Online school - does it work?

[Lostinspace42]

Mainstream school is making my daughter miserable and efforts by the school to help haven’t changed the way she feels. She basically can’t cope with the noise. I am considering online school. Has anyone been in this situation and did online school, or anything else, help? Thanks for reading

Did it for my oldest for years 10 and 11, she got the GCSE’s she needed for 6th form and transitioned to a physical sixth form college ok. She’s in year 13 now and applying for uni.

doing it for her sister (due to anxiety) and I’d say it’s not great for her but better than being called to collect her from school due to panic attacks every day.

i wouldn’t want to do it below year 10, it’s a really isolated way of life.

Thanks for that. It’s the isolation I’m worried about. But as you say it has to be balanced against problems at school

Interesting article on it here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5506edeff40ad9e9

Thanks for that. MVA is one of a fairly small number registered with the DFE so interesting to hear their take

they are very good ime

I teach in an online school (a medical one, for children unable to attend mainstream due to health problems) and it very much depends on your daughter's internal motivation. I have some students who work their socks off, interact with me all the time, put in their maximum available amount of effort - these students thrive and achieve their full potential.
On the flip side, some students do the absolute bare minimum, don't ask or answer any questions (including asking for help) and it's clear that they are logging on but zoning out. Partly due to the remote learning element and partly due to the nature of their illnesses, these children don't fulfil their potential at gcse. However, I know that some of them have done well in further education after they've left our school.
Happy to explain more if you pm.

Since Ofsted reports came up, here’s the link to every online provider that actually has one: reports.ofsted.gov.uk/search?q=&location=&radius=&level_1_types=1&level_2_types%5B0%5D=2&level_3_types%5B0%5D=20&status%5B0%5D=1&start=0&rows=10

I’m not anti online schooling or homeschooling at all, but there does seem to be a bit of a gap in the law right now when it comes to how these providers are regulated (or not). I’m not saying every unaccredited school is dodgy obviously, but it really does feel a bit like the wild west out there at the moment.

If you’re researching options, just be aware that no school can truly claim to be “fully accredited” unless they’re on that Ofsted list. Also having a UKPRN doesn’t mean they’re endorsed or inspected, it’s just a registration number.

And as for claims… take them with a pinch of salt. If a place says they’re “#1” or “the best”, make sure there’s something to back it up. Just a few things I’ve noticed while looking into it all.

@OneDeepDeerthanks for posting this link. I thought there were more than this (kings interhigh still a thing?) Quite a few on there don't meet the min requirements for an online school.

I've often contemplated this option but my son doesn't have enough of a social life outside of school to have a balanced life with online learning (however, if there was a serious wellbeing issue I'd go for it as he is already yr 10). Hope you find a good solution, OP.

Look up av1 bot robots to see if she could use these to ‘be’ in her current classroom

It’s a good point. The marketing claims are often very vague. And there was one that was extremely difficult to track down on Companies House. Not a positive start.

On their website, King's states that they've applied for accreditation and so I guess time will tell.

I’d say being vague is the polite way to put it, a lot of these claims are honestly just straight up misleading.

It’s also worth having a browse on Mumsnet if you haven’t already, there’s loads of insight from parents who’ve actually used these schools. Just a heads up though, one of the owners has been known to make fake accounts pretending to be mums to promote his own schools. It’s not exactly subtle which ones are his, even though quite a few of those posts and threads have mysteriously disappeared…

We considered this but in the end went with a very SEND friendly small private school with small classes. Has worked well for my dc. Is this an option financially?

We used MVA for some of year 7 and all of year 8 because my daughter was too anxious to go to school. She did pretty well academically, but now she goes to a very small independent school with small class sizes and this suits her much better. She is really motivated to learn and worked hard, but she found some aspects hard to do by herself, and became very socially isolated, and is much happier being at a real life school now. If it was a choice only between online school and the mainstream comprehensive she was at for the start of year 7, I would definitely go online, but it does have a lot of drawbacks. The main drawback from my perspective was that so many new children were joining every term, most of them pushed out of mainstream through school anxiety, that the year group became absolutely massive and it lost the small community feel we were after and that my daughter needed. E.g. she got called names in lessons on the online chat (disruptive kids calling the studious kids "nerds" etc), and she never really got over the fear of speaking up in lessons because she was with different kids for each subject and never felt like she knew any of them. However like I said it was so much better than mainstream comprehensive which just didn't have the resources to support all the hundreds of children who struggled to cope there.

There is only one private school with small classes like that round here. It’s a stage school and I don’t have much confidence in it. But thanks for the suggestion.

That’s where we are. I don’t think the private schools round here are right. But changing school is something the GP suggested so we do need to think about that. I am hoping a private diagnosis of neuro divergence and dome recommendations will provide a way forward.

I have looked at a possible private school and it’s £20,000 a year. Ouch. Could probably do it for the one who is struggling but not her older sister who isn’t. Ouch again. But I’m glad to hear you found a successful solution for your daughter. I

But I really appreciate it when people post successful resolutions, it’s reminder there is a way out of this.🙂

Yes the fees are a lot, but we applied for an EHCP for DD and so the fees are paid for by the LA. Interestingly the £20K a year for the independent school was about £15K LESS than what our two local mainstream schools said it would cost them to put in the support she would need to attend. However we only got the EHCP because my daughter wasn't attending at all, and it was clear to everyone that she couldn't cope at all and nothing the school could do would enable her to attend. She would get to the front door of school and freeze, it could take her over an hour to step over the threshold. I realise an EHCP might not be an option for you if your daughter appears to be coping. The school she now goes to isn't "local", it's a 30 minute drive away, but it was the only school in two counties that would take her!
I would add that lots of people we encountered at the online school were extremely happy with it, especially ones who were slightly older than my daughter and had a good social life outside of school. It may well be just what your daughter needs. And I should also add that we have two other children and none of them go to the same schools, they all need different things, some of which we pay for and some we don't.

That’s very encouraging

Op if you would be happy to post where you are or start a new thread with a nc there may be private schools that aren’t even on your radar or would be within a journey away.