Has anyone flexi schooled from the start?

[Stanleycupsarecool]

Our DC is only 1, before I got pregnant I had always assumed i would be sending our DC to our local state school and that would be that, but since then I have met a lot of other mums, many of whose are teachers and I have started to hear what a dire situation schools are in (mumsnet hasn’t helped).

I see a lot of homeschooling accounts on social media, but doing home Ed full time wouldn’t be an option for us due to finances, and while I do see a lot of benefits I also feel like it would be intense.

I have seen an accounts about flexi schooling and feel like it could be a real option. It would still give DC the social learning aspect, but allow us to focus on the things we feel our DC needs on the home Ed days rather than compromising her needs with 29 other kids. I also feel like it would be easier to integrate DC back into full time schooling if that was something we needed to do, rather than going from exclusively home schooling.

Both DP and I are university educated and I feel like we could both do one day a week each and send DC to school for the other 3 comfortably until the start of secondary school. Then we could look at bringing in a tutor or moving to full time school.

DP really isn’t on board with the idea, and thinks that we should move to best catchment area we can afford and hope for the best, supplement with tutors if needed.

The primary school we are in the catchment for isn’t bad on paper, seems to be on par with rest of town, but is in a deprived area which DP thinks will mean DC gets less attention from teacher due to social issues at school. We can request to go to other schools, but obviously if that is denied we don’t have much time to make a decision and I’m not sure how much difference another school would realistically make.

I think choosing to homeschool two days a week would be a better investment in our daughter’s education than spending loads of money moving to a nicer catchment area.

But I also have a lot of questions on flexi schooling and I am struggling to get answers. How do you prepare the home content to run in tandem with the schools? Has it impacted your child’s ability to make friends by only being there some of the week?

We have done part time reception as dd is summer born so not technically flexischooling but she did mornings mon, tue, thu, fri and whole day wed off for the first term then second term we added the wed morning too and third term she does whole days when she can manage to

Not done flexi schooling; but I'd suggest you approach your local school(s) to find out even they'd even offer this - which I can't imagine most mainstream schools will, as it would be too disruptive to the class, teacher & child.
The only way I'd see it working, was to find a school that offers a part-time timetable & you fill in the extra days. Something like a Forest School; or Montessori or Steiner school - but they'd likely be private & incur fees.

But how does it work legally? If enrolled kids have to be in school five days a week during term time once they turn five. There are fines, attendance officers etc. to deal with. I’ve literally never heard of this and I have three kids at various stages through it. Attendance is a huge deal in the state system. You are also depriving another child of a full time place who may not have the luxury of two university educated parents to support her two days a week.

I can see how this would work with a niche Waldorf style private school but absolutely not state.

I wanted to flexi school, but the school said unless there were very good reasons (school refusal not being accepted as a very good reason!) they wouldn't allow it. Ended up home schooling. Our primary even had it on their website re-flexi schooling, but in reality there has to be evidence based documentation to support it (such as SEN).

I think the accounts you are looking at must not be UK based, or a flexing with private providers. I’d go back and check exactly what you’re trying to emulate before taking the idea any further.

I’d read your post back to yourself as the entitlement has made me a bit cross tbh. State schools exist to provide a baseline education for all kids and are a public service, publicly funded. Places are limited and in many cases over subscribed. The school in the deprived area you are scorning isn’t like a salon where you can choose the services you want. Other kids need their full time place that you’d want to take but not fully use.

I agree with your DH, use your financial and educational privileges to move or pay if you want better schooling. I think you are fundamentally misunderstanding the purpose of state education. It’s not a buffet.

Struggling to find it now but one of the accounts shared a map of all schools which have flexi schooling arrangements in place, there were a few local to us, not our catchment area school, but in our local authority. To be on the map they only have to to have one student flexi schooling. I imagine many of these are different situations such a ND children or situations where school can’t provide support full time, rather than families who have made a decision to do it from the start.

I can definitely see how it would be disruptive and I am not sure how it would be possible without a lot of communication from the teacher which given how stretched they are already would impossible.

I'm a T. A, and. I've never known a child to be allowed to do this after the initial settling in stage in reception, which some parents prolong if their child isn't settling so easily. I'm not really sure how it would work in most schools after reception or year 1. They usually get a learning topic each term, and each week is tailored around that topic, some projects being undertaken throughout the week, so would mean your child not getting as much time, or not getting to finish in school projects.. Especially when they're partnered up, it would get quite disruptive for the others if one kid always misses some of the lessons. For example.. All of mine have done "Space" in year one. Part of this, is learning to write a basic recipe with instructions and understand measurements. This is called "space juice"... Monday they get told a fun story about an alien they all draw their own version of what the alien looks like, what they think he may like to eat and drink etc, teacher then shows the class a cuddly toy alien that will stay with them in class all week. Tuesday they get to make their very own cup of "space juice" to try, lots of measuring and following instructions. Wednesday they reflect on what they did on Tuesday, make a list of ingredients they needed for the space juice, and make postcards for the alien to send back home, telling his family about his exciting earth journey so far. Thursday they write out a recipe for making the space juice, and Friday they make these into books and draw all their lovely little pictures to go with it, and write cards to say goodbye to the alien, asking him questions about his journey home. If they missed one part of that, then it would basically screw up the whole learning process for them. There's too many key learning moments to just sack off regular days each week, and I think you'd be hard come by to find a school that allows it.

Firthonlife and itsthatparent are two of the accounts I initially saw it on if anyone wants to have a look, I’ve just joined a flexi schooling uk FB group which will hopefully give me more information.

@BananaPeanutToast the attendance thing is one of the things that really bugs me about state schools and from posts I’ve read on mumsnet it seems crazy that people are receiving warning letters after one absence for sickness. DD has spent a lot of her short life in and out of hospital, we are hoping that she grows out it. But, I would really resent the added stress onto hospital visits if I had to worry what the school were going to say. Parents should be sending their kids to school if the are well enough, but it the obsession over 100% attendance seems harmful to me.

My daughter went to primary school in a fairly deprived area and she thrived. Don't be too quick to reject your local school - your child may love it, and you can always supplement with extended learning activities ie museums etc at weekends.

I agree with Cactiverdi- I very much doubt you'll find any school that will agree to this, unless there's a real need (eg due to SEND). The lessons all work together so missing one element will mean your child is confused and/or needs extra help in school to understand what they need to do. It won't be easy to plan work with you to fit in with the school lessons and this will all be extra work for already over-stretched teachers. It would also limit the teacher's ability to be flexible with the learning plan in school .

I have Fleci schooled at various points throughout primary and I have full time homeschooled in between.

It's a bit tricky to answer because just as everyone's school experience is different so is every child's home school or flexi school experience.

We flexi schooled in two schools, one was a somewhat negative experience and the other a very positive one.

Speaking of the more positive one where we flexi schooled at year 2 and 4, both children were able students and rather forward academically and so the days at home gave us the opportunity to stretch their ability. However the school had to take responsibility for their maths and literacy, therefore all of the core subject work was done Monday-Wednesday when flexi kids had to attend. The English and Maths was well within our children's capability and yet they had to do the work. Unfortunately the much more fun stuff (music, art etc) happened on the days they were home. I felt it would have been better the other way around but I see why it had to be scheduled this way.

As for friends we were more part of the Home Ed community than the school one, we did a lot more on a sociable level I suppose. I felt the school mums were a bit confused by our part time arrangement. We were not fully part of the school community. It's difficult to do both really.

As tempting as it is, especially with bright children, I wouldn't encourage you to think about tutors and bringing them on when they are small and in primary. Let them play and have fun. There's a of time to get serious about the academic. If you can be really positive at home about learning, especially reading, writing for fun, STEM toys and perhaps learn an instrument, this can all be amazing for their education and foster a love of learning.

Just to add we Flexi-schooled at a private and a state school. It's pretty rare at secondary but there are a number of primary schools in our area that will Flexi. Usually it is a small undersubscribed village primary. They will receive full funding for the p/t place. Yes that FB group has a map that will indicate schools open to flexi.

If I were to do it again I would probably HE at foundation/kS1 and do tons of active learning and then find a small friendly primary and enroll f/t.

The only person I've met that successfully flexi schooled was a child with SEN and that was with the agreement that the two days he wasn't in school he went to a forest school. School turned down the request when he started y2 and mum swapped to home Ed.

Its very difficult to get a school to agree to flexi-schooling, I wouldn't rely on it as a solid option, but you do have a while before you need to think about it!

I'll be honest, this sounds like the worst of both worlds. Either you don't like the school system, or you do. It would be disruptive for your child who would probably feel they were missing out and extremely disruptive for the teacher. I don't think you can really cherry pick school without good educational reason. Imagine if all the kids did it?

It sounds like a pain in the arse and really disruptive. I would send full time or defer.

I think you're overthinking the potential problems with school before you have any idea whether they will affect your DD or not. My DS's school wasn't on its knees, it was a great little primary and he thrived there. I did actually meet with the head before he started to discuss flexi schooling as he was accustomed to spending 2 months a year with his dad in his home country. The head explained the parameters and expectations of flexi schooling and just 'home schooling' when they aren't in school isn't enough for it to be approved.
Point I'm making is why assume school won't be a good fit for her or that the school will be shite? Neither of those things are actually likely to be the case and if they are you can react when you need to.

A friend of mine wanted to flexi school her summer born child for reception year (at least). School would only approve half days, so in every morning, and have a couple of afternoons off, so she didn’t miss out on phonics and maths inputs. This didn’t suit my friend who wanted whole days off to go and do educational visits and so on, so
she ended up doing full time almost from the start.

I think most schools are quite resistant to it as it’s difficult to manage.

I don't see how this would work in practice at all. Each unit of maths, for example, builds up each day and then brings everything together gradually. English lessons are designed to have children using different grammar structures and vocabulary and then build up to an independent writing task. Of you always missed 2 days surely nothing would be completed or fully understood.

I also can't see this being great for the child in class, especially when considering forming friendships with others. It will make things so much harder for them. Also, a lot of things happen in two days that they would end up missing out on, which can make it harder.

If your child is ill in hospital and you have proof of that then you won't get fined. The letters of absence come from the LA automatically when attendance drops below a percentage.

Obviously everyone is different, however I can't see how flexi-schooling puts the child first in any way. It may work for reception children in the first small term, but beyond that I just can't see it.

I’m a teacher and a parent once asked for me this and my school said no. It’d be so disruptive and difficult to make sure the child had covered what all children had because you’d be expecting the teacher to liaise with you about content and that would be an extra job. It could potentially affect friendships if they’re in and out. How would it work if there was a trip or performance on your child’s day off? Presumably you’d have to miss it if you kept to set days?

My children go to a school that has a mix of backgrounds with some children with difficult home lives. One friend was quite snobbish about it and sent her child to the other school. As it turns out my children’s school has consistently done well with great results and an amazing ofsted report. The other school has had staff leaving and two new heads in two years with behaviour being a real issue. Just because children have poorer backgrounds doesn’t mean it wont be a good school, my friends school is full of entitled children used to getting their own way! My children are very aware of how other peoples lives are different to their own and they are both empathetic and understanding.

How would you deal with it on days they have fun things on at school your child will miss out on?

Having a degree is very different from being able to actually teach.

I think it would be a big undertaking but only you know if you’re up for it.

Our school has only done this if child is ND. And even then only as a last resort

Chances of you finding a school that agrees for you to take your child out two days a week, for no real reason, are pretty close to zero.

There's a huge Facebook group called "Flexischooling Families UK" which would be a good place to get your questions answered.

I home educate, so I've met many families who have considered flexischooling. I understand it's hard to get headteachers to agree, and important to get the right approach, i.e. have it all thought through before you even raise the subject, because otherwise you're likely to get a knee-jerk "no" and many people dig their heels in once they've said no!

You do have the absolute right to send your child in part-time until she reaches Compulsory School Age in the term after her fifth birthday, but that only buys you a year at most. After that, you can only do it if the head says yes.

I know someone who did this. It was really hard finding a school that would accept it because as others have said, it can be disruptive, and schools would much rather your child, if part time, did mornings only, not have full days off. Most schools will do phonics and maths first thing and it all builds.

I've looked into it, and am in the group on Facebook. I think its a good idea and have heard some schools say come in mornings where phonics and maths is done then home in the afternoons