Does flexi-schooling work?

[inishindie]

Hi

Does anyone do flexi-schooling with thier children?

We have one child who goes to a minstram school and another that home schools.

This works out well and caters for thier individual needs. Sometimes though our youngest has home school days and stays off. We have arranged this with th education authorities here in Ireland and it works out well for us. It probably wouldn't work if every child in the school did this. As far as I know we wers one of the first to implement such a thing.

Does anyone else do flexi schooling, how does it work for you?

Cheers

Ian

www.inishindie.blogspot.com

[baldowrie]

I am going to ask about it with my son when he is due to go to high school

[mrsflibble]

Are they not lablelled as outcasts by the other pupils? I remember one boy in my year who did 3 days a week in school. there were so many rumours flying about over why he was only in 3 days a week; he was dying/from a broken home/spending time in the headmaster's study for being a tearaway/in care/etc I don't know what happened to him or what was really going on except that I'm sure none of the rumours were true. kids can be very cruel about someone being different.

[inishindie]

Hi

We are a strange family anyway!!

My younger lad actually loves school and doesn't stay off that often that other children would notice. Most of his class have days off throughout the term for various reasons.

When he does stay off though he won't go out into the town in case someone sees him! So it must be a bit of an issue deep down. It is good to know that he chooses to go in to school himself

The eldest lad does full time home schooling. He has always been a real individual and other children do comment on how different he is. This doesn't bother him in the slightest......It's like water off of a ducks back for him!!

http://inishindie.blogspot.com/

[mrsflibble]

I'm glad he's ok. kids are evil lol!

[red]

not tried it ourselves, but there was a lad at school who did it for a while.

the kids were not odd about it at all, but the lad in question did find he never finished projects etc because he was pulled out. In the end he came back to full time.
lots of people seem to get on well with it, but I think its best if you have a fixed set up, so everyone can plan. just my thoughts.

[Esther.R]

My husband is a teacher in a tiny school up here (it has 6 kids ) and once a fortnight he has 2 kids attend for a day from one of the smallest islands off the mainland who homeschool most of the time. Seems to be working ok at the moment and everyone incl their parents seem very happy with it. With 6 kids in the whole school bullying is not really an issue :)

[vanessa s]

I know it's a year or 2 later but i,m curious about flexi-schooling. Who you needed to contact and make arrangements. Also how's it going and where is your child in school? I have a 5 yr old just starting in wicklow and want to flexi-school him right from the start. I hope you,re still around!

[lovelygreenleaves]

Hi everyone, I'm just wondering why you do this. Not in a 'you're mad' sort of way, I'm just curious about the reasons for home-schooling. I'd be grateful if you would enlighten me!

[bantamlady]

We chose home schooling for our son due to bullying and frustration at the school in general. We spent nearly two years trying to get things sorted with the school and found it impossible to get the teachers to understand what he was going through. When my son was home educated he was happier, he was sleeping again and put on weight.
We are now considering the same with our youngest who has been bullied so much he is suicidal, the school's initial reaction was just ignore it and they will stop! With Flexi schooling, our son who is doing an engineering apprentiship, would only be in school for two days at most, he does 1 day at college and one day work experience, and he would still be able to attend the army cadets run by his school

[brubear]

Been a while since this thread started, but if you're still around here's my take on flexi-schooling.

Yes flexi-schooling does work, but it is not without it's stresses. I have been FS my daughter for 2 years in languages - French and lately Spanish. She was 13/14 when we started.

It's a long story, but the gist of it is that my daughter got further and further ahead of her peers, about 2 years ahead (I am a French language graduate) and she was getting bored and not learning anything in class.

I went through all the approaching school bit. They weren't keen and promised me the earth with "extending her". I was also told in writing that she could do two languages, by taking her French a year early. The school did agree that they would put her into GCSE French a year early. They would look after everything, including a short course in Spanish, which I later discovered never existed.

This was two years ago. I became aware that nothing was happening, daughter was still bored. So after 6 to 8 months of trying to work with the school, I simply took her out of French lessons, unsanctioned for about a month. They threw the rule book at me with threats which I ignored and simply sent in samples of my daughter's advanced work she was doing with me. Then it went quiet and eventually they approached me and said I could do it.

So she was half in and half out of French classes. Her peers didn't mind as they basically coudldn't cope with the advanced work she was doing. Her friends were fine with her not being in school some of the time.

Then her French teacher threw her out of class, saying she (a Teacher with 30 years' teaching experience, couldn't cope and 6 months before the GCSE, I was told we were on our own. That was a little tough. I was told I was doing it all wrong because I was teaching languages to my daughter based on the old methods - vocab, extensive grammar etc. Daughter went on to get an A* which did not go down well. Hmmmm!

Year 11, she switched into Spanish and headteacher banned the Spanish teacher from speaking to my daughter, except in the normal course of teaching a lesson. So I simply took matters into my own hands and devised an accelerated learning programme in Spanish and increased her FS hours at home unsanctioned. Daughter appears to be heading for high grade and she now flexi-schools with me 14 lessons per fortnight.

Unfortunately, school management, including Governors will not even speak or write to me now. Nobody says anything to me. I simply tell the school when daughter will be out and her record is marked as educated off-site.

There is a huge amount of egg on face and the school is terrified of being exposed as the language teaching in the school is absolutely diabolical and virtually non-existant. Talk about uncovering a can of worms. Daughter is only one of three out of 25 taking the higher speaking Spanish oral exam in about 3 months and she's virtually never in class. She does go in one lesson per week. Her class teacher is bemused by the whole thing and parents evening was a joke. I had to tell the Spanish teacher how daughter was doing! At least daughter's work is being marked as Spanish is not my strong point compared to French.

I've learned that if you keep detailed notes and if the school fails your child, then you can do what you like. Some would say I've been the parent from hell, but others would say that I've done what is necessary for my daughter to get two high language GCSE grades in the face of an incompetent, bureaucratic nightmare. I've even got a letter from school saying they are concerned about daughter's health and that she might be close to breakdown. This was true, but not because of me, but because school was trying to prevent her from working at her level. I've had to threaten the headteacher with 4 or 5 counts of gross misconduct to get him off my back, but I've not been able to take it forward formally because I am too busy teaching my daughter. Legal advice was that I shouldn't go there as it won't change anything. But I did try to do the right thing. Waste of time!

My daughter has benefited hugely and is now being supported already by a sixth form at another school where she is going in Sep. She's now doing A Level French with me and enjoying every minute of it and moving forwards by leaps and bounds.

Has it been a stress? YES! Has it been worthwhile? YES! Would I do the same again? YES! Would my daughter go through everything again to get to where she now is? YES!

[Louise]

Hi. I have actually done flexi-schooling through my GCSE's and found it worked well.

It started with a foot problem that meant I was only able to attend school part time. I went three days a week, but always worked to keep up at home.
I decided for my GCSEs I would have to be a school full time, although within 6 weeks I was fed up of not learning anything in my Bioligy class, when I knew I'd learn so much more from just reading the text book! After discussions with my parents, head of Science and the Head Teacher, it was agreed I would be able to go to the library, miss the lessons and teach myself. The head of science was very supportive and provided me with all the resources I needed.

Similarly, at a parents evening, I was predicted 10 A*s and a D in French. I've been speaking French for years, and it was apparent to me that the newly qualified teacher had no idea about the abilities of her class. I again went to the head of languages and refused to go to any more lessons 'if I was going to get a D'. I don't have a natrual flare for French, but that prediction made French seemed pointless. After a continuous fight I was able to teach myself again. I had a French tutor an hour a week to practise speaking.

I was one of only two in the school (of 1,800 pupils) to achieve an A* in Bioligy and I got a B in French, where most my classmates had only been entered at foundation level to achieve D/E's.

I'm now doing my A levels and I'm considering starting flexi schooling again. I would advise that when deciding on flexi schooling you know what's best for the child. It will only work when they have the motivation and determination to do well.