Doing Home Ed for a couple of terms or so before we move

[sportinguista]

My DS is 7 and in Year 3. We've not been happy with his current school from the word go but stuck with it as most schools around are oversubscribed and we thought it might get better. We've always intended to move area as we weren't happy here and we will be doing it likely this summer.

A few things have happened this year which have made us think that it might be better to take him out for a while and home ed until we can place him in a school in the new area. The issues are both social and academic.

I am quite confident about providing a good quality of education for the time he is out and we can also buy in teaching when required. I have the time as am self employed and can work around him. I've contacted a home ed group on Facebook for our area. I'm doing reading on de-registering and materials etc. I intend to do meet ups to keep the social side and also keep in touch with one of his mates from school and maybe get him enrolled in more sports/cubs.

Is there anything more I should be doing/planning and when the time comes and when we have our move sorted, how do I ask for him to be considered for schools?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like you have it covered! Do you know about the deregistration letter you need to send his current school when you take him out? That is a legal requirement.

When you move, you contact the LA in your new area to tell them you are moving in to the area and you want a school for your son. They should be able to give you a list of schools in the area with vacancies so you can choose one. There are plenty of people on the Priamry board who are knowledgeable about this and can help you if there are any problems.

Sounds like it will be fine. We've done the same. Took our son out in May of year 4 and moved areas in November of year 5. In the end we decided to stick with home ed until secondary school as he was struggling with the house and area move for several months - he doesn't do well with change. We're now in year 6 so 8 months to go. Home ed has been positive in lots of ways and we're making the most of the freedom with lots of trips out but he's ready to go back to school now. He wants the routine and greater access to friends. Good luck! If you're looking for resources I can recommend Mystery Science - we did a free trial with them from last Jan to June and it was so good we've paid for another year!

I am going to use the letter link posted by someone on the board as it seems to be good and used by others. So hopefully that will cover that.

I've written down some ideas for trips such as museums and he does swimming lessons already. DH wants to sign him up for another sport so I'm going to look into that.

Had a look at the local home ed group page and the activities look impressive, way better than anything done at school and much more up his street.

We are aware that we might have to home ed him for a while post move as school places in the city are oversubscribed generally. We've talked to him about doing it and he seems to understand it and we will stay in touch with friends.

In terms of planning each week, do you write out a timetable with lessons on or do you keep it more flexible?

I'm going to bookmark Mystery Science as that sounds very good!

So Friday was his last day. Feel excited and nervous at the same time. We have already home ed meet up to go to and other activities to choose from, in fact too many!

We have Chinese new year stuff in the city soon so that will be one of his first projects which can be history and culture as well.

Signed up for mystery science and there are tons of really great projects.

Can anybody recommend some great free maths stuff for Year 3? Especially games.