Flexi schooling

[dammitjannette]

Does anyone do this and how did your school take it? Is is a long-term arrangement or a temporary measure?

How did you child cope?

I'm thinking about it for DS.

We did it temporarily for DS when we moved him to a new school in Year 4. Just did it for half a term to help with transitioning. It was great.

School was very in favour of it. They just rang up the LEA and arranged it.

Call me cynical, but I think schools will generally be in favour of flexi schooling as it lets them off the hook in terms of provision. It allows them to keep full funding for a pupil who is only there part of the time.

It also means that they don't have to put effort into putting measures into place to help with transition or extra support, they can avoid all the paperwork involved in trying to secure this and pass the burden on to the parents (who often have to suffer financially because they can't then work during school hours).

Felix - you're cynical.

If the parent wants to do it, then it's great if the school will work with them to do it.

It's not legal for the school to recommend it.

I have been doing flexischooling for 3 years, with school agreeing to let DS have home ed (ABA ) in the am's and school every pm. The law says that as long as the school agree to it(eg teacher, SENCO and HT, probably in that order), it is ok. The drawback is that the LA might not like it,and might seek to pressure the school to take your kid full time. This however they are not allowed to do as blanket policies such as "all kids of a certain age should be in full time school" are unlawful and can be challenged. Usually just making the unlawful point, and thereby showing that you know the law, is enough to show the LA you won't be bullied. I found that half and half school and home worked really well, though it's more pressure on you and the home in general. Good luck!

Thanks. It's really interesting to hear your experiences. I just think, at the moment, he is finding full-time school an incredibly exhausting experience. He has cried so much this weekend and said 'why is everything so difficult/'

DS is going through statementing. We are waiting for a decision. I did put in my parental advice that I think he needs time off.

Do you think I should ask school about this before the statementing decision is made? Will it affect the decision - i.e. they can think he'll be alright now mums covering it all?

I was going to add, should I ask the EP about it? Obviously, I don't want to have that conversation if it's not going to help the statementing - the school are not being helpful with provision.

I am sure the community paed will support us.

Part of me thinks it might be risky to bring this up now. The LA might use it as a way out- "oh, well if she's thinking of home ed, sod her" kind of thing. Mind you, thinking back I did get my statement written with half and half. But my boy was only 4 at the time, how old is your DS?

What swung it for me I think was stressing that part-time is very much a temporary thing (true, I hoped) - that you are totally committed to getting him full time into school, but in the initial stages you think some consolidation academic work at home (or however you phrase it) would help his transition. It is a hard call - as if you win it in the statement, it makes life a lot easier, but if they use it against you ("if he can't make it full time, we should be looking at another school" ) it could be really unhelpful. What LA are you in - private message me if preferred.

Thanks. I have PM'd you.

DD2 is in split placement in reception 2 mornings SN school/ 3 days at MS school. Just had a review and asked both schools to delay going full days as we don't feel she would manage it. Apparently, on medical grounds this will be agreed. So the support of your paed would help I'm sure.

I would, I think keep any changes you make as low profile as possible as the statement does need to be agreed based on maximum needs.. So saying it is a temporary thing, as sickof suggested would be better, saying you just need this to get through a difficult time for example...

We managed to get our LEA to agree to delay our ds1 (NT) going full time for 2 terms when dd2 was first diagnosed as we didn't want to completely push ds1 out into the world of school whilst so there was so much turmoil at home. But of course as was said above it depends on the LEA I guess.

If you have any local HE activists they may have some useful advice about flexi schooling.

Good luck, I hope you get what you need for your ds..