Been advised by school and SS to HE - where to start?

[willowcatkin111]

Both dcs been out of school for a month and on and off before then for 12 mths or so. Been thro hoops of SS CPP and CIN (started by school) but they have basically now said nothing to do with them. School say they can only help if dcs in school. No EWO in our area as devolved to schools.
Last meeting they combined to suggest we HE.
Not necessarily averse to the idea but seems to me both a cop out by the school and SS and an awful lot for us to think about to set it all up.
Any advice on where to start would be great.
DS would benefit more from structure eg internet provision and dd from the opposite!

[ommmward]

Can you tell me what a CPP and a CIN are? I understand the other acronyms :)

The really important thing is that you take some time to recover from school (all of you!!), and that means not putting any pressure on anyone, and taking time with your children to get a sense of what they enjoy doing, and what kinds of educational approach might suit them. Some children really thrive with a curriculum structure, or a timetable of "subjects" through the day; others are completely allergic to that, and thrive on playing freely all day and having their questions answered.

One of my children didn't discuss learning to read with anyone, just revealed one day that they were reading completely fluently. I mean, not a WORD to anyone - just worked it out quietly using closed captions and google and road signs and us reading to them. The other one explicitly learned to read with lots of iPad apps and "how do you spell X?" and "please write this down for me" and explicit "learning to read" sessions. Horses for courses - it's fine to have quite different approaches with each child, as long as they are happy with it.

First thing is to get yourself hooked up with local home edders. Get onto facebook, because that's where most of the groups are nowadays, and search for your county + Home Education, or the nearest city/ big town + home Education. Then you can start to zoom in on the home ed community near you. Keep looking till you find people you get on well with- there are hippy lentil-weaver-y home edders, and children-with-special-needs home edders, and evangelical Christian home edders, and Millicent-is-too-much-of-a-genius-for-school home edders, and (for want of a better word) philosophical home edders (who have decided that school is a Bad Thing on philosophical grounds). You may find that the first few meets you go to are populated by a brand of home edder that you don't mesh with. and that's fine - just keep looking! Because all the other stereotypes are out there :)

[willowcatkin111]

Thanks . CPP is child protection plan and CIN is child in need

[ommmward]

Are your children wanting to come out of school?

The school can't get it right, really. Sometimes children really don't suit school, and the school are busily saying "oh, we are the best place for them, you mustn't home ed" and then we all get on our high horse about how schools suggesting home ed is a good idea would be turkeys voting for Christmas. And if they say "yes, HE sounds like a much better fit" people say "what a cop out, they ought to be able to accommodate every child rather than just the easy ones".

Will you get enough support from SS if you deregister them from school? (Just asking, not saying you shouldn't deregister them at all!)

[willowcatkin111]

Dd probably does; ds really not sure. What they both need is help to get them over recent events but neither is suicidal which is apparently the threshold for help these days! SS have closed their case so no help from them.

[ommmward]

Poor loves 😢 a bit of home based love.bombing with minimal academic pressure might be just what the doctor ordered. Hang in there.