​Homeschooling in Matric with Cambridge

I was asked to share at the Kwa-Zulu Natal Homeschooling expo on the topic of using Cambridge for matric. My eldest son completed his Cambridge Matric last year. He also wrote a very honest blog for me on his experience being homeschooled. You can read about it in our previous post.
There are four different curriculums used in South Africa to complete matric. Cambridge(which we chose to do), The National Senior Certificate, The American High School Diploma and the GED.
The most important advice I can give to parents with high school children is to make sure you do thorough research before deciding which matric qualification to do. I would say you need to decide by grade 10 the latest. Not that you can’t do Cambridge after grade 10 you most certainly can, but the preparation should begin way before your child reaches grade 12 level. The earlier you start using the Cambridge curriculum the better you will understand how to get the best out of it.
My son started preparation for Cambridge from grade 10 and in hindsight I would have preferred to have started earlier. He was previously in a public school until grade 9 and we only decided to start homeschooling in 2018. Moving over from the Caps curriculum (used by South African schools) to Cambridge was quite a change for both of us.
He wrote his IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) in his grade 11 year. With lots of work put in on both his and my end, he passed with good marks. In that same year he did Afrikaans on AS level (Advanced Subsidiary level/ grade 12) The curriculum provider we used did not feel it necessary to do Afrikaans on IGCSE level, so he actually “skipped” Afrikaans on grade 11 or IGCSE level. He did very well for Afrikaans that year.
He wrote his IGCSE and AS level exams at a registered Cambridge Centre. We paid approximately R1200 per exam (not per subject) Some exams had two or three papers. The exams are all posted to Cambridge London for marking and we waited up to two months for his results. We were given a passcode by the exam centre and he was able to access his results on the release date given. His final certificate will be posted from London and we will receive it in approximately two months
For him to get a Matric exemption, he would need to pass matric in not more than two exam sessions. Which meant that because he already wrote Afrikaans at the end of Grade 11, one of his exam sessions was already used up. He registered for Maths, Physics, English and Business studies in 2020 November Exams and would have to pass them. If he failed them in November, he would need to write them in May 2021. If he failed the May 2021 exam, he would need to rewrite all his exams! Fortunately, he passed all his subjects. We then applied to USAF (Universities of South Africa) to convert his Cambridge results into a South African matric. We paid a fee of R250 and he received his Matric Exemption Certificate via email.
For my son to get a Matric exemption pass he would also need to have 4 AS-Level subjects with grades A-D and one IGCSE subject grade A-C, or five AS subjects graded A-D. You do not need English and Afrikaans on AS level but the service provider we went with preferred it, so he has both languages on AS level.
He passed all his exams in November 2020, but he did not achieve the points he needed for engineering. He decided to rewrite Maths and Physics to achieve better marks and reapply for what he really wanted to study. Most universities prefer six subjects for medicine or engineering.
He rewrote his exam in May 2021. This was regarded as a new exam sitting since, he passed his November 2020 exam.
He received his May 2021 results on the 10th of August and we were very excited with his new results. He was able to reapply to all the universities and already received an acceptance letter from Wits! We are awaiting to hear from the other universities, but he is very happy to accept the offer from Wits.
 
We chose the Cambridge Matric because my son wanted to play soccer overseas at that time and this qualification would enable him to do so. He has since changed his mind about going overseas. It has been a challenging journey with my son, but I would not change it for anything. Our relationship has also become so much stronger. I will be crying my eyes out in January when he leaves home! I am so proud of the man that his become. He is currently doing his driver’s licence, learning a trade at a technical school and working towards his music theory exam. I have kept him very busy while he awaits his new chapter at university!