Communication with the Junior High School of Enrollment

Hello. This is Sanagi.

My son is currently in his 6th year of elementary school.
There is very little of his elementary school life left.

Starting in the spring, he will be attending a free school that is a bit of a distance away.
Since a free school is legallynot treated as a schoolhe will be enrolled in and attend our local junior high school.

"He will actually be attending a different place, but his enrollment will be at the local junior high school"is the situation.

Naturally, the communication with the junior high school is led by the parents.
Surprisingly, information is not passed on from the elementary school (I was shocked by this).

One thing I can say is, 'Mom, do your best.'
If the mother wavers, the position becomes truly ambiguous.
I don't want the father to step in because he tends to get emotional (lol).

The victim of any conflict that arises is, of course, the child.

Parent vs. Junior High School

I want to negotiate calmly and peacefully.

Well, in our family, that negotiation actually went well.
So, I am writing an article about it this time.

Please stay with me until the end.

Communication with the Junior High School

A free school is not what is known as an Article 1 school.
He will be learning in a different place while remaining enrolled in the local school.

Well then. Our area isn't exactly in the middle of nowhere, but it is a region where social ties are quite strong.

The elementary school homeroom teacher said, 'I have mentioned it vaguely, so please contact the academic affairs teacher.'
It seems they were informed that he would be going to a free school.

I will summarize the communication in chronological order first.

First, I calledaround Julywhen we decided he would go to the free school.

It seems it was the first time that school had a child who would be attending a different place upon enrollment, so they seemed confused.

And it was still summer, after all. You could say it was early.
But I contacted them just to report it, as it is better than telling them at the last minute.

The points I conveyed were:
・That he will be attending a place treated as a free school
・That I do not want his name included on any rosters seen by students or parents

Since it was our very first interaction, I didn't get an answer, of course, but they told me they would be as accommodating as possible.
After that, he passed the entrance exam and it was decided he would attend starting in the spring, so I conveyed that around December.

January.An invitation to the entrance orientation arrived from the elementary school.

At this point, a question arose in our household:“Is it necessary to register a bank account?”So, I asked right away.

I asked immediately.

I had already handed over pamphlets and such, so I thought they were already aware. I was a little confused, but I waited.

Since I had already informed them that I would not be attending the entrance orientation, the junior high school contacted me, and I went to pick up the materials at a later date.

The head of academic affairs explained various things to me, and the vice principal (a woman) made her first appearance.

I also confirmed that if it seemed unavoidable during the neighborhood PTA selection, I could tell them that.
Phew.The moment I felt most relieved (lol)

I will talk about this later as well, butwe do not plan to receive a student ID card or similar items.
I was able to talk about that matter in person as well.

Finally, a word from the vice principal.

I feel like these words saved me a little bit.
I don't know yet if they will count it as attendance, but it seems I will be able to get the school's understanding and have him attend a different place.

Ah, that's a relief.
I'm a very anxious person, so I had been thinking about it in my head the whole time.

By the way, regarding the roster, they said they would accommodate me.
They will also make surenot to include him on the rosterthat students and parents see.

Apparently, the roster order is normally decided automatically by computer, but they said they would try to tinker with it somehow.

However, they said that if a transfer student or someone else joins, there might be an unnatural gap left as a blank space.
In that case, if asked, they will say, “There is a child who is attending a different place.”

I'm grateful. That is perfectly fine.

I feel like they were much more understanding than I had imagined.
A weight has been lifted off my heart.

The next meeting will be in April. That is, after the new school year begins.
I will let you know how that goes as well.

What should we do about the tablet and textbooks?

Well then. What I am curious about here is“to what extent and what exactly we will use from the distributed items”right?

In conclusion, our family has a policy of“not accepting any of them.”policy.

・Tablet (iPad)
・Textbooks
・Student ID, etc.

The reason is“because everything is provided at the school.”.

The place my son attends requires a MacBook.
All work is done on the computer.
Classes and such are also all video-based.

Visual learnersare lucky for my son.

Also, for home study, we have been usingZ-kai(iPad) and plan to continue.
At the school my son attends, a monthly“Learning Status Report”is sent to the school.

In line with that, our family also plans to keep a“Record of Home Study”in a spreadsheet or similar.
(I don't know if it will be recognized as attendance, but we plan to submit it anyway.)

This might change depending on the type of free school.
If you are enrolled while attending a support center, you will often do school homework there.
“Surara”It seems that using a learning tool called can sometimes be recognized as attendance.

In our case, the point was that everything could be completed at the school.

If I accept a tablet I won't use and it breaks, I'll be unnecessarily responsible for it, so I think it's fine to just communicate by phone.

Regarding report cards, I have told them“We don't plan to take public high school entrance exams, so slashes or similar are fine.”As for high school, he is scheduled to advance through the junior-senior high school program.

I was once completely at the mercy of my junior high school report cards.
How much of a persona did I fake for the sake of report card evaluations (lol)
(I'll write about this in another article.)

Thanks to that, my internal assessment score was 42 (out of 45).
I did my best, if I do say so myself.

His report card will definitely beall 1sorslashesfor sure.
It's actually starting to become something to look forward to.

Finally, the student ID.

We don't plan to accept this either.
We have My Number cards now, after all.
You can tell he is a junior high student by looking at his date of birth.

Also, it feels a bit uncomfortable to show a student ID from a school I'm not attending just for identification purposes.
So, I won't be accepting it.

Of course, I haven't purchased a uniform or a bicycle either.
Instead, I have already bought a backpack for school and a MacBook.

It's a little sad that I won't be able to see him in a uniform, but as long as he lives happily and healthily, that's all that matters!

Negotiating with a strong mindset

WorrywartContrary to my own anxious delusions, the negotiation ended smoothly.

Honestly, I'm surprised.I thought it would be much more of a struggle.

Personally, I was conscious of maintaining the stance: 'I will do what I need to do and cooperate, but basically, I want you to leave us alone.'

My husband said, 'If you don't say things firmly, they won't understand. They'll take advantage of you,' but I am a pacifist.

My husband asked, 'Should I go and listen to the conversation too?' but I declined (lol).

Men work in organizations, after all.
I suppose their job is to clash with logical arguments.

However, the main character this time ismy son.

I thought, what would happen if you got involved and things got messy, making my son's position unclear?

I am very bad at negotiations.
Butfor my son's sake, I can do my best.

It is certainly not a 'normal' path, but I haven't done anything wrong.
If that's the case, I wanted to face them head-on, express my true feelings, and welcome spring with peace of mind.

I'm glad. It seems like we might be able to welcome spring somehow.

Throughout the process, I tried to keep my tone calm.
For now, I wonder if things are okay.

I don't know, though.
Things might get complicated again come spring (worrywart switch activated).

Well, from here on, what will be, will be.

'90% of worries never happen. Even if they do, they can usually be resolved.'

I truly felt that this time.

March is almost here.
There are less than 20 days left of attending school.

Things will get busy for me starting in the spring, but I'm ready to take it on.

I'll take it easy for just a little while longer, and then I'll do my best starting in the spring.

That's all for now.
Thank you for reading until the end.