to homeschool for a year just for a new house

[SenoritaFajita]

We’ve fallen for a new build which ticks almost all our boxes, and will be ready to move into this summer. We’d look to live here for at least the next 15 years.

The house is close to the office for both DH and I (we alternate wfh days) and also to DD1’s school.

However… DD2 will be starting Y6 in September and it wouldn’t be feasible for us to drive from the new house to her current school (total 2 hours driving back and forth each day).

As long as her 11+ results are as predicted, DD2 should be going to the same secondary school as DD1.

I don’t want her to start a new school in Y6 so I’m considering pulling her out of school altogether and homeschooling for the final year. Realistically this would mean Oak Academy for the 3 days I’m working, then I have 2 days off where we could do more “fun” and interactive learning.

She herself has said she wouldn’t mind missing out on her residential, final year performance and prom… but will she regret this? WWYD?

Completely missed the bit about 3 days of Oak Academy! OP, expecting a Year 6 child to teach themselves the majority of the curriculum with only some online resources, no direct teaching or adult support, not to mention a complete lack of social interaction 3 days a week, is unfair and unrealistic. Either find a school for her closer to the new house or put off the house move altogether and prioritise your child's education..there will be other new builds.

Terrible idea,she would be suffering educationally and socially because it's more convenient to you.
Move her to a local school so she has friends already when starting high school and there will be induction days the primary school will arrange.
hope your love your new home!😀

I absolutely would not do this. Far better to either move her so she can make friends and settle in with a new peer group and learning environment, or to maintain her in the old school however you can. If it's really only half an hour away then surely there are some transport options even if one option is paying for a taxi? I think on balance it would be better for her to move and start making new friends, because chances are that some of those kids will go to secondary school with her.

Also, I have a DD that age. No way would she sit quietly doing Oak Academy 3 days a week for a whole year. I'd spend my whole working day taking her off YouTube/fighting about bits of work she was supposed to be doing.

Oh I'd 100% send her to school. She'll make tons of friends and if not, than pull out and home ed for the remainder. It'll be quite lonely for her otherwise.

My parents moved me to a different school in Y6 and it didn’t go well at all – everyone had already formed very strong friendship groups by then and by the time I’d made some friends it was time to all split up and go to different secondary schools. I think my negative experience has made me not want her to go through the same thing.

In the current Y7 cohort of the grammar school we’d like DD1 to attend, the maximum number of students from the same primary school is 6; DD1 only had one other student from her year get in. So it’s unlikely DD2 would make friends with anyone in a new primary school who’d end up going to the same secondary school, unless she didn’t pass the 11+.

DD2 is currently one of the top if not the top student in her year group which is why she "should" pass the 11+, although I understand that there can never be any guarantees. She has a couple of friends but I wouldn’t say they’re best friends. Perhaps because she’s quite serious and studious; she can be a bit of a marmite child. And my taking her out of school for a year would make things even worse.

@sirzy and others you are absolutely right – this is a stupid thought just to do with convenience which is why deep down I know what we should do – thank you all so much for your feedback. It’s really widened my much too narrow perspective and shaken me out of this dilemma. The right house will come along when it's the right time, which most certainly isn't now.

I wouldn't do that. It doesn't sound as if you have thought about home schooling before and both want to do it for positive reasons. You are doing it for convenience and that seems wrong. You want to largely remove her from her school friends for a year without the opportunity to make new ones. Three days of online learning largely by herself. I really don't understand why you wouldn't just put her into the new school where she would presumably get to know some of the pupils she would start secondary school with and some children who live locally to the new house. What is the problem with this? Why do you see homeschooling as less disruptive?

Also, I'm not totally clear what "2 hours driving back and to each day" means. Do you mean the driving time for you is two hours (so only a 30 min journey) or do you mean the driving time for her is two hours (so a one hour journey). If it is the former I would keep her at the old school. You would be giving up just as much of your spare time on the home schooling. If it is the latter I would probably move her.

Sorry but this sounds like a terrible idea. Home schooling definitely has its place but this is not it. You’d be doing this because you don’t want to drive her to school.
Oak Academy is okay here and there but I wouldn’t want to rely on that and that alone. 3 days a week of it being your primary ‘book learning’ isn’t much fun and lacks diversity. If you’re working who is going to debate things with her? Conversations are crucial to embedding learning.
I just think the whole plan is not beneficial for her overall.

We’ve fallen for a new build which ticks almost all our boxes, and will be ready to move into this summer.

No it won’t. Those dates are completely fantasy. They tell you a date to get you to exchange and then string you along for months and months and months knowing you can’t walk away. If they’re saying in February that it’ll be ready this summer then it probably won’t be ready until summer 2024 anyway.

But, yes, massively BU to jeopardise your DD’s education like this. How would you feel if you tanked her 11+ results by withdrawing her from education? What if she didn’t get into the good school as a result? Have you considered the knock-on impact of that for her future/education/degree/career/jealousy of her sister/resentment of you?

Also, saying they don't mind missing it and actually missing out are two different things. She has no idea what she's missing out on and you've really put her in a difficult position. She's 11, not an idiot. She'll know that her wanting to stay in her current school will mean no new house.
You need to put a brave face on and become excited at the prospect of a new school. I joined a school in y6 and it was the best thing my mum could've done. I made a few friends that went to my secondary and it made a huge difference.

30 mins each way is totally doable for a year, I would leave her where she is and suck up the commute for the three terms it’s 195 days of commuting either that or move them for a year, my dh did that when he was a child and he didn’t find it a problem and it was nice getting to know some local kids before a few of them went to secondary school together in year 7.

She would have a lot less of a culture shock starting a new primary in Yr6 than being in a weird on-line bubble for a year and starting a new high school. She would get things like the show and residential- I can't understand your logic at all. She'll also make local friends, there's no downside if staying in current school isn't an option.

Sorry, cross posted. Good luck with what you decide.

Have you researched a local home ed community? She'll need to meet up with people regularly. You can normally do better at home than at school, but you would need to be very committed.

I don’t want her to start a new school in Y6 so I’m considering pulling her out of school altogether and homeschooling for the final year.

DD1 was Y6 when we moved work and secondary related it worked really well for her got her (knowing people before secondary, small cohort fun teacher and got her away from some low level bullying) - it was a completely new area so no hope of traveling to old school. So it could work - otherwise I'd pass on the house or commute back for a year.

Home school can and does work I'm just not sure your plan for it is that great or well thought through especially if the 11+ is looming.

I would do the trip to her existing school for a year, otherwise it's a huge disruption to her just for convenience.

You never know how school is going to pan out, if something happens in the future meaning you don't have a choice to move her, you would regret this one.

I'd never move a happy, settled child unless there was absolutely no choice.

I have friends who moved into a new build last year. It was about 8 months later than they originally thought it would be, and they sold their house and ended up in limbo. They had to move into a flat in the city - our little town hasn't got much in the way of short-term rents. They drove 40 mins in each direction twice a day for 8 months to take their kids to school, because they had to. It was hard and they were exhausted by the end of it. They were stuck because any other option would have meant moving the kids twice. I would actively avoid both homeschooling while trying to work yourself (are you mad? Have you forgotten lockdown?) and the drive if you can help it.

Just because you had a horrible year 6 experience doesn't mean she will.

Take the dream house.

Move school.

Unfortunately "home education" requires "home teaching", and teaching is a full time job all on its own ; the planning, the preparation, the face to face explanations, support, supervision, repetitions, follow up, asking and answering questions.

That's why teaching isn't a WFH job we can do in pyjamas while simultaneously conducting an international zoom meeting, banging dinner in the oven, playing with the cat and answering the doorbell.

I cannot express to you how quickly children lose the ability to do things that they do not practice. Even the summer holidays are a nightmare for teachers to get pupils back into routines, habits and basic classroom cognition.

If she spends months not using a pen, not practicing actually counting, not physically doing actual learning, she will not pass her 11+. The top of the class are not a year ahead of the bottom of the class. Furthermore, working all day is a skill and she will lose that skill. Asking someone to maintain a skill that they aren’t practising is really hard. Imagine playing an instrument and having it taken away for a year and then being expected to just start up again - you’re doing that with her ability to be at school all day. On top that, sitting in a chair all day will damage her posture, staring at a screen all day will harm her eye sight and cause headaches, wearing earphones all day will damage her ears…

And if she's not particularly happy at her current school then even more reasons to move.

Plus although she'll probably pass the 11 plus there are no guarantees. She could feel unwell on test day and not perform well etc

This. We moved our son in year 6. Not an issue

dont underestimate how important the social aspect of schooling is, especially after lock down. If she goes to a school local to where your dd1 school is then she’ll probably have got to know a few allies to go into secondary school with.

and you’ll also have reassurance if she doesn’t pass 11 plus then she
l also have already integrated with friendship groups to make that transation easier as well

dont isolate her at such a vulnerable age.

unless you have a teaching background or are passionate about the ethos of homeschooling and the sheer commitment it needs, don’t think it’ll be ok for you to stick her in front of some learning forum and do “interactive” stuff with her on your days off. You need to have a curriculum, lesson plans, aims, assessment, objectives…when are you going to do all this? You’re not doing this becuase you’re passionate about her education, but because of a house. Please don’t be so arrogant to think it’ll be ok you stepping in , in between work

Just rent. But you really can’t take your kid out of school and leave her to teach herself whilst you do the fun stuff a couple of days a week. That’s terrible. And just as you didn’t have a good year six doesn’t mean she will. Goodness me.

This

Suck up the driving. We moved at the start of Year 13 for various reasons, and DC agreed providing they could stay at their current 6th form. It meant 9 months of DH and I doing work arounds to accommodate this.
In a nutshell, it wasn't their decision to move, there was no benefit to them and therefore as parents we had to make it as stress-free as possible for the DC.

A few years ago it was very common for children to finish state juniors at 11 and take two years out before moving to the 13+ grammar here. Most of my DCs friends home schooled for those years. It avoided the children going to the local secondary (which didn't have a great reputation) or paying for private prep school. The time was used to intensively prepare for the 13+ exams to ensure success. Some also used it to travel and learn a foreign language. I know families that decamped to France for the intervening period and it worked well. If your DC is keen then I don't think she would be adversly impacted by it.