Home schooling with GCSE-ready

GCSE-ready can be the backbone of a home-school course for Years 7 to 11: short daily lessons that mark themselves, a review list that brings back what was hard, mock tests and a printable progress record. Here is how to use it as a full course, and what it cannot do.

Who it is for

Families home educating a child in Years 7 to 11, following Key Stage 3 and then Pearson Edexcel GCSE or International GCSE.
Students outside school for a while, for example abroad, between schools or studying part time, who want to keep up.
Students who plan to sit exams as a private candidate.

In England, parents who educate at home must make sure their child gets a full-time education from the age of 5, and they do not have to follow the national curriculum (Source: GOV.UK: Educating your child at home). Our Year 7 to 9 plans follow the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum because it leads naturally into GCSE, but you can change them freely. Rules differ in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and other countries, so check the rules where you live.

Year-by-year plans

Using GCSE-ready as a full course

Set up once

Open the app and choose the school year, the course (Key Stage 3, GCSE or International GCSE) and, for GCSE and International GCSE, the tier.
For subjects with options, such as set texts, history units and geography topics, choose them in the Progress tab so only the right lessons appear.
Create a free account if your child uses more than one device, so progress and the streak follow them.

The daily routine (about an hour)

Review first. The Today screen adds ideas that are due for review to the session. Clear them before starting anything new.
Two or three new lessons from different subjects, following the year plan. Each lesson is a few screens of notes, a worked example, quick questions and a Fix it step for every mistake.
Ten minutes of key terms as flashcards in the Library.
Off screen: one exam-style question from the Library, answered on paper and then compared with the model answer, or reading for English.

The weekly plan

Monday to Thursday: the daily routine, with the new lessons for the week from your year plan.
Friday: no new lessons. One Exam practice session (Mixed practice in Key Stage 3) in each subject studied that week, the review list, and catching up any lesson that was missed.
Every week: look at the Needs more practice list on the Parents tab and redo those lessons.

Review and practice

A lesson counts as mastered after 80% right first time, or 60% with every mistake fixed. Ideas your child finds hard come back for review after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days. The Library has revision notes for every topic (they print well), key-term flashcards and exam-style questions with model answers. Each subject also has a printable revision checklist.

Mocks

Every year plan ends each term with a checkpoint week: Exam practice in each subject, and a Mock test on each topic finished that term (10, 20 or 30 questions, with an optional timer of 90 seconds a question). In Year 11, take whole-subject mock tests and real past papers. Pearson publishes past papers for International GCSEs on its qualification pages, and private candidates who are entered for a series can ask for locked materials, ideally through their centre first (Source: Pearson: Private candidates (support for students)).

Your own study path

Prefer to set the order yourself? Open My study path for any subject in the app, tick the topics and lessons you want your child to cover, put them in your own order, and Today's session will follow it, with review questions still coming back on schedule.

Printable worksheets

Every lesson page has a Print worksheet button. It prints a clean A4 worksheet for that lesson: the key idea, every question with space to write the answer (or letters to circle for multiple choice), lines for a name and date, and an answer key on a separate page. Use it for work away from the screen, for a written record of the lesson, or with a group. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print window to keep a copy.

Keeping records

On the Parents tab of the app, choose Progress record to see a printable record of every subject: lessons completed, lessons mastered, the share of answers right first time, mock test scores and the most recent sessions, with space for a parent to sign. Print it, or save it as a PDF from the print window, at each checkpoint. The Parents tab also has the weekly report, which a signed-in student can have emailed to you every Sunday.

What GCSE-ready cannot do

It cannot replace a teacher's feedback on extended writing. Short answers are marked automatically and exam-style questions come with model answers, but essays, stories and long answers need a person to read and mark them: you, a tutor or a teacher.
Practical science needs extra arrangements. The lessons explain the required practicals, but your child does not carry them out. For GCSE sciences, the exam centre should give private candidates access to the core practicals (Source: Pearson: FAQs on the GCSE Practical Science Statement (PDF)); International GCSE sciences test practical skills in the written papers (Source: Pearson: International GCSE Biology getting started guide (PDF)). See practicals and endorsements.
Speaking and listening need extra arrangements. There is no recorded listening audio in GCSE-ready for French, Spanish or Arabic, and no speaking practice with a person. Language exams include listening and speaking papers, and the speaking test is run at the exam centre (Source: Pearson: International GCSE French getting started guide (PDF); Pearson: GCSE Arabic sample assessment materials (PDF)). GCSE English Language also has a spoken language endorsement that the centre must offer (Source: Pearson: Information for centres entering private candidates).
Coursework and fieldwork are not covered as tasks. Where a course has non-exam assessment or fieldwork, the exam centre has to supervise and mark it, so choose exam-only routes where they exist.
The lessons are short. Each one takes about 10 to 20 minutes. They teach and check the core of every topic, but a full home-school week also needs reading, writing, practical work, physical activity and time with other people.
It does not enter your child for exams. You arrange that with an exam centre and pay its fees.

Sitting the exams

Home-schooled students sit GCSEs and International GCSEs as private candidates at an exam centre that accepts them. Read sitting the exams as a private candidate for the UK route, why International GCSEs often suit home schooling, practicals and endorsements, and exam centres in the UAE.

For parents · Exam dates 2027 · Revision planner · All lessons

Sources

Every rule, date and fee statement on this page comes from these pages, all checked on 12 October 2026. Rules and dates change each year, so check the latest version, and always confirm the details with your exam centre.