Repeating a year or two

[Melmlem]

Hello. My son (14) has had a medical condition for the last year that has caused severe mental health and other issues with the result that he is no longer at school and is falling behind on his learning due to brain fog issues. We are helping him get well slowly but are concerned how he is going to fit back into schooling once his ability to focus returns and he does feel able to resume studying. We probably need a an independent school and a relatively relaxed non-pressured environment. Does anyone know of a school that admits students who may have to repeat a year or two? We have tried online schooling but would really like to see if he can start again in a school environment if he can and we can find one that might suit him. Thank you sincerely for any thoughts.

Where are you based? St Albans Independent College | The Highest Quality Education do this, and are relaxed/pupil focussed.

Instead of repeating, a cut down set of GCSEs may be more appropriate maybe?

My DD missed all of y11 due to MH issues. She went to college as planned but at a lower level and has gone from there whilst working on her recovery.

It's worth trying anywhere with a good solid reason like that. My son had the option to go down a year in state school or in specialist private school - albeit with an EHCP. In the end it didn't work out, but for other reasons.

Like @TeenToTwenties says, though, a cut down timetable might be a good idea. We are aiming at 5 GCSEs, done on a PT timetable with no homework or pressure. Our experience from looking round was that mainstream private schools near us just didn't get quite how little he could manage. They would say all the right things then still presume he could manage homework with next-day deadlines, or work on big project based assignments over several weeks when he needed it much more broken down. I would approach it from the other end - find the right school and they may well be ok with him dropping a year if that is in his interests.

Rochester Independent College are brilliant - inspirational head, gorgeous pastoral care and infinitely understanding and flexible.