[eeyore]

I would definitely advise you not to leave school with just the GCSEs as countryside jobs are such that even the manual ones such as estate worker often require a higher qualification and also although it might not feel like it now you will be limiting your prospects in later life.

I know that school and academia generally might feel restrictive (I'm not that old - 34 to be precise) but unfortunately it is a necessary evil these days.

If you want to break out of the academic stream into more vocational areas there are some good courses such as GNVQs and ONDs that you can do at 16 which are much more hands on than traditional colleges - i dont know where you are in the country but look at moulton college (northants) , Shuttleworth (beds), and Otley (east anglia) to get some idea of what is available - I am sure that there are others in other areas of the country too, generally these places treat you more as an adult than schools so you can forget all the silly rules (uniform etc etc).