Sending an academic child to school mid high school

[Dilemmaema]

Does anyone have experience of this? My son suddenly, at the start of yr 9 wants to try school. I think it’s the weight of the exams looming, the high standards he sets for himself and the idea of organising it all ourselves. School structures it for you, and he’s got very academic aspirations he wants to follow. Also, I think he wants to expand his social world and know more peers.
As anyone sent a child this late? He’s socially confident, does a range of activities after school. Gets on with everyone easily, peers and adults.
My biggest worry is learning levels. How they’ll set him with no school work. If he’ll be put in lower streams and lost in the crowd at year 9.
He’s, off his own back, for example already completed the exam textbooks for both OCR and EdExcel GCSEs and is doing additional maths. He’s part way through a number of other subjects. As teachers my husband and I can see he is doing this to a good standard. At 12 I gave him a past maths paper for example and he scored a 7 last year.
My biggest worry is he’s not set well, gets bored, disengages and it doesn’t go well. He just mucks around and switches off like I did at school. He’s gone at least part way through GCSE in 6 subjects he’d be starting at yr 9. I worry under stimulated and lost he’d learn to muck around and he wouldn’t achieve. My local schools are in a deprived area and aren’t wow.
This is a really sudden idea after loving home education!

He wants to go to school.

That should be your only consideration.

We don't home Ed, but we have friends who do.

A few older children have made the decision to go to secondary school (and others have chosen not to).

Schools are closed for the summer so finding a space may be challenging. It's worth contacting school admissions to find out which schools have spaces in Y9 and then arrange to meet with the head teacher age head of year of any schools with spaces to see which is the best fit.

It sounds like your DS is smart and motivated - in my experience motivated children are supported well to stay on track at secondary school.

I don't know why you think they'd get it wrong and put him where he shouldn't be.

Not every child is perfectly placed (behaviour, friendships etc.), but coming in with evidence of what he knows and can do, and areas he might not have covered, schools can find the right place for him.

Tbh all the ones we know who have done this have had it fall apart. They mainly though entered due to some level of unhappiness, so that will skew it.
Realistically the schools here with a space are in deprived catchments and rough. There are fights, police presence and stabbings do happen ( fatal in our London area in two terms and 2 life changing). Some lessons will be long term cover supervisors and poor behaviour to navigate. I left teaching in the area, my dh still does and there will be pockets of good support but also significant disruption. I worry in some classes there’s just not the opportunity to move if set wrong. I’ve tutored yr 8s for example in maths locally who’ve never had a maths teacher lead lessons. There’s enough opportunities to get caught up in nonsense and not learn.
I’m really lookin MH to hear from someone who’s actually done it and the pros and cons. This is only an idea from yesterday, possibly summer boredom and realistically he’ll be easily swayed by my opinion. So I want to look into it properly

They move him out when he changes his mind?
Try another a few months later?
Deregister again when he gets bored?
apply again.. in a loop?

No, it’s important and we’ll explore all options and discuss it thoughtfully

Obviously that's not the only consideration! Parenting isn't just letting your kid do whatever they want.
If your child decided they didn't want to go back to school in September would you just say ok then? Or would you also consider their educational, social and emotional needs, their long term future?

He’ll have no results at all, never been to school. Realistically MANY people are prejudiced against home Ed, there will be presumptions to overcome that’s he’s not socialised/ not used to work/ won’t cope. It happens a lot, people are then surprised when they aren’t fulfilled. But this is an important school year, and presumptions would hit hard. It may be too late or not have the opportunities to undo.

Could a community college be an option?

I know that’s not directed at me, but I have no prejudice. He’s one of five. Two went to school. We’ve done what’s best for each one.

Yes, there’s a few options from next year that look good for a part time mix

By only consideration I mean that you have a child whose education has not been the norm. He wants to do what almost all other children his age do: go to school

He's not asking for anything unusual
He's not asking for anything shocking
He's not asking for anything costly
He's not asking for anything illegal.

It's a reasonable request. Therefore, it should not need lots of consideration

I presume by your logical if he then hated it and wanted to leave after trying it you’d say ‘well that’s unusual, you now have to stay in school’?

A mid term admission from another school won't come with much information either. 'Grades' or 'results' wouldn't be standardised or always easily comparable.

They school would likely use a baseline (e.g. some of the year 8 end of year assessments from last term) to judge where he should be. They'd look at a sample of work to judge the quality and organise within the ability range.

My DS doesn't cope at all with the disruption when supply teachers are in. The rest of the class definitely acts up for supply teachers and he finds it upsetting and distracting.

The he's permitted to leave the class when there are supply teachers and he completes the work set in peace in the library instead.

It's not ideal, but in those circumstances he seems to learn better without distraction.

I’ve given him the prospectus of schools near us and their option booklets, and the local college plus local sports clubs:
He’s come back and said part time college looks appealing 🤷‍♀️

It's lazy just to do whatever the norm is with no consideration of whether it is actually best for the child. Home educators tend to really value education and want the best for their children.

That’s it. I’ve invested lot of time into this journey, and him. He’s been happy, well adjusted and made excellent progress.
I’ve spoken to him and been neutral, but provided him with the info he needs. I personally think the part time college idea and a few more sports clubs is the way forward and I like the idea- but I’m giving him space to think it over. I’ve sent him to talk to an older school going friend this evening who’s a nice boy to chat

Personally, I think you/he have gone so far, you should see it through with home ed and then look for him to start in sixth form.

I suspect he'll be bored rigid and won't get pushed and could easily stagnate, especially if he's already at or above the standard of their "top" groups, which is highly possible if he's motivated and has had 1-2-1 tuition/supervision up to now. He may also find himself "frozen out" by the other pupils who already know eachother and have made friendship groups etc.

I moved schools in that year (parents had to move country due to father being in the RAF) and came to live and me to go to school in the UK. Up to then I'd been a strong student at the previous school. I was "thrown in" to the local comp and couldn't believe how bad things were with disruption, bullying, supply teachers etc (this was a long time ago!), and just floundered and eventually went downhill and never really recovered. I was in the "wrong" groups, bored stupid doing work I'd already done in the previous school, and just lost all interest and motivation, mostly due to the constant disruption and bullying.

My GCSEs were a write off really - I think I passed 1! But I picked my self up, went to a different sixth form, starting afresh with a clean sheet with others all starting out too, lots of people not knowing eachother and really pulled myself up, got my GCSEs and then got my A Levels.

I’m sorry to hear that @Badbadbunny

As I said I tutor and I’ve seen similar, for example a child in year 8 I asked about the odd homework. One week it would be suitable for year 5, the next gcse level. Like someone was grabbing books and photocopying random pages. They said they’d never had anything but cover supervisors in maths. I asked two other children who confirmed this as true factually- like it was normal. Tutoring requests have gone through the roof.

As a teacher who’s worked in ‘rough’ schools I’m amazed by the current situation in our local schools. It’s not the reason we started home education, schools have deteriorated.