Decision made.

M and I had chat with our lovely neighbour, A who 'child-sits' the girls occasionally, and is in the sixth form at the school, really helped.  She was able to answer questions with much more insight than a member of the senior management team was ever going to, both from a pupil point of view and explaining about what support there is actually like.

So after much consideration, cuddles and talking M made her decision and I am going to be applying for her to start school.  We're keeping fingers crossed that it will be straightforward and sorted as soon as possible.  Obviously the ideal would be for her to be able to start in September with everyone else, but I'm not convinced that it particularly likely.

M is clearly rather apprehensive about the whole thing, but I am really pleased that she made the decision herself, rather than leaving it to A and me.  We have talked about how there isn't a right or a wrong choice and the result for her will either be that she finds school is for her, in which case it is the right choice, or she will find it isn't, in which case she can return to home education and she will not be in the position of having never been to school, which is one of her reasons for going now.

As for the rest of us, it will take some getting used to for me and K in particular and it's certainly not ideal for the family having one child in school and one at home, but I do think that it's the right decision for each of them for now.

In other news - here's a quilled creation that K made, it's a commission that I asked her to do for my best friend from uni, her godmother.

Mr Men!