well a while back i was considering home edding my children but they had a last minute change of heart, as the months have passed my eldest has decided she defiantly wants to go ahead with it as for the past few weeks she’s been poorly with anxiety and not wanted to go.My husband sat down with her last week and even though we’ve been told by her teachers she’s on track we’ve discovered that she isn’t really as she seems to get the answers right at school but understanding where that answer came from,she has no idea.Bessie told me she gets regular help and the assistant does most of the work letting her fill in the blank,she also works in groups a lot so she just falls into the background and then fills in the answer at the end. my husband’s having a meeting with the head today to tell him we’re taking her out, i just want to know what to expect next really eg LEA visits ,any ideas of whats worked well for others and any home ed groups in south Leeds (I’m in the Morley area if there’s any other HE families out there).looking forward to what you have to say love Caren xxx

I can’t really offer much advice as we are only just starting out ourselves HE (officially from september, but we took my eldest out of nursery school class in february as she just wasn’t thriving there. Just wanted to say good luck with your HE journey x

Hi caren my advise would be to join the UK home education group on Facebook it’s been a great support to us especially when it comes to dealing with the la. I’m afraid i can’t post a link here as I’m on my phone. Good luck with everything

the lea seems to differ a lot depending what county your in, in Cardiff them seem so far not to bother with us at all.
good luck on your journey. and just to let you know it’s perfectly normal to have wobbles long the way !

As already mentioned, there is a “UK Home Education group” on FB from which there are now groups for each LA area in the country.  Some are small still but it is a good way to contact local people if you are not a member of Education Otherwise or similar.  You can search Yahoo Groups for the same sorts of lists too and request to join.  Often you need to provide a bit of information about your family just to prove you are real!  I never sent my children to school but I have friends who did and they haven’t looked back, I hope you get off to a flying start!

Diana

thanks for the info will look at fb, yahoo etc hopefully it’ll all be ok xxxxxx

Hi, I hope you have an exciting journey and the LEA treat you kindly.  Like others have said here LEAs can really vary, I would advise you to read up about what they expect from you and what they are allowed to expect from you (I think Education Otherwise has some info on this).  For example they have no right to demand access to your house or children, you can send a written report each year, but I know that some LEAs can be less than gentle with their approach. 

Enjoy! 

I also live near Leeds, so not far away.  We come under Wakefield education though so it would be different people from the LEA.  As far as the LEA goes, I make sure I have kept a few folders and filed his work into them so they can easily see what he’s done.  They’re usually pretty nice.

They organise events every couple of months for our area, and I know a few live nearer Leeds, and they’re worth going to.  We’ve visited some museums and castles with them and got to meet other families.

Just enjoy it.  They’ll be days when you have an amazing time and others where you wonder what on earth you’ve let yourself in for.  But it’s the best thing we ever did, and i’m sure you’ll love it.

thanks for the advise i will contact our local LEA about what goes on and whats on for educational visits and so on x