I was in school until I was 10 years old. I actually moved school twice as we moved house. My school in Bristol was my last school where I was from year 2 until year 5. School was okay; I enjoyed seeing my friends, play time was always the best! I did not enjoy having to sit still a lot or having to write lots of things. I also didn’t like that I couldn’t really choose what I wanted to learn about but had to do the same as everyone else – the topic the teacher would choose. When Mum asked me what I would think about being home educated I was excited, I was a little worried about not seeing my friends. But I am good at making friends and love meeting new people so I was not worried about this. 

Leaving school on the last day felt really exciting – lots of my friends said they were actually jealous and wanted to come too! It was weird not having to be up and ready for school every day. Mum was a lot less shouty in the mornings! I spent the first month being out of school learning to do rubix cube. Mum said I needed to ‘decompress’ from school and so we had a lot of space in our days to ‘potter’ around, and if I am honest, not to do very much. Sometimes this felt a little boring – but Mum told me boredom was good! I learnt my sisters (I have twin sisters who are now 10) were actually quite fun to play with and not as annoying as they had felt at the end of a long school day. We spent lots of time outside in nature and getting a puppy was amazing, pup and I spent a lot of time playing! At the start I still saw my old school friends a lot, this is less now. Over the past few years I have connected with other local families and have made new friends. My friends are now all different ages, although my best buddy is just a year younger than me. We have explored different ways of doing home learning – my mum has been learning too. I have an amazing maths tutor who has made maths so much fun and I love our weekly session together. Some of my learning is on line, plus we join up with another family three times a week. My grandad comes to teach us history which is fun. We have groups that we go to and I have explored lots of different things such as a textiles course, drama, BMX club, Science. We have been to home ed sessions at our local science museum as well as enjoyed trips to different places – when we are not under Covid restrictions. We have a good rhythm. 

I wouldn’t want to go back to school as I have a lot of freedom and choice. My favourite project this year has been with an online academy in Canada where I did a course called Social Change Makers – this lasted throughout lockdown and was so much fun; we organised a Black Lives Matter protest on Minecraft through which we learnt a lot about the civil rights movement. 

I hope one day to become an engineer, or to come up with a solution for a global problem that will bring positive change.