Emily's home education story
When Emily noticed that full-time school was causing her daughter distress, she moved her between different mainstream schools, but saw few signs of improvement. Emily decided to home educate, before being presented with the option of flexi-schooling by her home education officer.
What is flexi-schooling?
Flexi-schooling is a system where a child goes to a mainstream school for a certain amount of days, following the national curriculum, and then is home educated for the rest of the week.
It's an option Emily didn't know existed and wishes was more widely discussed.
Video: Flexi-schooling
Watch this video as Emily describes why flexi-schooling was the right choice for her child.
Emily: My name is Emily. I have a seven-year-old daughter called Esme and she is currently in flexi schooling. The whole transition that I've seen in Esme has been amazing. Originally when she first started mainstream, she became very introverted. Um, and I have a very extroverted little girl, so I knew that something wasn't quite right, and she used to come home complaining that she wasn't making any friends, that people didn't understand her, and these were just big sort of statements for such a little person that I was slightly concerned.
With Esme's special education needs, she was late in being picked up to be diagnosed. Originally, I just thought it was the school itself. Maybe we just hadn't found the right school for her. So I initially then changed her to another mainstream school, and when I found that she was still coming home saying the same things and these things were getting worse and she was getting a tummy ache, I knew at that point that it was time to homeschool and then obviously use that as our stepping stone to find the right education setting for her.
I had no idea about flexi schooling at all. I didn't even know it was an option. It was only from our home education officer that mentioned it and explained to us that actually, it's an option where children can go to school for a certain amount of days and follow the national curriculum, but they have two, maybe three days of homeschooling as well. And I just knew from there that this is an option I really want to explore.
She did a couple of taster sessions, she came bouncing home, and I just thought, yeah, this is it. This is for her. For me and Esme, a standard home education setting can look really laid back. We don't have a structured timetable. Some days it can be no sort of sit-down educational learning at all. Some days we cannot even be at home. You know, we like to go out on our homeschool days and explore education on the move.
The correlation between flexi schooling and home, I tend to ask her what she's learned today. We do also get sent from the school like an itinerary of the topics they're learning in what term. So I do tend to stick to those and then implement Esme's needs around them.The main subjects I look for the school to teach are English, maths, and science to at least implement a good starting point, and then we can follow it on at home.
I wish when we were picking schools—obviously, it's this big thing, you know, you're picking this primary school, you know, for your child and they're off to big school and it's so important and you're so emotional at the time. But actually, there are other options out there. And I wish they were spoken about more because every child needs to learn differently.
Since Esme started attending flexi schooling, and their learning is with her rather than against her, I've noticed that she's just come back bouncing, bubbly. She wants to tell me about her day. You know, she's not coming home and we're not having behavioural issues. You know, she's ready to learn. She can't wait to go to school. It was just the complete opposite experience.
Where can I read more about flexi-schooling and home education?
If you felt a connection with Emily's story, be sure to check out our guides on how to deregister your child from school, how to start home educating in the UK and how to get ready for home education.
For general advice about wellbeing and parenting, take a look at these articles from BBC Bitesize Parents' Toolkit: things to consider on a school visit for your child with SEND, how to chat with your child about their mental health and how to help if your child feels lonely.
Where can I find more support for home education and parenting?
The BBC Bitesize home education collection is designed to support you and your child’s learning at home with free resources for early years and foundation stage (EYFS), primary and secondary-age students.
Bitesize Parenting is the go-to place for the whole parenting community to find stories, expert advice and fun activities.
If your child has special educational needs and / or disabilities, be sure to check out the Parenting SEND collection. Bitesize also has a collection of Sensory Stories, an immersive video series that transports you on unique sensory adventures, for children with additional or complex needs.
For more information about home education, these BBC News articles cover the rise in families deciding to educate their children at home and, from 2021, the impact of Covid on home education.
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