Temporary Deregistration

[NeptunesKiss]

Apologies if it's been asked before, but...

All of my 3 children have gone to the same small village school and loved it, some 13 years have gone into faithfully walking up and down the same road each day. Recently, the lead teacher who made it what it was left after it had been absorbed by an utterly useless academy and, since then, it has gone down the drain. Little more than a revolving door of temporary teachers, some of whom have been great and others, less so.

Anyway, my youngest is literally due to finish on 24th July but because of the environment has become very bored, distracted, and instead of dealing with the kids the staff seem to have a policy of reporting every minor thing to parents and words in the playground after school. All of which has led to a very unhappy collective year 6 along with their parents, utterly needless and nobody seems bothered.

I don't want to fight, all I'd like to do is have my son transfer to his secondary school as seamlessly as possible but the constant upset is making him hate going to school. To that end, is it possible for me to deregister him from primary and not have it affect his place in secondary?

I've complained, gone to meetings and supported the school but now it's getting too much and I just want to keep things on an even keel for the next 3 weeks.

TIA

There's not much school can do if your son is off sick, away, refusing to go in etc. if your son can coordinate it with the other kids and parents, so much the better. Sounds horrific.

You can pull him out of you have that luxury.

They will be doing end of year plays, discos, longer play times, there’s nothing to teach them as assessments have been done, school reports issued, high school requests have been fulfilled - transition days done and dusted.

I don’t see the harm.

It won't affect his place at secondary. You've accepted it and it can't be withdrawn if you make it clear you are EHE purely for primary and will be taking up the secondary place in your letter (they have to notify the LA and send them a copy of the letter - make sure that it can't be misunderstood that you're also withdrawing acceptance of his secondary place).

Is there no end of term assembly, performance, sports day, trips or anything else planned for them to mark the transition?

I'd be thinking about whether he'll find it harder by just 'disappearing' but still being in the area and seeing his friends still going, though. It is important to most kids to have that sense of ending, as was shown by the ones who missed out over lockdown - and once he's been allowed to just not go to school for a while, it can prove a lot harder to get them to stay in secondary, as they know it's been OK before and a bit of persistence can get Mum to keep them at home/come and pick them up. Not always, but it's still significant whether it's one child or nine in a cohort.

Thanks so much, it is horrific.

The last straw was last Wednesday, I got a call saying that my son had drawn an inappropriate picture, when I asked what it was I was told that it was a picture of the twin towers. I asked (in the absence of any further info) what was 'inappropriate' about historical fact? For instance, were they asked to draw something comical etc? The very strong inference was that he was really an oddball and nobody could understand why he'd do such a thing!

I took myself down to the school to see this picture and it turns out...there was no picture, an unnamed TA had apparently heard him say he would draw one and ran to the head teacher who promptly called me. None of his classmates heard or saw anything, and he's an 11 year old child, an enormous upset and drama over nothing. I was so upset to see him standing with another new class teacher of three whole days standing looking really stressed and I lost my cool really.

Dropped him in on Thursday and asked if they could call the landline (they always use my mobile) if there were any more non-incident incidents as my husband would be home and I was going to work where I couldn't answer. 2pm I check my mobile to find a voicemail saying there'd been an incident...

We can't carry on like this and it's getting me and him down, I kept him home yesterday and told them I was considering my options!

Anyway, thanks for allowing me a vent and I'll perhaps just tell them he isn't going back. They might issue a fine I suppose, but who cares.

I have been wondering about this, there is an assembly (sports days all done) but there's only about five Year 6s, one of whom has gone back to his former school for the 3 weeks before the end of term. At least one other mum is equally unhappy and considering likewise.

He's getting the school bus over next Wednesday to secondary school to spend the day there (they had a morning a couple of weeks ago and he loved it) and the bus home again, so I'm hoping that will be a help.

It just seems like the assembly will be a very forced affair and I'm worried about what could happen between now and then.

I deregistered my youngest from y6 5 weeks before the end of the year and went travelling!

Best thing ever - he was bored of primary school after doing nothing but sats prep for the whole of y6. He wasn't fussed about missing the end of term disco, play, church service etc and actually it seemed to be the parents who were more into all that than the kids- the kids all moved on v quickly.

We had a fab time travelling and he started high school all enthusiastic, he loves it there.

We did check with his high school that it wouldn't affect his place there and they said no - they said once place is confirmed we could do what we liked and they wouldn't withdraw it.

Hi, that's great to know! I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous about taking the plunge but I did also check with the head of Year 7 at Secondary and they've come back with the same.

It seems such a stupid thing to feel the need to do after all of these years, but it's just becoming too much of a constant worry.

So glad things went well for you.