Dear South Ayrshire Council,

The Parenting Science Gang have received funding from Wellcome to undertake research into subjects of interest to parents. This group is looking into the take up of flexischooling in Scotland and the support provided by local authorities to families and schools who wish to make, or currently hold, a flexischooling arrangement.
The information gathered in this project will be published online in a report on the findings, and may form part of an academic paper published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Please would you provide answers to the following questions:

FLEXISCHOOLING POLICY
1. Flexischooling is defined by the Scottish government as where a child attends school part-time and is home educated for the remainder of the week, and can be arranged in collaboration with the school and parents. More information is available here: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2007/12...
Does your LA use the term flexischooling to refer to this arrangement, or is it known by a different term?

2. Please send us copies of written information that your LA makes available to staff, schools or parents to guide and support;
a. requesting a flexischooling arrangement,
b. the decision-making process in accepting or rejecting a request
c. the ongoing support for schools and families involved in flexischooling.
This might include, but not be limited to, policies, procedures and information/guidance sheets.

3. If you do not have any written information as described above, please tell us how a request for a new flexischooling arrangement would be dealt with.

4. Which role within your LA has responsibility for flexischooling? What are their responsibilities? Please provide us with the contact details (name, email, phone number) of the person who currently holds this role.

FLEXISCHOOLING NUMBERS
1. How many children do you believe are currently flexischooling in your LA? Please tell us how you calculated this number (eg based on requests for arrangements, headteacher reports, registration codes).

2. Please provide a breakdown of these numbers indicating the phase of schooling ie number at primary (5-11) level, number at secondary (11-18) level.

3. How many flexischooled children are known to require Additional Support for Learning (ASL).

4. How many requests have been made for flexischooling arrangements during the academic years;
a) 2014-15
b) 2015-16
c) 2016-17

5. How many requests in each of those time periods were accepted?

6. How many requests in each of those time periods were refused. Please give a breakdown of the reasons for which they were refused.

Yours faithfully,

S Collins

Dear FOI,

Thanks for your response. My full name is Ellen Sophia Collins, known as Sophia Collins.

Yours sincerely,

S Collins