new to Home Ed

[seekers]

I have just started to homeschool.

My child's school very much want my child back and have said they would like to put some stuff together for my child and speak to us both. I have said that is fine.

I have also said it is ofcourse fine if you contact the Home Ed team at the council.

I have lots of good resources and a time table. There will be some external lessons and a platform that covers key stage 2 of primary.

Should i request the council email me rather than having telephone exchanges?

I can not see there being an issue with me being open. I am planning to continue on with what has been done with homeschooling since lock down. I got next to nothing from the school and so did my own timetable found my own resources etc.

I will be following key stage 2 for key subjects but do not want to be restrained.

I also am considering whether my child will sit 11 plus and or private school entrance exams. So they are at the end of primary and I will look to secondary for them to join a main stream school, most likely a state school.

Sorry for the errors in that post!

It is better to keep everything in writing with the LA. Unfortunately, many LAs are overbearing and demand things they are not entitled to. So you want to keep them at arms' length and have a paper trail.

Even where an LA is out of line, it is usually not too hard to sort out provided you get good advice. You can quote the law or government guidance at them to "remind" them that they cannot insist on what they may want, such as home visits, frequent progress reports or seeing the child's work - none are required.

You may think your interactions with the LA will be straightforward since you know you are providing a good education. However, that doesn't always help. Some staff will be looking to justify their own jobs by generating more work for themselves. This is easily done by demanding more of parents.

You may value your family's privacy, or you may simply have better uses for your time than having lots of meetings, producing records and timetables, or submitting plans or progress reports.

So I suggest that if the LA rings up, ask them to put their request in writing. Then you have time to come here or on another home ed forum to ask whether you really have to do what they want, and check what your options are.

So can I ask the local authority what their position is and their role?

And it sounds as though I should ask that they drop me email or send a letter.

Bit of a shaky start to home education.
I think we only got through 2 hours productive work so far but it is early days and I took my child for a long walk.

I mean 2 hours work today:

45 min maths

1 hour 15 English - and knows there is a piece of work to finish by tomorrow PM.

2 hours walk

Lunch

40 mins of music.

30 minutes minecraft

Now going to see if an hour of reading can be squeezed in.

Two hours a day at KS2 is totally fine. You will soon see that home education is far more efficient than school. Your child has one-to-one attention and fewer distractions. There's no time wasted waiting for the register to be taken, for the teacher to explain something to another child who doesn't understand, waiting for help when they themselves don't understand, or queueing up. Time at school is not very productive from the point of view of the individual child.

Some parents like me do no formal instruction at all, but let our kids learn whatever interests them, when and how they want to learn it. When my eldest tried school at ten, they were not behind the rest of the class.

Don't worry, you are doing great!

Thanks Saracen