Pulled DS (5) out of school (temp) - how do I even start home ed?

[ASecretLemonadeDrinker]

Help! I have had to pull DS out of school (neglect) until they sort out a care plan, or another school can take him with his needs. Anyway, I have no idea how long this will take - maybe a week or so, maybe until the start of the next school year.

Where do I even start with educating a 5 year old? He is (was!) in Reception. He has just turned 5. Is there a number of hours per week you legally have to educate? How can I get hold of some sort of framework, or targets... or anything? Do I need to be keeping detailed records of his learning during this time? It's pretty 'unofficial' as he will not be de-reg from his school (at the moment at least), but I want to ensure he is not missing out at all as he has missed alot already.

How do you 'socialise' your children? DS gets very bored, I cannot think at the moment of the best way to give him a fulfilling education.

Any help you have for me would be so gratefully recieved!
Thankyou

I temporarily HEd my reception-aged DS for half a term. TBH I didn't do much officially, just kept reading with him and let him do lots of number stuff (made easier by the fact that he chooses to do numbers etc because he loves them!) Reception is mostly play-based anyway, so games, physical activities etc, you could just keep a brief diary of what you do in different areas - I don't think you need do much more than that if it's only for a temporary period. You could ask school what topic areas they will be covering if you're concerned he'll miss out.

Got to go and sort something out but will be back later.

thankyou for your post :) I think I will try and follow the national Curriculum as I am going into this blindly. I have a list of words DS was to learn by the end of the year which will form abit of a base for reading/writing I guess... My main concerns are him not being bored and what I can actually go out and do with him in relation to his education. Do you ever meet with other home edders and do things together?

Hi Secret!

Before turning to the nitty gritty of home education it might be wise to figure out the legal status. You say your son "just" turned five. If his birthday was before 1 April then he is of compulsory education age and you must ensure he receives full-time education suitable to his age, ability and any special needs he may have. If he is of compulsory education age, it is an offence to keep him off school without good reason while he is registered at school.

I am not saying that I think you should be sending him to school if they have demonstrated an inability to keep him safe there, or that you should deregister him. But you would need to be prepared for the possibility of the LA turning nasty and initiating truancy proceedings against you, in which case it would be good if you're in a position to prove that it would have been unsafe for you to continue to send him to school under the circumstances. If he is of compulsory education age, do you want to share more details about what happened at school which led you to decide to take him out?

If he turned five on or after 1 April then you are on firm ground legally at the moment: there is no requirement for you to educate him at all, or to send him to any school where he may be registered, until 1 September when he reaches compulsory education age.

Since you have not written a letter withdrawing your son from school to home educate him, his education remains the responsibility of the Local Authority. Ultimately it is your responsibility in law, but you have delegated the responsibility to them and they must provide a suitable education. Has the school stated that it cannot meet his needs? If so, the LA must arrange for his education elsewhere. If he is expected to be off school for at least three weeks, then they must make alternative provision in the meantime, probably by sending a tutor out for at least five hours a week. What correspondence have you had with the school and the LA about the situation?

This might help! www.education-otherwise.org/ or this www.home-education.org.uk/

There are loads of home ed groups around. Where in the country are you? I'll bump the info threads for you.

At 5, you really do not need to worry too much about academic things - if you read with him and do craft, cooking, board games, etc. then you'll cover loads of stuff. You may want to keep an eye to the NC, but that is more for you than for him. What is he interested in? You could do a project on dinosaurs, lorries, another country, a sport, food, whatever takes his fancy.

Saracen - thread here - from what I can tell she's got permission to keep him at home for the time being at least, until the school get their act together.

(hope you don't mind me linking ASLD, thought it'd be easier than you having to say it all over again!)

Glad you've popped over here for advice. Your DS is so much better off with you at home right now. I think he'll need a few weeks of doing very little in the way of 'formal' learning - poor boy has been through so much stress and needs to recover.

He can learn so much from everyday life, just normal daily activities - numeracy and literacy can be learnt from anything. Get a few workbooks if you're worried about knowing what he needs to learn. Play lots of games, arrange some trips out to interesting places if you can. Maybe he could suggest a topic he's interested in and you could research it online and at the library, and make a little book about it. Do art, cooking, messing around with pots and pans making music.

As he's still registered, ask the school to give you the homework/sheets/topics etc so you can do them if he wants to. They should cooperate, it's their fault he's not there!

school has only verbally stated they cannot meet his needs. Well, they have an individual education plan for him drawn up, but it only states one change per day (incontinent) but he needs to be changed when he soils really! He won't be going back to that school, whatever the outcome, and I have no idea where will accept him as the 3 schools with places are "calling back".
He has alot of intrests! I tried to do abit about Weddings/marriages/civil partnerships over the past few days but it's his weekend now. He started to ask alot about injuries and ambulances and fires and firemen so thinking I might go down that route next week and link it into some art & crafts, reading, - I have his word list for the year so going to check that out for words we can write out and link in (I know "I" and "am" is on there... so "I am injured"? "I am hurt" ? . Maybe a trip up to London (we are close _ berkshire for who asked :)) to see where the Great Fire started - he was intrested to know why they didn't have fire engines for it. Apparently we have a group called Heroes over here which has a flexi school and activity days etc. The wonderful montesorri where I went is calling me back so he may flexi school there (I am not sure I can afford full time) until we have a long term plan.

Ooh what a lovely update ASLD! :)

(btw I think I might have you on my FB? From an old support thread? My initials are D T-B. Sorry if I'm mistaken)

yes, I see you on my facebook now! I'll go on now and change my status to out myself...

I am now in possession of a nice new (well, new to me - ta work!) yellow folder to start putting work in. DSs favourite colour so he is chuffed.

Ah that's cool. Have you asked the school for work? I doubt DS will suffer anyway education-wise, he's bound to learn more because of all the time he's got with you rather than sharing a teacher with 30 others, and also because of being more relaxed. But really they should provide something, it's in their best interest to keep him vaguely up to date if (a big IF!) he goes back to that school.

Check out the Preschooler Home Ed Thread, lots of ideas on there for slightly younger DCs (DD is only 3.10) but could easily be adapted.

not that I'm biased or anything :o

Oops sorry I only just came back to this thread, looks like you've had some good advice from people who know more than I do. Your post at 10.06 sounds very positive. I totally agree that he will learn more if he is with you, relaxed and being cared for. My DS is back in (a different) school now, but even though they are wonderful, I still wonder whether he'd benefit from being HEd - sadly I don't seem to have the patience - he probably has Aspergers, though no diagnosis yet and even his teacher with 20 years experience is In an ideal world I would HE him but as I'm still suffering slightly from PND it's probably not in my boys' best interests.

Apologies if someone has already linked to this but it might be useful

Sorry you've ended up having to do this. I still can't believe how unhelpful the school have been.

This is the curriculum statement for Reception at ds's school. It is pretty detailed so may give you some ideas of what you can do. Having said that if I were you I would expect the school to be providing work for Ds to do since it is their lack of assistance why your Ds isn't at school. Good luck.

I've been in simliar situation with yr 3-4 dd; we eventually got her into a great school which emphasised emotional ed., she did really well there. A friend's dd yr R-1 had toilet probs; the school happily dealt with them, washed and changed her etc. Hope you will find the same. We were put down as 'choosing' home ed; untrue! A friend is currently being pressurised to withdraw her ds as school can't meet his needs; this tactic is quite common, it seems. Agree re home ed; get workbooks from eg library, WH Smith etc. We got loads from charity shops. Good luck!

Thankyou for all yopur help, it's still such a minefield! Today has been an excellent day, DS has told me he is happy not to be at school (well, who wouldn't??) and guess what - no "accidents" today - I put him on the toilet hourly and told him he wouldn't be going back to that school etc. and he has been wonderful. Even his behavious has calmed down. He has tried with his pooing really well, I have told him I am his new teacher for now and he is really happy :) I drove past this Heroes place on the way to work so going to see what they offer 5 year olds in way of acitivities etc. I can't see him finding a place until Sept now TBH, the Education Welfare officer was on more of a mission to patch it all up ie me go into school hourly instead All very well but if this goes on until he is 10/11 then it's not really a solution!
I am wondering whether I should skip his EYFS (??) stages and go onto KS1 as he will be going into Yr1 in sept. General learning I am OK with, I just don't know what books etc he should be reading. Which reminds me, I must give their reading book back - the same one since Christmas I might add! THats how much schooling he has missed :( Oh well, he's out of it now :)