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

Taught by whom? Parents aren’t teachers.
The lack of respect for the profession of teaching is astounding.

Flexischooling is not something I’ve heard of before. I can think of both pros and cons.

I’m curious to know about impact on funding, how has this been in schools where flexischooling is already happening? Schools get an amount of funding per child. If a child is only in school part time, does the school get less funding for that child? Even though they still have the same overheads as if the child was in school full time?

I wouldn't agree to this.

Very well put.

Wouldn't agree to what?

They still get full funding.

I wouldn't normally pick someone up on this but it's relevant on this topic.

It might be the best thing "you ever done" but your grammar suggests it may not be the best thing for your child. There is a reason for using qualified teachers (I am not one).

Great idea. Schools especially teachers need more to do because they aren’t really that stretched. What a completely selfish way of working.

No way in hell I would ever sign this.

In some countries, they teach a lot less than ours, and use the rest of their time to have much better PPA. Maybe if they only taught 2/3 days, and were off the rest of the week, while children could either be with their parents at home, or doing non-academic things (eg sport, drama, life skills etc, with non-teachers who enjoy leading such activities, like holiday clubs offer), that could be a way forward? It might help to keep good teachers-too many leave because 5 days a week, plus all the paperwork at home, is too much. If they only had to actually teach 2/3 days and had the rest of the week working from home on the paperwork, they might stay in the profession. Parents could then have a choice-as many more parents work from home/part-time, they might like to have their child at home more, and the option to come in would be there.
The government would need to invest in this, but if it means better teaching overall, and allows children with medical issues to remain in school at least part-time, most parents would surely be willing to consider change? I've heard of private schools offering online/flexi teaching, and it seems to work. Six years ago, I'd never have thought working from home or online teaching would be a good thing, but there wouldn't be so many people doing it if it never worked.

So an app is used to replace real face to face interaction between teacher and student? Or the parent is just relied on to keep accurate records? Or things aren’t monitored or recorded at all? And any of these are seriously suggested as replacement for the student being in school and accessing learning first hand, with the chance to interact with their peers, to ask questions of the teacher etc?

good god, no wonder there’s an increase in mental health issues, social communication problems, anxiety among young people. This idea enables those things rather than proactively supporting young people to stop opting out

@legoplaybook when I was in year 6 I was friends with a girl who was off sick a fair bit - nothing major, just the usual viruses, but she was a bit fragile and had very anxious parents. We sat next to each other and often had to work in pairs, and it was a right pain when she wasn’t there, and I suddenly had to do stuff on my own.

There was one time when the class were doing a show for the rest of the school, and we had a dance routine we were doing together, and then she didn’t come in so I was on my own. After that I decided to make new friends because I couldn’t rely on her. Fortunately for the teachers she was clever so she kept up with the work, but if she’d been less academic then no doubt I’d have been expected to help her with her work as well as doing extra when she wasn’t there.

Right pain all round.

I think it's putting a lot of expectations and pressure on the shoulders of teachers, who are already overworked and have too much paperwork to deal with.

I'm an ex-teacher and a home educating parent. I think in all but a few cases, it needs to be an "in or out" kind of deal.

I agree. I’ve actually seen this on homeschooling threads before. Parents using poor grammar and spelling, proclaiming that they can teach their kids as well as a qualified teacher. As if a few trips on a canal boat compensate for being “educated” by someone who isn’t educated themselves.

I'm not really sure how your friend being poorly is related to a register code for flexischooling but ok

Having to work a 5 day week is really not the reason so many are leaving the profession. And you’re seriously suggesting a weeks learning could be condensed into two days?

If you don't like the way particular schools organise their flexi arrangements I would take it up with the head teachers involved.

@legoplaybook sorry if it wasn’t clear. My friend in year 6 was essentially being flex-schooled. You asked why anyone who wasn’t flexi-schooling should care about those who were. I was explaining the impact on other kids in the class.

Surely something we all hope to leave education with is an ability to analyse and understand a piece of text.

The OP references a petition related to ensuring that children who are flexischooled do not adversely impact the authorised absence data for the school. It is suggested that a second code is utilised to give the absence data greater meaning.

No one is suggesting that everybody flexischool. No one is asking if flexischooling is positive or negative. The OP has been very good in answering all of the questions and criticisms posted here. Many previous posters on this thread seem to have big opinions on something they know very little about.

The OP is about the petition. The petition is simply about an absence data code.

I am pro school. I am pro home education. I am pro flexischool. I believe that all of these methods have merit and can work when people are willing to work together to benefit a child.

The impact it had on you - her being off sick on the day of your performance - bears no relation to flexi schooling.

I've flexi schooled my reception aged child for almost a year. It adds no additional work to my child's school teacher. He does mornings in school and after a rest home work with me.

For him it's because of a medical issue which means full time hours in school is too much. If I sent my child in full time, it would benefit no one and my child would lose out. We gave found a way to maximise his learning by sharing how we do it. This middle ground means he gets the best from his time in school. Without flexi, I'd be forced to homeschool him fully.

In areas that he struggles, I have the capacity to give him extra one to one help, which would never be available in school. I can tailor the work we do around how much energy he has on a given day.

It adds absolutely nothing to his teachers workload. They don't plan what we do - that's my job. I write a termly curriculum plan setting out intended work for each subject, and record the work that we do. I hand this in periodically so the school CAN read it if they wish, but they are under no obligation to, and I have no idea if they do or not. My planning is based on curriculum material from their website and my own research into the marriage curriculum requirements for his age.

Petition signed from me.

Ime it causes less chaos, because the days that the children doing flexi schooling attend, are pre arranged. I know of 2 children who flexi school. Before they did, due to their medical needs, their attendance was all over the place which was much more disruptive for teachers and other children as well as the child themselves. Now they have set days which is more manageable for everyone.

I have a teacher friend who teaches some children who flexi school and it works well.

I agree with the code change, which is what this is about. Flexi schools is happening and is necessary whether some people like it or not. Not every child has a straightforward experience of school due to physical health issues, SEN, mental health issues etc.

There does need to be more checks on children that are being schooled at home whether part time under flexischooling or full time homeschooling.

For those who are dead against it I will give you an example of a child I know who is flexi schooled. This child has cerebral palsy which affects them physically rather than cognitively. They are in a mainstream primary school and doing very well academically. They are taken out of school 2 afternoons per week to attend physical therapies. This is pre planned to coincide with when the remainder of the class have PE lessons which the child struggles to participate in.

i've NOT read 6 pages worth but i could see this working well in secondary for students who are either interested and ahead in certain subjects or seriously behind. with block type classes it would be easy to arrange.

I really have no idea why putting an individual child’s needs first is being framed as a bad thing. I’m looking into flexischooling for my children. I have a just 3 year old who loves to learn and is very advanced (reading basic sentences, huge advanced vocab, basic numeracy, etc ). He is very social and I’m sure he would enjoy that aspect of school and don’t want him to miss out, but as multiple teachers have pointed out to me, he is well above what you would expect in a reception aged child and will find the work very easy and potentially be very bored. I have the means and desire to home educate, but flexischooling seems a good option to allow us to continue to indulge his love for learning at his pace, offer more variety and spend more time as a family. There is no way that I couldn’t teach one very bright and motivated child, 2 school days worth of learning in a couple of hours. No I wouldn’t expect planning, as I probably wouldn’t teach it exactly the same way. Teachers teach differently too…

If flexischooling doesn’t sound appealing to you, don’t do it?! You don’t need to bash the concept purely because you don’t understand it, want to have an active role in educating your child, or believe that every child deserves to be put first. It would not impact your child in any way shape or form?

In fairness, the SPAG errors from teachers in notes home, reports etc are pretty atrocious too. And if you dare to comment on it, you'll be met with a chorus of criticism, as apparently it doesn't matter if teachers make spelling mistakes. It's not just in real life either; there's often comments along these lines on threads on here too.

I vehemently disagree, but apparently I'm in the minority.

I home educate my DC now, although they were in school until Y5. I was also a school governor for 5+ years so I'm not anti-school by any means. Home education takes many different forms and can be adapted to the child's needs. We have several children in our local home education community who are taking their GCSEs early. Both of my DC have significant SEN (one was already in special school and the other was failing in mainstream, even with 1:1) so they wouldn't be doing their GCSEs even if they were in school and don't have the capacity to follow the national curriculum. Home education has given us the ability to focus on them learning the foundational skills they need rather than being forced to attempt to follow a curriculum that doesn't work for them. The current SEN provision in schools desperately needs a radical overhaul, hence why so many children in the home ed communities have SEN.

Just for info, in the UK homeschooling and home education are two completely different things.

The proposed Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is an absolute mess and isn't going to do anything to protect children at risk while piling more responsibilities onto LAs who are ill-equipped to fulfil their current obligations, let alone anything more.