Part time home ed.

[twonker]

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I am wondering if any of you have any experience of part time home educating. I read an article my mum tore out of a paper about families home educating one day per week. What do you think about this plan? Also more realistically in my case, I would like to take my kids out of the country and home ed or find them a school for a few months to allow them to learn a 2nd language. . . Do you think school would look positively at this? Or would they rub their hands with glee at the chance to cross us off their roll, and then when we return we struggle to find school places (our school was closed last year, and all local schools are now really oversubscribed a
S a result) any feedback welcomed.

Hi, it would be classed as flexi-schooling not home ed, and it's at the discretion of the headteacher.

Fiona's site has a lot of information on it: edyourself.org/articles/flexischoolingconference.php#regs

Hi

im considering same option for eldest going into year 2primary.
its called flexi schooling and has to be agreed by headmaster

im still in research phase but very keen to do it.
so going to do my best to put in decent proposal and convince him.

even if only for a year.

as for removing them-yes i doubt they hold place open.

could you not immerse them in language at home?

what language were you thinking?

if french then i found locally maybe its fact im in a city

we have a french school as know a lady whos french whos sends her child there 1day a week and sge attends normal primary the other 4

french tutor

local french community

french classes and toddler groups

but must admit moving away and schooling in foreign country seems fun but not sure how workable it is as they would teach in entirly native language and be tricky for beginners.

good luck with it.

It is at the discretion of the head and I think many of them are not keen on it.

For me, one of the big positives of HE is not being constrained by the national curriculum. If you flexi school then you potentially have the worst of both worlds - still tied to the NC at school, and limited time to HE.

I think it is a great idea to learn a second language - but not sure how realistic that is in just a few months.

In the case of going abroad for a few months, you'd have to check with the local authority, but in general the school would have to offer the place to someone on a waiting list after a certain length of time - it's not about whether they'd want to or not, but your area's policy. So, if local schools are oversubscribed there'd be a real risk of not getting a place you were happy with when you came back.

If you'd consider HE permanently, then that's maybe not so much of an issue, but if this is only an option for a little while and they'd then have to go back into school, you need to consider whether the school places you'd be offered would be ok or not.

One day a week - as others have said it's called flexi-schooling, and it's up to the head teacher of your school if they are prepared to discuss it or not. But there are difficulties - if you think about how school works during the week, it's easy to see how it would get tricky pretty fast - they start work on something one day then carry on the next, so your child could be missing the start or the end of a piece of work, or possibly a whole section of work. How would you work to stop that being a problem? If you had to cover that same topic at home, you don't have the freedom to do what you would choose to do, but if you just skip it then they may be confused (eg in maths) or feel they missed out (eg completing a group project).

It might sound like the best of both worlds, but there's a risk that it has the downsides of both - you don't get the freedom and control that HE would give, but they aren't fully part of what is happening in school.

We did a bit of flexischooling with DS but at secondary school, when he could take a whole timetable "column" for HE, giving 2 afternoons at home, which worked fine with that kind of timetable. But in most cases I think there are too many difficulties.

We are flexi-schoolers and it's working really well for us! Our Head agreed to it straightaway, he was great. DD had a few problems though (separation anxiety, not SN) so whether he'd have agreed to it if she didn't have those problems, I don't know. DD (in Y4) goes into school every morning and for a full day on Friday (and will do 2 full days from next year). The problems have been few & far between for us and it's all working really smoothly.

just top correct one thing as been doing extensive research on issue taken from a council website

Flexi-schooling is an arrangement between the parent and the school where the child is registered at school but attends only part time being educated by the parents at home for the rest of the time. This can be a long-term arrangement or a short-term measure for a particular reason. Flexi-schooling is a legal option provided that the head teacher at the school concerned agrees to the arrangement. The child will be required to follow the national curriculum whilst at school but not whilst he or she is being educated at home. Flexi-schooling is full-time education provision and should not be confused with Elective Home Education where the parents take full responsibility for their child's education.

Surrey County Council has guidance regarding flexi-schooling available for both schools and parents in the form of protocols and recommends that head teachers and parents refer to these documents and consult with the Local Authority prior to entering into any flexi-schooling agreements.

Only whilst in school do they have to follow national curriculum but not on the home day its up to the parent.

im in the process of

asking another parent whos childs just done year 2 how many helpers they have, what homework they have.

asking another parent whos child has 1day off how the school let her structure the other 4days , what does her child miss if anything and if she has extra catch up homework.

asking another freind whos primary teacher typical structure of primary school day.

hoping all that will help me decide.

doing some fun projects over summer in hope to persuade hubby its good idea and he has his doubts.

then hard bit convincing the head.

as my childs not masivly behind
is in good health with no special needs.

so think they may feel im bit odd.

she does get very overtired most weeks-they do so much.

pass the twiglets intrested to know how it works for you?

did head agree because of sepration anxiety?

what do you do on those days how do you structure time?

do you do stuff he doesnt do in school.

na levles is he keeping up with classmates?

Yes, I think Head agreed because of her anxiety. In the morning they do the core literacy/numeracy work, so she is present for all those lessons and keeps up to date. The school afternoons are mainly project work and as we do our own project work in HE then we're simply swapping one bit of project work for another. On the odd occasion that they start a project in the morning it may be unfinished. This doesn't bother me that much and if DD wants to finish it then she just brings it home and does it there. The only time it can be a problem is if they start work in the afternoons when she isn't there and then finish it in the morning. Then she doesn't know what to do and it's not fair on the teacher to have to stop and explain it to her. But she says she usually manages to catch up and get it done. All this works really well for us but we are lucky that the core academic work is done in the morning so she doesn't miss out on that - I couldn't see it working for us otherwise.

Re. levels - literacy and numeracy are the subjects they get levels for so her levels are unaffected as she is present for all those lessons. The other graded subject, science, is fine. She misses out on a fair bit of science but we do a lot of that at home and she came out with an above average level this year.

In the afternoons at home I don't really structure time. We just do our own project work and I don't plan much in advance. I don't think we do anything specific that they don't cover in school, aside from having time to do more field trips.

There is a big difference to note between full-time HE and flexi-schooling. Whereas with full-time HE you are free to set your own learning hours, with flexi-schooling you have to work during school hours. Well, it's not quite as simple as that (I can explain more if you want), but it basically boils down to that on a practical level.

Oh, just reaalised that I didn't really answer your querstion about keeping up with classmates. I'm not sure what levels the other children in the class get, of course, but she is above national average in literacy and science and at national average in maths. So I would guess that yes, she must be keeping up with classmates.

Hi, thanks for your responses.

I think I need to improve my relationship with the head, then!

I want them to learn Portuguese, and yes, they wont learn it in a couple of months, but they might learn enough to get started and break down the resistance they have to it so I can continue at home. Children do not always see the point of a second language that only mummy and daddy use, and having the experience of needing to know it will help them understand how great it will be for them in the future.

Unfortunately I was a bit dippy when the kids were small, and believed people when they said OPOL(one person one language) which I am sure is fine if both parents have equal input, but as my partner worked away, it didn't work for us and they just ended up monolingual. I found out about mLAH (minority language at home) as a system when they were old enough to say "talk to me in proper language mummy,"

I have tried to make contact with other Portuguese speakers, but have not found any others interested enough to have a regular get together in my locality.

This so wouldn't have been a proble in our previous school, where the head was very responsive, and the school was undersubscribed(one of the reasons we picked it). The school we use now is so much more precious. NOT my choice.

Have a look at Youtube - you can find lots of things like Little Red Tractor in other languages (presumably Portuguese too). It is a great way to get kids interested in other languages. They are happy to watch it and enjoy the pictures, and pick up the feel and sound of the language without even realising it.

I would also try and have set times when you all only speak Portuguese - say at meal times - when you talk about all the food on the table, what the weather is like etc.

Good luck.

I don't see why you need to take time off school to learn a language though. surely just speaking it around the home, as you all go about your normal business, would be the best way to learn? And you have hours at home when school has finished...

Around here most kids learn their "home language" through saturday schools. if you live somewhere big enough you may well be able to get a group together to do one in Portuguese. Losing a day a week of school sounds like a very bad idea, as there is so much that they could be learning on that day in school, and it may vary from week to week.
You could take your kids out for a while, but then you would lose your school place, and might not be able to get it back (which doesn't seem such a concern to you personally).

Hi all i am new to all this i have decided to take my child from junior school due to bullying lost faith and trust in the school,so am home educating or rather in the process, first do ii need to tell the school that i am home educating or just gi notice and do i have to let the local \authority know this? also any ideas for resources for languages, latin, maths, English and teaching resources that are free etc any ideas welcome and thankyou in advance

Hi Tina, I think you will get more replies if you start a new thread. There seem to be a lot of really helpful and experienced home educators on here who will give you loads of pointers. Good luck! I hope your child recovers self esteem soon.