Flexi-schooling in Edinburgh

Shhhh.... it's NOT a secret!  Lets tell everyone!

This article focuses on our experience at primary school, however the law gives the same rights to Secondary School pupils.

For most parents, conversations in Edinburgh circles about primary school choices revolve around securing a place in "a good school": ensuring your home is in a "decent" catchment or debating your chances for an out of placement request.   Beyond this, most of us give little thought to the curriculum the school will deliver, beyond cajoling our offspring to complete homework on time and endless testing of tricky words and the like.  Yet, it is our pefect legal right to pick over the offering of our child's school and conclude that we (or someone else) could, at least in part, do better and to thus request part-time attendance or withdraw our child for certain subjects.   For most of us, being so used to simply rocking up and complying with whatever the school offers, it is perhaps a shock to learn that our rights are so extensive, and that such measures cannot only be easily organised, but represent an option that is gaining in popularity across Scotland.

Flexi-schooling, as it is called, hinges on the 1980 Education (Scotland) Act's decree that "pupils are to be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents".   The Scottish Goverment guidance covers the legal position in more detail, but basically where a proposed arrangement is considered by the Local Authority as practical, then the onus is on them to agree.  In practice, this has created something of a postcode lottery across Scotland, where some Local Authorities seem open to almost any arrangement, whilst others effectively allow no flexi-schooling at all.   In Edinburgh, we are fortunate to have a flexible system, where requests are considered centrally by the Inclusion Officer, and generally agreed.   As such, Edinburgh has a diverse community of flexi-schooling families, whose arrangements and reasons are as diverse as the pupils who adopt them.

Why Flexi-school?

Flexi-schooling requires parents to propose an alternative, regular arrangement for their child's education.  Although the law requires you to have a coherent ethos (reasons for wishing to do things differently), you don't need to be a Professor of Education to construct your argument.  This is about parental choice.    Perhaps you'd rather your child had private violin lessons instead of learning the recorder at school?   That's perfectly reasonable.    Maybe you think the day is too long for your small person and would prefer to collect them an hour earlier for some quiet time at home?   Perhaps your child is an athlete and is desperate for more time to train?   Again, why not?  Maybe you'd like to leave for your holiday home on a Thursday evening and would love to skip Friday's assembly and golden time?   And again - this would be fine.   The key here is that a child's education is a parental responsbility and education is considered in its broadest sense as a preparation for life in the community.   

My original decision to flexi-school was rooted in debates around "too much, too soon".  Scotland's children start formal schooling far earlier than most high-performing education systems, and whilst the evidence base steadily grows that under 7s benefit most from child-led free play, time spent outdoors, physical activity and creative and expressive pursuits, the P1 curriculum in Scotland is increasing structured, desk-based, academic and focused on testing.   As leading academics and educationalists launched Upstart to campaign for an extended Kindergarten stage in Scotland, I knew any victory would come too late for my daughter who was already about to start P1.   Flexi-schooling provided us with an immediate and flexibile alternative to address what we saw as deficiencies in the State offering.   We applied for her to attend 4 mornings a week only, and were surprised by how easy this was to arrange.

Flexi-schooling in practice

We are often asked by curious parents whether the school provides us with work to do at home, or what our reporting  requirements are.   Surely someone must be checking up on us to see we are doing it right?   People imagine that we go home and sit diligently at the kitchen table, replicating the school's afternoon timetable, and prompt me to reveal my relevant qualifcations!   My daughter stares on in horror at the suggestions!   Indeed, there would be no point in flexi-schooling if it were that inflexible, and all you were doing was replicating the school offering at home!   The whole point of it is that the Act recognises that education is broader than worksheets and tricky words, and that parents are best placed to choose for their child.  To flexi-school is to liberate your child from the constraints of the school system. You don't have 25 children to think of, or the same budgetary or health and safety constraints.   You are differently resourced and you can play to different strengths - the world is your oyster!

You don't need any particular qualifcations to educate your child at home, and you are free to dictate the syllabus.   Reporting requirements are minimal - an annual check to ensure that the child is being educated, as you deem it.   Our educational plan says we want to play in the woods, follow expressive arts, go to the theatre, travel, read, explore, play!  Our plan has been agreed by the Local Authority as perfectly fine.   Our afternoons pass happily.  We do a range of things: an art class at Jupiter Artland which focuses on enabling children to explore their creativity in an inspiring outdoor setting; we help organise a group of young home educated children and meet to play and explore in local museums, outdoors and elsewhere.  We bake.   We read books and snuggle up under blankets to watch movies.   We go on nature walks and find stuff and look it up on the internet, (because I never got to do this as a child, and I'm learning too).  We've learnt to cook outside on a fire.   We look out for fabulous performances and fun places to go.   We grow things to eat in the garden, and forage beyond for brambles and wild garlic and nettles for jam, pesto and soup respectively.  We hang out with our friends. We travel more than we can afford.

How you flexi-school is really up to you.  There are no financial resources available to parents who flexi-school (or home educate full-time for that matter), but there are plenty of low cost options.  Home Education groups tends to try and keep costs down, whilst lots of resources are free, eg. museums, parks, libraries, online resources etc.  For young children, I would say the primary expense is having a parent available to look after the child during the flexi-hours.

What about school?

The other common question we get from curious others is how does the school feel about all this?   Isn't it unsettling?   Isn't the child confused by missing so much of the day?   Do the other children single her out as different?    Personally, we have been lucky to have a really super supportive school and class teacher, who have been incredibly positive about our approach.   However, our broader experience across the flexi-schooling community suggests, even where the school has been rather underwhelmed at the prospect, the flexi-arrangement can still work very well.

We opted for our child to attend Monday to Thursday mornings only because this is when the school, in common with most primary schools, deliver the core numeracy and literacy curriculum.  This provided a coherent approach, enabling my child to access the whole numeracy and phonics programme, whilst missing the entire PE, music, French and topic curriculums.  Other parents have opted to miss Friday mornings only (when assembly and golden time are the principle activities).   Primary teachers will sometimes digress from the core timetable (which your Headteacher should be happy to share with you at the beginning of the year), but you should remember they are used to dealing with children who are absent on an ocassional basis.   

Flexi-schooling can also be complementary to the school curriculum.   As parents, we are lighter on our feet to access learning opportunities that the school would love to provide.  For our family, the principle benefit though, has been that my daughter has seemed happier and more settled in school knowing that a desk-based formal curriculum is limited to a few hours, and that her afternoons are always playful and active.

It is worth knowing also that a flexi-child occupies a full-time place, so although your statutory obligation is only to attend for your agreed hours, you may on an ad hoc basis negotiate with the school directly to attend extra sessions.  In practice, we did this so that my child could attend the afternoon Christmas party and a puppet performance.   Most schools seem happy to allow the child to attend for extra sessions, so if there is an issue, like wanting to be part of the nativity or missing a special event, you can opt to attend school.   

The other children have been very accepting of our flexi-schooling.   Although it may seem strange to other parents who have never heard of part-time school or attended on a part-time basis when they were children, for the children it is no different to playmates attending daycare on some days and not others, or children being sent to different ability groups.  It is just what happens.

For our family, the flexi-arrangement has worked very well, and provided a wealth of opportunities to direct our daughter's education in a way that is more consistent with our beliefs around what is best for her.   We commend it to you.

Organising Flexi-schooling

In Edinburgh, interested parents should contact the Social Inclusion officer for an application form.   It might also be helpful to have a discussion with your Headteacher about how your aims can be best accommodated.   Scottish Government guidance suggests Local Authorities should provide a decision within 6 weeks of submitting your application form.  It is perfectly acceptable to apply well in advance, and indeed advisable.

Flexi-schooling families are also welcome to join EBHE (Edinburgh and Beyond Home Education Online Network).   EBHE is a private, moderated network that enable families who are involved in alternative education outside of school to connect with each other.    We have found it an excellent way of meeting like-minded families and finding out about a range of activities on offer.