Manchester-

 My Clients Street Hampshire:-

We learnt a little bit about UK Climate from Met Link Royal Meteorology Association.

Being quite lazy and all..they also emailed the Met Office to see if they could answer the question of why does it snow in one part of the country while simultaneously it does not in another, such as in Hampshire. They received a lovely detailed reply with some great links so they can explore more.

They also learned the difference between weather and climate and created a couple of graphics to demonstrate:-

We also learnt that it is the Earths Tilted Axis (Axial Tilt) that is responsible for our seasons.

 We watched this interesting video to learn more.

The kids are now busy writing up what they have learned.

Anti Home Ed Bill - One Parents Perspective!

Below is a conversation posted with permission by a home ed parent (Martine Cotter) and an MP regarding the Anti Home Ed Bill Currently going through parliament find out more about that here >>> Anti Home Ed Bill


M.P UPDATE
On Friday 23rd February 2017 I met with my Conservative M.P to discuss the Home Education Bill.
The conversation went a bit like this;

MP: So, you are here to discuss home education?
ME: No, I am here to discuss Lord Soley’s Private Members Bill regarding Home Education.
MP: What don’t you like about the Bill?
ME: All of it.
MP: Let me tell you where I stand. I am a firm believer in the rights of parents to choose the education for their children. I am a huge fan of home education and have many close friends who have opted for this route. I have grave concerns about the education system, which I have expressed to the Education Minister and I would fight vigorously to protect your right to home educate. But…I can’t see why anyone would have a problem with signing a register. It seems reasonable to me. Why do you have a problem with it?
ME: We have little time, so I am going to be completely honest with you...The school education system is broken. It does not cater for the needs of children who are either gifted or who are unable to keep up with a rigid and unaccommodating curriculum and test-driven culture. Children are suffering. CAMHS are busting at the seams. Parents are being forced to review their decision to outsource education as it is not fit for purpose. They have joined thousands of others, some of whom have never outsourced education, to exercise their legal right to educate their own children. The problem is, we are growing in numbers, year on year, and the Government don’t like it. They don’t like it because they are losing control. So, rather than address the elephant in the room (the broken education system) they have decided that Home Education needs more legislation – and it starts with finding out who we are and where we are. We are the easy option because overhauling the education system is in the too-hard-to-do box.
MP: I agree.
ME: You want a register, but a register cannot be implemented without sanctions. There must be penalties for not complying.
MP: But why would you not want to comply?
ME: Can you name any other national register that is compulsory?
MP: (Scoffs)
ME: Yes, it is uncomfortable. There is a national register of sex offenders. We also have a MAPPA register for violent offenders. I’m an accredited Chair for Domestic Homicide Reviews and signed a petition for a national register for Serious and Serial Domestic Abuse Perpetrators, which was presented alongside 130,000 other signatures, to 10 Downing Street last year. To date, we have not heard a dickie bird.
Can you see where I am going with this? The only other national registers in existence are for known criminals – the worst of the worst. On top of that, you want to consider a register for home educators BEFORE a register for convicted dangerous domestic abuse perpetrators. Can you understand why I would feel slightly aggrieved by that?
MP: Yes.
ME: Furthermore, I am not prepared to sign up to anything that I don’t understand. I fail to understand the purpose of this register.
MP: Well, every child deserves an education. We have to make sure that happens.
ME: Define an education.
MP: (Laughs). My definition of an education is one that prepares a child for life in the world in which we live. Experiences and community. Learning is lifelong. My colleagues define education differently. They often describe it as academia. There are many that are hell-bent on keeping up with the Chinese as they see this as the benchmark for academia. I don’t agree.
ME: So, you can see our first stumbling block? You want a register to make sure every child is receiving an education, but you can’t even agree within your own party what constitutes an education.
MP: Yes, some serious thought would need to be given to how this would be implemented.
ME: You’re not wrong. So, what other reasons are there for the register?
MP: It is unacceptable for us to not know how many children are being home educated. We need to know that at the very least.
ME: Why?
MP: For one, I’d like to know just how many parents are de-registering from our schools because they are deemed unfit to cater for their child’s needs.
ME: So, you want numbers? Isn’t that a Census?
MP: I like that. That would be a good compromise in my opinion. A census could stop this Bill in its tracks. But what about the child protection element?
ME: I’m glad you raised that. I have been appalled by the behaviour of Lord Soley and his supporters who think it is acceptable to compare us with child abuse cases here and in America, just because there was a tenuous link with home education. In my opinion, this is your biggest problem.
If I said to you now, ‘you are a computer user, therefore you might be using the dark web’. If I said, ‘you are a pet owner, and therefore there is a chance you are mistreating your dog’ - how would you feel?
You might feel the same way as I do, when Lord Soley says ’You are a home educator, therefore you may be abusing your child’.
Surely, you understand you can’t legislate for abusers who hide out in every section of the community? It is not home educators who hide and mistreat their children. It’s abusers. It’s ludicrous to target one group of individuals. Where do you stop before you become a nanny state?
Which is why I don’t think this is about the protection of children. It’s a sly and unforgivable tactic to hide your need for control.
If it was about the protection of children, you would all support the call for a national register for serious domestic abuse perpetrators.
MP: I do have to reiterate I am on your side. Most of my colleagues will fight for home educators and know that the majority of them do an outstanding job. I don’t know why this government is so control focused – I have challenged it myself. Many have lost sight of the rights of parents and think they deserve to control everything. There are a few who are automatically suspicious of anyone who wants to home educate…
ME: I would happily extend an invite to your pompous and privileged friends, who have lost touch with what is happening on the ground, to meet with me and my daughter’s ex-school to discuss why we were forced to de-register. Perhaps they need to meet the parents of the children who have been bullied? The children who have had not had that SEN needs met? In fact, I’d ask when they last reviewed the industrial-aged system to see if it still prepares children for life?
We come back to the issue of the education system being broken. And it being highly unlikely of ever being fixed. Which means that home education will continue to grow exponentially over the coming years. They won’t like that.
MP: I agree.
ME: Can I ask how you would feel in my position? I removed my daughter after 10 years in school. It crushed her. She cried most days. Her anxiety became so bad that I took her to a neuro-disability Paediatrician, who diagnosed her with a learning disability. 10 years, four schools, countless teachers – and they all missed it.
Since homeschooling, she has blossomed. She no longer feels unsafe, so her mind is open to learning again. For the first time in a long time, she is happy and thirsty for knowledge. She is recovering and thriving.
Now, you want me to sign a register that will enable a local authority officer – of God Knows what qualification – to come into our family home, our safe space, and interview our daughter with social anxieties, alone, to assess her education against a definition we have yet to define.
My reply is ‘How Dare You!’. How dare you sit there and ask why I have a problem signing a register. We are the ones who have a right to be suspicious. To date, there has been no honest dialogue about why this register is needed and what it will achieve, other than spurious underhanded aspersions, that make us feel untrusting and angry. Rightfully so. We have Local Authorities already misquoting legislation and doorstepping parents. We have Lords misleading the public in national newspapers. Why should we trust you when you say it is just a register?
MP: It does seem like a slippery slope. Equally, I don’t think they have thought about how it will be implemented or costed.
ME: You’re not wrong. What can we do as a community to at least encourage honest and open dialogue about this Bill?
MP: Good Question. I don’t know. Without a single spokesperson, it is difficult to communicate with the government directly, however, MP’s love nothing more than representing a large number of constituents with the same issue. I would advise all Home Educators to lobby their MP’s. It can be very powerful and effective. If you want to organise a group meeting here before or after the committee stage I will happily ask questions and lobby this Bill on your behalf.

A Proud Badger

Olivia was very very proud of herself for getting the best Badger of the month trophy this month.

Her grin was ear to ear and she looked like the cat that got the cream when I arrived to pick her up.

Poor Oliver was poorly so he opted not to go to this weeks session, bless him, that was one definite indication that he was really poorly, he loves going to Badgers every week. 

Olivia and Oliver try so hard to get the Best Badger of the month trophy every month and never seem to get there, they have won it once in the whole 3 years of attending Badgers, usually every month they pore over the possible reasons why they didn't manage to get that trophy, so you can imagine how much winning the best Badger of the month trophy means to them.

She is so proud of herself and her whole demeanour seems to have changed along with it, she is oosing with confidence. It is so lovely to see.

It was a lovely end to the week as they had been doing some fund raising for St Johns at Tesco last Sunday, exchanging badges, keyrings and life saving info with the public in exchange for a donation, they were so please at the amount they raised, it was well over £250, the Badgers Set made a great team.

 

Lego Stop Motion..

The kids created their first stop motion video at Oldham Gallery when they attended their monthly Creative Spaces workshop.

They were very pleased with their outcome:-

Olivia made a love story:-

Oliver made an Indiana Joh's and the Pirates of doom:-

They both now have the bug for stop motion and have already been instructing me to buy then an ipad and the app to make it possible for them to experiment at home.

Chester Zoo

We had a lovely day out at Chester Zoo and the kids attended a workshop on habitats and digestion, it was a lovely day that one of the other home educating mums had arranged, crazy woman, I find it daunting arranging a trip for 30 people never mind over 250 home educating families, despite the numbers attending being in triple figures the Chester zoo home education day was a resounding hit, there were lots of smiling faces dotted around the zoo.

Creative Writing

We have been attending the creative writing workshop for the past few weeks at Rochdale Library. The twins have embraced it with all their efforts and their creative juices are flowing. Before we attended the sessions getting them to write anything down was always a bit of a task, both of them had a bit of a block when it comes to writing. they have the ideas, lots of them but they were very reluctant to put them down on paper.

We have gone against all convention as I noticed that the reason they were reluctant to put anything down on paper was due to spelling errors, they have trouble spelling things correctly and they know instinctively that it is wrong and this seems to have knocked their confidence in putting pen to paper. I reassured them that it was ok and the only thing that mattered was getting their ideas on paper, not to worry about spelling right now as they can go back and change what they want to later on, it was the getting the ideas down that were the important thing. since I did that they have flown and we are getting pages of writing in a short space of time.

The block of worrying that the spelling was wrong had a massive effect at holding them back, they are now very confident to put things on paper.

They know the basic grammar rules and we work on them constantly going over them on the computer using khan academy and a few work books that we use, so getting them to use these rules and incorporate them into their writing is something we will have to focus and work on.

Using the computer and workbooks is very different to writing your own words on paper, it seems to be very daunting for them, where as the computer and workbooks they breeze through.

Oliver reads an awful lot, he has a book constantly in his hand, Olivia however is not so keen although she does have her moments.

Oliver managed to write a whole page of instructions on how to do the recovery position when he was at Badgers the other week, just from his own head and what he remembered of the instructions, I was very impressed, this is the first time he has confidently written anything at badgers without getting frustrated because he couldn't keep up, he has come on leaps and bounds just with the few sessions of creative writing we have had and taking the focus off spelling mistakes.

Olivia I feel is still struggling a little bit, I will continue to encourage her to keep up with her  journal writing.

The facilitator at the writing group has noticed how much the kids have enjoyed the sessions for the past 6 weeks and has decided to continue the sessions, he will come up with some more themes to work with and after a short break will get us all to reconvene for some more creative writing.

 

Exams as a Home Educator!

 

I have been asked quite a few times how the twins will take exams. For me this is an important question as exams are the whole reason we home educate. As with someone who sends their child to school, the whole school purpose and end goal is to take exams and be ready to get those qualifications that will open those big thick steel doors to those careers that will afford the twins a better quality of life.

I have extensively researched options outside the school system and few of these alternative to school options are free at the point of use so home educated children are at a disadvantage to their peers who attend school, the school system affords school children free run to exams funded by the taxpayer, for us we will have to find the cash, somehow, but on the bright side at least there are options to take the required exams.

For me there is a slight advantage in that the twins can take the exams they really need and concentrate on getting good grades in the exams they do decide to take instead of taking as many exams as they can just to satisfy some social score card.

GCSE is the most widely taken exam board in UK but more and more Independent schools are opting for IGCSE and there is an increasing number of state schools that are also opting for the IGCSE route. For Home educators GCSE consists of a lot of coursework for many of the exams which is impractical for many reasons but most IGCSE subjects have an optional coursework element, whereas with many GCSE subjects they are compulsory, in addition many IGCSE subjects can be taken as individual subjects or as qualifications towards the International Certificate of Education, unlike UK GCSEs, in addition IGCE content of IGCSE subjects are tailored to the multi-cultural, multi-lingual audience they serve, in a way the UK GCSE does not.

In this age of technology there are many online options for taking exams and below are a few of the many options to choose from:-

• National Extension College

• Cloudlearn

• Online learning college

• ICS Learn

• Oxford College

• Oxfordhome schooling

You do need to bare in mind that you will most likely need to find yourself an exam centre:-

For Edexcel :- https://batchgeo.com/map/Edexcel

For AQA - https://www.aqa.org.uk/student-support/private-candidates/finding-a-school-or-college

For further reading Ed Yourself has some useful information:- Ed Yourself

For more information about attending college between 14-16,  Ed Yourself again has some very useful information:- Ed Yourself

There are also Groups that can give GCSE and exam support and advice:- 

• Yahoo Group
• Facebook - Home education UK Exams and alternatives
• HE Exams Wiki Fandom

There are obviously many more places to find exam info for home educators this is just a small selection to show exams are not a pipe dream for home educators, it does take a bit more hard work than if they were in the mainstream school system but it is certainly available and if you are flush with cash, accessible, if all else fails they can sit exams as an adult candidate with the myriad of adult educational options or they could complete an apprenticeship.
 

We are obviously not there yet at the exam stage but time will fly and doing some thorough research now will stand me in good stead when they do come of age, things may be a little different by then but I will have a head start on getting to grips with the exam situation.