After consulting with the school yesterday following 7 months of distress and anxiety, I have come to the decision to sign my 13 year old son out of school for now, and home educate.  It appears to be a scary journey (at least, I feel scared now and I haven’t even sent the de-register email in yet), but at the same time, there are some fantastic resources online and some great supportive communities.  

So I am just beginning to navigate my way around this thing as a single working parent, keeping in mind that my son’s mental health is the number one priority just now, and also that ‘no school’ does not equate to ‘no education’.

I am also a little bit excited about the learning journey ahead of us and of course, I am breathing a sigh of relief that the pressure to squeeze my child into an educational model that causes him enormous distress, is finally off.  

I am a firm believer in education and I think, with the passage of time and maturity, my son will continue with a more formal education later in life, perhaps going back to it in his 20s, like I did.  Until then, here we are!