Home educating due to illness

[dray9925]

Hello I'm just looking for advice really. I need to be doing some education at home as due to my sons illness his doctor has said it's not safe for him to be at school. The school have said he can receive some education support in January as that's when he should be starting however we will be in hospital at the point.
I just don't want to wait that long I really want to try and make sure he can finish the year and move on to year one in stead of having to enter reception in September.
My question really is what are the main things he needs to learn to be able to move up to year one and not be behind and how do I structure his learning at home?
Thank you

I would recommend contacting your local hospital education service to advise.

Lots of countries don't start school until 6 or 7. As your son is younger than that, what he needs is what you are already providing, and have provided since he was born - a loving home, parents who are interested and care about him. Children this age learn through play, mostly, as well as enjoying being read to. Schools only put structure in place for this age group because they have 30 kids and 1 or 2 adults. They have to be highly structured so they can herd the cats. The structure at this age doesn't actually seem to be about what benefits the children.
My aunt was a reception class teacher for many years and she thought the most important part of her job was to ensure the children in her class enjoyed being at school. Whether they learned anything was of secondary importance. If the children were relaxed and happy, they would learn all sorts of things without formal teaching.
For you, the most important thing at the moment is your son's health. While he has the energy to play, play with him and talk to him about what he's doing, what you're doing around the house. You could also read to him where he can see the page and you can talk to him about what he can see in the pictures. Fine motor skill development can be helped by having the sorts of toys/activities that mean he tries to pick up small objects. It's this control of small hand movements that will come in handy later when he's learning to write.
Have fun with him while you have him at home and I hope all goes smoothly during the hospital stay.

Here are the Early Learning Goals, which are what children are assessed against at the end of Reception in England.
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When is his birthday? If he is summer born then I would seriously consider putting him into reception next year. I’m doing this with my summer born children and it’s becoming increasingly popular.

Reception follows EYFS and should be play based. A large amount of it is about getting used to school and developing social skills.

My daughter was in hospital when she could have started school, we were able to defer her starting school until the next year. It was a planned admission and she had 4 stays throughout a 4 months period and a long recovery at home with some time at the nursery she attended.

@catndogslife

I would recommend contacting your local hospital education service to advise.

The team at his hospital would take him on if he was admitted for more than two days right now we have to go up twice a week for transfusions etc so once he goes to Bristol for treatment they will help as he will be there for 3 months minimum I just don't know what to do in the meantime x

@KateW73

Lots of countries don't start school until 6 or 7. As your son is younger than that, what he needs is what you are already providing, and have provided since he was born - a loving home, parents who are interested and care about him. Children this age learn through play, mostly, as well as enjoying being read to. Schools only put structure in place for this age group because they have 30 kids and 1 or 2 adults. They have to be highly structured so they can herd the cats. The structure at this age doesn't actually seem to be about what benefits the children. My aunt was a reception class teacher for many years and she thought the most important part of her job was to ensure the children in her class enjoyed being at school. Whether they learned anything was of secondary importance. If the children were relaxed and happy, they would learn all sorts of things without formal teaching. For you, the most important thing at the moment is your son's health. While he has the energy to play, play with him and talk to him about what he's doing, what you're doing around the house. You could also read to him where he can see the page and you can talk to him about what he can see in the pictures. Fine motor skill development can be helped by having the sorts of toys/activities that mean he tries to pick up small objects. It's this control of small hand movements that will come in handy later when he's learning to write. Have fun with him while you have him at home and I hope all goes smoothly during the hospital stay.

I wasn't really feeling any pressure to do anything until his school said they might have him start again in September which I would ideally like to avoid. @Fallagain no not summer born he was born in December

The Bristol team provide help with the transition back to mainstream school as well so it is worth contacting them now OP.
They are based at the Children's hospital and also have an offsite facility as well.
www.bhes.bristol.sch.uk/school-info/admissions/

Op the national curriculum has goals - we passed this stage a few years ago but I think it was counting to 20 and number bonds (basic addition and subtraction for numbers 1 to 10). With reading there used to be a subscription service where you could get books sent to your home to go up the reading levels.

Schools teach phonics so you could buy resources / apps to help with that. The sounds are important so you don’t teach him ‘ellll’ for l but ‘ullll’ so that it is easier to blend into words.

You might want to ask the school for handwriting sheets so he can do his letters correctly. One of my dc was expected to joined up in reception which was silly (in my non teacher opinion) but if he is expected to add the lines before the letters to enable joined up before year 1 it would be helpful to know.

Op, I hope your son’s treatment is a success. I think many of these things could be taught with apps. And you could find out what he learns in science (my dc learnt about life cycles of frogs and bean plants) and tryto find age appropriate YouTube videos or bbc bitesize videos.

Much of what they learn in reception is reinforced later on so I really wouldn’t worry (but it’s easier said than done I know)

Just remembered my dc used to enjoy a game called sum swamp which taught addition and subtraction. I bought dices with ten sides to play with board games like that to do maths, in a fun way, with larger numbers.

If he is medically unable to attend school for more than 15 days then the LA have a legal responsibility to arrange appropriate education.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/941900/health_needs_guidance_accessible.pdf

"I wasn't really feeling any pressure to do anything until his school said they might have him start again in September which I would ideally like to avoid."

I'd talk to the school again, and maybe to the LA contact who will be assigned to your son due to his time off school as a result of medical needs. I wonder whether someone has got the wrong end of the stick about this. It is very unusual for a child at a state school to be educated other than with his age peers, especially if parents oppose the idea.

I agree with others in suggesting that you just do relaxing fun stuff with your child whenever he feels up to it, talk to him, read to him, and get some input from the hospital school. Educating a five year old can be done very informally, and he should be able to go into Y1 with his peers in the autumn with no problem