Hi I.m new considering flexi schooling

Hi my name is Joy and i have 3 children Marcus 12 has ASD and twins Piers (awaiting assessment for special needs) and Lydia NT aged 4. I have come to this sight from the ASD forum. Marcus is really struggling at school particularly regarding PE, history and Science. some days he is able to tolerate and others not, so I considered flexi schooling, maybe HE 2 days a week. It has been highlighted that there is potentially problems with this I wondered if anyone had any ideas regarding making it work. School are not really meeting his needs and at the moment are not even returning my calls, i have asked for a review of his statement and have got parent partnership involved. My DH is totally against the idea od flexi schooling as he feels it will be too much hard work for me as Marcus can be quite difficult to manage at times but it is breaking my heart to see him crying at night due to the misery of school. Any advice appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.

My son returned to secondary school in Y10 after nearly two years of HE in order to take GCSEs. It was stressful for him to attend full time and he became very unhappy and depressed. He would regularly evade lessons he didn't enjoy including French and PE.

We enquired about flexi schooling but the head and the LEA refused to offer it on the grounds that it was impractical to implement due to administration and timetabling. My son wanted to take GCSEs in English, Maths, Science, and ICT. The services we wanted the school to provide were entering in for the exams, support with coursework, and the use of the science labs for practical work. The reply we got was that the school was unable to set aside time for my son (and other flexi schooled children) to come in and use the science labs or access services of the staff. The only way he could access these facilities was to attend timetabled lessons for classes in his year. The timeslots for the subjects he wanted to take were spread throughout the week so it would mean having to come in almost every day rather than just one or two days. We asked if the timetable for his year could be re-arranged so that all the subjects he wanted to take were contained in a day or two but the school said it wasn't possible.

After two terms in Y10 he dropped out and finished Y11 without taking a single GCSE.

What subjects does Marcus want to take? Does he want to study PE, history, and science and has problems with them, or does he want to evade these subjects altogether? He can drop history in Y9 but science and PE are compulsory under the National Curriculum for children attending school full time.

It used to be possible to have an LEA tutor teach children at home. They would normally teach as much of the curriculum as possible at the level for the year group the children are in. A downside to this was that it was almost impossible for children to make use of school facilities and staff. This is because the home tuition service was only intended to be used for short periods such as recovering from an injury.

HE may well be the only alternative. What are local HE groups and facilities like? Remember that HE is not a one way ticket and that Marcus can return to a secondary school in the future if he wishes to do so.

I can second what jencam has said regarding timetabling problems. Kids that only study a few subjects often end up having to go in almost every day. Kids that only go in for a few days end up missing (important) lessons.

You will have to determine what you want the school to provide when formulating a flexi schooling plan.