DD is 8 (yr3) and has SEN. School has been tricky to say the least since yrR. She is behind in all areas except reading and making little progress. Her self esteem is low, she has major anxieties in school and is also often bullied, although school refuse to recognise it as such. I have been considering home Ed as an option for around a year now but recent events are making me lean towards it ever more.
Increasingly I feel as though i am sending DD to school to be 'babysat' for 6 hours per day, just because she has to be there, rather than because she is going to learn. I'm pretty sure school are just focused on getting her to behave, educating her is a secondary concern. She has very few behaviour problems outside of school. DD is primarily preoccupied with the social aspects of school. She finds them confusing yet intriguing (has the tendency to obsess) and seems to have lost any interest in learning. She often comes home exhausted.
Whilst discussing DD's problems at school with a specialist this week, she has suggested that it may not be DD that is the problem and instead this is the wrong school for her. It has backed me up in my belief that school (the whole system, not just this one) is just not suited to my DD. i spoke to her keyworker about it but she was fairly negative. Mostly from the viewpoint that it would be a shame for DD to miss out on the social aspects. I'm more concerned about her missing out on an education.
DD does Brownies and swimming clubs outside of school currently which she obviously would continue. She has music lesson during school hours but provided by LA, which i pay extra for. I'm not sure if these could continue or even i would need private lessons. In addition to this she often sees friends out of school anyway and I am also hopefully going to be startinf work for an after school club (non-school based) soon which DD would also attend. She would mix with many other children here, from her current school and others (plus 3 other Home Ed kids AFAIK) Am i wrong in thinking this is plenty of time spent on socialising and it would free up the day time for actual learning? With the 1 to 1 I am hopeful she will soon catch up with what she has missed the past few years.
My plan so far is to leave her in school until the end of yr3 and if nothing has radically improved, take her out from that point initially for a year depending on how it goes. in the meantime I feel I need to plan some kind of structure. This would be more for my benefit I think, just to get things organise to start with at least. I want to make sure she gets a good grasp of the basics (writng and maths) but also want to allow DD to take the lead in choosing subjects she is interested in also. I'm prepared for it to go more free flow as time goes on.
So does this sound like a crazy idea or something that might actually work out in reality? Any and all advice on what to do next welcome. TIA.
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Home ed
More certain than ever that I want to Home Ed- help me work it all out please
4 replies
CaisleanDraiochta · 28/02/2014 23:26
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