online school for ASD 12 yr old ds?

[wellbuggerme]

Ive posted in the education, but he for traffic. DS is in mainstream, year 7. Hes average ability. Has EHCP etc (has done for years). The problem isnt the class content. Its "school". He is struggling ++ with the environment. Its the noise and hub bub of the other kids around him in class itself/ around school. To him its too noisy and "I cant get my thoughts out". He cannot be focussed/ concentrate. DH is a teacher at the same school so hes very on it when things crop up and working with teachers/ TA`s with solutions. This last week he has been given a time out card so he can leave the room and go to the SEN room to "chill"/ calm down when its too much. Plus this week he has been given some headphones to put on when needed to see if that helps in class to concentrate if its noisy.

Its not working. DS isnt seeing when he needs to put the defenders on etc BEFORE it all escalates in his head and forgetting to use time out. Result is a crying distressed boy who wants to die (his words). He seems to be spending more and more time in SEN room where hell not be taught anything!! Hes unhappy and even with dh there to help calm him/ suggestions etc it aint working. Once a week I end up having to pick him up from school in the middle of the day as its just too much.

Im looking at taking him out of mainstream. Were selling the house to relocate across the country as well. Im considering online school (interhigh/ my online school). I can see the benefits straight away....he doesnt have friends really, so not losing out there! Anyone elses ASD kids use this? How are they finding it?

Im assuming well get zero funding and we can if we tighten belts afford it .....

Shameless placemmarking. My DD is 12 and I took her out of mainstream at the beginning of the year. I’ve been using a combination of CGP books, Khan academy and various other apps and books. I’m throwing money at it left right and centre but I’m yet to find something she’ll settle with. I wasn’t entitled to funding, even with EHCP, because it was my choice to homeschool we couldn’t get any money, but I’ll spend whatever I need to.

well earlier i watched the open evening for my online schooling. dh watched as well and we can both see many positives. singed up ds for a free taster class on there july 1st as hell be off school for his 1st camhs appointment that day anyway. weve agreed that this may well be the way to go for year 8 until weved moved (which now wont be at the start of autumn term )and settled in the new house. compared to interhigh we prefer this one as its not a contract or ££ penalty if we leave. smaller classes and we can just pay monthly and are free to leave anytime with a months notice. So when we move we can try mainstream again and assess from there really. in my heart if ds gets on well with online schooling Id be prefering him to stay there! but we feel much better today knowing we have options and its only just over 3 weeks to get through till end of term ;)

today ds had a much better day, although he was distracted by a boy fiddling with a mini finger skateboard. he decided to tell us about it getting into bed and then got himself all cross and worked up about it! dh asked ds if sitting on a desk next to no one would be better.

i`m thinking the only place ds will be happy in a school will be sat alone just him and a teacher lol! .....like online school! the thought of no uniform does please me a bit lol....no more irong his bloody white shirts :)

something to factor in with my online schooling is we `ll need to buy some books( course material). apparantly not lots, but add that to costs.

I've looked at inter high and a couple of other online ones OP, for very similar reasons. I've never felt able to do the schooling part of homeschooling, and it seems like a good compromise. We're in Scotland though, and they all follow the English curriculum which really put me off. So watching with interest to see if any MNers are using them!

I worry about is the effect technology has on her behaviour. The iPad seems to be making her worse. I’ve bought a special screen protector and some yellow tinted glasses which seemed to be ok for a while, but now it’s like there’s been a build up of something and it’s just too much for her. Overstimulation?
Tomorrow I’m trying the apps myself and she can copy the work into her books as I read it aloud.
I’m undecided if she’s hormonal or if it’s a behavioural thing. She’s turned into Kevin the teenager and just doesn’t want to do anything.

well weve decided not to wait for july 1st for ds taster class. Its now next tuesday lol! ds loves his screen time and is always telling me about he reads/ sees/ plays. so no problem on recall / learning from a screen (Ive done online training and my brain struggles to learn and retain that way). so fingers crossed. next tuesday = decsision day. Ive been chatting with the parents fb page as well and its all similar stories there as to why their kids are on my online schooling as ds. all positive (the page isnt connected to the actual school, so a true picture). feel like Ive found my people maybes....

I`ll update for you shameless hussey placemarkers tuesday!x

Good luck @wellbuggerme

I’ll await that update!!!! 😊 yesterday we had a technology free day and it was much more relaxed. Creative writing in the morning and I treated her to this book in the afternoon and she seemed really keen. Hope all goes well on Tuesday x

Look forward to update tomo! My son is currently in year 5, very bright but with asd&adhd& anxiety. He struggles with school and struggles to conform/concentrate in class. He also struggles with playground "rules" although he has friends. I have seriously consider home Ed but not sure how I'd manage with a toddler and my other son too would also then want to be home schooled lol. I think secondary school may be too much for him to cope with so we'll be trying it in year 7 but if it doesn't work out will be considering online school!

hello!! update!!

right after technical hitches (dh email/ adobe problems as he uses it for when he does online teaching conflicted) ds and I did history class together. went very well!!! gosh its "different" to sitting in a real class! no distraction at all except yourself. ds was in a class of 8. it was on a topic we knew NOTHING about and considering that (our taster was literally chucked in a live proper class, no induction/ tutorial on icons/ screen etc) this was all new.......it went really well. DS did the tasks / contributed/ interacted and i was pleased. Looking at content I can imagine what we achieved in 1 hour would have been needing more in a mainstream setting due to 1 poor teacher keeping 28 focussed, on task, sorting out flossy humming, note passing and all "that" lol. and add on my SEN ds having a tizz in the middle! its a yay from me.

the mums on the fb page for myonlineschooling explained that on signing up your child, we`d get a proper induction on navigating the "classroom" , his school page etc. like year 6 transition into secondary.

we didnt have the headset/ mic on. thank goodness when ds lifted his butt cheek and the loudest fart lol! we did laugh.

@wellbuggerme that sounds really interesting! How much is it if you don't mind me asking?

I went to view a local outstanding grammar school today, one of the top in the country (son is predicted to ace the test) - it was amazing all the activities/subjects etc on offer and the students were impeccably behaved BUT I could not see my son coping in that environment at all - he wouldn't even come with me to view it as he was too anxious!! We have 2 other grammars to view and 2 local comprehensives that are supposed to have good pastoral care so will see if any of them might suit him...

its pay per subject . ds will be doing 7 (english, maths, science, history, geography , DT, french). £260.10 a month

RE isnt required by online/ home education ....so they dont provide it. ds isnt into art, drama so not doing it. PE and food tech not done obviously. Ds has always had issues with PE, so for activity well go swimming instead! Food is in my own kitchen. We had a chat at tea time and dh and me are in agreement online school in september. we asked ds what he would miss from real school. no mention of a single student or any friend sadly. just hed miss his helpers/ tas. he doesnt know that some ta`s, staff are leaving .

we re going to go with my online schooling rather than interhigh because MOS isnt a locked in contract. we can leave at any time with 28 days notice without a penalty charge. so we can trial it. interhigh offers more BUT trial period of 1 half term only and then you`re in or out. plus a £500 leaving penalty . so more risk. plus MOS let us try a class for free first.

Thank you that's doable then if we end up going down this route, I thought would be much more! Basically that's what our car loan repayments were and we've paid that off now anyway! Presumably you pay separately for exams. Doing 7 subjects does he do full days or few hours each day?

yes itll be seperate payments for each iGCSE if ds stays that long. so if does do IGCSEs itll be an expensive year! the good thing about MOS is that we can play it by ear and try mainstream again at any point. if mainstream flops we can come back. MIL did her GCSEs at night school some years ago, so she knows how much it costs.

you can pay monthly, termly or year. theres no financial difference in overall cost. its a huge step coming away from state education for us. we`ll be the first in our families to do it.

you can see the timetables on MOS website. for ds it would be anything from 1 to a max of 3 classes (1 hour each) a day. maths , english and science= 2 hours each. the rest 1 hour per subject. so for ds =10. plus they do assembly/ form time once a week.

classes start from 8 am and last one finishes 3pm. ds is always up by 7am and leaves the house for school by 7:45 am , so 8am is fine here. interhigh starts classes 8:30am and last class ends 6pm.

ds was a bit OMG at 8am start, 3pm finish and thought he`d be sat at the laptop mon- fri doing those hours lol. Showed him his current timetable at secondary and one for MOS. He was pleasantly surprised at the gaps.

MOS has emailed the history lesson so dh can see how it went. with regards to kids and safeguarding the recording only shows the teacher and the chat box the kids texted in are only 1st names. teacher in the lesson never sees the kids.

It's very clever isn't it!

bloody amazeballs!! dh and me are going to sit down and thouraghly check finances, go through bills etc this weekend. 99.99999% sure ds will be enrolled at MOS next week. as soon as he`s enrolled there, deregister ds from secondary.

each gcse exam is about £100? be aware some subjects have more than 1 exam. eg maths is 2 papers. so we`ll need to budget/ save if he does gcse with MOS. Plus the cost of entering ds as an external candidate at an exam centre. checked for our location, nearest is 20 mins away....