Home schooling, private school?

[Amajan]

Hi, 6 year old son is struggling with state school primary education. I am considering home schooling with the help of a tutor or potentially sending him to a private school. His current class size is 33 with 11 of these students requiring specialist care and help. Unfortunately he is mimicking behaviours that aren't nice, we are addressing at home. He's been assessed by occupational therapist and we're told he is not showing any signs of autism or Asperger's, he is chatty and affectionate but it is difficult with there being so many requirements for his class and the teachers and TA's have said that it is a challenging year group with more requirements than usual. Has anyone had similar experience? All advice/guidance appreciated. Thank you.

Yr choice, but don’t think that u won’t encounter it at private school too.

I home educate my three children. It's great and we love it, but it's also really hard work.

In your situation I'd look for Facebook groups for home ed in your area and chat with people there. You might find others in a similar situation who'll have good advice for you.

I went to private school and found it a massive struggle as it was quite pressured. We have a lot of family members in education and I have worked in education and based on those experiences I now home ed my kids. For primary level it's fairly easy in terms of the education side and I would presume even easier with tutors but I find the part that needs a lot of effort on my part is giving plenty of opportunities for making friends and socialising. As a poster above suggested reach out to local HE groups, investigate what is running in your area. We do a mix of home ed and weekend/after school groups.

I home educate my children. It is a wonderful enriching experience.
It isn't a popular reason, but this is one of the reasons I home educate. There just aren't enough specialist provisions and so much teacher time is taken up with behaviour management. It just wouldn't be fair for my children, who would miss out on instruction time and teacher attention. Not blaming the SEN kids, teachers or anyone else, but the lack of suitable provisions.
We do our lessons in the morning, and then have the afternoons and weekends for play/ groups which is lovely. So much can be done in not very much time. There are many reasons we home educate, and this is just one factor.

I would explore private schools first and see if there are any near you that would be a good fit for your child. Private schools vary massively, so some might be a brilliant life changing fit, and others might be disastrous. My dd was also struggling in a large class (potentially SEN, but too young to properly assess for how it is presenting), and has been brilliantly supported since moving to a small, inclusive private junior school.

I would do a lot of investigation and self reflection before home educating. I know several mums who have done it for varying reasons and durations. The ones who are successful are excited about it - much like @Noteification above. For others the reality is really overwhelming, can be difficult to motivate/ keep kids roughly on track, potentially creates stress in family relationships, and can be quite isolating. There are some good homeschooling resources and increasing numbers of collectives that can pool resources and provide some enrichment opportunities, but it is still a LOT to take on. I also honestly know that there are some aspects I would be great at as a teacher, and others not at all.

Didn't want to read and run as we were in a very similar situation a year ago, albeit it doesn't sound anywhere near as challenging. 11/30 in the class needing extra support sounds very tough for the teachers.

We considered home schooling for our middle child, if only for a term or two to bring him back up to speed - he's dyslexic and the class he was in had a lot of behaviour issues too .... very different to my daughter's year at the same school.

We also considered private, and so started him with a tutor for the 7+ exams. After a lot of thought, and about a year into tutoring now, we've decided to keep him in the same school (DH's work allowing!) and he has two sessions a week with a tutor. It's been a revelation, in all honesty. He's no longer falling behind in class, and gets a 'private education' without having the upheaval of moving schools, and he also has the social side of being in school every day.

It works for us, and we're fortunate to have found a good tuition company who I trust wholeheartedly, but just something to think about!

Thank you for all of your replies, experiences and advice. I really appreciate it. 😊

When you say he is struggling what does that mean? Why has he been assessed? Is it because his behaviour has been a problem?

@cansu He's struggling to stay focused in the classroom, which also means he's fallen behind. He is quite reactive to the various situations that unfold, unfortunately sometimes he reacts physically if he is involved (he's not the only one) but we noticed he was continuing these behaviours at home with his sister and they were becoming his default response. My husband and I attended the school to talk it over with the SENCO, we asked if there might be any signs of ADHD, they explained the situation with other children in the class and put us in touch with an OT to evaluate if there was anything else going on, we were told there was nothing obvious they could detect but we will go back again when he is a bit older as some of their tests are designed for children over 6.

I would be careful about private school. You need to select one who would be willing and able to deal with special needs. An OT is not the person who would be best placed to check if your dc has an issue such as ADHD or ASD. You need to be referred to a paediatrician is there are concerns such as these. Your dc is unlikely to be 'just copying' the other children with SN. He may simply have behaviour problems - not all poor behaviour is SN. However, it could be a developmental issue.

Covid has created a lot of behaviour issues indirectly, delays in children (speech, physical etc, attention span due to screen addictions) and massive waiting lists for SEN assessments so all of those factors are making it quite difficult in many schools.
Once they have gone through the assessments and get the funding for extra SEN support and staffing then hopefully it will improve. If they can find the staff.

In the mean time, parents with the means to pay should be doing private assessments and volunteering any time they have in schools to read in small groups, cook with kids etc etc do forest school. For example, if they work part time or from home. Squeezing in any time can really help.

Any 1 to 1 tutoring or just daily parental attention on areas they struggle with can also make a big difference not just to their abilities but also their confidence.

I think many schools are struggling and would benefit from the right sort of parental support.

A little boy surrounded by noise and chaos on a daily basis, that can be really hard for him. I hope it gets better OP. But I would not rush into anything drastic but first try the above suggestions at home. Also could you get him ear defenders?

My friend teaches in a mainstream primary school where about 25% of her class has SEN and a lot of the other dc will generally copy the SEN dc (year 1&2)
She says it's an absolute nightmare as by the end of class they'll all be howling or clapping their hands copying those that can't help it and then she tells those off she knows should know better and then the SEN get even more hyped up and distressed.

So I imagine eventually they grow out of all of this though. I could probably have easily home tutored to seven but past that I am seeing so many benefits to being in a social environment for us private school has really worked. I don't think you'll encounter what you've described in private school we've had dc at two private primaries and haven't and obviously word soon gets around if there are issues with schools anyway.