Open doors, no barriers: How online primary has transformed life for Kelsey’s son

Struggles in the early years

At just 10 years old, Elliot has some surprisingly mature passions for his age. Already, he’s deeply invested in wildlife conservation, environmentalism, and climate justice. Even more surprisingly to mum Kelsey, he’s passionate about social justice too, which she says, “takes me aback sometimes given how young he is.”

A fierce protector of the world and the people in it, it’s no surprise Elliot is described as a “very gentle soul,” by his mother. Unfortunately, however, that hasn’t stopped him from being a target for bullying from an incredibly young age — “as early as kindergarten,” says Kelsey, “which is crazy and was heartbreaking.” That bullying wasn’t confined to the classroom either, stretching to extracurricular settings and even local playgrounds.

Given the difficulties Elliot faced in traditional school settings, it’s only natural that Kelsey and her husband were keen to explore alternative options as quickly as they could. Elliot is also neurodivergent and academically advanced, so the mainstream classroom environment hasn’t always been suited to him as a learner either. Level two autistic with severe ADHD, Elliot lives with hypotonia (decreased muscle tone) and dyspraxia too, and his best way of learning is just one of the many reasons why Kelsey first began homeschooling her son.

Kelsey’s homeschooling journey

Given that Kelsey is a certified teacher herself with a background in linguistics, homeschooling initially seemed like a natural fit for the family. While they did try US public school before the pandemic, the experience was far from ideal.

For quite a while, homeschooling worked a lot better for Elliot than school had. Kelsey could tailor the curriculum to Elliot’s needs and interests, particularly focusing on multilingual education. “His first words were actually in French,” Kelsey shares proudly, “so language acquisition was very high priority to us.”

However, as time went on, the limitations of home educating did start to arise. “There’s something missing,” Kelsey realised: in particular, the social aspect of schooling. Learning at home with his mum, Elliot wasn’t getting the same level of interaction with other children that he would have done at a mainstream school.

Of course, given the bullying Elliot had faced there, it wasn’t worth re-enrolling him for socialisation alone. Moreover, Kelsey knew that as Elliot progressed in his studies, she’d start to approach the limits of her own expertise, even as a teacher herself.

Naturally, homeschooling also blurs the lines between teacher and parent. Like so many homeschooling mums, Kelsey felt the strain of that too. As Elliot “isn’t an inherently defiant child,” the times when he’d wake up and not want to do school became a conflict Kelsey would’ve rather lived without: “I want a harmonious home.”

That’s when the family began to look into online education.

Choosing King’s InterHigh

Alongside providing a safe and happy learning environment, Kelsey and her husband had a lot of criteria in mind for giving their son the best education. It needed to be individualised to his needs and flexible around their lifestyle. Kelsey’s husband works from home, so they wanted the freedom to be able to travel around without impacting Elliot’s education.

Plus, Kelsey wanted an academically focused environment that would meet Elliot’s drive for learning, along with a curriculum that taught the subjects they felt were crucial, like French and computer science. The family had a very precise ideal education programme in mind, and they didn’t want to compromise on any of its crucial elements. “Thankfully,” says Kelsey, “King’s InterHigh was pretty easy to find.”

On top of everything she was already looking for, there was a lot more that stood out to Kelsey about King’s InterHigh too — our vast international community of students, for example. So, determined to make it work around their schedule, Kelsey and her husband made the move to join our primary school. Now, Elliot joins live classes every day, timetabled to fit his routine best, along with library (recorded) lessons a few early mornings a week.

And, all in all, that routine works out wonderfully for the family. With Elliot able to finish his classes and his homework tasks by the morning or early afternoon, they’re free to spend their days enjoying all the exciting and educational activities Chicago has to offer, from museum outings to concert trips.

More importantly, though, the move to online learning has been truly transformative for Elliot. According to Kelsey, “He’s a totally different kid than he was the year prior. His thirst for learning has come back, like it was when he was younger.”

“It’s the best thing ever!”

Elliot’s enthusiasm for school has now skyrocketed so high that he’s always eager to start his school day, even when that means waking up early. The family has set up a timer that goes off before classes are due to start — a top tip for any online school students who thrive on a clear routine — and Elliot is always quick to call from his room, “Okay, I’m logging on!”

It’s an experience he’s been raving about to everyone, even once describing his live classes as “the best thing ever!” Kelsey has noticed a big boost in his enthusiasm and organisation too, in part because of the way King’s InterHigh fits his learning needs.

From Elliot’s perspective, the lack of classroom distraction works perfectly for him. Whether he’s engaging directly with his teacher and classmates in his live lessons or diving deep into a lesson recording, “he can just stay focused.” That live lesson collaboration has also been a game-changer for Elliot, offering a complete contrast to learning at home one-on-one with his mum.

Likewise, joining King’s InterHigh has been amazing for Elliot from a social perspective. Free from any bullying, he’s been able to make lots of friends around the world during his classes. After exchanging Skype contacts with their parents, Kelsey was able to set up after-school chat sessions with all four of the children too — Elliot, two students from the UK, and one from Morocco. “We’d hear their voices from his room, and they’re just chatting away for an hour,” Kelsey recalls, adding, “It was like the cutest thing because these are four kids who are from all corners of the globe talking to each other.”

Kelsey says her son has made “quite a few social strides” in his first year of online schooling, which is also partly down to the flexibility she and her husband made use of when enrolling Elliot. Originally, they first considered putting him into Year 5 given his age and his academic abilities. At King’s InterHigh, however, families are free to choose the best year group for their child’s needs and circumstances (or even enrol their child for courses at a mix of age levels).

Ultimately, they decided that Year 4 would be a better fit, and now he’s “flourishing academically” as well as making friends and building social skills.

A parent’s perspective

Online learning has been a positive experience for the rest of the family too. For one, alongside giving them more freedom for activities, it fits around their love for travel perfectly. They were able to travel to London for a month at the beginning of the school year, Elliot gets to spend time boating and swimming with his cousins in Lake Michigan, and there’s plenty of time for him to pursue sports that work for his motor needs: golf, pickleball, and tandem biking with his dad.

Kelsey, meanwhile, gets to solely be mum again, which has given their parent-child relationship a big boost. As far as education goes, Elliot simply sees her as “that history-savvy mom who takes me to museums — and that’s fine.” On top of that, she’s been “very impressed” with the schooling Elliot is receiving now as a teacher herself, as have her sister (a fellow educator) and Elliot’s grandmother, a retired teacher and school administrator.

Alongside the broad curriculum, which allows him to study subjects he wouldn’t have in public school at his age (like computer science and French), Kelsey loves the skills and mindset Elliot is building. Not only is he becoming more organised and independent, he’s also developing a sense of resilience and self-improvement from the feedback his teachers give him. “One of the reasons I chose King’s InterHigh,” explains Kelsey, “is that I think the grading system here is a really healthy way to look at the world: you did a good job, and here’s some room for improvement.”

A bright future ahead

Elliot still has all of secondary school to go, but Kelsey and her husband are positive that online education is the best way forward for him. In part, that’s down to the flexibility he’s getting without sacrificing a great education. But, it’s also because Kelsey sees King’s InterHigh as a way to “future-proof” her son in a rapidly changing world.

With that in mind, while Elliot doesn’t have any future goals of his own yet, the family is already looking towards the IB Diploma Programme once Elliot’s old enough, which we offer fully online at King’s InterHigh. The appeal lies in the doors it opens. She wants to ensure her son has every opportunity available to him, and from Kelsey’s perspective, “If you can achieve the IB, then the world’s your oyster. You can essentially go anywhere.”

Of course, no matter whether Elliot wants to get an advanced degree one day or work in a more hands-on field, there’s one wish that’s most important to Kelsey (and so many more parents who’ve opted for online school): her child’s happiness.