NEW! FLEXISCHOOLING HANDBOOK: ENGLAND AND WALES

Flexischooling has its origins in the 1970s with Independent Study Programmes (ISPs) in the USA and pioneering flexible arrangements in the UK like that brokered by Kate Oliver in Warwickshire. Conversations between Dr Roland Meighan and John Holt developed the concept and in 1988 Dr Roland Meighan wrote ‘Flexischooling – education for tomorrow starting yesterday’. Philip Toogood co-ordinated the emerging Human Scale Education movement which at that time adopted flexischooling as one of its key interests. Philip and his wife Annabel went on to successfully establish flexischooling in practice at Dame Catherine’s School, Ticknall, Derbyshire andthe  East Midlands Flexicollege in Burton on Trent.

Flexischooling enjoyed ad hoc interest largely located under the radar until after the millennium when parental demand has grown considerably and more and more schools are showing interest in the possibilities of flexischooling.

Families consider flexischooling for a range of reasons:

• Parents wish to spend more quality time with their children. They want an active role in their children’s education.
• Children can follow their own interests, and different learning styles can be respected and accommodated.
• Children can benefit from both approaches to learning; being taught at school and being educated at home.

• • At school children can work and socialise with their own peer group, they have access to specialist educators and resources they might not have at home, they can join in with activities such as school trips and plays.
  • At home children can benefit from individual tuition or small, possibly mixed-age, groups, alternatively their learning can be self-directed and they can experience a wider range of activities in different environments, e.g. outdoor activities, museum visits.

• Children who have difficulties attending school full-time, for example because of illness, emotional or behavioural needs, have the opportunity to follow a reduced timetable without being removed from the school environment altogether.

Flexischooling offers educational journeys and experiences more fitting for the 21^st Century. There is space to accommodate self-direction and co-creation and an altogether more personalised approach in contrast to the wholly more prescribed, one-size fits all structures and progressions in full-time schooling. For some children and families it is literally a life-changing and life-enhancing decision.

This e-handbook serves as a practical reference for any family considering flexischooling. It also supports schools, local authorities, researchers, media and interested citizens in finding out more about the concept and its potential.