Flexi Schooling – does this happen in your school?

Flexi schooling is being discussed with Devon schools.

Although children being home-educated are not normally registered at any school, parents sometimes choose to make arrangements for a child to receive part of the total provision at a school. Such arrangements are sometimes known as ‘flexi-schooling’ and a child who is educated at home most of the time can also be registered at school and attend school for part of the week.

Flexi-schooling arrangements may be long-term where all parties agree that this is in a child’s best interest, or it may be short term for a particular reason and with the aim of supporting a child back towards full time attendance in school, perhaps for a child returning to education following illness. Devon County Council provides guidance on flexi-schooling.

Schools are under no obligation to agree to an arrangement to flexi-school and whilst the headteacher will be the decision maker, the governing board of a school will have scrutiny over decisions. Schools are held to account through inspection for the performance and safeguarding of pupils and that will include any who attend the school as part of a programme of flexi-schooling.

Schools are being asked to provide information to the local authority on whether they provide flexi-schooling, the reasons for granting a request and how many requests they receive.

For more information on Elective Home Education (EHE) and flexi-schooling see the DAG Busy Governance Guide to Elective Home Education.