Even though we had already decided to educate Elsa at home, actually sending her school a letter of de-registration was a really big deal. Just because we are not satisfied with the education system, it does not mean we are unhappy with the school which Elsa has been attending to this point.
Remember that teachers and head teachers are human beings trying to do a really rather important job with one hand tied around their back by the government. It can’t be easy for them being used as a political football, jumping through hoops and juggling the demands of pen pushers, parents and students.
Before we sent the letter, we (that is the grown ups) had a final chat to make sure we were 100% sure about what we were doing. I made sure that we focussed only on the disadvantages of educating at home to see if we would be swayed to change our decision. To be fair, it was hard to think of many disadvantages at all.
While discussing this I was mooching about on the TES Opinion Forum and I came across this post. It really was rather interesting, at some points funny, and actually helped reinforce my viewpoint that home education will simply be better for our our girls and our family.
Our position remained the same, we sent the letter tonight straight to the head, our home school journey has begun.