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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

WIBU to home school the kids for a couple of weeks before they go to a new school?

64 replies

RosesAreBetter · 03/09/2012 12:04

I am hoping that we will be moving soon,
I have applied for a house (rented) in a different town and the kids would be going to a new school.
I am fairly certain that we will get this house, and would be able to move immediately, so hopefully it will only be a few weeks before we are moving.

The thing is that I hate the kids old/current primary school, I was hoping to have moved before now but things didn't work out with the last house that I wanted to rent.
I really don't want to send the kids back to that schoo for a few weeks, but I don't want to put them into the new school (and have to travel the 40 minute 2 bus journey twice a day) until I am certain that we have got the house.
But even if we don't get that one I will be applying for another one in another town, so the kids will not be going back to that school in the long run even if we don't get this house.

I am seriously considering just pulling them out now and saying that I am going to home school them until we move.

But is this a mistake? A waste of time? Will it make getting them into the new school more difficult?

The school starts on Wednesday and every part of me is certain that I don't want to send them back there.
I just don't know what to do or what will be for the best.

OP posts:
Noqontrol · 03/09/2012 13:12

In light of the bullying your ds has had to endure, there is no way I'd send him back there. Especially if you're moving anyway. As pp have said, theres lots of good info on the home ed section. Good luck.

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:13

There is a lot of scaremongering about pulling kids out and if they will be able to find places etc, that's because they like kids TO BE IN SCHOOL! They don't like headaches of kids without school places milling around Grin! Or parents on the phone twice a week asking for updates! Places do come up but in some areas it might take a little while.

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:20

There is a big difference between "saying I'm going to home educate them" and actually home educating them, isn't there?

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:23

Confused there is. But why would OP NOT be home educating them if she says she is going to?

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 03/09/2012 13:24

Whatmy I'm sure the OP is planning on shoving her kids infront of Jezza Kyle and pissing off down the pub Confused

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:27

Oh, got you, it is the usual prejucided assumption that people who Home Educate are NOT actually doing so but rather keeping them out because they can't be arsed to get up for school each day, or any other equally spurious reason that is usually assigned to the parent who steps outside The Box and decides that actually they want to be responsible for their own childs education.

5madthings · 03/09/2012 13:28

just let the schools that you want places at know and they will keep you on the waiting list and also the council. and yrs just phone up once a week or so. places came up for my boys before the summer holidays. we went and visited and the boys had a day at the school and then we agrees with the school we would start them after the summer holiday (there wa about three weeks? left of the term) it made sense for thw boys to start at the start if a term and they were winding down for the summer hols and we had stuff plannef. the ht was fine with this.

the council may try it on with you but it is perfectly legal to home ed whilst you eait for a place to come up. actually my ds4 starts this sept
i only put the school his brothers attend on the form, we are slightly out if catchment but i knew he would pribably get a place with the sibling rule and uf he hadnt i would have homeeducated till a place became available. anyway the council were very snotty with me and said i needed a second choice as he HAD to go to school! i daid he didnt and quotef the legal stuff about education and still they tried to insist. i spoke to someone higher up and got an apology in the end!

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:30

Are you? I'm not. But she does actually say in her opening post that she will take them out and say she is home educating. Which does imply that she doesn't actually intend to.
Don't tell me I'm making judgements, I'm only going on what OP actually said. Hmm

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:32

Well my automatic assumption was if she "says" she is going to HE then she is. Hence the automatic offering advice on how to go about it, rather than wondering whether she is really going to at all.

Noqontrol · 03/09/2012 13:38

Oh well, solve the mystery op. Are you planning to home educate, or is it that can't you be arsed to get out of bed, and actually you're going to shove the kids in front of jezza whilst you swig back cans of special brew? Grin

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:38

Don't you think its an odd way of saying it though? Especially if its only for a few weeks? It's like if I said "I'll tell her I'm going to church", sounds like I'm not really, doesn't it?

Nowt to do with me anyway, I'm just asking.

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:38

Nice -wanky insulting-- hyperbole though.

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:38

strikeout fail Blush

Noqontrol · 03/09/2012 13:42

No, it doesn't read like that to me. How else would you put it? She needs to tell them shes going to hone educate if thats what shes going to do.

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:44

No, I assumed, from her post that she really would be home educating, although I am not convinced she really needs to be formal about it for only a couple of weeks. Lots of different ways to HE and you can pretty flexible and unstructured about it, if that is what works for you and dc. That's the beauty of it.

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:46

How else would you put it? Well you'd say AIBU to take them out of school and home educate? Putting in saying I will sounds to me like its a line rather than the truth.

Only noticed it because I'm talking about language and precision on another thread. It's not like I care anyway, OP can do what she wants with her own children.

WhatYouLookingAt · 03/09/2012 13:46

you're very touchy though aren't you, HE fans?

Noqontrol · 03/09/2012 13:48

Fair enough. It kinda says that in the thread title. Not that I care that much either really. Just passing a few minutes whilst ds is sleeping. Grin

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:49

Yes, we are. Because we come against a lot of prejudice and demands for explanations about it constantly. Choosing an alternative way to educate your children seems to be open season for comment and everyone gets a say. Often quite aggressively. So yes I think a lot of us are defensive because we need to be.

Greythorne · 03/09/2012 13:50

At age 5 and 6, I would not think of sending them to the reboots school for a few short weeks before moving house and that's without factoring in the bullying.

Do loads of fun stuff.....museums, galleries, nature walks, counting games, playing Monopoly and memory games, drawing and painting, get a new CD of songs (from the library) and learn some new songs, set tasks like learning a poem off by heart or counting in 2s, 5s, 10s etc. Read to them every day. Get them to read to you, short bursts, nothing onerous. Play games like 'I went to the market and bought.....'.

Stay away from Telly and pcs, not because they are bad per se but they suck time away.

Your kids will have a fab time and start their new school in a great frame of mind, having had a total break from the previous place.

Go for it. Not ridiculous at all.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 03/09/2012 13:51

Oh and can it be not for the record I'm not a HE fan and would never do it myself but am of the "whatever works for you" school of thought on this one.

GoldenGreen · 03/09/2012 13:53

YANBU, especially given that they are only 5 and 6!

akaemmafrost · 03/09/2012 13:54

I don't really have a choice though as ds has SN and cannot function in a school environment. This makes the criticism even harder to deal with tbh.

NCForNow · 03/09/2012 13:54

Go for it and have a lovely time too. I hope you ignore the eejits on here...there are always people who are afraid of those who go about their business in their own way!

RubyVaultingGates · 03/09/2012 13:54

If you have the means and time to do this, it seems like the best option. They won't benefit from a couple of weeks of the new term at their old school. Education Otherwise are very constructive about this sort of thing, (We did it for a year whilst DS1's school felt they couldn't manage him and no other offer was forthcoming).

You don't need to keep to the national curriculum, you can hold their interest for things academic at that age with museum visits and related scrap-book making activities. Nature related trips to the park (lovely time of the year for this) and lots of curriculum related activities possible using nature as a theme; trips to the swimming pool when no-one else is about for pse, trips to the library.... Loads to do, and if it's really only for a few weeks then you can probably keep it a lot of fun too.