Please sign our flexischooling petition!

[flexischoolingUK]

Flexischooling is an arrangement where a child of compulsory school age is registered at school full time, but the school agrees the child can be educated at home for part of the week. Flexischooling is a full time education, just like full time school or full time home education. This is a legal option in England, Scotland and Wales, but isn’t very well known (even in schools).

In England and Wales, flexischooling, if agreed, is marked as Code C, authorised absence. The trouble with this is that code C still
affects the school’s attendance data, which can put schools off agreeing. Before 2019, Code B (educated offsite) was allowed and this code did not negatively impact attendance data.

In December 2024, the head of Ofsted, Sir Martyn Oliver, voiced the concern in his end of year report, that we have no way of knowing how many children are being flexischooled, as Code C is a generic authorised absence code, and it is impossible to differentiate between flexischooling absences and other authorised absences.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill proposes that flexischooling be managed by LAs. This seems like an inefficient and costly duplication of oversight and data retention, as flexischooling children are already registered at school full time, seen in school on a weekly basis, and schools are already recording attendance of flexischooling pupils on a twice daily basis!

We believe our proposal makes more sense logistically and financially. For schools to continue to manage flexischooling arrangements, but for a specific flexischooling code to be used (Code F) giving the government quantifiable data on the number of flexischooling children. Ideally, this code would not impact attendance data, as flexischooling pupils are legally receiving a full time education and it seems unnecessary for schools to be penalised for agreeing to a flexischooling arrangement in the best interests of a child. This is the current system in Scotland, flexischooling has no negative impact on attendance data.

We are aiming to reach 10,000 signatures to get a response from the government, but more than 10,000 would be a fantastic testament to the interest in flexischooling. We currently have at least 1 signature in all but 5 constituencies in the whole of the UK! It would be absolutely amazing to be able to say that every constituency in the UK had signed.

We are currently missing a signature in Nah-Eileanan an lar in Scotland, and 4 constituencies in Northern Ireland:

Mid Ulster - Mr Cathal Mallaghan MP

East Antrim - Rt Hon Sammy Wilson MP

Lagan Valley - Sorcha Eastwood MP

Belfast West - Paul Maskey MP

Whilst this petition isn’t directly aimed at Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, signatures from these countries do count and the petition data will be available even after the petition ends, and could be used to demonstrate the high levels of interest in flexischooling in these countries.

And of course, if every single constituency signs, that’s a statement everyone in the UK can use, that this petition demonstrates the universal support for flexischooling in the UK, with every single constituency having signed! 🤞

Please consider taking 2 minutes to sign and verify your email (please check your junk/spam folder) as unverified emails do not count.

Thank you!

Happy to answer any question regarding flexischooling 🙂

Flexischooling petition link

Exactly. The teacher is fully responsible for monitoring the offsite education as well as that going on in their classroom.
Who wouldn’t want a job like that?

Nah...if the parent wants flexischooling it's on them to manage. Not 'my child is more.special than others and deserves individual time and learning to the detriment of.others, and teachers should give up their personal time to make sure they're learning the right stuff at the right time, because we all know they won't have that time in their general working day'..

For example Hollinsclough school had only 5 pupils before offering flexi schooling https://hollinsclough.staffs.sch.uk/history-our-story/ and now has around 50.

Why would a child being flexi schooled cause chaos and disruption?
I'm wondering what the specific fear is.

The headteacher will organise flexischooling in a way that works for their particular school.

There are certainly some misconceptions here I would be happy to correct. Flexischooling is a discretionary arrangement. Headteachers do not have to agree to flexischooling, and were there any safeguarding concerns whatsoever the headteacher would not agree in the first place and could end the arrangement at any time.

Getting flexischooling agreed is not easy. So little is known about flexischooling, that it requires parents to do substantial amounts of research, make a formal written flexischooling request, have a face to face meeting with the headteacher and be able to convince the headteacher that agreeing to flexischooling is legal, a good idea and in their child’s best interests, and after all that, the headteacher could just say no.

Flexischooling is an arrangement of trust. Parents need to demonstrate that they are providing their child with a suitable full time education. Flexischooling is NOT just having time off school, and if the headteacher feels the child is not receiving a full time education, if the parents does not provide evidence of such, then the headteacher can end the arrangement.
Flexischooling children are at no more risk of harm than children in full time school. In fact, parents who are harming their children are more likely to want to keep quiet and their head down to avoid drawing attention to themselves or their child.

My child has been flexischooling since P1 ( now p4 ) best thing I ever done . 2 other children do it in her class too all on the same day .

Whys it on the HT to work to meet the personal demands of a parent?
Should the parent not be presenting how exactly it's going to work given they're purporting to be the expert?

The entire school has a capacity of 60?

I’m not sure if you aware, but there is currently a bill progressing through government with suggested amendments to the arrangements for home education.
We would welcome more regulation for flexischooling, which is partly what this petition is asking. Currently, flexischooling is in a very grey area, there is barely enough guidance for parents and schools.
We would love for the DfE to write clearer guidance around flexischooling, as there is still so much confusion and misinformation. Having a specific flexischooling code would give the government clear and quantifiable data on the numbers of flexischooling children. So absolutely, yes, we want clear and effective regulation and guidance!

Yes, the parent would usually present their case and preferences for how the agreement would work.
But it is not something within the control of the parent - it is in the control of the headteacher.
If the headteacher doesn't want to do flexi schooling they simply say no - there is no right to flexi, and no right to appeal the head's decision.
If the head wants to provide a flexi school agreement, then they decide how it works.

Yes, this is an example of a small school that was facing closure due to low numbers on roll.
The introduction of flexi schooling meant that the school became much more popular and was able to become financially viable.
Small and under subscribed village schools are often more likely to offer flexi schooling though some urban schools do too like this one in Southall https://www.stmarysschoolng.org/flexi-schooling

My understanding is that the school is still responsible. It’s another reason why schools are, understandably, reluctant to agree.

It sounds like there are two types of flexischooling, the one where a child can't cope with school, so it's effectively a part time option and the one where a child can cope with school, but their parents like the sound of home schooling, but can't commit to it.

The first implies that the child is in the wrong setting or the setting isn't working to meet the child's needs. Something should really change to make sure the child can access a full time education. Maybe flexischooling should be an option with an EHCP. But we'd have to be confident that parents couldn't be pushed into it. I am not at all confident that schools and LAs wouldn't push it on parents.

The second is just tough. Either home educate or don't. But don't pretend that dicking a school and individual teachers around is ok.

Nope.

Sounds completely daft and unworkable.

Part time timetables are not flexischooling.

This is not the case, flexischooling is NOT doing school work at home. Teachers should NOT be providing planning or work and parents should NOT be adding to teachers workload.

Yes, I am aware of the bill progressing through parliament re home education and it can’t come soon enough. Too many children are getting zero education because they’re not being checked and no one knows anything about their welfare. Imo it’s far too easy to de-register your children from school.

It obviously does work for a lot of schools though. Why not have a clear code in the register for it?

But you said as part of planning a flexischooling arrangement the parent and school will liaise and discuss what content would be missed at the times the child would be educated at home.*

That is adding to their workload, when.do you think the teachers will have the time for these meetings?
Leave class and the other pupils (oh forgot, they don't matter...)?
In the teachers own time? So unpaid and likely detriment of own family?
Again, the arrogance of 'I want this, sod every one else!'

It’s impossible to liaise with teachers without adding to their workload. Missing Friday for example in my year 2 class means missing our reading lesson and mental maths lesson. Going through concepts and methods with a parent would take a long time but essential to the child applying skills learnt in class.

Why on earth should teachers have to liaise with parents on this basis. The parents have chosen to flexi school. It should be guaranteed that it will cause not one minute of additional work for the teacher. Absolutely entitled madness.

Of course the parent and school would have to liaise as the headteacher would need to decide what days of times would be best for the child to be at home.
They might decide there is a particular day eg the teacher's PPA time which would be best.
Or the school might teach core subjects in the morning and the head will ask the parents to cover other subjects at home in the afternoons.

How exactly are part time timetables not flexischooling? Is it about who is making the decision?

Because they sound fairly similar, but one seems to be at the parents' request and apparently legal and the other at the school's request and not legal.

Our petition supports more regulation of flexischooling, with clearer, quantifiable data.

Flexischooling is no more of a safeguarding risk than full time school. In fact, flexischooling parents are inviting more scrutiny than parents whose children attend school full time.

Flexischooling is not a parental right, and headteachers are not going to agree to flexischooling arrangements where there are safeguarding concerns and can end arrangements at any time, should safeguarding concerns arise. Flexischooling children are seen regularly, in school, every week, and usually will spend more time in school than many children in nursery settings, but we don’t automatically assume that ever nursery aged child is a safeguarding risk due to the reduced hours they spend in a formal education setting.

So the teachers PPA time is only for child? Arrange lesson planning around this child too?
Again what arrogance!