flexi schooling/part time in Reception, your rights

[RillaBlythe]

do you flexi school your reception age child? Or send them part time? What are your rights to do so? (I hate to say "rights" as it sounds so argumentative/entitled but you know what I mean!).

My June born DD is due to start Reception in September. I understand that she isn't compulsory school age till next Easter... How difficult can the school be if I want to keep her out of school one day a week (I'd like to send her to Forest School on that day)? Her school is hyper concerned about absence from my experience in the nursery attached!

But what happens when eg the school trip falls on that day, or perhaps sports' day, or maybe grandparent day or something else you don't want your child to miss out on?

I think from a school's perspective it is disrupting. My dc's school is fairly flexible for parent requests, but they would ask for all mornings. (except for medical reasons, they'll go with what you want/need/are recommended then) They then make sure that anything that is important for the children happens in the morning. The afternoon, they may do things that are important, but can be caught up on later. Whole class discussions can't be caught up on.

You've also got the issue of then others saying if one can do it so can they.

I considered deferring to start my DD in January and was told that while I had the right to do so, the school had the right not to hold her place open but to offer it elsewhere. Not sure if that is true or this "right to defer" and have a place kept open is true, but I would make very sure I had found out before I did it.

No, they don't hold the place , bigbadbarry. I was quoting someone up thread who advised op to use the threat (ha!) of deferring to force their hand. They truly would not give a damn, why should they when there are 150 children standing in line behind the op?

If the child has been allocated a place and accepted the school must hold the place by law.

From September 2011 parents of children starting school in Foundation Stage Two, F2 Rising 5 (sometimes known as Reception) will be able to choose for their child to:

? start school on a full time basis
? start school on a part-time basis ( for example mornings only)
? defer their entry to school and continue to access their 15 hours free entitlement at a nursery or other early learning setting

Places will be offered by the School Admissions Team on a full-time basis requiring parents to indicate on their acceptance form if they want a part-time place or to defer.

School place is held when the place is deferred until January or April 2012 (depending on date of birth)
If you defer until September 2012, the offer of the school place will be withdrawn and you will need to re-apply for a Year one place after the May half-term 2012. This will be treated as a new application

That's what I understood to be the case, mrz. I find this very confusing, but as you understand it, is my ht going to come back with a yay or nay?!

As an f2/reception teacher, id find this really disruptive. Your child would miss part of a sequence of learning, not just one off lessons. If your dc was in my class and missed friday as an example, they would never be taught ict (in ict suite), go to the library or have their successes celebrated in the end of week assembly. Although i teach phonics through all sessions they would miss 1/5 phonucs sessiions, so could miss the intro of a new phoneme/sound.

Our school gets around these issues by asking parents to sign a home-school agreement, agreeing to send their child to school everyday and strive for 100% attendance (not sure how binding that is)

UPDATE - the head says she can't stop us. So now we decide what to do...

Hi there, bit late to this but I flexi-school my DD so ask if you have any queries! So glad your Head agreed to your propsal. Though she is wrong actually - she can stop you. So just keep quiet about that bit :) For whoever upthread said that school is compulsory after age 5, it's not - full-time education is complsory, be that at school or elsewhere.

It doesn't have to be disruptive for the teacher or the child/rest of class at all. Sure, it can be but it doesn't have to be. If you are flexible and the teacher is flexible it can work really well. My DD misses a few lessons but she more than makes up for it at home. A child isn't going to miss knowing one phoneme forever, mumnosGOLDisbest - they will pick it up elsewhere. It's not like you teach your class 'sh' one one afternoon and then never mention it again, is it? :) Yes, they might not go to the school library but surely the visit their local public library outside of school hours sometimes? My DD wasn't in for the topic work lessons but she did her own topics at home - no difference. It works really, really well for us and I know that nobody has been inconvenienced by it.

Rilla, I would have a chat to your child's teacher and ask to see their timetable and see where to go from there. I think flexi-schooling would work especially well in Reception - depends on your school but in many classes, YR is 'formal' work in the mornings and play in the afternoons anyway...

Some really interesting information here. We would like to flexi too, so thanks for all the input. Do any of you do flexi with a child over 5?

I wonder if - having exhausted the being nice options, if Section 9 of The Education Act would be helpful? It states:

9 Pupils to be educated in accordance with parents? wishes.

In exercising or performing all their respective powers and duties under the Education Acts, the Secretary of State and local education authorities shall have regard to the general principle that pupils are to be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents, so far as that is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction and training and the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure.

My DD is 9 and I flexischool her...

Twiggy - may I ask you whether your LEA withholds some money if your child is not at school full time? I know some LEA's are doing that - which means it is a major disincentive for heads to say yes to flexi-schooling....

Well, I'm not sure, Cheesy. I was always under the impression that funding was the same whether a child was full-time or flexi andthat's what I told my head. But I since found out that's not necessarily true but I decided not to mention it to the Head. I also didn't want to enquire with the LEA in case someone decides to tell us we can't flexi anymore!

I'm also interested as I've just persuaded the head and also my husband to let me keep my son out of school on Fridays. I'm not sure if it will be possible to do this once he turns 5 end August. Btw there's a flexischooling page on Facebook.