How bullying led one mum and daughter to online schooling

As mum Tegan watched her happy daughter slowly grow frustrated and withdrawn, she knew something had to change.

Thankfully, everything changed when Alliyah made the move to King’s InterHigh. Now, she’s thriving across the board in her education, social life, and even her passion for figure skating. We caught up with Tegan and Alliyah to find out more about their story and why online school has been such a wonderful change for the whole family.

When school becomes unbearable

Like so many young people who struggle in mainstream education, Tegan says Alliyah has always loved learning. But, when she started secondary school, that enthusiasm quickly began to diminish.

Throughout Year 7, Tegan noticed her daughter becoming increasingly frustrated with school. Instead of the expert teaching she needed after moving up from primary school, Alliyah faced a rotation of cover teachers. That also led to more disruptions in lessons, making the learning environment more chaotic than enjoyable. Over time, says Tegan, Alliyah began to find school increasingly “boring.”

But, trouble with learning was only part of the story. At the same time, Alliyah was being picked on by other students.

According to a study by Anti-Bullying Alliance, a staggering 1 in 4 students in England face frequent bullying at school. Any child can experience bullying at school, regardless of their background, appearance, personality, and even popularity. In Tegan’s view, the school environment can be particularly tough for “children who want to do well.” As a mum, she also feared that prejudice played a part.

Day after day, Tegan could see the toll that bullying was taking on her daughter. “She couldn’t go to school every day,” she explains, “because she was just frustrated and annoyed and upset that she was being picked on.” To make matters worse, even as the incidents continued, Alliyah didn’t feel supported by her teachers.

Eventually came the breaking point. Alliyah had always been “quite a happy kid, always smiling,” says Tegan. “She was always that person that would light up the room.” But as the trouble at school continued, Tegan started noticing an anger in her daughter that hadn’t been there before. Then, one evening, a simple struggle of fitting the lid on a kettle led Alliyah to burst into tears. “She was crying her eyes out,” says Tegan, “and I was like, ‘Okay, something’s going on here.’ And then she just spilled it and told me everything that was going on.”

That’s when the two sat down together and made a decision: they were done with mainstream school. A few weeks later, in the Christmas of Year 8, Alliyah started her home education journey.

How online school became the solution

Finally, after some time with home schooling, Tegan and Alliyah found King’s InterHigh. Alliyah joined us in January this year, marking the start of a completely different, happier chapter in her education.

While getting to grips with online learning took a little adjustment, Alliyah, now in Year 10, says that King’s InterHigh has been “really great.” In particular, she loves her classes with her music teacher. Music is one of the many creative, project-based courses students can take online with us, and Alliyah says the subject works surprisingly well in an online environment.

For young people who’ve faced bullying at school, the shift to online learning offers something that’s hard to find in crowded corridors and chaotic classrooms: space to breathe, recover, and find their love for education again.

At King’s InterHigh, students become part of a tight-knit community from day one, learning in small classes where teachers get to know them as individuals. There are no disruptions in virtual classrooms, and students don’t have to worry about being picked on when they’re trying to study. Plus, the flexibility means that students can learn at their own pace in an environment where they’re comfortable. “I don’t have to sit in a hot, stuffy classroom anymore,” Alliyah puts it well.

For those who have developed an anxiety around speaking up, there are ways to communicate in class without a microphone while they rebuild their confidence. And, throughout their time at King’s InterHigh, students have access to all the support they need for their wellbeing, from weekly tutor sessions to optional anxiety management workshops.

When Alliyah first considered leaving mainstream school, she worried about losing touch with the friends she did have there. But, as Tegan pointed out, she’d still be able to keep in touch with them over the phone or through hangouts. Now, Alliyah’s social circle has expanded with new friends at King’s InterHigh, and Tegan says she’s even “able to be herself more” with new friends outside of school.

The flexibility, meanwhile, has transformed life at home. While Tegan’s work schedule makes it difficult to spend as much time as she’d like with her older son in mainstream school, Alliyah has become “like her best friend” now they’re able to see each other more.

Balancing the rink and the classroom

While Alliyah made the move from mainstream school in Year 8, the conversation first began in Year 6 when she discovered her love for figure skating. She was getting good quickly, and both she and her mum wondered whether traditional secondary school was going to be the right fit for a demanding training schedule.

They ultimately decided to give it a try anyway and see how both skating and academics worked out. But, by the time the bullying and frustrations had become too much, Alliyah’s skating had also reached a new level. Her mounting skills became a key reason why she decided to learn from home, and before the family joined King’s InterHigh, Alliyah spent many of her homeschooled days on the ice rink.

Now, the flexibility of King’s InterHigh gives her the space to train seriously while getting a full-time education. Her training routine is intense: the family have to get up at 4:00am and leave home at 5:00am to get to the rink by 6:00am for at least four hours of practice, sometimes stretching to six. On top of that, she has a weekly physical therapy session, a weekly trampolining session for fun, and artistic swimming two days a week.

The beauty of learning online is that, even with such a packed schedule, there’s no need to compromise on learning. Recently, says Tegan, “she was doing lessons in the car while she was on her way to a competition.” It’s also given Alliyah the opportunity to train with a new coach who pushes her to work her hardest, and she’s moving up quickly through the ranks. This month, she’ll compete at a new level with a new programme, and her next step (National 4, also known as Basic Novice) will qualify her to compete at the British Championships.

Her goals, says Tegan, is to “go as far as she can.” Whether that’s the championships, becoming a coach one day, or even going all the way to the Olympics, “as long as she’s happy, she’ll keep doing it.”

“Listen to your child”

Looking back, both Tegan and Alliyah are confident they made the best decision by moving online. For other students in similar situations with bullying at school, Alliyah has clear advice: “If it’s impacting you mentally, then learn at home.”

Tegan, meanwhile, appreciates that online learning works so well for students who don’t want to be constrained by rigid structures. “It’s a lot more flexible,” she explains. “If she has competitions, we can just go. She can stay at the rink for another hour or two hours if she wants to.” While classes are timetabled, the 24/7 access to lesson recordings and freedom to study around life make all the difference.

Of course, the biggest reason she made the move was Alliyah’s wellbeing. Echoing her daughter’s own sentiments, Tegan emphatically believes that children should never be pushed into pathways that don’t work for them. “If mainstream school is impacting their mental health then you need to look at what else is out there,” she tells parents, “because it’s not all about mainstream school.” Her advice to families in the same situation? Trust your instincts.

For Tegan, taking Alliyah out of mainstream school “was an easy decision in the end because it just wasn’t worth her mental health.” Her message to parents who’ve been through the same is simple: “Listen to your child. That’s the key thing.”