Could someone give me an Idiots Guide to Home Ed please!

[KathH]

DD is 14 and currently in year 9 at High School and then changes school in the summer to do her GCSEs. She's been bullied at school and has been refusing to go. Although the school and education welfare lady have got involved I dont really feel that 4 weeks later we're any further forward and with half term next week it will soon be 5 weeks. I've started to look into HE as an option but have a few queries if anyone could spare the time to have a look at for me I'd be very grateful.

Is this a bad age to start Home Ed - could she Home Ed until the summer and then go up to the next school or would that be a mistake?

Neither me or DH are academic in the least, would this be a huge problem or just better if we were brainboxes

What do you do if you work - I work part time and DH works shifts so there would be no one in the house to supervise her for 2 days a week - is this a huge no no?

Any other thoughts appreciated.

I think HE could be an ideal situation for your daughter.

I home educated all three of mine since we took them out of school aged 13, 11 and 8.

They are all at Uni and FE college now, doing very well indeed-and along the way we had a ball!

Such a difference from the desperately unhappy time they had when they were in school.

If it would help to talk to someone in real life, send me a PM and I'll reply with my details or email me on [email protected] which comes straight to my inbox.

Give me your phone number and I'll call you back and we can chat and answer all your questions.

You could certainly Home Ed her till after the summer - then she will hopefully be in a good place to make a fresh start at the new school. Of course there's also nothing to say you couldn't continue with the Home Ed if you were all happy with it!

Supervision would only be a problem if you have worries about her being on her own in general - if you'd comfortably leave her in the house during the day on the weekend or in the school holidays, then it's not a problem for Home Ed either - by this age she will be doing her own studying without having to come and ask you for help that often.

And you don't need to push her to do anything specific or schooly - you could take the view that what she needs for now is to get her confidence back up, and focus on giving her opportunities to do that, with a view to her being a more happy confident person by the autumn - julie can give you more advice about taht side of it, having been through it herself!

pull her out of school and let her deschool, that is get it all out of her systim, she may stay in bed for a week, wach the tv for 3 mounts cry alot, you will have to see. this is important, dont even suggest she do any school work tell she is ready. get googerling to find you nearist group we have one in the east mids. you can join education otherwise and they will have a local contact list for you. always remember she can go back to school at any time if needed. googel sir ken roberts. wach astra tayler on utube. give har support and have fath in her. dont know about being on her own at home, not sure on the law with that one but when you meet other home ed familys you will see what they do, dd not that old yet. good luck.

Hi Kath

I'm new here, this is only my second post.

I'm in Sheffield and have a 17 year old home educated son who has never been to school. I've also been a long-term volunteer for the home education support charity Education Otherwise.

You can keep your daughter on the school roll or you can deregister her for home education. If your daughter is unable to attend school the local authority has a responsibility to arrange some educational provision (though most will keep very quiet about this!) Has education welfare mentioned anything to you about home tutoring provided by the council?

If you ask for your daughter's name to be taken off the school roll because you are home educating then you will most likely get a letter from the council asking to visit you.

In some areas they use the Education Welfare service to make first contact, so you might be explaining that yes you really DO want to home educate because at this point the school and welfare service could finally start to listen (too late!) and offer various solutions, much the same as when you try and cancel a rental agreement and they bribe you with special deals to stay.

Fiona

Thanks everyone! Lots to think about at the moment, no doubt I will have more questions!