A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

Do you know anyone who unschooled? I don't know how the parents feel confident enough to take such a different approach, but some do.

I only know one family who did it that way, their children all went on to higher education.

The family I knew, it definitely was a planned educational approach, not an easier choice. I think using terms like neglect when it is genuinely a different educational choice is offensive.

@RedSkyatNight25 It shows a lack of imagination to think you need tutors, or vast amounts of income, or many of the things that those who believe in a one size fits all model, believe they must have.
Many are trained to think in a particular way, and view success in a particular way. Meantime there is a deep rich tapestry around them that they are unable to see or appreciate without a guide. Yet I suspect, they have a reasonable education...

We're an originally back-footed into HE, family who are now three generations into embracing it and a very different way of life with it, and we would never be able to access the sort of schools that might give my lot anything near the quality, depth and breadth of education, and outcomes, that we're achieving.

Generations of my family, had been scraping along the bottom of society with illiteracy, low literacy, low numeracy, v, early parenthood and NMW if lucky.

In one generation we've gone from that as normal, to exams, university and professional qualifications, as normal, despite my low formal education, and very low finances. You cannot dream what you can't imagine.

So what you actually mean is if you can't imagine how it is achieved, then surely other people, especially those with lower educational outcomes than yourself, can't do what you can't imagine figuring out how to do?

The lack of imagination, as well as some darker reasons, is why families like mine have been expected to fail, and engineered into continued failure by the school system, keen to ensure that only a little progress is made per generation, and that we remain in our allocated position at the bottom.

When we produced a range of work for our LA to look at, we where faced with a spite filled 'officer' who was insistent that children of our background shouldn't be learning some of what they where. Latin and further maths, particularly aggrieved them, what would kids like mine do with them? And three separate sciences was ridiculous, because most of our schools only do double science, and it was "good enough for them!" They had insufficient imagination to understand how an inner city child could be using a surf board in Cornwall to study forces and motion as part of physics. Far too much fun and socialization was being had. It was obviously not good enough education they announced triumphantly! (though it got Dc an A* and prepped them well for A level and mechanical engineering)

They then chose to produce a primary school teacher to formally assess IGCSE level work, because the 'officer' insisted that was the expected level for secondary school children from our background. They could not imagine that we could do, what they could not.
The poor teacher did her best, but wrote on everything that she was under qualified to assess secondary syllabuses, but could see a wide breadth of work, and lots of areas of interest being followed, and that Dc reported having friends for the first time in their life. The report was suppressed, and we ended up in court where they asked to see it. It had mysteriously been mislaid.
It took three highly educated judges, to put an end to the harassment. I was awarded control of my Dc's PWA (didn't go after the SN budget as it affects the SN cohort) No wonder families don't want to engage with such stupidity if they don't have to.

I would say we've left the school education system as a continuing HE family, but two out of mine have become teachers, who use their home education acquired knowledge to teach children how to be successful independent learners. They've had a taste, but will no longer work in incompetent schools that see a portion of children as collateral damage.

One has a PGCE, the better paid one, not. Both are passionate about real education, equal education, and fit for purpose education, and have a lot to say about why some schools are disaster zones, and others offer a valuable opportunity, but neither will put their children into schools, unless they could afford very specific, nurturing private ones.

Some educational establishments routinely fail children. Society accepts it, because apparently having oversight of continuing failure, makes it ok.
Some home educating parents will fail children, and that's not acceptable because of a lack of oversight of it happening.
Interesting how we view who is and isn't allowed to fail and damage childrens futures.

(off to work to pay for it all!)

There are home educators for whom providing a broad and balanced curriculum is paramount.

There are home educators who are providing an education for their children who, for whatever reason, have not been able to succeed at school.

There are home educators who are opposed to the notion of a formal education in school.

There are home educators who are opposed to rules and expectations and remove their children from the school roll.

It is clear that there is a cohort of young people for whom school in the traditional sense just does not work. It is clear that home education is effective when parents and children are motivated and engaged in the process. But, the reverse is also true and the monitoring of standards seems to be lacking in rigour.

On one hand, there are home educators who have proven that their children have been successful in acquiring knowledge and the qualifications needed to gain employment. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are young people who have been left to their own devices and have not developed the skills and knowledge required to live and work independently.

If you value education, you want to do the best you can to ensure your children are educated to provide the skills they need for adult life.

Every single child who has been removed from the register had safeguarding concerns?

Consent from parents isn’t required under S47 if there are significant safeguarding concerns.

In case you aren’t aware, those who are appealing to SENDIST and are on a low income should check if they are eligible for legal aid.

Also in case you aren’t aware, most JRs, including those against failure to provide s19 provision, are brought in the child’s name so the child can be eligible for legal aid in their own name for proceedings themselves.

Even education aside I think it's sad to keep them so isolated. It's so good for their social skills and to be less dependent on one person.
Having said that, I do know a mum who's child part goes to school and part home schooled (I didn't know this was a thing!) and on the home school days she sometimes meets up with a group of mums who do the same. I hear of all these adventure activities they do for the kids and it actually changed my perspective a bit as I do think children thrive outside the classroom too.
Although from a selfish perspective, having children in school releases the pressure from me. I'm constantly thinking of things to do, where to go, what to eat etc. I appreciate the school break, let alone having to add homeschooling to the question.

People use tutors as part of it usually.

Yanbu OP and homeschooling needs hugely tightening up. Along with ensuring the needs of children are better met in schools/ school can be more flexible and part time if needed rather than this all of nothing system we have.

It’s bizarre the indignant home schoolers who are doing it well often deny that people claim to homeschool to get out of the system. Because they do and of course you won’t meet them in your naice homeschooling group in Surrey,

Yes but they are teachers. I'm not saying this is perfect, far from it. But it's not like you can rock up with a GCSE in PE and teach science.

If a qualified teacher of PE isn't fit to teach science (and I don't necessarily disagree with you) then how does it follow that you can home educate in all subjects?

Ah it’s time for this one:

“certainly ignorance shouldn’t be a bar…”

But the questions should be ...
Why are so many families being left with no choice but to home educate?
Why is the school environment causing so much trauma and mental health problems for so many children?
What can be changed so that more families are not left with no other option?
What changes do LA, schools and the curriculum need to make the environment if school accessible to all children?

If your not prepared for those changes or even conversation then you shouldn't be targeting families who have been broken by a system that has failed their child / children so badly.

I'm a Headteacher. Every child I've known who has been withdrawn by parents to homeschool have had ongoing safeguarding concerns with children regularly disclosing low level neglect. We notify the local authority/ss about our concerns but they aren't even allowed to do a home visit without parent consent. I think if there are recent safeguarding concerns then homeschooling shouldn't be allowed.

I've also had homeschooled children starting school in Y6 because parents can't cope with their pre-teens at home. One particular boy was regularly hitting his mother at home and she couldn't take it anymore so wanted him back in school after 11 years! He joined Y6 in March and she wanted us to get him ready to pass his SATs in May. He wasn't SEN and had a reading/maths ability similar to a child in Year 1.

I agree a traditional school environment doesn't suit everyone but I strongly believe there should be compulsory wellbeing and academic checks on kids outside formal education.

The "wave of illiterate children" is utterly nonsense for which the OP has no evidence. It is just a silly headline. Daily Mail eat your heart out...

Thank you. I think my long rambling post was trying to say that those parents who aren't educated or literate, and can't take on the fight for support and choose to de register are just as much a victim of the failure of the education system as my family is, but we look very different.

It really doesn't matter when you're in this position how equipped or able you are to home educate your child. That doesn't factor into it at all. The outcome is the same. The child needs to go somewhere and the end goal from some schools and local authorities seems to be to get them out of the school system and into home education so that they don't have to bother with them anymore. That's probably why the local Authority doesn't try too hard to give oversight of HE.. If they did identify that a child's education was not sufficient then they might have to do something about it and they can't even educate the ones that they are legally responsible for under section 19. So they're hardly going to go out looking for home educated ones to take responsibility for.

Parents might not even know it's possible to fight for support. My child's school told me again and again that they were doing everything that they could possibly do, which was an absolute lie. They were doing nothing, but i believed them. They simultaneously blocked multiple ehcp applications which would have led to support. If I hadn't known that it was possible to apply for one myself and how to write a complaint, I would have joined that cohort if parents who aren't equipped to HE, as I said. My child's EHCNA has just been denied so I'll need to go to tribunal. I haven't got it in me, so no EHCP for him right now.

The other thing if course is that the only real effective support available, you have to pay for - SEND consultants, advocacy services and the like, can cost £100 an hour or more. There are free ones but first you have to find out who they are and who needs to refer you, then fight for the referral. People talk about IPSEA who have a helpline but I've called that 50 times and never has it been answered. If you're a low earner or on benefits, you've got no chance of paying for support and youre on your own against the might of the school/LA. Yet you see your bright, beautiful child being crushed day after day and know there's nothing you can do, you can't afford help, even if you can identify what's going wrong (it took me 2 years to work out how badly and illegally the school were treating us!) if you're poorly educated you might just step away and as i said, blame the system. Which is true.

Unfortunately for me my autistic sense of injustice made me fight. It was probably not worth it, although school has done an about turn and are more supporting i think it's too late. Too much damage has been done. I'll be home educating by the end of the school year i think. I don't want to, but i don't have a choice and yes I'll blame the system!

Compulsory school age is 5. Technically she doesn’t have to do anything yet.

It can often be a postcode lottery though. Nothing to do with the severity of issues, and everything to do with lack of SEN schools, lack of funding, LA ‘s dodging their responsibilities and rejecting applications for EHCPs as standard and so on. We have kids that have moved to specialist provision in y5 or y6, despite having a diagnosis at 5/6 . They’ve been on waiting lists for 2/3 years.

If you deregister your child from a school then the school should contact the LA so they are aware, It is then on them to get in touch with parents and contact with them is usually annual. The advice given is to send a written report about the education provided. Some people choose to have visits instead but this isn’t advised on home ed groups.

If you never send your child to school then you don’t need to notify anyone. Sometimes the LA will contact you and your will do reports as above. In other cases you can remain unknown,

As I said above .... homeschooled children are part of many social networks like Scouts, sports teams, gym clubs, drama clubs etc where they interact with other children, and there are also networks of homeschooled children where they come together for a particular subject.

I can only speak for my experience with my LA.

Once a year, the LA EHE team get in touch and ask for a home visit or, alternatively, a report showing the progress that has been made over the last year. I choose to send a report because I keep track of everything she's done in a huge spreadsheet and it's easier to write about her progress than try to explain it and risk forgetting something.

They assess the report to make sure it demonstrates progress in a range of areas, particularly literacy and numeracy. If they needed more information, they would then reply to ask for it. Some LAs ask for pictures and samples of work - this isn't a legal requirement and my LA does not ask for this.

Aside from that, they get in touch frequently throughout the year with details of classes, events and groups that might be of interest and to discuss some of the support they can offer (home ed kids here can increase the number of books they're allowed out of the library at any one time, for example, and you can get discounts on Nat Trust etc).

Yes,when I home educated we had visits from the LEA it was a former teacher who would just check in and write a little report in addition to my reports too, my son was always very pleased to see her and would keep things ready to show ‘Magaret’ when she next visited and he would read to her (she didn’t ask him to,but would oblige) and she would bring him copious amounts of elastic bands for the elastic band ball he was making (he befriended the local postman who kept him in constant supply on a weekly basis- who knew elastic band balls perish? I didn’t until it happened 😂🤣- he also son not postman, broke a glass part of the light fitting bouncing this huge Royal Mail sponsored ball in the living room) - we initially had a visit from someone else who I later discovered was checking their was no ‘abusive element’ to our decision.

I remember watching one of those lunchtime chat show type things and someone was defending homeschooling passionately. They had hired several qualified tutors and had a great community of (wealthy) home schooling families with their own tutors so they could cooperate and had the means to get all types of science labs and specialists. It sounded fantastic. Unfortunately an average home schooled kid does not have that, that's why home schooling requirements still needs to be discussed.

I live in Austria where education is compulsory but not school. This is in contrast to Germany where school is compulsory from age 6 to 18.
I live near the border to Germany and during the pandemic we had several families move here so that they could withdraw the children for school. All of them were doing it for anti-establishment/anti-corona measures. There are also many Austrian families who have withdrawn children from school since the pandemic ended for anti-establishment reasons. (And yes, they have told me this).
I'm a maths tutor and I have ended up tutoring several of these children. By the time they come to me they've usually lost a year or two of schooling and all of them are miles behind in their maths.
Austria has a system where you are welcome to homeschool but at the end of the year every homeschooled child has to go in to a local primary or secondary school and sit tests in the major subjects (English, German, Maths, Science, Geography, History etc.). If they don't pass they have to return to school and they will then sit some more tests to find out which year they need to restart in.
A couple of the families I was tutoring refused to allow the children to sit their tests and they were taken to court and had to return to the school year they had left and ended up 2 years behind their peers.

I have nothing against homeschooling at all but I do think there needs to be ways of checking on the standards of the children and compulsory return to schooling if they are not meeting an adequate standard. (SEN would have to be taken into account of course).
I sometimes think on MN that people imagine homeschooled children happily learning with very well-educated parents teaching them or excellent tutors or small groups of parents getting together to share their expertise. This can be wonderful for the children and works well for many.
But unfortunately not all of them are like that. There is definitely a "wave" of it in Austria. I can't speak for the UK. The OP has seen a lot of it on social media but it's difficult to judge from that because the more you click on videos like that, the more videos you are shown and you can end up thinking that huge numbers of people are doing it and that huge numbers of them have poor educational standards themselves.

In theory, you notify the local authority that you are choosing to homeschool your children and they are supposed to check in. I was advised to keep a log of what we were covering. I did this, but not once did anyone contact us and ask to see a copy of her curriculum or proof of participation in online school programmes. It was over ten years ago and I suspect after recent tragedies/post covid there may be more oversight, but I suspect there is a little bit of classism/snobbery. We lived in a big house/posh postcode/assumption of educated parents so they probably could care less, but had we been living in a rundown housing estate on UC, they might have been more proactive in checking on my DD.

School is about so much more than academia. A relative is homeschooling a 4 year old and also due to have a baby.
I wonder how much schooling will go on. Also to deny the child friends of her own age seems unkind. Competative Grannies arent the same as having your own friends.