Deferring Year 9

paddlingwhenIshouldbeworking - we probably could afford to look at a private school if need be, although would prefer not to at this point for DD. DS2 wants us to look at private schools for his Sixth form.

But what I am trying to get my head around is what the LEA would do if I took her out for a year and home schooled her, or "came from Australia after time in Australia", would the really insist that she went into the year above, especially as she is a summer baby, and I gather that, at least now, they are reasonably relaxed about allowing delayed starts to summer babies, so surely it won't be long before having a summer baby do their GCSEs in the following year will be almost commonplace.
Secondly, we know a family in the local burrough who was in a small private primary school that closed, and the family struggled, even with the LEA, to find a place, and it took them over a term to get a place, at which point the school in question assessed the boy (who was never the most academic in the first place), and said that they thought he would do better in the year below, and that is where he went. The LEA wasn't that stupid, to insist a boy who had missed a term of school go into his year when the school was saying he shouldn't. Wouldn't it be the same? Why would they want a child to do badly in their GCSEs because they had missed a year of them?
Admittedly that means taking a risk, which might backfire, I would much rather get them to agree in the first place. But what are they going to do at the point at which I admit that "home schooling" is not enough and DD needs to go back into the regular educational system?

Ok the other family issues:

a) DS1 who has very, very complex special needs is turning 18 in June next year. We are hoping to find a residential place for him, because the family has only just managed up until now, and we cannot do it for ever. If we can manage to find a suitable residential place, that will give the family as a whole options that it has never had, including, particularly, travel.

b) I am an Australian, and my parents live in Australia. DH’s parents are no longer with us. When they were younger, because we could not travel with DS1, my parents used to come and spend a month with us during our summer, their winter. However my parents have become increasingly elderly, and my father has Parkinsons, and can no longer come. We have struggled and struggled to get respite for DS1 to go and visit them. With DS1 in residential care, it suddenly might be feasible for us to go for a month or more to Australia to be with my parents – but clearly I would not be able to take DD out of school to do this unless she is currently completely out of school (ie home schooled).

c) DH has close relatives (uncles and cousins) in South America whom we have never seen, because every bit of somewhat lengthy respite we have had has been dedicated to Australia. He used to go there for his summers as a child, but the rest of the family has never met any of them (except when they pass through England).

d) DS2 will finish his GCSEs at the end of next year. He is looking to changes schools and go somewhere different for Sixth Form. Unlike DD, where I feel there are real reasons for her to take a year out, I don’t feel that about DS2, although I think he would enjoy and benefit from a year out to explore some of his interests which his schooling cannot accommodate (particularly drama). One option with him would be for him also to take a year out, and see if he can do some drama courses post GCSEs. The other is to try and see if he can stay with other people/board with a family during periods that we are not there. If he did take a year out, we would clearly need to have a tutor to maintain his GCSE standard in his chosen A levels (likely to be out of Chemistry, Maths, Biology, Physics or Geography). Might think about getting a start on A levels, although I gather the gap is not supposed to be as great as it was, given the new GCSEs. He is motivated and hoping to do very well at GCSE and is already working very hard.

e) DH is feeling a bit jaded at work. One of his major reasons for not moving is the demands of DS1, which his work, knowing him, tolerate. In particular, having him travel for work puts an enormous burden on me, and we have worked very hard to keep it to a minimum. Post DS1 being in residential care, there might be work travel options – or even a posting overseas. Alternatively DH’s work allow for employees to take a “career break” of up to six months, and he has certainly been there long enough.

f) I work contract anyway (demands of DS1 in particular has meant that I gave up full time work a number of years ago), and run the risk every year that I won’t find a contract for the months I want to work.

clary - I haven't breathed a word of it to her yet, and wasn’t planning to until I was sure that it was feasible. I don’t want to get her hopes up. The thing is, she keeps telling me how much she hates school, she has sleepless nights the night before the holidays end, she counts down on her calendar the days until the next holiday, or the weekend. She is just so miserable about it, and watching her go miserably off to school breaks my heart. And she has a nice (but small) circle of friends (other summer babies, who also don’t go with the prevailing winds, and who are just all “younger” than the rest of the year group). I do worry about taking her out of that group, but the reason they have found each other, it seems to me, is precisely because they are all so much younger psychologically than the year group.

And in terms of home ed – the thing about my idea, is that I wouldn’t need to do very much teaching. She would be fully taught the KS3 curriculum by the school up until the end of Year 8 (which is what they do). She would be fully taught the GCSE curriculum from Year 9 on, by the school, all I need to do is a) maintain her level during the Year; and b) provide enrichment. One of the things that frustrates her is that she wants to have more time to practice her violin and clarinet and school keeps getting in the way – this would provide that, we could have a very musical year (with private teachers). I could probably find a maths tutor (if I didn’t do it myself – I also have a maths science degree – theoretical physics and my minor was applied maths) to come once a week and make sure she was maintaining her maths levels. That is, briefly, I could give her a year of enrichment, and a time to mature, and then put her back into the GCSE system, that’s the plan. Hopefully with the maturity to cope with school a bit better.

The whole question about delayed GCSEs is a bit harder. I don;t believe it is true that the State school alwasy enters pupils to take GCSE exams in the summer of the academic year (1 Sept to 31 Aug) in which they turn 16, as I know of several at various stages of the school, where they were summer babies and the parents, more clued in than I was at the time DD was going into reception, held them back. I certainly know of ones without an EHCP - at least one boy and one girl in her Year 7, and various others throughout the school. That one boy and one girl in her Year 7 are certainly not going to be forced to do GCSEs a Year early. So there must be some way of doing it. The difference is that at least with the boy, he definitely was held back at reception, and the girl sometime early in primary school, if not reception.

I know that many schools commence the GCSE syllabus in Year 9, including the one DD is at, which is precisely why, if I am going to do this, I want to do it before she starts Year 9, so that she has a clear run for the GCSE, and it is not interupted in the middle.
That said, my experience with the three year GCSE, with DS, is that the Year 9 is a much more relaxed introduction, and consolidation of the KS3 skills, which in many ways makes it the best year to put her back into, to make sure that the KS3 skills are refreshed.