Thursday

Free Play park meetup, all ages, various Nottingham parks, Thursdays

Date: Thursdays throughout the year.

Time: Late morning through afternoon – typically starting about 12ish, and finishing whenever the last few people decide it’s time to go. If it doesn’t rain, some people are usually at the park till at least 3pm.

Venue: Various green parks around the Nottingham area, especially the ones with good playgrounds, good public transport and toilets.

Age range: All ages welcome. There are plenty of “regulars” in the 1 to 7 age range and several around 8 to 12. Presence of teens is a bit more random – maybe ask first who’s coming, or look out for one of the “teens-ish meetups” instead.

Price: Free. (Exception: if it’s the cold part of winter, then we might decide to meet indoors a few times, and people would chip in a quid or two to pay for the space.)

Organisation: To get announcements of the week’s meeting point without being on Facebook, join the EMHE email list. Or if you prefer Facebook, join the Home Ed Free Play Facebook group. There isn’t one organiser responsible for these meetups – it’s more of an evolving tradition, with suggestions of “how about ____ next week?”

Booking: No need to book. However, if it’s at a park big enough to have different areas, and you don’t have a phone number for someone else there that day, it’s worth turning up within an hour or so of the start. That way, it doesn’t matter if people move on from the original meeting point after a while.

What to bring: Water bottles and snacks, plus sun hats, sun cream and/or umbrella! People often bring picnic food, and a blanket to sit on. Parents may want an extra jumper, in case it turns out the children don’t want to stop playing as the day cools down.

Access: Wheelchair access and toilet situation depends on the park. The Forest and Wollaton Park each have a “Changing Places” toilet. If you have a favourite park which you know works well for your family, feel free to suggest it.

What to expect if you’re new, and tips:

There might be a dozen families that week… or there might be more, or fewer.

Where you see parents sitting around or standing around, come and say hello. We’re a friendly bunch. If in doubt whether it’s us, just ask “Home ed free play?”

Some children run off straight away to play. Some take a while to settle in, and join in more as the time goes on. Some children stay close to their parents, e.g. if it’s their first time at this group, or they were tired that day, or if they’re just enjoying the conversation with the nearby adults. It’s fine for each child to socialise as much or as little as they want to.

If your child wants to join in with something but feels shy getting started, you’re welcome to ask around, to find a child who’s happy to include them and introduce them to others.

If you’re bringing a teenager who specially wants to meet other people their age, it’s worth checking beforehand whether it’s a week when other teens are planning to go. Other than that, don’t worry too much about whether there’ll be other children the same age and same gender. Compared to school, home ed socialising typically has a lot more mixing across ages.

Swimming lessons, Bramcote, Thursdays & Fridays

Lessons with Liberty Swim School. These sessions were set up specifically for non-school children.

Date: Thursday & Friday mornings throughout the year, except Bank Holidays.

Time: Half hour sessions through the morning.

Venue: Bramcote Leisure Centre (Liberty Leisure), Derby Road, Bramcote, Nottingham, NG9 3GF.

Area: Bramcote, on the A52 near Bramcote Park. West side of Nottingham, about a third of the way over towards Derby. Reachable by Trent Barton bus.

Age range: 4+ for beginners / foundation level. Tends to be 5+ for ASA levels 1-3, 10+ for ASA levels 4-6.

Price: £18.75 per month. Payment is monthly direct debit. It goes all year round because the lessons do too. Besides the lessons, this payment includes free swimming for the child at any other public session.

Booking: Book by contacting Helen Kirk, helen dot kirk at liberty-leisure dot org dot uk or 0115 917 3585.

Helen says “I am looking to put on more lessons to accommodate demand, so they may need to be patient with me.”

Bramcote Leisure Centre

Additional info via one of the home ed parents:

Swimming lessons for home ed kids in the area. Initially suggested by a home ed mum, they took up the idea, and it seems to be going well.

They follow the ASA stages, and the ability levels are

Foundation: never been in a pool before

Stages 1-3: starting to learn to swim independently, from 1-2m unsupported, to 25m by the end of stage 3

Stages 4-6: swimming widths of the main pool, progressing to swimming lengths of the main pool.

Classes are limited to 6 students.

There is a large seating area by the main pool where parents can wait, or a reception area downstairs.

The viewing area is NOT open to the public during lessons, except during the summer holiday when there is a disabled swim session in the main pool.

Map showing Bramcote Leisure Centre:

Bigger version of map showing Bramcote Leisure Centre

Buses: Heading west (from Nottingham), nearest bus stop is “Bembridge Court“, by the Sherwin Arms, stop ID “ntsadamd”. This is about 500 yards from the leisure centre as the crow flies. Trent Barton 18, 20, 21 and i4 stop here.

(Nottingham City Transport buses don’t run to this area – nearest is the Pink Line 30.)

Cars: Lots of free parking available at the leisure centre.

Coming from Nottingham on the A52 Derby Road, you’ll want to pass the leisure centre on your right, go round the next roundabout and double back onto the A52, as it’s a dual carriageway at that point. Then you can turn off left for the leisure centre.

Heading east (into Nottingham), there’s a slightly nearer bus stop, “Leisure Centre“, stop ID “ntsadama”. The i4 stops there.

Access info:

The leisure centre has good access for wheelchairs: lifts, a hoist into the pool if needed.

The main pool area is large, and can be very echo-y. The smaller teaching pool is less so.

Instructors sometimes change at the last minute, which some children find hard to cope with.

New home ed sessions at Nottingham City Gymnastics Club – now 4 days a week.

The sessions at NCGC are proving so popular, they’ve now added extra ones on Monday and Wednesday mornings. And the times for Tuesday and Thursday afternoons have changed slightly.

The times of home-ed-specific sessions are now as follows:

Monday	10am-11am	“Structured” session
Monday	11am-12 noon	“Unstructured” session
Tuesday	12.45-1.45pm	“Structured” session
Tuesday	1.45-2.45pm	“Unstructured” session
Wednesday	10am-11am	“Structured” session
Wednesday	11am-12 noon	“Unstructured” session
Thursday	12.45-1.45pm	“Structured” session
Thursday	1.45-2.45pm	“Unstructured” session

Other info about the club and sessions remains the same, so please see previous writeup. Or if you’re ready to sign up, just click through to the club’s booking page.

GCSE & other courses for non-school teens at Central College, Nottingham

Update 2018: please note that this writeup is about the 2016-2017 academic year, so OUTDATED by now. Central College has since merged with New College Nottingham to form Nottingham College, and the GCSE courses are now at Stoney Street in the city centre, not in Beeston. Also, the assessment process has changed: to get onto a GCSE course you will have to pass a maths and English assessment comparable to what you’d have learnt in school by the end of Year 9. However, the overall structure is likely to be similar, so if you’re looking into exams & courses for non-school teens, it might still be useful in helping you get your bearings.

This write-up is about free (government-funded) courses available to “electively home educated” teens at Central College, Nottingham. It’s based on an info event which was held at the college on Thursday 5 May 2016, plus some follow-up conversations.

Thanks to Jo Edgerton, Choices Team Leader at Central College, who was immensely helpful in explaining the practicalities of all this and decoding the jargon!

Overview by school “Year”

Central welcomes home ed teens from Year 9: that is, age 13+.

This translates as: To start in autumn 2016, you’d have to have been born before 1 September 2003.

And if you want to start one of the GCSE courses in autumn 2016, you’d normally¹ have to have been born before 1 September 2002.

(Likewise, the people starting in autumn 2017 would’ve been born before 1 September 2004, or 2003 for the GCSEs.)

Here’s a summary of what’s available for 2016-2017:

Age group	Age at start	Age at end	Current options at Central	For autumn 2016 start, birth date before
“Year 9”	13	14	Pre-GCSE Programme In exceptional cases, GCSEs¹	1 Sept 2003
“Year 10”	14	15	Pre-GCSE GCSEs Art & Design Possibly an ICT course, only if enough people interested For those with learning difficulties/ disabilities, “Horizons”.	1 Sept 2002
“Year 11”	15	16	Everything that the Year 10s can do. Various other vocational courses, along with non-home-ed students from older years. These are known as “infill placements”.	1 Sept 2001

Each of these courses is one year long – or, really, about 9 months, from September to June. How many days a week varies depending on the course(s).

Once you reach “Year 12“, there’s a huge amount available, and nothing to stop you continuing on at the college then, or indeed at another college! But this explanation will focus on ages 13 to 16, as that’s when these options will be especially useful to home ed families.

Geography & travel

Central College has multiple sites across Nottingham.

View college sites on OpenStreetMap. (If you’re on a computer with a mouse and can do “hovering”, hovering over each pin shows which subjects take place there. Or see static screenshot version further down this page.)

The home ed GCSE and pre-GCSE courses are all at the Beeston centre, which has a tram stop and orange/Indigo bus stop outside its front door. (Shown slightly brighter pink on OpenStreetMap page.)

Vocational courses may be at Clifton, Highfields, Beeston, or in the city centre, depending on the subject – list of subjects and locations are summarised below.

Central’s page with info on public transport to each of the sites.

Where we fit in to the college

Most of the college’s 4,500 students are between 16 and 19. A small proportion, only about 230 students in total, is younger than 16. Older adults are also welcome.

Within the college, the “Choices” team runs both the home ed courses and some other ones. (A school might pay for a young person to come to the college instead of to school.)

As the college overall is “a post-16 environment”, the Choices team people have thought a lot about what adjustments to make for supporting and including under-16s. For example, if a young person doesn’t arrive at their class, the parent gets a phone call. There’s a pre-course questionnaire to help identify special educational needs and any particular social needs.

There’s a large team of pastoral support people (for all students, not only the younger ones). A key person for this side of things is Vicki Stockdale, Behaviour and Safeguarding Manager.

The home ed courses are now going into their third year. In the academic year that’s recently completed, 50-odd home ed children age 13 to 16 were studying there.

Home ed teens can take part either in the courses specifically set up for them, or, for Year 11, in selected other courses around the college.

In principle, you can mix and match the different bits available to your age group, although not every combination will work. The timetables are organised centrally by the college, not by the “Choices” team.

You can take part in any of these courses and still retain your status as electively home educated – as you’re not registered with a school.

Levels

You’ll hear talk of “Levels”, so here’s a handy guide.

Level	Roughly equivalent to…
Level 3	‘A’ level, though more practical, not as academic.
Level 2	A* to C old-style GCSEs, 9 to 5-or-4 (approx) new-style GCSEs.^*
Level 1	D to G old-style GCSEs, 3-or-4 to 1 new-style GCSEs.
Entry Level 3
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 1
* Apparently the “old” GCSE ratings are being abolished soon, and there’s going to be a new scale of 1 to 9, where 9 is best. There are more divisions in grades in the new system, and new-style 9 is intended to be even better than old A star.

To start a course at Central, except for the Horizons ones, you’d need to be at least at Entry Level 3 or above, in both Maths and English, as shown by the initial assessment. Or more, depending on which course you wanted to do.

Year 9s who aren’t yet at that level would be advised to come back a year later.

Year 10s or Year 11s who aren’t yet at that level could access the Horizons “LLDD provision”, where LLDD stands for “Learners with Learning Difficulties & Disabilities”.

Assessments, discussions, decisions

When you start, the decision of which course(s) to start on would be made by the young person, the parents/carers and the college, together.

The process goes like this:

You put in an application form.

Choices programme page, inc link to application form.
The Admissions team put your details into their system and send you a letter. This letter is an invitation something like “Come and do your assessment at this time and date and place”.
Everyone does two online assessments at a computer at the college, one for English and one for Maths.

There’s no time limit; you work at your own pace. You can choose whether to do English or Maths first. Most people complete both within one to two hours.

The type of assessment is referred to as “Functional Skills”. The questions are meant to be similar to something you might encounter in real life: for example, how much it would cost to buy your tickets for a day out, or whether a sentence makes sense. Usually it’s easy questions to start with, then getting harder as you go through it.

For the maths, you might use the calculator that’s on the computer. You don’t need to bring anything.

(College policy is that everyone takes the English and Maths assessments when starting a new course, whether or not they’ve got existing qualifications – even if they’ve already been at the college a previous year.)

You get your results on the day, and a chance to discuss your next steps with a member of staff from the Choices team.
Within a couple of weeks, you get another letter. In most cases, this will be to invite you for an interview.

(For Year 9s who aren’t yet at Entry Level 3, it would only be to say “Please come back next year”.)
At the interview, the young person, the parent(s) and the college staff discuss which course(s) will suit them best, taking into account…
- Level of your English and Maths skills.
- Age, because of age limits for some of the courses.
- Social maturity – if a course would involve being put in a group with people older than you.
- General readiness for the new learning environment, e.g. study skills / habits / experience.
  
  For example, some people could jump straight into GCSEs in terms of their age and academic level, but prefer to spend a year doing pre-GCSE to get settled into the college routine.
- Where you’d like to be headed in future. For example, if you want to continue to ‘A’ levels in future, you’re likely to need five GCSEs at grade C or above, including your future-‘A’-level subjects.
- Funding rules from the Government.
  
  A key factor is that the Government’s very keen for everyone to get English and Maths qualifications. The funding rule in that area is: If you do more than 150 hours at the college over the year, your programme of study at the college has to include English and Maths, unless you already have the GCSE certificate at C or above.
  
  In practice, that means you can do one GCSE at a time without going over the 150 hours. Two GCSEs, or one and something else, and the rule kicks in.
- Timetabling – as some combinations could clash.
- Available places. At Central, English and Maths GCSE have a maximum class size of 20. For the other GCSEs, and the pre-GCSE course, it’s 15.
If you’re doing one of the vocational courses, you might also have another meeting, this time with someone leading that particular area, to decide which level class you’d start in.
[I’m not sure where the “pre course questionnaire” comes in this process – to be confirmed!]

As some options will be irrelevant to some people purely because of age, let’s take it year by year…

Year 9 options

If you’re Year 9 age, you have one main option: the Pre-GCSE Programme, described in the next section. This takes three days a week.

In exceptional cases, it might be possible for a Year 9 student to instead start GCSEs alongside the older ones. The Choices team would only consider this if (a) the young person were already at Level 2 in both Maths and English Functional Skills, and (b) they were socially ready to join the older classes.

Pre-GCSE Programme

From the leaflet (PDF):

This one year programme is for students in Year 9‑11 and will provide students with the skills that they need to progress on to a GCSE or vocational full time programme.

Level 1 & 2 Functional Skills in English and maths

BTEC Level 1 Certificate in Applied Science

Tutorial Programme that includes: Personal and Social Development and Employability and Progression skills

For this one, you can’t pick and choose among the different bits. It’s either do the whole lot, all three days a week, or don’t do it.

For example, in the 2016 to 2017 year, the draft timetable said Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, starting at 9am and finishing at 2.30pm, or 3.30pm on Thursdays.

Although everyone’s in the same class, they’re not necessarily doing exactly the same activities. A typical pathway would be to do Level 1 Functional Skills over the first half of the year, then Level 2 over the second half. But if, say, it took you all year to do Level 1, or if you were better at maths than English or vice-versa, that’s fine too.

Year 10 options

In Year 10, you can choose from:

The Pre-GCSE Programme described above.
GCSE courses.
BTEC Level 1 Certificate in Art and Design.
Possibly an ICT qualification, if there’s enough take-up.
In future years, possibly an “Automotive” programme. The web page for this is still up at the time of writing, but apparently there hasn’t been enough interest to run it in 2016-2017.

GCSEs

The current GCSE options are:

GCSE English
GCSE Double Science
GCSE Maths
GCSE Psychology
GCSE History

Over the year, each GCSE equates to approximately three hours a week in college. Double science is six hours and gives you two GCSEs at the end.

Typically, each subject would be scheduled as a three-hour chunk with a break in the middle, one morning or one afternoon a week. (There are pros and cons to this scheduling: they’re aware that students aren’t always keen on the long session, but the up side is it’s then easier to schedule the rest of the typical non-schooler’s busy week.)

GCSE exams for “external candidates”

At the moment, the five subjects listed above are the only GCSEs on offer. The main limitation to offering more different ones would be having staff to deliver the courses, as most of Central’s provision isn’t GCSEs. It’s not very likely to expand in the near future.

However, the college does also offer a paid service for “external candidates”, i.e. people who’ve done the learning elsewhere and want somewhere to take an exam.

That’s known as the “Exam only service“.

Art & design half-day

New in September 2016 for Years 9 & 10 is the Art & Design course for home educated students. It’s a BTEC Level 1 Certificate in Art and Design.

You can do this course by itself. It would be one half-day a week, at the Clifton site. Or you can do it together with another course, as long as the combination meets the Government’s funding rules and doesn’t clash in the timetable.

Year 11 options

In Year 11, you can choose from:

Any of the things from Years 9 and 10 described above, if they’re at the right level to suit you, and/or
Joining in with older students on a selection of “intensive vocational learning” courses across the college.

The jargon word for becoming part of the older ones’ courses is “infill“. So that option is known as the “Year 11 Infill Programme”.

Year 11 Infill Programme

Here are the “Infill” options:

Subject	Where?
Art & Design	Clifton
Automotive	London Road
Business & IT	Maid Marian Way
Care & Early Years	Maid Marian Way
Construction	Beeston
Engineering	Highfields
Photography	Maid Marian Way
Science	Maid Marian Way
Sport	Clifton
Travel & Tourism	Maid Marian Way

(Click on map to see it full-size. Or to zoom in for local details, use original map from which this screenshot was taken.)

Each of these courses would be about two-and-a-half to three days per week.

They can run alongside GCSEs and/or half-day add-ons, if the timetables don’t clash.

The qualification could be e.g. BTEC, City & Guilds, CACHE, IMIAL or another industry specialist one, depending on the course you’re doing. For more about each specific course, click through from the list at Central’s page for people age 14 to 16.

These courses are divided by “levels” (as discussed above), where Level 2 is meant to be roughly equivalent to GCSE A* to C, and Level 3 is roughly equivalent to ‘A’ level.

Home ed students could potentially do Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3. Which level you started at would depend on a combination of…

English & Maths levels from your initial assessment.
Other qualifications you’d already done.
Maybe a portfolio, e.g. if the course were art or photography and you already had work to show.
Discussion with the course leaders.
Whether you’re 16 yet, for some Level 2 and Level 3 courses. (Level 1 would be available to all Year 11s.) There are various reasons why the organisation running a qualification – known as the “awarding body” – might set a minimum age for Levels 2 or 3. The Choices team have sometimes been able to get exceptions where a 15-year-old could participate, by talking to the awarding body for that particular course – depending partly on why the limit was there in the first place.²

Even within the same level, on these vocational courses there can be several alternative classes running at different times of the week. So if you apply to these ones together with a friend, you could find yourself in different classes. But if you were at the same level, you could put in a request to be in the same class – no guarantees.

Finding out more

If your question isn’t answered here…

You could ring the Choices team on 0115 884 2278.
You could email them: centralchoices @ centralnottingham . ac . uk (without the spaces).
You could comment here (anonymously if you like) and we’ll invite the college people to comment back. This would be especially useful if you think other people might be wondering the same thing.
It’s also possible we’ll schedule another meeting.

Possible meet-and-chat

Brendan from the college kindly said that if there were enough of us – say 5 or 6 families – he or one of the team would be willing to travel to us, and do another little presentation and chat and answer our questions.

Subject to weather, this could be in a park, e.g. Wollaton or Highfields, so that children not very interested in the grownups’ chat can play. In that case, we would probably schedule a fall-back date in case of rain.

This possible meet-and-chat could also be a nice opportunity for some of the potential future-year-classmates to say hello.

If we do a meetup like that, it’ll be open to all current and potential home edders, and mentioned again on the blog. However, to find out whether enough people would be interested, please comment here (anonymously if you like, but including an email address) if you’d like to be invited.

Footnotes

1. Starting GCSEs in Year 9: As discussed later on in the explanation, a young person who’d already got far enough both academically and socially could possibly start GCSEs in Year 9, but this would be exceptional.

2. Minimum age 16 for some Level 2 & Level 3 courses: These age limits exist for varying reasons.

When it’s primarily because the government wants to discourage specialising at an early age, this likely wouldn’t apply to non-school students.
If it’s because of the content of the course, this would be a case by case basis, possibly depending partly on where the young person’s 16th birthday falls in the academic year.
If it’s because of health and safety, it’s unlikely to be varied.

Quick links to sections
GCSE & other courses for non-school teens at Central College, Nottingham
Overview by school “Year”
Geography & travel
Where we fit in to the college
Levels
Assessments, discussions, decisions
Year 9 options
Pre-GCSE Programme
Year 10 options
GCSEs
GCSE exams for “external candidates”
Art & design half-day
Year 11 options
Year 11 Infill Programme
Finding out more
Possible meet-and-chat

Note on anonymity when commenting:

If you put your email address in the “email” bit of a comment box here, it won’t be published. But blog admin people can see it, and (in this case) use it to make sure you know about the meetup.

The name you fill in would normally be shown, so if you don’t want your real name to be visible either, just write “Anonymous for this” in the “name” box, or use a made-up online name.

(All comments are pre-moderated to avoid spam, so don’t be surprised if your comment doesn’t pop straight up.)

Teens’ climbing group, Nottingham Climbing Centre, one Thursday a month

Date: One Thursday afternoon a month, excepting August – same day as the younger children’s climbing groups, but organised by a different person. Hoping to restart in September 2016, subject to numbers.

Time: Two hour session. Or if you only want an hour, it might be possible to share a place and split the cost.

Age range: Roughly 12-plus, mainly 12 to 16, but flexible depending on young person’s climbing experience & size. Typically there’s a group of 6 to 8 people (minimum 6 for it to run), mix of ages/abilities.

Price: £12 for 2 hours (home ed rate), including harness hire, paid in advance in a block of 3 or block of 4. No refunds if you miss one, because the instructor still has to be paid anyway, but you can get your money back if someone else takes your place that week. If you just want to try it, or you want to join the group and there aren’t currently places, you can be on the waiting list, and dip in when someone can’t make it.

Booking, enquiries, or to express interest: Email teensclimbing at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk.

Optional qualification: You can work towards the NICAS, “National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme“.

As they learn specific skills, these are noted by the instructor in a logbook (that costs £5 at levels 1 & 2). It is entirely optional, but there is nothing extra or different to do in the sessions, & they can progress at their own pace.

Venue: For all venue and travel info, please see the page about the younger home ed climbing groups.

Tap & percussion, three sessions FREE, Meadows, Thursdays

Date: Thursday afternoons 16, 23 and 30 June 2016. It’s up to you how many of them to come to.

Each person can choose between tap and percussion, or do a bit of both.

Time: Take note, the time is not the same every week!

Date	Start	Finish
16 June	2pm	3.30pm
23 June	12.30pm	2pm
30 June	2pm	3.30pm

(We asked for timing preferences: some families were busy earlier, and some later, so this timing is to give as many people as possible the chance to join in and try it.)

As these free sessions are drop-in, we don’t know exactly how many people will come. If it turns out there’s more than about 30 to 40 of us, then some people might have to wait a little while before they get a go, depending on space and available tap shoes. Info below on likely timing plan, plus soft play area and café.

Venue: St Saviour’s Church Hall, Arkwright Walk, Nottingham NG2 2JU. Update: Apparently that postcode doesn’t work very well in satnavs, so maybe click through to the map, or have a look at the church’s “how to find us” page – see below.

Area: The Meadows, on the Navy and Green bus lines. Portland Leisure Centre is about 200 yards away.

Age range: All ages! including parents!

Price: FREE for these three sessions, supported by National Lottery funding.

These sessions have been specially set up for non-school families. Those considering non-school education for the future are also welcome!

(If enough of us wanted it, we might subsequently set up a regular group where we chip in to pay session leaders.)

There will be tap shoes available to borrow, starting at around a child size 13 and going up to adult size. For children with feet much smaller than size 13, maybe see if there are some shoes with a hard sole that you could bring.

Booking: There’s no need to book, just turn up. However, if this is your first visit to a home ed event and you won’t know anyone, do drop us a line via email first, so we know to look out for you and say hello!

Enquiries/contact: tapdance at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk.

Nearby Soft Play and café: Eden Soft Play is in the church itself, in the same group of buildings, along with a community café.

The 4-tier soft play area is open to children under a height limit of 5 feet / 148cm, as measured by their sign, and has a separate toddler area. (It’s advertised as “under-10s”, but in fact that’s a guideline; the real cut-off, for insurance & safety reasons, is the height limit.)

At the soft play area, accompanying adults and under-1s go free. For the children in the paying age ranges, we will have some vouchers to get into soft play for half price. We plan to give out these vouchers when people arrive. This allows for parents to collaborate and take some children into the soft play area if they’re not interested in the tap and percussion, or if they have to wait a little while for their turn.

More on what will happen at the tap and percussion…

Leading the tap session, we have Jess Murray, “a leading artist in the UK’s rhythm tap community… musicality, improvisation and self-expression at the heart of the tap dancer’s craft”.

On percussion, we have Stickman, “world class, multi-disciplined, drummer and percussionist, also a poet, actor, educator, conceptual artist and father”.

The flavour will be informal and there will be a fair bit of “see what everyone wants to do on the day” – perhaps especially at the first session when the group is new.

We shall have two rooms, so that it’s possible for the tappers to go in one space and the percussionists to go in another.

What we might do is have three stages: a first go, a break, a second go which gives priority to anyone who hasn’t yet tried what they wanted, another break, then come together for the last part.

Or we might just be all together all the way through.

Map showing St Saviour’s Church Halls.

St Saviour’s “How to find us” page.

Nearest bus stop: “Ryehill Street“, on the Navy and Green Lines. All the bus numbers from 1 to 10 stop here. It’s about 250 yards from the venue.

Nearest tram stop: “Queens Walk”, about 650 yards from the venue (i.e. the bus stop is closer). You’d need to be on a Clifton tram. Tram information.

Parking: some by the venue, lots at Portland Leisure Centre about 200 yards away.

Home ed climbing, Nottingham Climbing Centre, one Thursday a month

Date: Once a month on a Thursday in term-time.

Time: One hour slots at different times during the day. Children grouped by climbing experience / size / age.

Venue: Nottingham Climbing Centre, The Old Pool, 212 Noel Street, New Basford, Nottingham, NG7 6AT.

Postcode for sat nav: NG7 7FR, to end of Rawson Street.

Area: New Basford / Forest Fields area of Nottingham, north of Hyson Green Asda, near Beaconsfield Street tram stop (or Radford Road tram stop if southbound). The climbing centre was previously Noel Street swimming pool.

Age range: Different children are ready at different ages to cooperate with the climbing instructor, wait for their turn and follow safety instructions. Youngest climbers have been about 4 or 5; some children do better waiting till they’re older. Older age range is up to teens.

(Update: See info about the Teens’ Climbing Group, organised separately from this group.)

Price: £6 per one-hour session, paid termly. If there’s a session where you can’t make it, another family can take your place that day and give you the £6 back. The ratio is 6 children with one coach from the Climbing Centre.

Availability: At the time of writing, there are a few regular places available, in a group for middling confident climbers aged around 5 to 11. However, it’s worth enquiring even if your child is a different age / stage – as the situation may have changed by the time you read this, and/or it may sometimes be possible to reshuffle the groups, if other children were happy with that. There may also be a drop-in place when someone can’t make it.

Booking & enquiries: By email. To make the email address, add “homeedclimbingnottingham” to “gmail dot com” with an “at” sign in the middle.

This is a monthly activity taking place at Nottingham’s Climbing Centre, adapted for use from a swimming pool and run by an enthusiastic climbing family and a small group of climbing instructors.

The centre is open most days anyway, but once a month, 5 teams of 6 young HE climbers meet to climb throughout the day. They climb on bouldering walls (no ropes) and also using ropes and harnesses. There are a variety of walls and routes designed for different ages/heights/aptitudes.

There is a café to chat/play board games/read etc whilst the children climb, and in warmer months several families socialise at the park afterwards.

The cost is paid termly, at £6 a session. This includes harness and insurance. There are often “trial places” available and a waiting list, so drop us a line if it sounds like an activity you may fancy.

Nottingham Climbing Centre web site.

There are several steps up to the front door, so the climbing centre isn’t wheelchair-accessible or very buggy-friendly.

Map showing Nottingham Climbing Centre:

Bigger view of map showing Nottingham Climbing Centre

Nearest tram stop: “Beaconsfield Street“. Note that this is on a one-way bit of tram route; all northbound trams stop here and none of the southbound ones. The nearest southbound tram stop is “Radford Road“, after which you have to walk uphill to the climbing centre. Alternatively, stay on two more stops till you get to “The Forest”, then switch to a northbound tram – but depending on your ticket, this may mean paying twice. Tram information.

Nearest bus stop (but not very near): “Haydn Road“, via buses 68, 69, 70 & 71 on the Yellow Line, on Nottingham Road. From there, it’s about 780 metres’ walk. The tram goes much closer. To catch a Yellow Line bus from town, go to the bus stops near Trinity Square, across the road from the Victoria Centre. The 68 and 69 go from stop T4. The 70 and 71 go from stop T3.

Parking: on street.

Maths groups, Carlton, Wednesdays and Thursdays

Update: Please see newer post with updated info on the maths groups! This one is no longer current.

Days: Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Time: Each one-hour class is for up to four children, grouped by age range and/or ability. Exact time of the morning depends on what group you’re in.

Area: Carlton / NG4 area of Nottingham.

Age range: 7 to 16+.

Price: £5 per class of 1 hour. Reduction for siblings. Book in advance, pay on the day.

Email: maths at non-school-nottingham dot org dot uk.

Maths groups for all the above ages. Maximum of 4 in each group and classes are 1 hour long.

Hands on approach to learning, with an emphasis on understanding and using numbers rather than rote learning.

Tutor is a former home ed mum who has taught within the home ed community for the past 20 years.

Each class costs £5 with a sibling reduction if more than 1 child. Everything is provided.

Access info:

Fully experienced with autism and dyslexia.

We have a ramp and accessible downstairs toilet, though wheelchair access would need looking at and discussing.

Home ed sessions at Nottingham City Gymnastics Club, Tuesdays & Thursdays

Date: Tuesday and Thursday afternoons during termtime. You can choose between Tuesday and Thursday, or do both.

UPDATE: From Sept 2016 there are extra days and adjusted timings – please see new post.

Venue: Six Ways Community Centre, Denton Green, Broxtowe, Nottingham, NG8 6GD.

Age range: 4 to 16 maximum; in reality the current age groups are more like 4 to 12. You don’t have to have done any gymnastics before.

Area: Broxtowe, on the 35 and 78 bus routes.

From the city centre, it’s about 3 miles, out north-west-ish through Aspley: towards Eastwood or Kimberley or Junction 26, but not that far. The gym club is about 300 metres from one of the entrances to Broxtowe Country Park.

Time: 1pm to 2pm, 2pm to 3pm, or do both hours.

The first hour is the “structured” session, 1pm to 2pm. The coaches guide people through doing specific activities.

The second hour is the “unstructured” session, 2pm to 3pm. The children decide for themselves what to practice, with the coaches on hand to keep an eye and to help if requested.

The Tuesday session and Thursday session both follow this format.

Parents and other children can wait in a sort of small café area with a window through to the gym. Or you can leave and do errands, as long as the club has your phone number.

Price: If you’re visiting, one hour £5, two hours £7.50, or if it’s your first time it may be free (ask at the club).

If you’re signing up long-term, you pay by the month. At current prices it works out £4.05 for one hour, down to £2.70 per hour if you went to all four hours. Prices page.

Booking: At the time of writing, both days are full up with a waiting list. You can contact the club on the morning of a session and find out if there’s a place that day because of someone missing it.

To get onto the waiting list, or sign up if a place becomes free, go to the NCGC sign-up page and look for where it says “Home Education Gymnastics”.

The club also runs children’s gym sessions in “after-school” hours, open to all. Most of those are at Six Ways; some are at the Portland Centre in West Bridgford.

Nottingham City Gymnastics Club home page

(Photo is from the club’s web site – probably not a home ed child.)

Map showing the NCGC building, a.k.a. Six Ways Community Centre:

Bigger map showing NCGC building

Buses: The 78 (Turquoise Line) and 35 (Orange Line) buses stop almost next to the club, at Coleby Road Top bus stop, and are fairly frequent. Both buses go into Nottingham City Centre via different routes; the 35 also connects with Bulwell to the north.

Parking: The club building has a small car park. It’s usually possible to park there.

GCSEs etc for home ed teens: info event at Central College, Beeston, Thursday 5 May

Date: Thursday 5 May 2016.

Time: 6pm to 7pm.

Venue: Central College, Beeston Campus, High Road, Chilwell, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 4AG.

Age range: The various courses are for young people age 13 up. The info event is open to all. (Some parents will be bringing their children to hear the info first-hand.)

They ask that you book in advance – see contact info below.

Event info page at the College web site

Central College will be holding their annual information evening for local parents and carers of Electively Home Educated students.

The event will offer the opportunity to find out more about Central’s

* Post 16 offer for students over 16 by September 2016

* Programmes for 14-16 year old students

Central is one of the only FE colleges in the country that offers bespoke GCSE and pre-GCSE programmes for 14-16 year old Home Educated learners (equivalent of Years 10 and 11) as well as full time infill placements for Year 11 students.

The pre-GCSE programme for Years 9, 10 & 11 is designed to offer further development in English, Maths and Science before progressing onto the GCSE programme or a full time vocational course the following year.

The GCSE programme for Years 10 and 11 provides EHE learners with an opportunity to gain GCSE qualifications for progression post-16 and beyond.

Infill placements on a variety of vocational full time college courses for Year 11 students only.

If you would like to attend the event please confirm by emailing centralchoices @ centralnottingham . ac . uk (without the spaces) or calling Central Choices 0115 884 2278

Map showing Central College Beeston building.

Tram and bus stops are right outside.

Nearest tram stop: “High Road – Central College”. You need to be on a Toton tram, not a Clifton tram. Tram information.

Nearest bus stop: “Central College”, on the 36 route, Orange Line and Trent Barton Indigo.
(don’t mix up this stop with the one on the Green Line which is also called Central College – different building.)

Parking: the Central College page about parking at its sites says “No on-site parking for students (07:00 – 17:00)”. This sounds as though perhaps you can park there after 5pm, for evening events such as this. If anyone has better info about local parking, please add a comment below.