Minerva Virtual Academy

[SpaceRaiders]

I’m in the midst of exploring alternative options for Dd1. I feel somewhat disillusioned with private and the education system in general, after a pretty rough two years with almost zero pastoral/SEN support. Dd was increasingly anxious and refusing school. Her attendance dropped by 20% in year 8 and were now at a point where she’s been at home for the last month, it’s likely she won’t attend until after Christmas. She has just been accepted to a new mainstream private school, but I fear we’ll be dealing with much of the same issues.

Had anyone here used MVA? Id love to hear experiences and how your ASD child managed that transition? How do you deal with the social aspect. How did your child manage GCSE’s in practical subjects?

My daughter moved from private to MVA 2 years ago. My son moved to KIH 1 year ago. They much prefer it to their previous school/private school in general. My daughter is autistic with OCD and strong need for independence/autonomy. She had massive problems with need to wear uniform, the many rules (saying 'Sir', standing up for teachers, prayers if not religious) and much prefers being relaxed and on first name terms with teachers now and wearing joggers. She got overwhelmed from the noise in period buildings from 100s of feet on wooden floors in panelled halls with no sound insulation, the requirement to have cooked lunch and often dinner in a dining hall etc.. Now she can learn in her quiet room and eat when and what she likes. There was no transition problem. She was just relieved that we took her out of b&m school. We threatened that if she didn't treat online school with the discipline and punctuality she'd shown at her previous school, we'd drag her to the local state school. We meant it, but both of our kids were just so relieved and grateful to be out of physical school that they are like clockwork and independently engage with all their lessons and canvas work (son needs a bit of help at night when I'm home from work but he is only little). Socially, it was hard at my daughter's school to have a social life outside of school, as pupils either boarded or lived up to 90 min away, and school was so long, incl. evenings and weekends, so socialising only happened in school but felt so regimented and controlled by the teachers and houseparents. Now she has time to freely chat online, meet up with friends and get involved with local clubs which she couldn't go to previously as it clashed with longer schooldays. She is doing orchestra (county and national youth orchestras), got a part time job and spends a lot of time on her music at home. She is doing GCSEs music, which works quite well so far. The school does trips e.g. to the London Philarmonic etc for GCSE music students. MVA is definitely better managed and run than KIH and MVA's mentor system is great. KIH suits my son as he is too young for MVA. He also blossomed socially since being at KIH as he has now more time to be involved with local friends and for clubs centred on his particular interests. I think because they spend less of their social energy on being in loud classes, they have more energy and desire to socialise in real life now than before and more control over with whom they spend time and what to do, so there is less social anxiety/more social confidence. We originally chose private school because we thought it better for extra curriculars like music but we found it was actually hindering their progress as they had too little time to practise and perform outside of school and while their school orchestra was good it was not at the standard of the national youth orchestra or even the better county orchestras and juniour departments, which were all out of reach due to weekend and evening school. So I'd defnitely recommend MVA, especially if there is something locally your daughter could join for socialising and hands on experience (whether that's a drama group, orchestra, band, art studio, sports etc).

No personal experience, but I have supported others who have gone down that route. Some successfully, some not. It really depends on DD’s needs and the support she requires. It works for some autistic DC, it doesn’t work for others.

MVA offer some practical subjects but not others. If DD wants to do a specific subject, do check they offer it and you can get to one of the centres required.

Does DD have an EHCP? Has alternative provision been in place?

It’s such a minefield. Knowing what’s the right thing to do for her @flawlessflipper Relationship with her previous school fell apart as they weren’t seeing it at school and therefore they didn’t feel she needed additional support beyond what they were offering for her dyslexia. And even that was inconsistent. Meanwhile they expected me to continue forcing her in, to the detriment of her MH.

Can I ask, in the cases where it didn’t work out, why that was? I think motivation may be an issue for us and therefore me having to coax her to commit to her school work may become a problem.

She doesn’t have an EHCP, nor alternative provision. No formal diagnosis. It’s only become far more apparent that she’s very likely ASD as she’s struggled coping with the demands of senior school.

In all the cases I have seen, it depends on the CYP’s needs and the support they require. Needs and provision required differ so much person to person. Motivation is one aspect. Others are that they need more individual support or online doesn’t work for them or they need a more therapeutic approach or they need a less traditional teaching approach (even though MVA isn’t a traditional school, it isn’t far enough from traditional teaching for some) or they need/want subjects not offered.

You can request an EHCNA yourself. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use.

If DD can’t attend school, you can also request alternative provision. IPSEA has a model letter for this too.

I know quite a few pupils for which MVA didn't work. The vast majority are happy or at least happier, but some missed their friends and they returned to their previous schools. Some had specific learning needs, and MVA is aimed at average to above average academic ability. E.g. it doesn't offer functional skills which some pupils preferred, and there are no TAs, no drop in clinics, no adjusted work etc. It's very much down to the student to complete all the work by themselves. They also don't have lower settings, every class is 'average' except for maths which has an extention set. They are however flexible with age, so it's easy to repeat a year or to jump ahead, for all subjects or only for one/some. Dysprexia and dyslexia are catered for through typing instead of handwriting and assistive technology (like text to speech) but it takes quite a lot of motivation to engage. The school has now divided pupils into camera off and camera on classes, as many pupils struggled with camera, and other pupils found it demotivating being in a 'faceless' class. They measure engagement in lessons and every pupil is given a weekly engagement score that is discussed with the mentor, with the mentor's job being to motivate pupils to engage more (if needed). Some pupils find this approach motivating, some find it stressful/scary. Overall MVA seems to work best for pupils who like school but have a priority other than school (sport, music, performing arts), whose families are transient for work or leisure, or who are self motivated and academically able in a traditional way but due to ASD/shy/quiet character prefer a working from home set up (with local friends and socialising opportunities and ideally a parent who also works from home). It is realistically very difficult to get back into a daily school routine after a long absence and many pupils who had EBSA didn't make it back to engaging regularly, especially if frustration/difficulties with learning/struggling to focus etc were a reason for the EBSA in the first place as there is no SEND provision at MVA. MVA is supportive when pupils don't log in or don't hand in work, there is no stress with fines etc., although you will get an email alert for every lesson missed or logged in late, and need to state a reason for absence, as they are Ofsted regulated and need to account for absence due to safeguarding requirements. The mentor sends a weekly report home about which work has been completed, how much engagement etc. As it's all online, there is a lot of detailed and immediate feedback, which can be motivating if you see a lot of 100% completion and 90-100% assessment scores, or overwhelming and scary if it's all red and shows low performance/completion. They do however have 1:1 tutor services at additional costs and there are other tutor services around that work for some, and I know several pupils who had personal tutors to help with the MVA work and some who switched to fulltime personal 1:1 tutoring instead of online school or to non-academic college courses like animal care. MVA now also has a seperate online service for functional skills courses.

Thanks for your insights posts @NellyBarney Academically we’re not too concerned as Dd is well above average in majority of her subjects and exceeds in Science amongst others. Good to know they’d stretch in certain subjects where needed. Although I wasn’t too convinced when I asked about the practical aspects of something like chemistry, so it may well be that it’s not right for Dd.

I do feel we’re dealing with EBSA. She seems to like certain aspects of school, however after all her friends left to go to various other schools, convincing her to go in when she’s already anxious has been rather difficult. And of course the longer she’s off school the trickier it becomes to manage.

For chemistry, they give you some basic experiments you can do at home and let you watch computer simulated experiments/videos. If you do iGCSEs Chemistry exams online at home, there is no practical part of the exam. There are options to sit the exam via exam centres incl the practical in a seperate session. It might not be the best option for A levels if your daughter considers chemistry at university. If it is just triple science at GCSEs, we are not concerned as there won't be a practical part of the online exam.

Again thank you! @NellyBarney That’s certainly cleared up that concern.

MVA do IGCSE sciences so there’s no assessed practicals that need signing off in the same way GCSE sciences have. whether they are sat remotely at home, via home invigilation or at an exam centre. More generally you can do science practicals outside of brick schools. You can do GCSE sciences and have the practicals signed off without being on the roll of a school too.