Home Schooling My Autistic Child

After the debacle  I mentioned in my last post, I had a fretful night with very little sleep. The next morning I concluded that I could not send my son to school as I would not feel he was safe.

After a lot of thought, I wrote a letter to the headteacher, withdrawing my son from the school. I briefly explained why and how I felt that the school had let us down.

I explained to my son that we were now going to have school at home. He seemed quite happy about this, although he was a bit sad that he would not see his friends anymore. We sat down and wrote out a list of the subjects we wanted to study and we made a timetable. I found that the best way to teach him was in 30 minute lessons, with short breaks in between.

I found a huge amount of resources on the internet, but will cover this in a future post. We had lots of fun with our home school, cutting, colouring and playing games.

Then, in the afternoon, I had a call from the headteacher, requesting a meeting the next day.

I managed to get in touch with the safeguarding department, who advised me to make sure that the headteacher had a plan in place for my son, should he return. She also advised me that if things did not go the way I wanted, that I should report the matter to Ofsted, who take a very dim view of children escaping from schools....

The next day, we had another full day of home school, which I must admit, I really enjoyed, even though my son was now missing school quite a lot. Autistic kids need their routine and change is hard.

I met up with the headteacher that afternoon and we forged a plan together. We will be having a meeting in January with the head, SENCO, class teacher and head of year to formulate a written plan for my son's safety and well being for the rest of his school life. I was happy with this.

I got back and told my son he was going to be able to return to school.

"Good...." He said.
"...I do like being at home mom, but I miss school".

He needs school.

So today, he went back, just in time for the end of term party. He got lots of votes in the dance contest, which pleased him no end!

As for me, sending him back was bittersweet, but I must admit that I am quite relieved that it all worked out. I have a new found respect for those who choose to home educate. It is certainly not the easy option.