Any home educators? Advice please

[Beebityboo]

I know there's a home ed board but I'm posting here for traffic as I'm feeling anxious about the decision we've made.
After weeks of deliberation we deregistered my year 8 DD today. She just cannot cope with school well at the best of times (aspergers) and Covid has amplified it by 1000. I'm disabled also which makes her worry (obsess) about making me ill .
We will only be home educating until next July when we will put her on the list to go back to the school she has just left but will probably be on the waiting list a while.
I had a bad experience with the LA two years ago when I removed her from primary due to severe bullying. This is now the second high school we have tried. The school was actually really good and will likely take her back next year.
Should I contact the LEA first? Would not contacting them make it more or less likely they'd start getting pushy about her going back to school?
Also does anyone know how the LA's generally feel about online schools like Wolsey Hall? (the one DD will be using) as I know they may ask for proof she's being educated.
Thank you

Sending you a hug for you and your DD.

I don't home ed yet, but am planning to next year for high school level for my DS.

I haven't found the home ed scene to be very big on MN. But there is loads of stuff to support and inform about home ed on FB. I did a FB search for my geographic location and found a real community feel. I recommend you try it.

Thank you .
I think I need to give her a break and am trying to decide between my online schooling and Wolsey Hall. My online schooling seems better but it doesn't start until January so I'm not sure how to "school" her in the meantime. As she will be going back we want to follow the curriculum but also focus heavily on her mental health and well being.
My biggest worry in all this is bullying by the LA of they don't deem her education suitable. The school she would likely have to go to if they ordered it is one she was so badly bullied at she threatened to kill herself .
We're in such a mess and I've been up half the night just agonising over whether or not I've done the right thing.

Hi op, first of all, once you have de registered her from school you do not have to inform anyone else, it is up to the school to inform Lea, not you.

With the current restrictions in place and the state of education provision I would guess it will be some time before any one contacts you.
In the mean time get on your local face book home ed group to get some support and find out what the Lea are like in your area.
Good luck.

I've home educated (briefly) before so unfortunately know the LA can be difficult but hopefully you're right and they just have too much on their plates. I don't mind showing work etc but just don't want any pressure for a while whilst we build DD up emotionally as she's quite fragile at the moment.
Just feel that we don't have enough of a plan for her learning and she's missed a lot these last few weeks.

Does she have an EHCP?

Firstly, take a deep breath. You do not have to have everything fully in place immediately, you now need to research thoroughly what is best for your child specifically.

The LA will probably contact for some evidence of 'appropriate' education. But appropriate doesn't mean replicating school-based education.

What matters, whatever system/approach you choose, is that you can explain what you are trying to achieve, how your child will benefit and what support you are giving.

Home ed ranges from fully timetabled 'school at home' all the way to fully autonomous learning. Both these ends of the spectrum, and everything in between, can produce good outcomes where they are done properly and where the system works for the child.

So perhaps a first step is to make a cup of tea and speak to a home ed charity or local group for help and advice?

No, she was diagnosed just before lock down and everything has been on hold as our cahms team is completely overwhelmed. I am hoping to have all that in place when she goes back in year 9.

I think we are probably going to do semi structured english/maths and science through Wolsey Hall and build on that from there.
Just feeling a bit overwhelmed this morning!

Oh, I meant to add - agree with your daughter what you'll focus on for the next week or fortnight now, so they are engaged in something productive while you start looking further ahead.

I'm sure overwhelmed is normal. Good luck

It depends how you want to do it- it’s only about six weeks, if she is going Wolsey Hall in January. There’s masses on online resources, especially at the moment. You do it however you want and design something so she can relax and recover a bit as well as perhaps keep up with English and Maths.

put your application for EHCP in now as this is a 10 week process and you will need the support of the school, in terms of providing data / reports /assessment etc.

20 week process not 10 weeks

@Beebitboo We home educate our two children. They're both autistic, DS more so than DD. He has additional needs, whereas DD is more capable.

First, search Facebook for your local HE group(s) and request to join, then look for the whole country ones which have lots of experienced home edders.

Don't rush to buy courses. We spent far too much to begin with. Relax, deschool until after Christmas and have a good think about subjects you actually want to do. Not everything needs to be learned with a gcse or igcse. There are Asdans and Arts Awards and lots of other courses. DD is doing Asdans atm as she couldn't cope with gcses (yet) and has also done her Silver Arts Award.

I'd recommend applying to join PopArt Facebook group which organises discounted resources for home edders, for english, maths, arts, and much more.

Good luck and trust that you've made the right decision for your DD.

I've been told in the past the the LA strongly discourage "deschooling" so feel like we need something in place sooner rather than later. She's already missed so much school .

Ok. Well first of all you don't need to have contact with the LA. If they send you forms to complete, you are not legally obliged to do so - you can opt to report what your education plan is. You do not have to allow them into your house either. Some LAs are quite relaxed and supportive of HE (ours is), whilst others go way beyond their remit and actively harass home edding families. It is vital, as a new home educator, that you get support from local home educators where you live so you can get a feel for what you LA is like and get help too with finding local HE groups, tutors (if you want them) etc.

There is nothing wrong with deschooling (not the same as unschooling). It is in fact very important that you do this for your DD's benefit. She needs time to unwind. Schools don't do that much in December and it's only for a few weeks. A fresh start in January would be much better for all of you. Take some time to plan what to learn, bake, go for long walks and breathe. No-one is going to demand to inspect your home in lockdown and if they do, you can refuse.

And one more thing - as long term home edders, we don't keep up with the National Curriculum - DS can't, and DD has her future career already mapped out as is taking the appropriate courses and qualifications to get there.

There's no rush, slow down and don't panic.

If you want to stick to maths and english tgen I recommebd joining Pop Art Fb group as I said earlier - they have discounts for MathsWatch KS3 and Gcse and others.

We are intending to send her back next year, though if home ed goes well then that isn't set in stone. Think we will be following the national curriculum for core subjects at least.

If you're still thinking of a return to school next year, then Twinkl may be the answer. Twinkl home education facebook group is a very useful and helpful community of home edders and the Twinkl website is a brilliant source of all things learning. You can be structured or unstructured, follow the NC or just learn what you want.

Also use BBC Bitesize, BBC Teach, Khan Academy, TeachIt websites. There's a lot out there for free or cheap without spending a fortune on distance learning courses.

As I am also doing a part time degree (from home) I think DD needs the structure and support of actual teachers for the core subjects which is why we're going with Wolsey Hall (I think, seems like it will be the best fit).

OMG at Twinkl though, what a fantastic resource! I've just had a look at the history and R.E stuff and it is fantastic. Will help so much to fill in any gaps.

If the school has been good and is understanding on this, could they give you a list of topics they'll cover this year? This may already be on the school's website - my DDs' school has a Curriculum page which this year has put up a 'long term plan' for each year group (possibly to help us parents when they get sent home...). This may help ease your concerns about returning and working on other things when you can see what her peers will be doing.

I think there could be benefits to a more relaxed style with a focus on core and exploring areas of interest while recovering from difficult school or other experiences. When we've had times of dialing it down, I broke things into 4 areas:
English & Communication: my DS1 is currently doing speech writing here with Toastmaster's Competent Communicator Manual, but also essay writing (Breakfast on Mars is a good book of age-approriate entertaining essays and they have a website with free lesson plans that goes with it), Pobble365 for other creative writing, I'd pick one and work on that, maybe bring in things like language techniques and grammar, and similar within that one area rather than trying to do lots of different ones. Additional language practice and if spelling is a weak area, SpellingCity with words she mispells can be good additions.

Numeracy & Technology: Corbett Maths could be a good free way to go light while also covering different areas & seeing what she knows and doesn't yet. We tend to do this alongside coding or ICT at this age (in primary, we do typing and basic ICT, if not a proficient touch typist - or she'd just like the challenge of learning to type faster I'd recommend typingclub).

Assigned Reading(s)/Reading time with fiction and non-fiction - I set something that they summarize and discuss with me afterwards and/or set a time with a reading lists we build together and they can pick from that during this time.

Plus Projects: Rotating through other areas of interest or curriculum throughout the week (So, Tuesday: Science with...) or doing one area for a set amount of time and then moving onto the next. Different topics and different kids work better in different ways of handling this.

If you get a topic list from the school, you can look for and through resources that cover the different areas together. You may find ways to cover things that she prefers to the school that can continue to be used when they return - during lockdown, my DD1 particularly appreciated using Religion for Breakfast (youtube channel) as a spark for discussion for RE with me over the worksheets provided.

Hi there! ds is yr 9 and autistic too. He lef tmainstream at the end of year 7 and has been with my online schooling since sept 2019 ever since, so all of year 8 and now in yr 9. He found mainstream too much similar to your dd by the sounds of it. Best thing we did for him . What we found when mainstreams closed etc was that the continuiity and the education side of things was a big plus. School in our house has NOT CHANGED AT ALL!!!!! so ds routine is the same as it was when he first joined online school way back in spet 2019. Yes it costs ££ . But it works for us. We have lived in 2 LA areas and both (norfolk and Staffordshire) were happy with what we were doing and why. The secrets out though.......the intake at my online schooling this year has gone up lol! classes are about 15 students (full is 20) now. last year average was anything from 4 to 12. dh is a secondary school teacher and he`s happy with the standards etc. feel free to pm me op,x

one thing I would add IF you go on the online school route is look at your dd tech. Students using ipads do seem to get issues more with not acsessing things/ sharing work etc. we use a laptop and never had any issue. students use you tube links, google docs etc. we have microsoft office as well. we do occasionally print/ scan work to hand in. you will need to provide text books etc (it cost £30 aprox this year?). so check your tech reqiurements are up to scratch on the website. myonline schooling will set you up with a specific private zoom link for classes for security (you can`t log into class via any old zoom link, it must only be via the one provided) and uses canvas as the platform (acsess to assignments, class links, school "admin").

ds yr 9 , 7 subjects = £280 a month. the higher up the school = more ££