#flexischoolinguk

Flexischooling is a not widely known form of hybrid education, where a child is registered at a school full time, but the headteacher agrees the child can be educated at home for part of the week, making up a full time education. There is no fixed schedule for flexischooling, the days for each individual agreement are decided between the headteacher and family, though 3-4 days in school and 1-2 days learning at home are common.

Flexischooling is becoming increasingly popular, with nearly 27,000 members in the Flexischooling Families UK facebook group, founded by The Centre for Personalised Education nearly 13 years ago. More than 600 schools across the UK have agreed to flexischooling arrangements, but getting Flexischooling agreed can be a battle, which we want to make easier.

At present the Department for Education guidance states that flexischooling should be marked as Code C (authorised absence). We believe Code C is not an appropriate code for flexischooling for the following reasons:

- Code C is an absence code and suggests the child is missing their education, but flexischooling children are receiving a full time education. Code C does not reflect this

- As Code C is an absence code, headteachers can be hesitant to agree to a flexischooling arrangement, concerned about the impact it would have on their attendance data

- As Code C can be used for multiple purposes, we have no statistical data on the number of flexischooling pupils there are or any ability to monitor and compare their outcomes

We have launched a petition requesting that flexischooling is given its own attendance code (Code F). We ask that Code F is not an absence code, but like Code B (educated off site) recognises that the child is receiving a full time education.

We hope that having a specific code, flexischooling will be legitimised in the eyes of headteachers, who often have never heard of flexischooling as the DfE flexischooling guidance is included in the Elective Home Education guidance.

We believe the government and Ofsted would welcome a distinct flexischooling code as this will give them quantifiable data regarding the number of flexischooling pupils there are - something that has never previously been available.

Please sign our petition to help get flexischooling its own distinct attendance code, which we hope will make flexischooling more accessible for families who want or need it.