Making part time secondary school work

[Buntingsmum]

My DD goes to secondary school next year so I need to get my head out of the sand! For a mix of SEN and health reasons (mainly health) it is right for her to attend school part time. This is what we want for secondary school but I am struggling to work out how this could work. It's easy at primary - she goes in for the mornings and that's when they do maths and English, so she gets the main part of the teaching. Secondary timetables are much more 'random'. Would it be best to get a mix of subjects- whatever happens to fall in the morning- or should we aim to be juggling in and out if school for key subject scattered throughout the day? Does anyone have any good ideas for this type of situation? Thanks...

That sounds tricky! I think your best bet is to phone your local SEN team and speak to your outreach service about what is possible?

Is there any reason why you don't just go the whole hog and do home ed? If you are in a city there are lots of other families doing it so you can join forces with them - so there's often not a lot of "home" in practice as you will be out at groups. Friends of ours opted back into the mainstream system for A levels by doing the minimum number of iGCSEs (4 or 5?) to be accepted into 6th form college. I assume your DD has an EHCP and that you could access its funding to provide online courses etc at home?

You will likely find that teaching sessions for many key subjects - English, maths, science- will be spread across mornings and afternoons over the course of the week. That being the case, if your dd sticks to, say, mornings only, she will constantly be missing out chunks of teaching which will be stressful for all concerned. For that reason I think you'd be better off getting her to come in for all of fewer subjects (reduced timetable).

Bear in mind that organising a secondary school timetable is a massive job. It may look random to you but what you see is the culmination of months of planning and wrangling and negotiation. Consequently its very inflexible once set.

No, home ed would be our least preferred option. We're not in a city and I know (from being with her when she has been off school totally for a few months) we'd end up too isolated. Interesting idea about online learning though terror which I'll bear in mind.

Thanks for the input barbarian. That's what I've been suspecting. It would have a big impact on me since I might have to give up my job to juggle her in and out for the key subjects throughout the day... I'd really miss working!!
(and I put 'random'in inverted commas because I know that it is far from. If you are involved in secondary timetabling then I take my hat off to you )