homeschool for just year 6??

[Esnjim]

My daughter, who suffers badly with anxiety, will be going into year 6 next year....school is already a bit tricky for her and I worry that the pressure of SATS next year will just be too much. I'm considering home schooling her for just that year, and hopefully send her into the first year of secondary school refreshed and confident. I'm not sure if this is a terrible idea?I also work 25 hours a week? ....just after thoughts and advise really. Thanks x

You could consider an internet school like bright school. You have to pay but much less than normal private school.

She could have a tutor for a couple of hours a day and then she could complete work relating to the private tuition in the afternoon. A friend did this for 6 months with her daughter who was being bullied. Daughter later started at secondary school and was absolutely fine. The break from school had sort of pushed the reset button on her anxiety. However, my friend was SAHM and there to support with work in the afternoon.

No I work in early years, i work two days 8.30-4.30 and two mornings 8.30-1.00. I could consider dropping one morning, giving me two full days off a week and one afternoon, but anymore I think would be a stretch unfortunatley. I have another child, who's 5, currently in year one.

I wouldn't be able to afford a tutor for that amount of time I don't think. But certainly food for thought, thank you. I love the sound of the reset button! That's exactly what I am hoping for

Are you able to work from home? So you can work while she gets on with schoolwork?
Do you like the idea of homeschooling (as in, do you already quite enjoy helping with homework etc)?

Oh sorry hadn’t seen the earlier message

There are home ed childminders around - ask on your local facebook HE groups.

Home Ed doesn't have to happen in school hours, so you can do any adult-led input whenever you like. But you don't have to do structured formal schooling at all - there's everything from curriculum-based through to the extremes of radical unschooling (most of us are somewhere in between...)

Children change a lot in the first week or two of Yr6. No idea why but it happens every year. Maybe they mature as they realise they're top of the school and get given more independence and responsibility?
I'd say let her go into Yr6 and give it 4 weeks then make a decision.
It's probably the worst year to take a year out and homeschool.

I think it's a brilliant year to take a year out and home educate. SO MUCH emphasis on pointless SATS!!!!!

llangennith, why do you think Y6 is a bad year for home education? It strikes me as the best year in which to do it! The OP's idea is a good one. In many schools, Y6 is dominated by repetitive revision at the expense of real learning. Some kids feel the pressure intensely.

HEing for Y6, unlike any other year, creates no extra worry of being unable to get a place at a preferred school upon the child's return. If you took Y4 off school, for example, you might find that the child's previous school is full when she seeks to return in Y5. It also means that when the child does return to school, she makes a fresh start alongside all the other new kids who are also finding their feet at secondary for the first time. Since everybody is new, she won't be the odd one out or have missed out on any shared experiences.

As far as I have seen, among parents who want their kids to have a year off school, Y6 is the most popular time to do it!

Can you not just shift her “school week”. obviously if you work two days and one half day, that still gives you 4 1/2 days a week learning.
Activities such as sports are part of the school curriculum regardless, as well as drama, music and art.
Therefore the 2 1/2 weekdays you have off could be your traditional schooling when your year one is at school; then the weekend could be for the more fun aspects of the curriculum, which your year one could be part of such as sports, swimming, museums for science and history, art such as pottery painting, sewing, crafts as well as cooking or home economics, mechanics etc where the weekend would usually be. I imagine your year one would like to do these things too. This leaves the two days where you work as her “weekend” and it wouldn’t matter where she was. The extra half day I would look at booking either a tutor or signing up to a specific learning related class, probably languages (there are many French classes around here for that type of thing) or a home ed class in your area?

OP, I agree with the idea that it's a childminder you need, rather than a tutor. The education side of it doesn't take anywhere near as much time with 1-1 attention, so you can provide that when you aren't working. You just need someone to keep an eye on your daughter and keep her safe and happy while you are working.

If there is any chance that secondary might not suit your daughter and that you might want to consider home education at some future time, it would be good to have tried home ed already so you have some feel for how/whether it could work for her and you'll be able to make an informed decision. Y6 is an excellent year to be away from school.

Many kids move in and out of school several times over the years. At one stage school might suit them, later it might be all wrong for them, and still later they might return. People whose experience of education revolves entirely around school tend to catastrophise about the notion of chopping and changing, but it isn't the big deal they imagine. (My only caveats would be first, don't assume a school place will be available at your preferred school whenever you want it and second, avoid moving from HE to school after the beginning of the GCSE years - such a move would shine a spotlight on the ridiculous inflexibility of the school system.)

Saracen, I was a teacher, now retired but I run our school library so I'm still involved in school. DD1 home educated both her DC till this year when DC1 chose to go to school in Yr10. DC2 aged 13 still being schooled home. So I've seen both sides of it.
From experience, Yr6 is not a good year to opt out of school.

"From experience, Yr6 is not a good year to opt out of school."

Could you explain the reasons for that?

I've mentioned a few reasons why I think it could be an ideal year to opt out of school; do you see any flaws in my reasoning?

How old is she now? What are her interests? How many days do you work?
We do a lot of extracurricular activities. My stepdaughter is doing art lessons one day a week and she also learns the piano. We are considering investing in ballet lessons for the twins and swimming lessons at our local leisure centre for all three children.
I’ve also looked at French tuition for my twins this winter. But I’ve made it clear that they have to pay me back with commitment and dedication to whatever they want to do.

What’s the point otherwise? We do go on train journeys to museums and other attractions in London etc. When it’s raining I have let them invade my kitchen and do arts and crafts activity days with my supervision at the table. Or we go to a local church or something for the day.
Even the library is appropriate on wet weather days. I currently work at a office and I sometimes bring my children along if I have no other reasonable option. Pen and paper often works as a good distraction technique.

Year 6 is the perfect year for home ed! You get to avoid SATS! We home educated for years 5 and 6. Ds did entrance exams/11 plus in Sept/Oct of year 6 and after that we relaxed a bit.

There’s lots of free or cheap online programmes - we used Conquer Maths, Mystery Science, Duo Lingo, Minecraft Homeschool for example. Then we did home ed days run by the local science museum, Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust etc and we were part of a Christian group which did monthly/fortnightly trips and activity days. He also did trampolining,piano and tennis weekly. It was a good year!

We made sure he completed the key stage 2 maths syllabus using CGP workbooks/Conquer Maths.

He started grammar school in year 7 and didn’t seem at all disadvantaged by missing year 6.

We flexi school (year 6). Its brilliant. I reached an agreement with the school where I take over maths /computing and English and the school does the rest. It means dc gets to socialise at school whilst having the benefit of home schooling. Is this an option?