Home schooling

[sophieb]

Does anyone have experience of home schooling in the UK? i am considering this for my youngest child(9) due to a variety of problems with his school. I don't want to make a wrong decision and regret it later. Thanks

[Eve]

Noxlumos may be able to give you some good advice, will draw his attention to your Q when i next see him about :)

[sophieb]

Thanks Jenna.Might post in B&S as well.

[toltol]

Be very careful.
If you take your child off the school roll you may find it v. difficult to get them back into a school.
What sort of problems is your child having? Educational? Social?

[meltoadhall]

i considered this a few years ago but in the end we moved house and everything worked out fine

http://www.home-education.org.uk/

have met quite a few home schoolers and all the children have seemed well balanced and happy

[sophieb]

Thanks for your replies.

toltol- he has ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Asperger's and the school don't seem to be addressing his needs as an individual preferring to label him as 'difficult'. He has no problems outside of school and is fairly sociable with lots of friends. He has difficulty with planning, poor short term memory and problems with gross and fine motor skills. he has often been shouted at in front of the class for things which he cannot help, and now suffers from very low self esteem. This has made him very defensive whenever a teacher raises their voice at him. Had a school meeting on friday but not very successful! Have requested another, this time to include a representative from our education department.

[toltol]

Does he have a Statement of Educational Needs? If not, why not?

[sophieb]

He doesn't have one although his class teacher agrees that he should have had one from Primary 1(now half way through P5!).I have lodged a complaint with my LEA and have been told 'it will be looked into'.

[BlueHeaven]

Hi, I wanted to go down this route myself but due to personal circumstances it is not possible at the moment. However, a friend of mine homeschools both her children (one of which has Aspergers) and they doing SO much better than they were at school. She loves it, and they love it. As far as I am aware there is no evidence to suggest that getting back into school if it doesn't work out will be difficult. There should be no problem at all.

Do your research before you decide for definite. The link someone else gave is a good one, also try:

http://www.education-otherwise.org/ (Brilliant Site)
http://www.heas.org.uk/
http://www.ukhome-educators.co.uk/links.htm

Good luck :)

[toltol]

It used to be the case that it was easy to get your child back into a school if you (the parent) took them off roll to educate them yourself but his situation is rapidly changing. Schools are becoming academies, independent, foundation etc which effectively means they are their own admission authorities. The LEA has no right of placement and in my experience, one whiff of a 'difficult' child and the school finds one reason or another not to take the child. The local authority I work for has no community schools and we are finding VERY difficult to place said children.

[toltol]

Forgot this bit!
sophieb - You need to push for the Statement. It will bring further financial support and access to special schools which could provide the help your child needs. I'm not against home schooling but you shouldn't be forced into it just because your LEA isn't taking responsibility.

[amncat]

I home educate my 'difficult' child. He was the opposite of your own, very quiet and shutdown. The change to secondary looked like a disaster in the making so we decided to keep him at home. It has taken a large committment from myself but everyday I am thankful that I followed by intuition and not my head and all those other people who said I would be mad to home educate.
To have left him in school would have continued to remove the remainder of his self-esteem and he wasn't learning at school. Its become a win-win. He's so much more confident, he is learning now and enjoying it.
We do loads of other things too which he wouldn't have had a look into at school, like woodwork, pottery, painting, tai-chi and kung-fu, guitar, recorder, singing, rock climbing ... the possibilities are endless.
There are loads of support groups and home educating groups all around the country. The one in Berkshire is particuarly amazing plus West London - all over. See the education otherwise site.
It does take 6 months after your child leaving school to really get your head around how best to teach your child and where to get all the resources you need and to connect with groups you fit with so if you do go ahead give yourself a while to get it sorted. Its so worth it.