A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

Is there a majority of homeschoolers that fit into one particular category, though?

Even if there is , what about the outliers? The kids that fall through the cracks? Do we just shrug our shoulders? Are they acceptable collateral damage?

" On the other hand what happens behind closed doors when children are rarely or never seen in public?" Are you joking?

The point about home schooling is that kids aren't shut in all day, they are far more likely to be out and about doing learning through play/nature etc.

You know there are children in schools who are being abused etc but it is going unnoticed??

I'm not saying all parents who home school are doing a good job but to accuse them of locking their DC up to hide what's happening is just ill informed and ignorant.

Someone I know left school early due to the severe mental health issues school caused, and years later is at Uni and thriving.

But lots of this is down to the parenting. You’d be shocked to see what happens inside many homes. There are LOADS of children who live in chaotic environments, without adequate care, support and encouragement from their parents. Then add the lots who are experiencing hidden abuse and neglect.

All of those children are also in the mix in your statistics. Children who are never read to, who’s house has no books, who’s parents and grandparents can’t read well and show no desire to.

The average intelligence parent who’s commenting on this thread will push their kids to read, the kids will likely do well.

Averages need to be appreciated for what they are and who they include.

The fact that there are so many low achievers and so many problematic parents and families means it’s extremely difficult for schools to mop up and ensure all children are reading well.

The kind of kid (demographics wise, no dig to the child who didn’t chose their parents) who’s not reading well in school is also the kind who is likely to absolutely NOT thrive in home education as the parents are capable.

My experience of education is that kids do well if they have encouragement and time at school and home. If all angles in their life lead to the same message “education is highly important” then there’s a high chance they’ll succeed.

I agree it’s not demonising it at all . Home education can be a wonderful choice but it needs to be regulated to ensure the best outcomes possible for all.

I’m not sure the education system in this country is fit for purpose these days. I’d love to see our education system working alongside the homeschool community maybe giving schools funding to provide online options or drop in style workshops that homeschoolers could access.

I agree, it would be great if there could be much more flexibility about the whole thing.

When they make me Queen I will make all children go to school but massively streamline what they do there so they cover the essentials of literacy, numeracy and key knowledge in fewer hours without all the padding and time wasting. Then use the freed-up time for flexible activities catering to the child's needs, whether school-, home- or community-based.

On the other hand what happens behind closed doors when children are rarely or never seen in public?

I think that if you are reasonably well educated teaching a child up to GCSE should be possible, but whether I would be able to face it day after day on top of being the mum (and probably having to work as well). It was hard enough supervising and helping with homework, I would have been tearing my hair out doing it all day.

I'm sure 'one to one' teaching (preferably in a social school type setting) is best for every child, but it needs to be competent teaching and the teacher needs some sort of authority if any progress is to be made. I wonder how many parents are really capable, mentally or emotionally.

This isn't a thread demonising homeschooling. It's demonising people who take it on while not having the skills or full commitment to doing it properly. There are people out there who do a terrible job at it and they are the ones bringing derision on homeschooling, not OP.

I saw posts like this on FB a few months ago. There was an intention by Local Authorities to check children at home were doing okay that the Home educators disagreed with. Some of the posts were illiterate and very ranty.

It's not just academic education though. Having everything catered to your needs doesn't teach resilience.

I say that as a parent who would have 100% home educated rather than send DD to primary where she was shamed and bullied (by the teachers) for her SEN (this wasn't in the UK, no possibility of sending her anywhere better). I was a single parent and needed to earn a living, so couldn't home educate.

Thankfully we were able to return to the UK for secondary, and her school was amazing.

But I knew several home schooling families while overseas. They followed a 'Christian curriculum ' which was excellent in English and Maths, but questionable in science and history.

They were part of all sorts of groups for socialising - and yet the children couldn't cope with losing. We got a lift home after a Scouts sailing weekend. DDs team had won, and the home schooled son's team came second. He (aged 11/12) couldn't cope with it. He said DDs team had a faster boat (the boats were identical), that DD's team had cheated etc.

There is a balance to be had between meeting a child's needs, and allowing them to experience (and cope with) everyday disappointment.

I would imagine the statistics are skewed by travellers, who tend to leave school early and have their own separate communities

I think the problem with the extra oversight that people are advocating for is the huge variation in approach from EHE teams in local authorities.

Say for example that home visits were compulsory and we'd had ours yesterday. I am lucky to be with a great LA who are generally very pro home ed. They'd have turned up to see DD sat in the middle of the table on top of an OS map learning the symbols and co-ordinates and planning a route for a forest walk she and DH are going to do, and they'd have said brilliant - you've talked to assess prior knowledge, you're assessing and adjusting as you go along, you've planned out how she'll apply and reinforce that learning - crack on.

Other LAs I know of would have watched the same lesson and disapproved of her being on the table and would want to know why I wasn't assessing prior knowledge beforehand with written questions and why there was no written follow-up test or plenary to gauge understanding, because their experience of teaching is strict 50 minute blocks with a defined start, middle and end.

LAs all approach home ed so differently, so if there's going to be a system of more involvement and checks, there needs to be consensus across the board first (and it shouldn't look like the second example).

Currently it is just a yearly report you have to do. Just written is the bare minimum. La often ask for work samples but majority refuse saying it’s the child’s property and they don’t consent. They can refuse visits too and most do. I was shouted at and told I was causing harm to the home ed community by sending samples and allowing visits . That my compliance would erode their rights . Don’t get me started on being shrieked at about my dc ‘shedding’ after nasal flu vaccine as well I managed to clear the room in seconds and was asked to leave.

Family we know pulled each of the kids out of school one by one after problems with the school. Not for the children but for the kids.

One has health issues that were not being properly managed. This led to social services being involved, quite rightly, after reports from school. It was neglect. They were openly doing things that made the problem worse.

The family were living initially in a council house but moved back in with parents and just left the house empty and didn't tell the council.

They went to a out of hours club we knew, but after they were questioned about their address and contact details (as someone running it had reason to get in touch but couldn't) and asked for them to update it, they refused. Thus meaning the group didn't have emergency contact details in the case of a child with significant health problems. They parted ways at this point too.

The mother was ultra controlling, had had the children once every five years deliberately to make sure she didn't have to go back to work (by her own admission). She was into conspiracy theories.

The daughter with health conditions is unlikely to make it to thirty. If managed it would not affect her life expectancy to this degree at all.

Mother was quite simply abusive. It was really sad and there wasn't a way we could report to social services because of how she was hiding from the authorities quite deliberately.

A lot of people who are pulling their kids out of school do so in the full knowledge that they are probably writing off educational outcomes for their child.

It is often a difficult choice between an education, and mental health.

Inspection of what?

For me op, I also see a lot about homeschooling and parents asking questions about how to do it, after they have deregistered their child.

i worry that they are woefully unprepared and setting up their child to miss out.
they haven’t done research, they think the LA will sort books, exams etc. they seem surprised they have to evidence the education they give, they give no thought to PE, socialisation etc.
surely as an adult you prepare, plan, research and not knee jerk cos you don’t like something then start complaining how you go to work and homeschool? They ask how do I write to tell the school I am deregistered? Like if you can’t write a simple letter, why are you thinking you can educate yr child?!

absolutely agree UK secondary’s are not suitable for all kids esp SEN, but there are other options.

education needs an overhaul authorities should have sight of kids, too many horrors about unseen kids.

This is such a complicated one. Not least because as soon as you offer the view that not every home educated child benefits from it, you get jumped on by home educating parents. But that’s the whole point - yes some of them are good, some are bad, and some are neglectful. Just like any other cohort of parents.

Im really pro home Ed when it’s done well and for the right reasons. And there are loads of people doing that. It’s an option on the table for us for secondary - kids with SEN, surrounded by several truly awful schools (do I want the one where half of year 9 are on ketamine, or the one where my kid is likely to get his head kicked in when they realise he’s “different”?), one good school but massive house building programmes with no investment in schooling means their catchment gets smaller and smaller every year.

But I absolutely agree there are loads of kids who are being let down. Some are being let down now by their parents but a hell of a lot have been let down first by their school and frankly by society. We have such a crisis in education.

I agree. I think the optional nature of having LA involvment is wrong there needs to be a middle ground of a minimum amount of contact / checks not just for safeguarding but to ensure good outcomes for all and I also think there should still be opportunities for home educated children to access like you say tutoring or other at schools if needed / wanted. Or even social occasions where they are included if they want to be as currently if you home ed you’re mostly on your own it’s all or nothing.

Dint do me no harm. Mind you i used to play trueant from home! Sometimes wirked wiv me Dad if it were a 'big job'.
So no harm doned.

Personally I wouldn’t homeschool unless I had absolutely no alternative. I just don’t have the knowledge or skills. Supporting my children’s learning during lockdown with full teacher input was enough to show me that. it’s a very challenging prospect and I imagine some parents do struggle.

Technically we’re elective home education (my autistic DD goes to an excellent online school) so we get all the stuff through and I’m on a few home Ed Facebook groups. I find them useful as for example there are sports groups which offer classes in school hours, although we can only make the ones which fit around DD’s live lessons.

I actually don’t disagree with you at all. I find the refusal to let the LA carry out basic safeguarding irresponsible on a community level. I’ve no doubt in our area that these kids are actually progressing but the parents make it a point of honour to tell the LA NOTHING because it’s NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS. Meanwhile another Sara Sharif falls under the radar.

That said, if any of the parents (like us) are seeking EHCPs for their children (and to be clear, I believe the best place for DD would have been the local special school) then trust goes two ways and the local authority behaves disgracefully. Obfuscating, gaslighting, disingenuous… I could go on). So there’s that.

Recently the LA invited HE parents to a coffee morning and the Facebook groups were very shrill “Do not go! Do not engage! If you go you do not have to answer questions about your children and under no circumstances talk about any child that is not your own!”. Kids do have the right to an education. That might be a home education but as mentioned upstream, our local traveller population all “home educate” after Primary and no one believes that’s actually happening, but there’s a bit of a tinder box situation where no one wants to confront anyone about it.

I’m not sure the education system in this country is fit for purpose these days. I’d love to see our education system working alongside the homeschool community maybe giving schools funding to provide online options or drop in style workshops that homeschoolers could access.
I’ve met wonderful examples of homeschooling but equally I had an acquaintance that proudly told me that at 15 her dd asked to go to college so before she went she gave her the first ever formal lesson she’d had in her life. She explained what plus and minus signs were in basic maths question because the girl had no idea. She also couldn’t read.
My “friend” was really proud of this as she believed it showed she hadn’t pressured her dd into learning anything and she would grow up “free from expectations” I do think this sort of homeschooling needs to be monitored more closely. It just isn’t fair on the young person.

For any number of reasons, including intellectual capacity

A lot of people fail to realise just how intellectually limited the general population are

There is a anecdote about a newspaper proprietor who was exasperated by the time it took his writers to submit copy

They were polishing up the spelling and punctuation and writing beyond the level of the readership

He put up a notice that said

"THEY ARE ONLY 12"

meaning they were meant to 'pitch' to a reading age of a child

This was in the early 1900s

The average reading age for the general population has never been much more than than what it is now, unfortunately

I know a family that Home Ed and also blog about it.

The Mum is a university educated SAHM, she’s a lovely enthusiastic woman and from the outside they do all the “right” things in terms of home ed. The children have never been to school, HE was the intention from day one.

But as far as I can see (and of course I may be missing things from the outside) the children are woefully undereducated in comparison to children who attend school.

There is lots of “learning maths and science while baking” which is true, and the sort of thing I did with my kids when they were preschool but it’s not the equivalent of what my children learned in school maths or science as teens.

The mum shares lots of posts about the benefits of HE but they are all comparing HE to a version of school which hasn’t existed for years (children being forced to sit at desks all day long in strict silence)

She’s a very nice, very well meaning mum, but I don’t think she understands quite how much her children are missing out on.

As regards socialisation, they are member ls of lots of groups and their children have other HE friends but everything is supervised. They never have the opportunity to work out social situations on their own without an adult stepping in. They are teenagers who don’t ever leave the house on their own. At the same ages my kids were hopping on the train to the city an hour away for a day out with friends.

We had a conversation about her oldest’s career aims, which are (currently) entirely unrealistic. The child is in her middle teens and wants to do a job which is heavily maths based, but isn’t interested in learning any maths.

It’s been interesting to watch their journey and I’m intrigued to see how everything will turn out, but I do worry a little bit for the children’s futures.