UKLO for home-tutored students

We’ve had a number of inquiries from home-tutored students (or their parents) about taking part in UKLO. Our answer is that it depends on the level at which you want to enter.

Below Advanced level

If you want to enter at Breakthrough, Foundation or Intermediate level, the stakes are low and we encourage teachers to allow candidates to work in teams, so we’re very happy for a parent to register as an ordinary teacher (for instructions, go here).

• This will automatically give you an account on the portal, put you on the mailing list, and allow you to download all the test material when it’s available.
• After the competition, you will be able to download and print out a certificate showing any award you won, or participation. The certificate will include the name of your ‘school’, so when registering use a name that you’d like to see on the certificate!
• We trust you, as parent, to play fair: absolutely no helping your candidate in the test, and thorough invigilation to limit the time taken and to prevent access to the internet.  Remember that your candidate should work as hard for their certificate as any other school-based candidate.
• And after the competition week we release the solutions and marking scheme, so you will mark the script yourself. Here too we trust you, just as we trust ordinary teachers, to play fair.

Advanced level

At Advanced level we’re much more fussy because the stakes are higher: we insist on proper invigilation and solo working (just as for a public exam such as GCSE), and we mark scripts centrally. Consequently, we can only accept registration by schools or colleges where a teacher takes responsibility for the administration of the test.

• For home schoolers, this means that you need to find a local school that would be willing to accommodate your candidate along with their own.
• If this is what you want, we’ll do our best to help you, but we can’t guarantee to find a suitable school. Please contact us to open negotiations.
• If you do find a school, your candidate will be treated just like all other candidates, including being eligible for Round 2 and (ultimately) the UK squad.