Experience of on line school

[FairyTaleOfDudley]

Posting here for traffic.

Hi everyone. Does anyone have any experience of their dc attending online school? For various reasons it's looking like an option for our 11 year old dd (who possibly is ASD) and I've looked at all the main ones but can't from any of them get a feel for what a school day looks like.

Is it time tabled like a traditional school and the children log in at set time and attend lessons along with other pupils? Can they see the other pupils in the lessons on the screen?

Do the teachers adjust their methods to be more suitable for online learning?

Presumably home work is set? Is absence dealt with the same way (let them know in the morning she won't attend that day)?

I guess you have meetings with each of the schools you're interested in and ask these questions at that point - but am I even right about that? Do you have interviews with the schools before deciding?

I've noticed that some of the schools offer modular options eg you can sign up to do just core subjects rather than the whole curriculum. Has anyone done this and then progressed to adding on other lessons?

Do you dcs make friends with other pupils and what form does that take?

Online school is not my preference. My preference would be for dd to attend traditional school, but we are where we are and I feel very out of sorts trying to get my head around what this type of schooling could look like in reality! It's a whole new industry I had no idea was quite so "developed" until a few weeks back!

Any experience or info at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Who will be funding it? And what age? Will it be considered as eotas rather than home educating?

The alternative would be to pick and choose yourself from a variety of online resources and use a tutor for other things. It's probably cheaper and more flexible.

Sorry I can see you mentioned her age.

Hi oceanic it would not be eotas, no. She doesn't have an ECHP and from what I've read she wouldn't be therefore eligible under eotas plus I don't think the kinds of schools I'm thinking of would be considered ok under that anyway.

Yes, our ds went to Interhigh from year 7 after relentless bullying at his normal school. He's autistic and it wasn't safe for him to continue there.

The online schooling suited him fine and he did well out of it. He did 8 IGCSEs and didn't bother with a language to cut down on the pressure a bit. We situated his desk and computer in the sitting room so we could keep an eye on things. I wouldn't recommend doing it in their bedroom as they need that as a rest area and to provide supervision and a change of environment.

In the final year we did have to get tutors for maths, English and science as there wasn't enough one to one guidance and help from Interhigh. The tutors were only for a few months. The class sizes have got a lot bigger now and more impersonal, but there are other online providers so shop around.

I would definitely recommend it and I'm glad we did it. It was a massive relief to get him out of the toxic school environment.

That's very helpful IHS thank you