Home ed help!!

[sarahwatson86]

Just withdrawn my 14year old from school due to being bullied over a year, physically and mentally, causing him anxiety
Not really got any help from school... they pushed and pushed us to make a decision, let him sit next to his bullies in lessons or leave the school.
The education board havnt really mentioned anything Because he's off roll of a school now.
Need some help where to find resources around year 9 work
I'm from the Sunderland area and any info would be greatly appreciated

I'm really sorry to hear what you've been through!

You won't get any help from the school, but you might get some from the LA. If you don't really want to be home educating but have been pushed into it, it would be worth complaining to the LA about the school's behaviour. Encouraging families to home educate when they don't want to is known as "off-rolling" and schools shouldn't be doing it.

Are there other local schools you would consider? Another option is college. Some colleges offer full-time or part-time education for 14-16 year olds, and some kids say that the atmosphere there can be better than school. Contact your local colleges to see what's available. If he is going to do school again, it would be good to aim to get him in somewhere at the start of Y10, as the school system is so inflexible that it's hard to join after that time. Sitting exams as an independent candidate is doable but requires some effort to organise and there are costs involved.

That isn't meant to discourage you from home educating if you feel it's best for your son. Even if he ends up at college or another school, a break should help him recover from the stress, so maybe he'd like to have the rest of the year at home anyhow.

I can't help with the educational resources, as one of my kids did informal learning instead, and the other isn't at that academic stage and might do likewise. I'm sure other people will be along soon to help with that.

The best way to make contact with local home educators is via Facebook. For example, I used the Facebook search bar to search for "Sunderland home education" and found several groups you might like to join. They will be able to help you with suggestions on local activities, places to visit, exam centres and so on as well as support.

Good luck!! I hope your son will be feeling more relaxed soon.

Thanks I'm looking into colleges at the moment, I came off the phone from LA this morning and was so overwhelmed by what they can't help with I actually cried.
But I'm going to ring a couple colleges and see what they can offer

I second what Saracen said. The school has behaved horribly and looking through all your options while he takes a bit of time to destress will hopefully help.

I would also suggest after ringing the colleges, if he's so inclined and you have one close enough, seeing if there a UTC with Year 10 entry that might be suitable. The one nearest to me has had several previously home educated kids, some off-rolled, and seems to handle it well.

For resources, there is quite a lot out there and it will depend on his strengths and weakness & what subjects he may want to cover in future - for example, there are ICT resources that are probably easy to google that could be useful for any student but for those wanting to Computer Science at GCSEs I might recommend more specialized places. BBC Bitesize websites and CGP books might be a good way to cover things to start with while looking through your options.

Thanks for your reply, I will look in to these