leaving mainstream for home ed

[KeepingTrying]

Hi,

I think I'm going to need to take my son out of his mainstream secondary school to home educate because the school just isn't set up to meet his needs, and can't do flexi schooling with us teaching us himself.

It's possible that there will be an EHCP assessment further down the line after we have left the school. I know I read before about asking for a complete set of ds's school records to support the process.

I wondered if I should do that, and how I do it, and if there is anything else I should ask before we deregister?

I think it's likely that we might try to get him into a small, rather gentle private school further down the line so it would be great to know about anything that might help with that.

Thanks!

Personally, I wouldn’t deregister and EHE. Parents often find it easier to get support when their DC remains in the system. Crudely, you are someone’s problem now. Whereas if you EHE it is easier for others to sweep DS’s needs under the carpet.

Request an EHCNA now. You don’t need to wait. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use.

In the meantime, if DS can’t attend school full time the LA has a duty to ensure he receives alternative provision so that he receives a suitable full time education.

The ICO has a model letter you can use to make a SAR.

Hi,

Thanks for this. Both we and the school have submitted and EHCP request and one has gone to tribunal while the other is still to go to panel.

I have submitted a formal compaint to the dCEO of the academy chain and the response came back saying that everything we have said about the school environment is basically untrue, and that if our ds just goes back to school then he will be appropriately looked after. We're not going to send him back because it's clear that they don't understand his needs and don't have sufficienct staffing to keep him safe. They list a whole lot of wellbeing interventions that they say have been done, but which actually haven't.

We have asked to teach him at home ourselves and have access to exams through the school. They said that if we do that then he needs to have LA tutors but that is not working because he has bad anxiety and cPTSD and can't cope with tutors. Also he's as smart as a whip and needs very specific teaching to work at his speed but not trigger him.

We were given an LA tutor on zoom but she was hopelessly under-equiped to deal with DS. She was expecting a delicate flower who would be content do some nice little activity, and DS wants advanced linguistics and maths delivered at speed.

They say that if we want to teach DS ourselves then we need to deregister and electively home educate. I'm a bit stuck now. I'm not sure what the next step is.

Don’t let the school or LA force you into EHE. But, if DS can’t attend you don’t have to force him. If DS can’t attend school full time and the online tutor wasn’t working the LA should make other arrangements - it doesn’t have to be formal traditional tuition. Section 19 provision has to be suitable.

Is it a refusal to assess or refusal to issue appeal? If DS isn’t in school full time, have you asked for an expedited hearing?

Thanks, that's really good to know.

I would like to ask next if they would give me access to tutors who will help me to do the home teaching right. I have AS level education in all the subjects, and DH and I between us have undergraduate education in all the subjects, so we are doing well. However we'd be grateful for advice on how to pace the work and do revison and all that. Also if the tutors were nice, then in the fullness of time then DS might like to join on zoom.

I wonder about asking for EOTAS as they won't let us flexi-school. We have a good psychotherapist who would write a letter confirming that DS can't manage in the school environment.

The request to assess was refused and has gone to tribunal, with a request for an expedited hearing. The school's request to assess has not yet gone to panel. The school ed psych wrote a report that was hopelessly out of kilter with reality unfortunatley. It said Ds should go back part time when we already knew that was not an option.

A private clinical psychologist said he should go back part time and when I told her the teaching materials were inappropriate for a child of this age, she said I needed to take that up with the school. I have done that and they said I am wrong. I am not wrong because they are showing videos with 15+certification warnings.

I'm actually happy in some ways about being out of the school because the school don't do Japanese and would force him to do three sciences, and he wants to skip biology and do Japanese. No idea how to get a Japanese exam without a school though.

Thank you very much for your help. It's a bit of a muddle this.

Section 19 provision (which doesn’t have to be formal traditional tuition) would be possible, but an EHCP will be necessary for a comprehensive EOTAS package.

If you EHE and DS wanted to take GCSE Japanese you would need to find an exam centre. Tutors and Exams offer Japanese.

Thanks, I'll take a look at Tutors and Exams.