Does anyone flexi-school their Primary-age DC?

[Machadaynu]

The kid will be starting school in September, but for various reasons we think she'd be happier being flexi-schooled.

I'm aware that she doesn't need to go to school at all legally, and that if she does, it doesn't need to be full-time until the term in which she turns 5. I'm also aware that any flexi arrangement needs to be made with the head.

What I wondered though is if anyone who has actually done it has any advice about how to get the head to agree?

We would like her to 'flex' one or two days a week, and am considering telling the head of my plans and doing it regardless of consent for the first two terms of they year (before she is 5) as it will be an opportunity (hopefully) for us to demonstrate that it's a workable system, but any thoughts and experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Ooh interesting idea - I've not heard of it before.

Wonder if I could flexi-school DS for his last half year at primary ?

I just fancy taking him out for one day a week and visiting some interesting places over the spring and summer. And we could work on our music theory together too - he's working towards his grade 5 theory and I've decided to join him for his Saturday morning classes. How do you think that would shape up for a year 6 curriculum ?
More interesting than SATS ?!

[Machadaynu]

Enthuse I actually approached the LEA about it last year in terms of their policies and guidance issued to schools - the LEA is supposed to at least communicate to schools that flexi is a legal option, if not a right, and give them some info about it. As it took a few weeks for anyone at the LEA to decide that flexi came under their remit, and they didn't seem to know much about it, it's safe to assume this guidance has never been issued. They then said they'd draw up a policy, and then a few months later said they would deal with it on a case by case basis. I decided then to just take it up with the head when the time came.

The time is now getting closer, so I'm thinking about it again. I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it'd be in the interests of my child. Can I ask how your child coped with any feelings of being different for not going every day - that is another of my main concerns; that as well as being 'different' because of what she knows, she might also be marked as 'different' for not being there all the time.

[sittinginthesun]

I just wondered whether the school you are considering has a policy regarding part-time starts for some children already? Our primary starts all children born after 31st march on a part time basis (mornings only), until half term.

Both my dcs are older in their year, and so started full time (which suited them), but I was offered the option of cutting back a couple of afternoons a week for ds2 just before Christmas, as he was very tired.

I think that the difference may be the reason for doing this. In our school, it is to ease the child into full time schooling. The presumption is that, in the long term, the child will benefit from full time school.

If it is for a different reason, then you may find yourself having to explain your reasoning.

[Fishlegs]

My friend did this with her summer born dd in reception and it worked well. She went in for 3 and a half days a week, then wanted to go into y1 FT and has been fine. I think it will help if you are firm in your reasons for wanting to flexischool but also show you're prepared to negotiate (on which day would be best etc) and work with the school.

Have you asked on the HE board? I think there's an old flexischool thread knocking around there and people with some experience of it.

[Floggingmolly]

I very much doubt the school would cram everything into 3 or 4 days leaving you free to do what she'd prefer to be doing on the remaining days, tbh, despite their doubtless having "ample" time in which to do it, as you suggest.

[laughinglil]

The kid, whose THE kid ?

[Enthuse]

This will sound extremely odd... But I never told my daughter she wasn't going full time! And the other kids didn't seem to notice! it was never an issue. Maybe at some point I might have said how lucky we were to have extra time at home... But I played it down and, bizarrely, that seemed to work. She is.a very sociable child and had no problem settling in. I think she really benefitted from the extra sleep!

[Enthuse]

Btw I thought she would find it hard to adjust tonfull
Time in year one. But she was perfectly happy. By then she was ready.

[Machadaynu]

Floggingmolly I think I said there would be ample time for her to learn what they wanted her to, or words to that affect. Apologies if I didn't.

'Prefer' was maybe not the best word to use - I'll remember that when I speak to the head. I meant something like 'finds more stimulating'

laughinglil my 'DD'. I'd have hoped that was obvious? I don't really like 'DD' Sorry. Horses for courses.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Hi Machadaynu - I'm sure there will be ample time for her to learn hopefully things she finds interesting either at home with you or at school with others.

I don't know why some people are getting so stressed about her curriculum - she's only 4.

I've been a nursery teacher and also worked in reception classes. I think children learn best through play, and certainly by following their interests and being supported in this by the adults around them.

Good luck to you both ! Hope you continue to enjoy learning with your daughter !

[Machadaynu]

JugglingFromHereToThere you can do flexi with any age as long as the head agrees. I was rather hoping to find out from people who had done it how they persuaded the head rather than spend 5 pages defending my desire to find out, my reasons for wanting to investigate further and it being implied that I am lying about the kid's abilities. This is all useful though as I suspect I am going to come across the same or similar when I talk to education professionals about it. The kid freaks me out with what she knows and has worked out or deduced sometimes, and I've known her all her life so I can understand people being sceptical. My grandmother has 8 grandchildren and many great grandchildren as well as her own children, and she just shakes her head and says "she's been here before, this one"

Thanks for your input - the music idea sounds lovely. I was thinking of something to do with counting/monitoring wildlife - she was very interested in birds for a while, but is now all about marine life (thanks, Octonauts!) which is hard to come by inland!

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

How about a trip to London to the aquarium just near the London Eye ?

Tis an amazing, massive aquarium, where you can see sharks swimming past in front of your eyes, as well as brilliantly lit luminous jelly fish, and giant sting rays in an open tank.

Could be a bit expensive and queues can be long ... but I guess that's another reason why flexi-schooling could be good (as will be much less crowded)

London Eye is also great BTW

Love her great grandmother's comment

[BranchingOut]

Er, yes, I was mildly pointing out that the representation of parents of highly able children on MN seemed unusually high. Draw what conclusions you like from that. Or, if you are keen to bring statistics into it, point me to evidence-based material on the distribution of highly able children within the population - I'm interested!

Pupils masking their ability? I think that teaching a child for a year, seeing their work across a range of contexts and seeing their performance in comparison to past and present cohorts of children will give a teacher a fairly good picture of their ability. In my experience of working with young children, I suggest that it is unlikely that a very young child would have the sophistication to sustain a consistent deception of that nature.

Or are you just making it up? :) now, why on earth would you want to do that ?!

[simpson]

I do think that if you are thinking of flexi schooling your DD then before you approach the school /HT then you need to have a plan with what you are going to do each day iyswim.

As according to the school she will be "educated off the premises" (if you get the go ahead) so you need to prove that if that makes sense.

[simpson]

Branchingout - I would assume its because it's a parenting forum with a primary education section so that (to me) suggests that people here posting care about their DC education enough to post/look up previous threads and so their children are probably going to have been brought up in a house full of books, have bedtime stories read to them every night etc which all helps.

So by definition are going to have higher achieving kids or they are lying

[Takver]

DD's school was reasonably open to children attending on a flexi basis up until they hit formal school age.

Here they can potentially start (half days) the term after their third birthday, dd started IIRC when she was a bit over 3 1/2, but only 3 days a week. I am afraid like most others I know who did this it was purely a logistical issue as there aren't any childminders in the village who will pick up/drop off at school for half days and so we had the choice of her not starting at all or missing my two work days.

Then at age 4 they have to go full days, but they still didn't insist on a full week, if that makes sense. DD went 4 days a week for a couple of terms (that was selfishness on our part also just to enjoy that time at home with her while she was small - but school didn't have any issue with it and we were def. not the only ones with dc doing 3 or 4 days).

They did go through a phase of insisting on full time or nothing, but I know the new head at the school is now again willing to allow flexi attendance for the little part time children. TBH I think the main reason they do this is they know parents who don't drive & live a way away won't send their dc at all otherwise (they don't get to go on the school bus til they hit 4).

[Machadaynu]

BranchingOut my point was that parents who post on MN about primary education is in no way a representative sample of parents whose children are in primary education. In the same way that there seem to be a high proportion of people posting who have a partner who is either having an affair or being violent or being lazy - it's because the forum attracts people who are concerned about things that the population is not representative of the population as a whole. I got your point. I simply pointed out that it's based on the false premise that the MN population is representative of the general population, which it almost certainly isn't.

I suggest you read a little more of the research before assuming that children of the age you teach aren't masking their ability or having it missed altogether. Your attitude is rather worrying - as an educational professional you should have an open mind. You seem to think you know all the answers. Here is a good place to start - www.davidsongifted.org/db/browse_by_topic_articles.aspx

[Machadaynu]

simpson and juggling... I'd get a formal plan nearer the time - she has so many interests - but mainly wildlife, machinery and science - that I wouldn't have a problem finding things to do, I'd just need to formalise it into a SOW with a common thread, but hey, those years teaching did leave me with some skills :)

[Machadaynu]

Also, BranchingOut you may find this article specifically addresses your question about the number of highly gifted children in a population:

1. How many highly gifted children are there?
   

No one really knows. Although many researchers have made estimates, and test norms indicate the statistically rare incidence of children in this population, the actual numbers of such children may well be greater than the statistical norms imply. Webb, Meckstroth, and Tolan (1982) state that one child in about 2,000 has an IQ above 150 on the Stanford-Binet Form L-M; one child in a half-million has an IQ above 170. Hollingworth (1942) estimated one child in a million has an IQ above 180. But Robinson's research (1981) suggests that there may actually be more than six times as many children above 164 IQ than statistics would predict. Lewis Terman (1925), who designed the original Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, discovered many more children testing above 170 IQ than predicted; Dunlap (1967) discovered the same thing in his clinical work as a school psychologist in the Midwest. In several areas of the United States, including Los Angeles, northern New England, Alaska, Ohio, and Colorado, Many more children have been discovered in this IQ range than should statistically be there. We don't know how many highly gifted children exist in the population, but apparently there are more-possibly six to ten times as many more-than previously thought.

www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10093.aspx

Add to that the fact that the MN users are not a representative sample of the population and are in fact a population that would tend to have a higher concentration than normal and I think you have your answer.

Or, of course, as an educator, you could continue to bristle at the very suggestion and imply people are exaggerating.

Your replies have been useful in showing me the sort of attitudes I might come across amongst teachers. I wasn't expecting that, so it's been useful in that way.

[mrz]

An IQ of 130 would put a child in the top 2% and 160 in the top 0.01%

[Machadaynu]

That's interesting, mrz. Do you have a link?

[mrz]

www.pegy.org.uk/page2.html

[Machadaynu]

Thanks. That's the Hollingworth data from 1942. Later research (Robinson 1981, Dunlap 1967) has shown that exceptionally high IQ is much more prevalent than Hollingworth thought.

[mrz]

www.mensa.org.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=2230

I find it interesting that Mensa list of behaviours could equally apply to a child with ASD

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Hmm, I think my children could be towards "moderately gifted"

School told us DD was gifted and talented all round, and DS was in maths and science. But I think he's as bright as she is, and perhaps boys typically not quite so advanced linguistically which primary schools seem to focus on (they seem quite female biased to me ?!)

So, I guess they could be towards the top 2%. Somewhere in the top 10% anyway. However it's obviously going to be statistically less likely that they (or anyone's child) are exceptionally or profoundly gifted. I wonder which of my friends children is the brightest ? Am sure I know several contenders !

I thought the behaviours in the link were interesting ...

Daughter has amazing memory, interest and concern in world events.

Son has great sense of humour, is musical, and always asking questions
(since he was very little eg aged 2 sitting in buggy "Mummy, why are the clouds moving ?" "Well dear, up high in the sky it's very windy and the wind blows the clouds along" !!)

< Where's that proud Mum emoticon ? Ahh ! Found it .... >