DIY or college such as Interhigh

[Salbertina]

Advice please: first- timer unexpectedly considering HE as 1-3 term stop gap for year 9 dc. Lack of any progress/support and bad behaviour at (overseas) school. Fear this could escalate at home when no-one else to bounce off or will frustration/anger miraculously disappear?
Have found a lot of online material, got lots of textbooks.. Should i go interhigh route for the structure/support or save money and my own thing? I do plan to be following broadly the national curriculum. Plus dc will return to mainstream school afterwards.

[Salbertina]

Bump? Any wise and/or experienced souls out there please?

[Salbertina]

Please?! Could do with some advice! Doubting the whole enterprise atm- dc SO defiant, might kill each other before first day is out.

[maggi]

Hello
Just relax for a while. My ds was turning violent and schemeing and just plain horrible. The news that he was home schooling changed his life instantly and still has. The news that we were prepared to 'rescue' him from the bad situation he'd put up with at school for so many years brought him back to us. Homeschooling brought back a caring heart that had been lost when he was 6 and realised he couldn't write or run as fast as everyone else (and didn't the mean kids enjoy pointing this out to him so he learnt not to have friends either). Now there are friends, achievements in writing and so much joy.

Make a plan with your child. What you are going to do and when. Perhaps do nothing for x months apart from explore what is on offer - look up deschooling. Then get going on topics he has decided upon.

My ds had a slow build up of problems, but have you identified what issues your child is having? Whatever the root cause is, you will need to make a plan about overcoming the trauma it will have caused him. What you don't want to do is recreate school at home with the same stresses that led to this situation.

Read as much as you can on the ways of homeschooling. Use these threads and there are inks to lists of books. EO (Education Otherwise) is a good website.

[Salbertina]

Thanks, Maggi for your kind words. Glad it worked out for ds. We're hew to this, never ever would have considered before but the utter lack of support here and inadequate curriculum has made me question everything suddenly. And yes, hang out on these boards and so question some more. We're overseas and he's bright, not achieving and "behind" UK so if i do HE it will be following NC fairly closely for couple of hours a day. Wd still free up a lot of time for him to chill, follow his interests etc

[stilllearnin]

Tricky isn't it? We went straight into inter high because that's what my boy wanted. But to be honest he didn't do much of it for 2 terms. He hasn't got ongoing problems but school was stressful- really stressful and none of us took seriously the deschooling thing. It didn't do him any harm going straight to inter high but he would have benefited from some time to recover self esteem and rediscover a desire to learn and study.

I'm quite a hippy but autonomous learning is a bit of a leap of faith for some of us. I think the thing to be clear about is that you don't have to make a plan and stick to it forever. Starting with DIY, autonomous learning or an online school and then swapping will not hurt them. I worried that my son was really behind and I might let him down if I took him out of school but didn't follow nc and get him to gcse's. But when the stress of school goes you see it more clearly. How it can it matter where he is compared to others his age. At no other time in our lives are we compared like this. So I would say just take your time and there is no rush to recreate school at home unless your child needs this emotionally. It could be a really special time for both of you. Ps interhigh is good tho if you find that your child needs structure - my son largely likes it. feel free to ask questions.

[Salbertina]

Hi Still, thanks, thats really reassuring. So your ds is still with Interhigh? How do you feel it is "worth" it in terms of paying for the interaction and the pre-set structure? Quality teaching? Any issues etc? II've had a good search on here and most people seem to be positive about Interhigh hence my interest.

I realise i could save myself the £ and use textbooks/online resources to cover the curriculum but ds needs structure and so a "school" may be best.

He is rather oppositional at the moment though esp with me so sometimes wonder why I'm even thinking this could work! Dh said he's amazed am considering it. Certainly not my no 1 choice for me, but for ds often think he'd be better and calmer at home. But i don't know!

[Salbertina]

Hi and another question, how much supervision/interaction is required from parent if kids use interhigh??

[burberryqueen]

i would be wary of putting yourself in the position of forcing him to use interhigh tbh

[Salbertina]

No thought of forcing (where did i say that?) - HE as temporary option is still on the table. Dc suggested it but not sure why, dh not certain. So if we dis it, it would be a master of how to do it - interhigh or our own programme.
He needs structure, routine.. Struggled without.
Have you experienced Interhigh yourself?

[burberryqueen]

sorry about the use of the word 'force' i just meant that if he is oppositional with you, putting yourself in the position of having to push him to do school might not be great.
i did look at interhigh, and am still thinking about it if other things do not work.
Good luck.

[Salbertina]

No worries. And good point- i fear bring the one telling him even more what to do. Though in some ways guess Interhigh could plug that gap and free me from so many clashes as in more facilitator role (she says hopefully..) ?

[stilllearnin]

interhigh works at the moment for my son. It covers the national curriculum in a very school like way and for some reason he wanted that. It is quite rigid in that there is a timetable (morning lessons generally) and that does tie you down - altho you can of course book yourself out of a lesson The teachers seem to be good. I sit in on some lessons out of interest and because he needs help with maths to keep him focused, but i work from home with set hours so need to leave him unsupervised some of the time. Like any school, the teachers will help the kids but there is no differentation - so if you are very bright or need lots of help it could be tricky - but speak to them about that. If I wasn't working I might consider doing it myself but I would not 'teach' him like at school.

It is a bit dry i suppose, so if you find a topic boring it might be hard to keep engaged and also, that means you'll need to enhance subjects yourself but that's the fun bit. eg trips and home experiments. You could do nothing at all though and give no supervision and the child would get a schooling. The tech support is really good and as a school it is well organised.

All that said, you do not need to decide straight away. Why not start with a subject he enjoys diy style and see how it goes? Also, I would seriously consider deschooling. Although my son was very stressed by the school environment and unkindness of some of his teachers - it wasn't half as bad as some kids' experiences. Time off from structure will help reconnect with learning, so that they want to learn, and whatever you choose to do, a child will need that.

If your child is oppositional he or she might disengage from interhigh - it is just a school. What does your child want to do - he may not want you so involved? or he may want a looser approach - i say that will take a bit of time and space to work out. Feel like I've made it harder for you to decide! sorry!

[Salbertina]

No please, all feedback appreciated! Not confused exactly, good to have lots of viewpoints to process. Great to hear good teachers there tho.

[Salbertina]

More questions, broadly speaking do you think it would work to leave my 13 yr old partly unsupervised? Plus are the different classes per year setted by ability or is it random?

[mumof4darlings]

My daughter loves inter high.she is in year 11 now and working towards her igcses. She loves structure and to feel that she is being taught,that's her words.

LEessons are live and very interactive. There are some really good afterschool clubs you can join also, such as chess club, book club, science club, creative writing.

The students can even run common room sessions on something they are interested in. Theyalso have a residential weekend.

If you need anymore info happy to chat to you.

[Salbertina]

Oh lovely to hear another good report, Mum!

Are those after school things extra or included in fees?

Ds so so defiant - keeps saying "don't speak to me like that" every time i ask him to do anything! How will we cope?!

[mumof4darlings]

The after school clubs are included for free :-)

[Salbertina]

Thats good! Well if he's engaged enough to ditch the defiance, maybe there's hope.