Curious about flexischooling?

[flexischoolingUK]

Did you know that there’s a legal arrangement called flexischooling where a child of compulsory school age can legally attend school part time and be educated at home the rest of the time?

Flexischooling is not a parental right. Parents need to make a formal flexischooling request and, in England and Wales, the headteacher must agree. Unfortunately, as most headteachers have never heard of flexischooling, informal verbal request are usually immediately shot down.

We have a facebook support group, Flexischooling Families UK, where we support parents to request flexischooling.

We’ve also launched a petition asking that flexischooling be given its own attendance code, which we hope would make it easier for headteacher to agree 🤞

Please consider signing if you’re at all interested in the idea of flexischooling:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/708358

if you have any questions about flexischooling, please let me know 🙂

Genuine question as a teacher - how does it work if the kid is in and out of the class? They’d have gaps in what they’ve been taught, the other kids will have moved on… is it the teacher’s job to help them catch up or just move forward regardless? Does there have to be a set schedule or do you just dip in and out as you like? As a class teacher, I’d find it quite disruptive but I can see they’ll attraction as a parent. Why not just fully homeschool?

What is the name of the facebook page pls? My child with EBSA maybe going onto a part time timetable soon.

I'm also curious, how does this work, I thought schools get fined if kids miss a certain percentage
Does having an agreement mean they don't have this issue?

I also think it must be really hard to have students who miss so many days and difficult for the teachers to know what to do?

See below

Great questions! Flexischooling is a fixed agreed, so it is agreed with the headteacher the pattern of attendance, which is usually planned in such a way as to minimise the disruption. It is not children bobbing in and out of school when they feel like it.

For example, in Primary schools, when flexischooling is agreed, it tends to be agreed towards the end of the week or in the afternoons, so that children aren’t missing key input they’d need for the next day.

Whilst the National Curriculum legally doesn’t ‘necessarily’ apply to the home part of flexischooling, it may be part of the agreement that the parent covers the same content at home, particularly things like phonics.

Teachers should NOT be expected to plan or prepare work for parents to do at home, and when liaising with the teacher we encourage parents to be mindful of NOT adding to the teacher’s workload, by keeping questions and communication brief. Some schools have curriculum overviews on their websites which parents can use to get an idea of topics, key skills and knowledge.

Of course, if teachers wanted to ensure key skills are being covered, they can choose to communicate that with the parent. Parents are encouraged to keep evidence of learning at home which can be shared with the school. There’s no obligation for class teachers to look at or comment on this, but it may be useful for the headteacher to view this from time to time, especially if Ofsted were to visit, so the head could speak confidently about the arrangement. Many schools use communication apps now with parents, and those that can be added to by both parties can be a useful way for parents to share their evidence.
If planned effectively, teachers should not need to catch children up following flexischooling days. Evidence from polls in our group show that the vast majority of flexischooling children do not fall behind their peers academically, and in many cases those children actually exceed their peers.

As I’m sure you can imagine, teaching one child is not the same as teaching 30. The same content can be covered much more quickly, leaving time for additional activities.
Flexischooling is agreed for a multitude of reasons. SEN, is a common reason, though not exclusively. A part-time timetable is needed for some children to be able to access school, but a part-time timetable is not legally a full time education, whereas flexischooling is.

Whilst full time home education is wonderful for some families, it’s not always the right choice, or even possible for others. There are a great many families who would not choose Elective Home Education, but have been forced into it as their child cannot cope in full time school. Flexischooling would have been the ideal solution for that child, but they could not find a headteacher who would agree.
Unfortunately, most schools don’t know much about flexischooling, as the guidance is hidden in the Elective Home Education guidance - which schools don’t routinely read. So we are doing our best to make both schools and families aware of this option.

We have a facebook group for education professionals too, Flexischooling Practitioners UK. Quite a few small schools have used flexischooling to save their school from closure, as a number of families are so desperate to access flexischooling, they are willing to travel or even relocate! One school went from having only 5 pupils to reaching full capacity and now even having a waiting list.

Our group for parents is Flexischooling Families UK 🙂

The DfE say flexischooling should be marked as Code C, authorised absence. Whilst this does impact attendance data, schools should not be penalised for agreeing to flexischooling arrangements (see image).

However, schools commonly are concerned about the effect of agreeing to flexischooling on their attendance data, which is why we have launched a petition asking for flexischooling to have its own code, and that, like in Scotland, this code has no negative impact on attendance data, acknowledging that flexischooling is a full time education. They are not absent from education, only from school.

When agreeing to flexischooling arrangements, headteachers and parents should work together to agree a timetable that causes the least disruption. Please see my reply to another commenter above for more details on this 🙂

That's so interesting, thanks for explaining. I gave a friend who's DD has SEN and they wanted to flexi school but the school wouldn't let them

Unfortunately, most schools have never even heard of flexischooling, which doesn’t make requesting it particularly easy. There are sadly a lot of common pitfalls parents fall into. For example, we don’t recommend making informal enquiries, whether in person or via email. When schools are put on the spot about something they know nothing about (and when they feel they’re supposed to be the education experts) the response can be quite defensive. A common phrase parents hear who request flexischooling in this way is: we don’t do that here. Now, that may be factually accurate in the sense that they currently have no flexischooling pupils, but they could legally agree.

Our facebook has a step by step guide, template letters, leaflets, and so much more to support parents through this tricky process. We can’t guarantee schools will say yes, but we can help to increase the chances 🙂🤞

I think it is a right in Scotland - I know a few flexoschooled children. It's a route we would consider if we find our children struggle at school (not both at school yet).

I home educate, so I have run across some families who flexischool, but I know little about the subject.

Am I right in thinking that flexischool arrangements are more common at primary school than secondary? I would have thought they would actually be more straightforward at secondary, where there is fixed timetabling and more rigid divisions between subjects. Why don't more secondary heads support it?

Flexischooling is still discretionary in Scotland, though the LA are involved in the decision making. Some LAs are very supportive, some, sadly, do not allow flexischooling at all. So it can be a postcode lottery. I say if you live in Edinburgh you’ve won the flexischooling postcode lottery, as my understanding is that they are very supportive!

I am in edinburgh and know lots of primary families flexi schooling. Usually with Fridays in forest school as Fridays are a half day. I don’t know anyone flexi schooling in high school as I assume it’s trickier to miss regularly once you start talking about exams.

Must be difficult for the children to make friendships if they are only in school part of the time.

Yes, you are correct. We have 685 Primary schools on our flexischooling map, but only 43 secondary schools.

It’s a great question and I think the answer is probably multifaceted.

1. Like Primary schools, most Secondaries have never even heard of flexischooling. The guidance on flexischooling is in the Elective Home Education guidance - something schools do not routinely read.
2. Schools are familiar with part-time timetables, so when there is a need and children are struggling with full time school attendance, a secondary are more likely to use a part-time timetable, as they get guidance on these and how to manage them.
3. The education at secondary becomes more specialist, compared to lower Primary for example. Headteachers may not feel confident that parents can replicate the specialised teaching at home.
4. Whilst there are rigid timetables and more clearly defined lessons, if a secondary flexischooling child is attending certain lessons but flexischooled for others, this may actually be logistically more difficult for parents. If a child lived on the doorstep of the school, it may be easier to pop in for some lessons and home for other lessons, but if a family live further away, this could become challenging, and limits the family’s opportunity for educational visits linked to the subject.

There are 7 secondaries in the vicinity of Edinburgh that have agreed to flexischooling. 3 within Edinburgh and 4 to the west of Edinburgh 🙂

This is a common concern from both parents and schools, but in reality, is not an issue in the vast majority of cases.

In our facebook group, Flexischooling Families UK, we have done polls asking whether part time attendance before compulsory school age and Flexischooling have negative impacted friendships, as this is a commonly cited reason headteachers give as a reason not to agree.

Both polls showed that the vast majority of children did not experience a negative impact on friendships from only being in school part time.

For children just starting school, and doing part time attendance before compulsory school age (which is legally different to flexischooling), these children may have previously attended nurseries. Nursery attendance is usually more varied, with children attending on various timetables, perhaps only seeing certain children once a week, but if the connection is there, these children can still form close bonds and friendships.

Many children attend weekly clubs or groups, and still form friendships whilst only seeing each other once a week. Young children can form connections and ‘make friends’ with a child they met once in a park for 30 minutes!

As adults, we may work with other people 5 days a week, but not necessarily become best friends with our colleagues. Forming friendships is about connection, rather than duration of exposure.

If parents are concerned about a child’s friendships, then arranging play dates outside of school may be more manageable, especially for a child who does best forming a rapport on a 1-1 basis, rather than in a big group at school.

Here’s is a screen shot of our flexischooling friendship poll.

Unless there is a medical reason for not attending school full time, I think the children will miss out on a fully rounded education. Which bits do they miss out on - maths, PE, art etc? Must be a nightmare for teachers who already have to teach at the same time children of differing abilities.

It seems to work fine in primary. At ours anyway there is a strong correlation between children being flexi schooled and very high income, highly motivated parents. Forest school is quite expensive so not an option for most. So these children tend to be the high achievers anyway.

my daughter is in high school and misses one period a week for flute and one for dance - she’s fine. They spend a lot of time rehashing information and I can support her at home if she needs any extra help.

ny son’s best friend hasn’t ever gone to school on Fridays and has a million friends. But Fridays are barely a school day in primary anyway.

Thank you! That's interesting.

But this idea can only work if it’s just a small number doing it, surely? If a majority of kids were in and out on a range of different timetables delivering any kind of quality teaching would be a nightmare and the whole idea o f an effective school would be unmanageable. Unless the whole school wax part time? A bit like a small number of people feel safe avoiding jabs because they can rely on the herd immunity from every one else.

Here's something else I wonder about. I can understand why it's awkward for schools to manage having just a few flexischooled children. It must be hard for teachers to remember who is going to be in and who isn't, whether they've missed anything, and (at primary) to lose the opportunity to shift the timetable around a bit on an ad hoc basis.

Do you know of schools which actively offer/encourage children to have certain specific times/days off en masse? Years ago, I heard of a primary school near me where a group of parents had campaigned together for flexischooling in one particular class. Something like ten of the Y1 class were always off on Wednesdays.

That seemed like a win/win. The teacher made sure not to timetable core lessons on that day. On that day all the kids, whether at home or at school, had better adult-to-child ratio and were able to do things which otherwise wouldn't be possible. IIRC the school did some fun small-group projects with the kids who were in, and worked with some of them who needed extra help.

Schools get full funding for part-time pupils, don't they, so such an arrangement frees up more resources for the children who are in full-time. If a significant number of kids are flexischooled, the extra resources for the remaining kids would be noticeable. For the non-flexi children, it would be like attending private school one day a week! It puts me in mind of some keyworkers' children loving being in school during Covid lockdowns when other children weren't there, as their classes were small and relaxed.

I think the particular arrangement I described only lasted for a year or two. I don't know why.

There are quite a few schools that market themselves as flexi schooling friendly - they would usually have 3 core days where all pupils attend, and then flexibility for children to attend or home ed on the other 1-2 days.

This particularly works for undersubscribed schools as parents are often willing to travel some distance for flexi school so it boosts the school's numbers and funding.

You’re correct, for the most part, where schools agree to flexischooling it’s often only for one or two pupils.

However, there are a growing number of small primary schools who are actively advertising flexischooling, and have adopted a whole school approach. Rural schools, in areas with falling birth rates have needed to think outside the box to remain open. Schools that take a whole school flexischooling approach tend to have 3 core days, e.g Tuesday - Thursday. They have creatively developed a curriculum timetable to ensure that key learning is delivered on the core days, and parents have the option to educate their children at home on Mondays and Fridays. If parents at these schools choose not to flexischool, their children can attend on those days. The school is open all week and full time attendance is always an option.

In one North London school, the school has over 200 pupils, and the school advertise that flexischooling is possible, but only about 20 families have actually requested it.

In terms of timetabling, flexischooling is granted at the headteacher’s discretion, and they are unlikely to agree to erratic arrangements that cause widespread disruption. There are trends in terms of what is most commonly agreed to. For example, afternoons or days at the end of the week are most commonly agreed on Primary schools. Secondary is more complicated in terms of timetabling, as schools may say children must be taught in school for certain subjects and other subjects can be taught at home.

@Saracen

https://www.antrobusandbudworthceprimaryschools.co.uk/page/flexi-schooling-at-great-budworth-primary-school/151891

https://www.stmichaels-dorking.surrey.sch.uk/

https://www.stmarysschoolng.org/flexi-schooling