We've been going through a bit of a dissatisfied patch with DD1 (7) lately, and have needed to work creatively to ensure she's getting what she needs from her life. One of the ideas was to try to arrange some flexi-schooling for her, but we managed to find other solutions to be able to hold off on that for a while.
However, it got me thinking that we are likely to come up against more and more challenges like that as each child gets to different transition stages in their lives and I thought it would be a good idea to make contact with our LA so that we can build up a relationship while things are clearly going very well, so that when we do need some advice and maybe support to get the girls into a school if that's what they want one day, we will have some knowledgable (of our family) and helpful people to facilitate that.
Now, if I had heard any bad things at all about our LA, there is no way I would have made contact with them. As it is, I've only ever heard good - they respect and value autonomous learning, they don't insist on any sort of proof of learning from parents.
So I rang them, and it so far has all proved true. I had to nearly beat them over the head to get them to take my details and arrange some contact. I asked about their beliefs about autonomous learning, and she said all their EHE officers are totally on board with autonomous learning and with working with families in the way families want. I said I was impressed and had heard good things about our LA that had encouraged me to get in touch, and that I wouldn't have done so had I heard bad about them. She said she was pleased as they prided themselves on being a good, supportive EHE team who made sure that all forms of education were taken seriously. She said 'it's about the children learning, anyway, not about how the education happens'
So, I'm actually looking forward to meeting them but I doubt I'll see them much as they seem so reluctant to get involved unless any problems have been flagged up! Of course, we seem to be doing pretty well with autonomous learning as a family, so will also be able to further the officers' trust in it, which will benefit other HEors too I hope.