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Hi Welcome Becky,

I just know I am gonna need secondary education tips before septemberxx

Look out I will 'chat' soon.... ???

Hi Moo - hopefully we'll collect a good few people with experience of that before then. I used to be a secondary school teacher of a few different subjects, so happy to pitch in where I can. I've found the primary years quite challenging though! I'm looking forward to mine getting older so that I'll be back on familiar ground. Can't say I really enjoy the learning to read phase ?

Hi everyone, home educator here too for the last 3 years! I am currently working through the EHCP process to see if we can secure a bespoke plan on a part time basis for my son who has ARND on the FASD spectrum.

Hi aquilegia, nice to meet you. I can almost guarantee others are going to want to hear about your experiences of getting an ECHP for you HE child. Go you!

Happy to help where I can and to network with other families! ?

Can I just big you all up for a minute? I tried it for a month..... tried and failed epically.

I agree with that - I didn’t do it - my son was 14 and the school kept saying he wanted to be home educated - which meant off their books - but I knew there was no way it would have worked at that time - that’s what I thought but I could have been wrong as I read a couple of books on it and they talked about needing a period of de schooling before starting - so maybe could have worked as he was then school refusing and when eventually we got the school to agree for him to transfer to college in yr 10 he settled there. I could have done it when younger but he was happy at school in primary - loved it in fact. I think it’s about being creative about what you do and how you do it to home educate - and this depends on the individual child as much as anything

Yes it's definitely about being creative. My boy only managed 6months in school and was so massively anxious we off rolled him at the age of 5. We 'unschooled for about 3 months then gradually tried out different styles of home education till we settled on what works for us. We mainly do project work based on my son's interests and through this manage to cover a lot of subjects, literacy and numeracy. To coin a phrase it is 'learning by stealth' as he won't engage in regular learning (worksheets etc) and he is emotionally much younger than his chronological age due to FASD.

Just saying Hi! Ive been home educating my 8 year old since Feb last year following multiple exclusions! We currently have an EHC with a personal budget to Home Ed, our 1st review is due in September so fingers and toes crossed that it all continues happily.

Hi LouisaM ?

It would be great to have a home-educators’ thread here, especially as our numbers seem to be rocketing. I have home educated our 7 year old for two years, after a disastrous reception year. It was definitely not our choice at the time, and not something we would originally ever have dreamed of doing - but it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Our son is very bright but has attachment difficulties and severe emotional/behavioural issues when stressed. What I read about PDA resonates. We have an EHCP and personal budget which helps. We were recently offered funding for a special school but, having looked, can’t imagine that it would improve on the education and social life that we can currently provide, so we are sticking with it for as long as we can manage. The downside is that we now struggle much more financially and I have had to give up my career, with no realistic prospect of returning to it.

Ideally it would be great to have a specific thread for home ed - I have put in a request! ?

It is on the "to-do" list!! Promise!

What do you guys have planned over the summer? We do a few home ed activities but they all seem to stop during the summer and I struggle to take my two anywhere when places are crowded with all the school kids on holidays. We like to be the only children in the park/museum/wherever!

But I do have my son booked in for two weeks of soccer camp (daytime only). He's been before and he manages very well there - we are so lucky to have found this great group. The coaches are really supportive and careful with him, and he loves his football so he's thrilled to be going.

It's 'grit our teeth and look forward to September' here. Major sensory processing issues here so the combination of hotter weather and a lot of places generally being busier is not fab for us. We generally avoid crowds, shops, big events. It's hard not to feel excluded from things and seeing other families going off here there and everywhere having a lovely time. And if one more person asks me where we are going on our summer holidays (we wouldn't even get our son through a crowded airport in one piece) i will have my own meltdown! ?

Lots of low key activities in less popular off the beaten track places: nature treasure hunts, picnics, staying out of the main heat of the day. Autumn cannot come soon enough!

Sounds appealing to me Aquilegia - much more appealing than crowded busy airports and holiday resorts! We are led to view certain things as the norm / what we should be doing - such as going out for a wild time on Saturday nights when young - and it’s just not everybody’s cup of tea. Enjoy YOUR summer holidays - I’m sure your son (?) will have a great time and lots of good memories

Sounds like a plan, Aquilegia.

We are currently looking to start the adoption process and home educate our two BC, wasn't sure if this would be a problem with adoption. If we do manage to adopt I would be open to school or home education for the AC. We home educate as both boys have autism (high functioning) and were really struggling at school.

Hi, so when it comes to Home Education, is it a case of, you chose to Home Educate rather than consistently persevere with school so no funding is available to contribute towards tuition ? Wouldn’t be expecting them to have tuition all day, everyday, just some support with either literacy or maths.