Experiences of online schooling from Year 10 for an anxious teen

[Abby23]

Hello

Any comments/experiences with online schooling - specifically referencing y10 onwards?

looking at minerva, Wendover , kings inter high

dd is school avoiding, anxious, shy, bright, possibly asd

any recommendations will be welcomed. Her school is trying their best but if I stick with them, DD might leave with zero GCSE’s as she has missed most of year 10

My DD was in a similar position. I got her an EHCP which provided partial online schooling - she had online for English, maths and science but went into school for one other subject and self-studied one subject
The online school was provided by Academy 21 which is funded by schools and local authorities. It is linked to King's interhigh.

It served its purpose because my DD was barely attending any lessons. She is autistic and very anxious and was close to burn out. I think at the time it was the only option. There have been disadvantages though. After a few months she began to feel very isolated and not having regular contact with her peers made it hard to maintain friendships. Also, she switched during the last term of Year 10 but the online school used a different exam board for maths and science. A lot of the content is the same but it didn't prepare her well for exams. Also, many of the activities are completed online which meant she didn't have notes to revise from.

I don't regret the decision - I don't think my daughter could have carried on going into school at that time- but Year 10/11 is such a difficult time to change.

My DD has just finished her A levels with Kings Inter High. Refused college due to her social anxiety and autism . We paid for this as the online offering by the LA was not in the subjects she wanted to study. She never felt isolated but did feel safe enough to study.

Kind of . My child had extreme school anxiety but it really became problematic in year 10.
We home educated for around 7/8months but in reality we were in crisis so it was therapeutic interventions with the addition of a simple maths app recommended by the home ed team, and one for science.
We were fortunate that school offered the option of returning for year 11, which is what happened in the end. We couldn’t keep her enrolled though, had to deregister from school and inform the home ed team, which was good for the school as they no longer had a child with very problematic attendance figures on their register, but of course meant there was no way of keeping up with the curriculum at school , or access the apps they used.

Hi. Interested to know what you decided on? My child is currently unable to attend school due to extreme anxiety. She also is struggling with depression for which she is now medicated. We suspect as yet undiagnosed autism and/or ADHD and we are working on assessments, etc. The anxiety started in Year 7 but worsened in Year 9 to the point she was refusing to attend school or messaging me once in asking to be collected. School have been quite good overall offering adjustments but nothing seems to be enough to help get her through the door or stay in. She wants to learn and has aspirations to do well but simply can’t manage the school environment at the moment.

We are not in a position to provide a home schooling programme ourselves and so are looking at full time online school. Many seem to offer iGCSEs rather than the AQA, etc. GCSEs which I am unclear on.

I am looking for people’s first hand experience of full time online school for GCSE with a provider please as I can’t gauge how good each one of them are as much of the material out there is marketing based.

Thank you!

@Year10Mumma

your story sounds similar to mine. Started MVA yesterday and dd is already loving it. Only day 2 so maybe ask me again at the end of term 1!

the IGCSE’s are the same as GCSE’s. They generally use the edexcel curriculum which is v similar to AQA… (google it)..

Although the focus is on well being, the overall academic results are very good.A happy child generally does better…😀

i recommend—/a good place to build confidence.

Thanks so much. It’s great to have an actual recommendation. I’ve booked a call with MVA for next week (first available appointment). Did you come across TLC when you were doing your research by any chance?

Great! Hope the call goes well.

No didn’t come across TLC at the time but it looks like TLC focusses mainly on students with SEND, anxiety or school avoidance only. MVA focuses on this plus much more eg high performing athletes, musicians, or just kids of parents who prefer online school for one reason or the other.