Home Ed for remainder of Y6?

[MrsNormanReedus]

I posted this in Chat for traffic but got no response so hoping I'll get some here.

Has anyone taken their child out of Y6 to home educate with the intention of them going to secondary when the time comes? Did they then settle well at high school? On top of a health issue, which is causing him to miss a fair bit of school, our son is also hating it because of boredom, poor teaching and looming SATS. It's a miserable end to primary.

For these reasons we are considering HE until July but are concerned that he will then think he can just be home educated again at the first sign of difficulties at secondary. He is looking forward to going and most of his friends will be going to the same school. If it wasn't for this concern we would probably happily deregister him. I know you can't predict these things but am just wondering if anyone else has ever had the same worries or been in this situation.

I took my youngest son out of primary for Y5. It was originally supposed to be for just one year to help him catch up (he'd been doing fine until that point but then just seemed to get left behind and even start going backwards). He's never gone back to school and we're now in Year 8; he decided home ed was his preferred option and is studying with Interhigh. Which I suppose confirms your fears in a sense (sorry!).

That said, my oldest three children were home educated during primary and then decided to go into school for secondary, and that worked ok (not great, but they survived, two would have gone back to HE if they could). I also home educated their cousin for a couple of years at the end of primary - he came out of school because he had being badly bullied in two different schools, after around two years of HE he went back into school. There were no further problems with bullying and he never asked to go back to HE.

It depends a lot on the child and how they feel about school vs HE. If you really don't want to HE during secondary (would it really be such a bad thing?) it may be best to leave things as they are. It seems unnecessarily disruptive IMO.

We haven't done this, but I know a handful of local parents who have. I think the key is to make it clear from the outset that home education is a temporary arrangement and that your child will be going to school next year. There are many reasons why families may find long-term home ed impossible. Children can understand that.

To me, slogging through a miserable five months at primary because you are worried that home ed may make your child unwilling to go to secondary seems akin to turning your back on an opportunity to take him on a fabulous holiday just because you anticipate he'll find it hard to settle back into home life afterward. If home ed is best for your child now, surely it makes sense to give it to him? Why deprive him of a good thing just because he can't keep it forever?

Thank you. Two differing opinions, both of which I agree with!

We did this for similar reasons...it was fine! Just get in early contact with the high school and ask for a one to one transition meeting if possible.

Sounds like a good plan :)