A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

I voted YABU because it’s a goady judgy post.

well a lot of us had a go during lockdown

never again!

Is that because the measure only looks at parental attainment and not how those children are educated?
I would argue that a parent (mostly overwhelmingly the mother) who is well educated, previously working in a successful career, who decides to HE their children will take on the role with a high degree of responsibility in that they actually ‘educate’ their child, and not just leave them to stare at a device screen for hours on end. There’s a whole rainbow of HE out there. What’s important is to have some element of checks on children who are out of mainstream school as a minimum for safeguarding purposes. All children deserve access to a decent education.

The majority yes, but not all. Through work I’ve met many illiterate adults who went to school. What I object to is dangerous myths about homeschooling like your comment: “deprive a child of an education because the parents can’t get up in the mornings, and are checked out.”
This just isn’t the majority of homeschoolers. The endless attack on homeschoolers on here by people with no experience of homeschooling is ridiculous. Maybe listen to people who have actually done it and learn something!

OP Have you seen the Stacey Dooley episode about the family who ‘homeschool’ their three children ‘without boundaries’? It’s a real eye opener!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dgmm5h

I'm not going to comment on some hearsay you claim to have heard.

But on the education side, firstly, that person may be looking for another school. Secondly you have no idea whether the parent in question would do a good or bad job if they did home educate.

Are your concerns educational or about reduced social conformity? If the latter, just be honest. France makes all children go to school because they have a fundamentally different view of the state. That's a legitimate position to hold.

But just attacking home educators based only on your own prejudice isn't helpful.

It’s a very complicated issue because it’s such a varied cohort in most aspects. From very high achieving or sports oriented children/parents to anti establishment nutters to neglect and abuse to parents who literally had no other choice.

Those illiterate parents probably went to school and it seems it didn't do them any favours.

You're sneering at them for following a crowd - but how many people thought "home ed vs school" when your child turned 5? Most people just put their child in school because that's what you do. They might think "which school?" But they don't think "should i send my child to school at all?"

Which ones are following a crowd again?

The curriculum is incredibly outdated, delivered to the convenience of the school (1 adult to 32 children in my child's class) there's no time or money for individual attention if your child is struggling or not picking up the content. How many of us who were schooled moan about never needing most of the stuff we were taught? How many of us learn a new skill as an adult by sitting quietly in rows with a bunch of other people you may or may not like, reading out of a textbook? Or do we learn by doing, experimenting and trying it out, maybe watching YouTube videos.

School doesn't suit everyone, especially as it is in 2025 where the main focus is on attendance and exam results. A child's success is only measured on those two things. The world has changed immeasurably in the space of 1 or 2 generations, yet we are still educating children essentially the same way the Victorians did. When the current cohort of primary school children graduate school, who is to say whether anything they've learned in their school career will even still be relevant with the rise of AI?

I'm the parent of a SEN child who struggles with school so before this started i might have thought the same as you about illiterate home edders taking their child out of school because they're a conspiracy theorist. But my experiences have showed me that once you look beyond the "children must attend school" mindset and see that there are other options it's hard to lambast other parents for making the sometimes brave choice to go against the norm in the interest of their children.

There’s some YouTubers I’ve seen who are doing this with their four kids. The kids have to make TikToks and YouTube vlogs every day. I think the authorities need to do more.

I home educate some of my dc. Totally ostracised by the local home ed community as I follow a timetable, do formal learning and fully engage with the LA (sending samples and allowing them a yearly visit to our home) plus I fully vaccinate my dc.

Nobody has said all homeschooling is bad. The OP very clearly caveats that in her first paragraph.

This is about those that aren't equipped and are doing so for the wrong reasons.

You've done a great job.

If you watched Paris Hilton in her documentary she said exactly the same thing. "Oh she will be able to be whatever she wants, a beautician, doctor, hairdresser....". Well no, not without any qualifications she won't!

I don't know why people insist on getting so involved in other people's educational choices. You wouldn't appreciate it if others sat there criticizing your choice of school, why do you think it's OK to go on about others' choice to home ed their dc?

I don’t have an opinion on the education setting parents choose - it should be right for the child’s ability and needs.
However, I do have an issue with poor education provision, wherever that may be. Education of the population has an impact on everyone - from the jobs and skills that these children will be able to undertake, the health (physical, mental, emotional) and reliance on the state.
Schools are generally attended by 100s of pupils and so there is accountability to many many parents, data from exam results and external inspections. Whilst all these are imperfect, in combination they do provide some indication of how well the school are doing at educating children plus all the intangibles.
In homeschooling, it is just that family’s children. No assessment of the quality and suitability of that education and no assessment of their welfare or safe guarding.

She was friends with neighbours kids and girls at brownies/swimming club/tennis and wanted to try it. Our plan was to skip primary and for her to go straight to secondary. If I could go back id do that. The Head had a real chip on her shoulder about it, couldn't accept that this kid who'd missed five years of school was doing better than the kids at school and missed no opportunity to put her down.

This is me! I have an English degree but since hitting my mid 40s I've been making all sorts of embarrassing mistakes.

I would have to agree based on the class WhatsApp this week, with parents arguing over the correct answer to year 2 maths homework. I kept quiet and in the end a maths graduate dad stepped in 🤣

I teach a full class so obviously my time is devoted to ensuring the needs of my students are met, but it is time consuming to prepare ways for children to learn in a meaningful way. During lockdown, the school I was in did require a heavy online presence so I was working full time hours teaching my class, marking their work etc, planning, making resources etc. My own kids were very young and there was no way I was able to devote any quality time to their education after I'd finished my own work. I was able to catch them up in the summer but they whinged and cried in a way they would not have done with a teacher who wasn't their mum! Even now, I hate helping them with their homework because they resent me in that role and try to get away with half-arsing it in a way they wouldn't dare with their teachers!

There isn’t just one reason for Elective Home Education though.

I work in a school and see the school refusers trying to make it through the gates. When they finally manage it, they are unable to cope with the demands put upon them and inevitably damaged property/assault staff until their parent is called, they then refuse to leave site.

Just this week, we had a child’s EHCP go to panel where our school said we could not meet their needs, the local authority made the decision that mainstream is the right environment for them. Another one of our school children has been out of education since last summer while the LA have been trying to find a suitable placement (unsuccessfully).

If a child has an EHCP, the parent can’t just decide to Home Educate, they have to apply to EHE and are then overseen until the child reaches the end of their education.

Whilst in the past, school environments were hostile, at least you had strong disciplinarians who had come out of the Second World War and would stand no nonsense. It gave children and teachers a sense of a security fence around them. Now the cat has been let out of the bag and everything is focussed on autonomous learning and children's rights, you see on the news every night little thugs destroying property and the police saying they fear for their lives. What is the best way forward?

I came on this to say exactly this and glad it's only 4 posts in.

That is untrue. The overwhelming majority leave school with a degree of literacy. You are just lashing out now. School can be a wonderful place, and it certainly should not be used to deprive a child of an education because the parents can’t get up in the mornings, and are checked out.

Your qualifications are not the point, it's about skills. Most of her teachers will hold significantly lower grades, but have the necessary skills.

Any individual may or may not have the capacity to develop the skills required to home educate well, irrespective of formal qualifications.

Great, another thread demonising homeschooling written by someone with no experience of homeschooling.

DD was homeschooled from 9-16, has 8 GCSE’s at top grades and is now in school for 6th form and predicted three A stars at A level. So not illiterate! We met many people in our homeschool years, from all walks of life, class, culture etc and none were illiterate. Most did very well in their GCSEs.

The idea that the parents are the ones doing all the teaching is so outdated. Most homeschool children now either attend online tutoring, go to a homeschool hub for tutoring or have tutors come to their home. Some are taught by their parents but in my experience that was the minority.

And by the way there are plenty of children who leave school virtually illiterate.