Hollinsclough Flexi-school

Home Education / Flexible Schooling

We firmly believe and fully support a parent’s right to choose to home-educate their child or children.

"The respect of parent's freedom to educate their children according to their vision of what education should be has been part of international human rights standards since their very emergence."

'The Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights - 8th April 1999'

To elect to Home Educate is a bold step for any family, its is a decision not taken lightly or without good cause.

We do not use our Flexi-schooling approach to force Home educators back into the mainstream by using it as a short term arrangement. Our experience shows that parents who have made this choice know what is right for their child or children.

To satisfy our current Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies we need to see each child at least once every second week (10 school days) and that is the only fixed contractual requirement, beyond that the arrangement suits the needs and requirements of each child and their parents.

Our parents who Home Educate come from well outside our normal catchment area and it is clear the dedication these parents have to their choice to support their child or children's educational development in this way.

One family travel over 60 miles (one way) to attend our school and we have had enquiries from families that live over 40 miles away.

We have developed close links with our own Elective Home Education team (EHE) within Staffordshire County Council, along with the same teams from Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester authorities along with the Elective Home Education facilitator Education Otherwise. Additional information is also available from Home Education UK especially their legal section which helps to clarify the 1996 Education Act for parents who are considering the Elective Home Education choice.

Our approach is becoming noticed and we have many enquiries visits from other Headteachers, Local Authorities, Education Consultants and others.

Here at Hollinsclough Primary we can tailor our support to suit your needs and work with you to facilitate the desire to Home Educate your children.

Our tailored Flexi-school provision can range from Technical Support, Top up lessons, Assessments (inc AEN), Advice, Projects, Administrative Assistance, Equipment, and Consumables, to your children gaining access to swimming lessons, sports competitions and extended social interaction and other enhancement activities, events and excursions.

In the first instance we offer Home Educators access to our Learning Hub which helps to facilitate a relationship between the school and those parents and their children - See the timetable for the Hub on the table at the bottom of this page

Comments from some of our Home Educator / Flexi-school parents

"Thank you for all that you have done for our child and consequently for our family - We have taken so many positives from it"

"We think your school is a very special place to learn and play"

"Our family feels very lucky to have found such brave little school that nurtures the children so well"

"If we lived nearer to your school we would attend every day" ,

"Although I will continue to Home Educate, your approach to supporting my child's needs is beginning to
restore my confidence in mainstream education"

Comments from Diocesan and County Officers, Ofsted and others

Colin Hopkins, Director of Education for the Diocese of Lichfield, commented in a recent press release;

“This school is developing an innovative approach to education which could well be a model for

small schools in rural areas to achieve longer term sustainability. I am delighted that Hollinsclough is

achieving pre-eminence in this field.”

Following our Ofsted inspection in March 2010 our inspectors key comments were;

'Within the school's very friendly, secure, calm and intimate family ethos, pupils achieve well and make good progress academically and in their personal development. Pupils behave well and look after each other exceptionally well. They feel especially safe and are very confident in the adults, who they regard as 'kind'. Staff know the pupils extremely well and this provides the foundation for the outstanding care, guidance and support that the school provides for its pupils .... Pupils make good progress because of the effective combination of formal, informal and one-to-one teaching.'

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Our Flexi-school Project supported by the CfBT Education Trust

Our school recently completed a Flexi-schooling / Home Education study project supported by and working with the CfBT Education Trust and others, to research into the feasibility of integrating and supporting Home Education within mainstream state provision.

The outcomes of this project offer a possible means to shape education delivery in the future.

Sir Jim Rose summarised his view of Flexi-schooling in is opening foreword of this report;

‘Flexi-schooling’ or ‘flexible school attendance’ is an arrangement between the parent and the school where the child is registered at school in the normal way but where the child attends the school only part time; the rest of the time the child is home-educated (effectively on authorised absence from school). Flexi-schooling is a legal option provided that the headteacher at the school concerned agrees to the arrangement.

Home schooling is a long-standing option that is open to parents who, for example, take the view that their children are not always best served by entering full-time, statutory education at the age of five. Some parents prefer to educate their children full time at home while others seek varying periods of part-time schooling, irrespective of their child’s age.

The purpose of this report is not to argue for or against home schooling but to describe the provision and practice of a small school where an approach to ‘flexi-schooling’ is widely acknowledged as successfully meeting parents’ wishes and children’s educational needs. Its innovative flexi-school approach enables a mix of parent-led educational activities to blend with school-based educational activities.

The report does not provide a blueprint for others to follow; it is simply a story of one school’s approach to flexi-schooling and the benefits to children and parents that have stemmed from it. The hope is that this will be a helpful narrative which sets out some of the issues for parents, Headteachers, governors and local authorities to consider, should they wish to offer the option of flexi-schooling in like circumstances.

For more background information and understanding of our approach to Flexi-schooling select from a link below.

Hollinsclough Flexi-school rationale	Hollinsclough Flexi-school presentation
Hollinsclough Flexi-school contract	The Hollinsclough - CfBT Final Report
CPD Opportunity - Headteachers & Governors Please click here If you want learn more Due to demand we may need to make a charge to cover costs Remember to provide your school address including postcode, along with the full DfE number and a telephone contact

Press Comment

Headteacher Update	Ed-Yourself	The Independent
Leadership Focus	The Guardian	Diocese of Lichfield
BBC News	Commonwealth of Learning

Sir Ken Robinson - TED

Changing Education Paradigms
Schools Kill Creativity	Bring on the Learning Revolution

Other Schools affiliated to this project since our launch

Erpingham C of E Primary School	Howard Primary School	St Mary's C of E Primary School

Supporting Organisations

Personalised Education Now (PEN)