Has anyone home educated for reception year?

[Itsjustmeagain]

Hi,

My dd is due to start school in September but she is August born and she is struggling a lot at nursery even let alone school (for example she is potty trained at home but at nursery she gets so stressed she has 3 or 4 accidents a day). She hates going there but at the moment I am working so its for childcare.

DH and I have been talking and it would be pretty easy for me to take a year or two or more out as the business is owned by us and dh would be able to manage alone if we employed someone to replace me so I can just pick it up again when I feel like.

We are really interested in the idea of NOT starting her at school in September, but I am aware that I cant just hold her back and that that year would still be reception year so if she started the next year it would be in year one etc. So we have been looking in to home educating her for that year - or until she seems ready for school.

She is the fourth of five children and we have never had cause to worry about the older ones and so I am a little new at this!

However, the oldest child who is 9 struggled for a number of years and although she is better now she still gets anxiety attacks etc - and I suppose we are now a bit more wary of listening to the children when they tell us they are not happy!

We have already applied and been offered a place at the school - although the school is no where near capacity and so starting her in year one shouldnt be a problem.

Has anyone done this? it sounds silly but how do you tell the school /authorities that you are going to do this - I feel like I am going to get in trouble for backing out .

thanks for reading!

How exciting!

You don't get in trouble at all. You can simply write to the LA and say "thank you for the offer of a place at XXX. We have decided not to take it up at this time, and will make alternative arrangements for LittleItsJustMe's education. Yours sincerely"

The legal position:

Your child has to be in full time education, at school or otherwise, the term after her fifth birthday. So you actually have a full 18 months from now before she legally has to be in full time education. You can relax, build her confidence, let her develop at her own pace, and see how things go.

The LA would have no business at all enquiring into the education you are providing for her until after she is 5 (but they will probably assume you have sent her to private school and not bother you, so it's irrelevant anyway). If and when you decide she's ready for school, then you apply for a place, and the LA will be only too happy to help you with the practicalities of how you do that.

Other things: get yourself connected to other home educators. There are lots of us out there - massively increasing numbers too . Google your city or town name and "home education", or your county (so there are facebook groups for North Somerset home education and South Glos home education and so on) and that's how you get connected to the other people. You'll find a wealth of knowledge and support from other people doing it, from those who treat it all very formally to those who are completely informal in their approach, and just answer their children's questions and facilitate their play :)

Also: be ready to revisit whether your nine year old is really happy in school, and your other children. That's the one problem with home educating - once you've said "school wouldn't suit this child", then it gets harder to justify (to yourself or your children) keeping another child in school who might be happier not going.

Enjoy! You'll have a wonderful time :)

Thanks - I went to pick her up from nursery today and she was sitting in a corner on her own when i got the and had had loads of accidents again so its sort of cemented the though even more in my head. I kind of wish I could just take her out tomorrow but I need to wait at least another month before I can leave work (I have to hire a replacement).

I have been googling like mad and so far I REALLYY like sound of the less formal approach and as you say this is based on the fact I think that my older children would have benefited hugely from it! My 7 year old has been in full time school and nursery since he was 2 years old, we have been told all along that he has special needs because he couldn't settle, gets anxious and now at 7 he has a reading age of less than 5. He was put into special groups and we were told once he reached 7 he would get assessments to find the problem. He has spent the last 6 months getting all the assessments under the sun but has come out as normal in every single one - in fact in quite a few areas like IQ and memory he came out above normal, no one can find a reason why he has failed to learn to read and write up until this point.

In the last month or so we have been doing a few bits at home based on what I have been reading, mainly things like gardening and cooking and he has actually learned to read words like "sunflower" through doing that. So I think that would be the way I would like to go - less formal more learning through actually doing.

I am now off to google local groups etc!

thanks!

Itsjustmeagain - I'm not sure from your post if you're planning to home educate for just the one year or longer, but did you know that if you want to defer your dd's school start until the September after her 5th birthday you are entitled to ask for her to start in reception, rather than her go straight into Year 1 with her normal age group? See here for guidance www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/273661/advice_summer_born_children.pdf