SEN

Special needs support
Home Education can work well for children with additional needs. Some families feel they have no choice but to home educate, because they are not offered suitable provision nearby. Others choose elective home education as a positive option. Whichever group you are in, the support of other parents can make all the difference.

If you'd like to come along to a local home education group, please contact the South London Home-Ed email group via slondonhe@gmail.com or leave a comment on this page with your email address, so we can get in touch with you. Even if you don't want to come along to a meeting, you may find it helpful to join our email group for information and perhaps to get in touch with other parents locally who understand your situation.

There is a national email group for home education with SEN which is very highly recommended - HE-special

The EHE- SEN site is great for detail about the law and what help your child is entitled to (EHE stands for Elective Home Education, which is how many local authorities describe home education).

Safeschool   is a small tuition centre in Eltham, SE9, for children who've been withdrawn from school because of ASD, bullying or anxiety, and has small classes which you can go to maybe for just one session a week, or 4 days a week if you prefer. It is for children aged 8+.

Autistic Spectrum
There are a lot of children on the autistic spectrum who thrive in home education; it can really help to manage anxiety and take struggles out of the day, particularly if school is just too busy for the child and they feel overwhelmed. If the child has special interests, home-education can allow them the time to follow that and make it into an asset.

The National Autistic Society has lists of local resources. See for instance the Greenwich Borough branch In Eltham there are coffee mornings for support for autism - contact Lesley Davis on flag@live.co.uk

There is a book just about HE and ASD, written by members of www.he-special.org.uk:

Home Educating Our Autistic Spectrum Children Paths are Made by Walking Edited by Terri Dowty and Kitt Cowlishaw ISBN 1843100371

You can have a look at the table of contents and short biographies of all the authors on the book website:

Sensory Processing Disorder
For children who have sensory issues or who get overwhelmed by what they smell, taste, feel etc, the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation has suggestions for therapeutic home activities.

Nb: Home education, or 'elective home education', is also known as ' homeschooling ' or 'home-schooling' in the USA. The most common term in the UK is EHE or Home Education.