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 🙂

We tried flexi schooling when my now 13yo started school in London.

he stayed at his forest school for a 2 days a week.

however he hated this approach with 1 foot in 1 camp and the other foot in another .
He wanted to be like everyone else at “big school” and to do everything they did.

he is summer born. Tbh I wish I had not bothered with flexi schooling and instead deferred his start date to formal school for a year so he had entered Reception a year older at age 5yo & 3m, rather than 4y & 3m

hindsight is a wonderful thing.

@LoveHearts69thank you for your question.

Which month is your child’s birthday?

Flexischooling is an arrangement for a child of compulsory school age, before compulsory school age you can legally do part time attendance before compulsory school age, which is legally different to flexischooling.

Summer born children can also request to start school in Reception at age 5, rather than age 4.

We have all the guidance on when to request, template letters, leaflets and a step by step guide in our facebook group Flexischooling Families UK 🙂

@legoplaybookActually, that’s not necessarily the case. I requested flexischooling before applying for a school place, the question I asked was: IF my child got a place at your school, would they agree to a flexischooling arrangement?

2 out of 3 schools I requested at said yes. However, I think I botched the 3rd one 🫣 I got a bit cocky that I’d already had to yeses, and I don’t think I made as good a pitch. Plus the headteacher was brand new in the role, and understandably didn’t want to take on any additional responsibilities whilst settling in to the job and she could legally just say no to flexischooling ☺️

@AnonMJ I hear you. Obviously I’m now promoting flexischooling but I also did a CSA Reception start with my summer born, as well as flexischooling. If I was put on the spot and could only pick 1, I’d pick the CSA Reception start!

If this was when your summer born started school at age 4, then it sounds like you did part time attendance before compulsory school age, rather than flexischooling. They’re very similar in practise, but legally distinct.

It’s December he’s 4, so Sept 2026 he would be starting full time. I’m really enjoying the balance we currently have of him only doing a couple of mornings a week and feel a little panicky about him being at school 9-5 mon-Fri when he’d still be so small and I’m at home with his little brother anyway.

I found a forest school not far away that does half day Wednesday sessions for home schoolers/flexi schoolers and I’m really hoping this could be an option for us. Would you hold off sending the request template to the school until next year when a full time place is actually confirmed for him?

He wouldn't legally have to go full time til the January so you could at least do forest school til then.

You’ve started another thread about this? Goodness, stop being so preachy. You sound like a cult leader trying desperately to recruit people.

If you read the thread you'll see someone told the OP to post in the Petition section.

@LoveHearts69as his birthday is December, he won’t reach compulsory school age until 31st December after turning 5. So you can legally do part time attendance before compulsory school age until that point. If you wanted to continue from January 2027 onwards, you would need to get flexischooling agreed.

In terms of how to approach the school, you have 2 options. Option 1, formally request flexischooling BEFORE applying for school places, then you could put any schools that say yes at the top of the list. I recommend this to families who are determined to Flexischool and would consider moving schools if they later find out the school says no.

Or

You could do what I call the stealth flexischooling trial approach. This involves accepting a place at your chosen school, but not mentioning flexischooling initially. In your own mind, use the autumn term as a secret flexischooling trial. Make an effort to build positive relationships with the school staff, send in evidence of the learning you’ve done at home. Then in around November time, make a formal flexischooling request to the headteacher. A common concern is that headteachers can’t imagine what flexischooling would look like, and it may be more difficult for them to agree a flexischooling arrangement with a complete stranger. This approach allows you to build a positive relationship with the school, demonstrate what flexischooling looks like in practice, and then to make your request.

Of course, after all that, they might still say no, and you’d need to decide whether to stay at that school full time, move to full time home education, or see if you can find another school that will agree.

We have lots of advice and guidance in our facebook group Flexischooling Families UK to help parents navigate this tricky process 🙂

I was advised by another member within this chat that I had incorrectly posted under the wrong topic. Rather than delete this, I decided to start a new post under that topic heading. I am new to Mumsnet and still learning how it all works 🙂

Thank you, that’s really helpful! He’s the only one in the pre school currently to only be going two mornings a week and two teachers have actually mentioned they can tell that I do a lot outside of school with him so that would hopefully work in my favour! It’s definitely something we’re interested in, and a great idea to use the autumn term as a ‘trial’ for the school! I’ve requested to join the fb group :)

Is this allowed at high school in England?? Or just primaries?

It's allowed at any school but much more common in primaries.

With a December birthday he’s be one of the oldest in the school year. DT’s have a July birthday and start full time in the September at four years and two months. They were desperate to start school - delaying that would have been a disaster for them and DH and I.

Oh thats’s alright, you’ve tried it, and you now know that it wasn’t for your child. Like you say, hindsight is a wonderful thing 😁 but no one could fault you for trying everything that had a chance of doing the best by your child, could they? 🥰

@flexischoolingUK just stumbled upon this thread on my hunt for flexi-schooling info. I'm about to make a request for this in Scotland. Do you have any experience of how South Lanarkshire council may respond? If it's a no, is there anything we can realistically do to appeal this?
Not on Facebook unfortunately so can't view the group mentioned above. Thanks!

@Homeedhelp25this was shared in the Flexischooling Scotland facebook group on 17th June:

Good afternoon,

Further to previous emails, I have been advised that flexi schooling is now an option with South Lanarkshire Council. If you wish to pursue this you should speak to the Head Teacher in the first instance and they would initiate the request process.

Kind regards
Kelly Devaney
Clerical Assistant
Education Resources
Support Services
Floor 13
Council Offices

There are definitely some flexischoolers in South Lanarkshire, though requests have been a bit hot and miss previously.

Hope that helps 🙂

@flexischoolingUK that's amazing thanks so much for sharing and for all the info you've put on this thread. Found it really helpful. Fingers crossed we get the answer we hope for!

Anyone know how the funding works before compulsory school age? Can you still claim your 15/30 hours if your child attends school on a part-time basis and they’re only 4?

No once they start school, the school receives their full funding even if they attend part time.

Once your child starts school, on a full or part-time basis, the nursery funding gets transferred to the school. So you cannot access both school and nursery funding at the same time.

To add a slight nuance to this, the census day for school funding is usually at the beginning of October. If a summer born parent starts their child at school at age 4, but then decides to request a CSA Reception start (starting reception at age 5, rather than age 4) and withdraws the child,

I always assumed the register code for flexi-schooling would be the educated off-site one…