A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

I avoid the public Facebook groups like the plague, they're full of terrible advice. They're very robust in some of the private FB groups and while I may not take the same unschooly approach to home ed as they do, they're shit hot on knowing your rights and responsibilities and meeting them correctly.

@Scarlettpixie , what a lovely story. I'm so pleased for you and your son.

Some peoples attitude to home education on here is shocking as is the misinformation. So many children struggle with school due to anxiety, SEN, bullying etc. One size does not fit all. The default position in England is home education. You apply for a school place if you want to but you are not obliged to. Parents must ensure their child receives a full time education but there is a lot of flexibility around what that should look like.

You don’t have to tell the LA if you decide to home educate from the get go. However once they become aware that your children are not in school they are allowed to make informal enquiries to ensure your children are receiving an education. in most cases a yearly report detailing the education in place and the progress being made is sufficient. The LA are not entitled to future plans.

The vast majority of children attend school and the vast majority of home educators do a decent job. It can be upsetting when you have a child who cannot cope in school and then have an LA who is over zealous and asking for more than they are entitled to. Facebook groups are an invaluable source of support to parents struggling with this but they also help them understand their rights and obligations and how to find local groups, resources and information about exams etc. Knowing you are not alone is important too especially when this wasn’t what you planned.

My son was unable to attend school due to health problems for most of years 8 and 9. He was provided with some tuition at home through the LA but it was barely enough to keep him ticking over in maths, english and science at a basic level. As GCSEs approached I was worried that he would not be able to attend and there was no plan if that happened - so I deregistered him.

We used a mixture of online courses and resources and I facilitated and motivated. I didn’t teach the subjects. He is way better at maths and physics than I ever was! I am a single mum and work full time from home so I was able to support him by working flexibly and taking annual and parental (unpaid) leave as and when to be more present and was obviously available in the evenings and on weekends.

He ended up sitting 5 IGCSEs and got good grades. He has since completed a 2 year level 3 course at college where he never had a day off sick and has just started university. I am super proud of him! For us home education was absolutely the best decision.

Oh ok, fair enough. Sorry I sounded rather dickish in my previous post. Not my intention.

Just curious about the overall figures for moving on to university.

Nothing particularly shocking there. Private school pupils do better than state school pupils. Deprived pupils do worse than everyone else. We already knew all of this. How does that translate to home education though?

When you said ‘diagnosed SEN’ it made it sound like you thought a diagnosis was required. Sorry if that isn’t how you meant it.

From what you described, it is clear at least some of them do have SEN whether they have a diagnosis or not.

I’m not measuring against it. It’s just that they have some data , whereas in the UK it’s severely lacking. Not even sure what your point is.

They definitely are not willing. Which is why this whole process is being dragged out by every delay tactic they have

I didn't say it was. PP asked if they were a specific group of SEN children and they weren't, they were just a group of Home Ed children. I meant that they hadn't left school because of not coping there or not meeting their needs, not that they couldn't be SEN without going to school. They were obviously not able to cope with the group which was completely child-led and relaxed, or at least not able to commit to turning up, but whether this was because the Home Ed they were receiving wasn't preparing them to be anywhere other than doing exactly what they wanted at home or because they all in fact had undiagnosed SEN can't be proved either way at this point.

PP suggested that anyone who doubted that Home Ed children were getting a proper education hadn't met any, because they are all articulate and intelligent. I was actually pretty positive about the idea of Home Ed before I met more Home Ed kids and parents, and there's been some exceptions but most of them- and that was the biggest group I've encountered- have not impressed me much and left me wondering how on earth they are going to deal with real life.

Having SEN doesn’t require a diagnosis. Neither does it require a child to be in school. The legal definition of SEN is set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

I ask as my oldest had autism and normally those whee organised for children on the spectrum .

They didn't have any diagnosed SEN and none of them had ever been to school.

Are you sure you are not mentioning a group of specific sen children ?

They're an article here on progression rates for school pupils who move on to university at 19.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/gap-england-department-for-education-government-data-b2634966.html?

American education system is ranked 31 in math and science. It’s far behind Ireland , Australia , Uk.
Not the best example to measure against.

I did put that caveat in my post. Again, it’s very tricky as legislation and requirements vary from state to state. Some require registration, some don’t. Some have very strict rules and regulations, some don’t. Some require EHE children to take standardised tests, some don’t. Some states offer some funding for home educated children (particularly disabled ones) , some don’t. It seems that the states who are more lax in regulating home education have a higher proportion of home educated children. Alaska seems to have the most.

There does seem to be more data in the US (whether you deem it reliable or not , it’s up to you) than in the UK though.

I personally think there is a correlation between the increase in autism diagnosis and homeschooling. As a mum of a NSD child, I was very taken back by the number of people on forums who homeschool their children. I think that schools (worldwide) are largely lacking the correct setup to support these children, especially the high functioning ones. As a contra argument to the study being quoted above, I would be curious to know, of that 74% of homeschooled chidren that go to college, how many graduate, get a job, and keep it? I think early intervention and socialising in highly functioning autistic children is key to integrating to society after education, i'd guess that this also very much applies to homeschooled children.

I read one study that said that homeschooling without structure left children several years behind their peers whereas homeschooling with structure put them a little ahead, although not by miles.

There's no register of home educated children in most places though so the only people participating and being recorded in research are people who are confident that their home ed stands up to scrutiny and not mistrusting of authority and science. If you don't know how many children are being home educated you can't say that 74% make it to college.

There is some data from America, but as I can’t verify the methodology, or how self selecting the participants are , I can’t comment on veracity, especially since I can also find data that claims they have poorer outcomes(though not by much).

The academic success of homeschooled students extends into their higher education pursuits. Approximately 74% of homeschooled students go on to attend college, significantly higher than the 44% of public school students who take the same path. Graduation rates further illustrate the trend, with 67% of homeschooled students graduating from college, compared to 59% for their traditionally educated counterparts.

No, because not everyone has the patience, the discipline or the drive to home educate their dearly beloved offspring! Also, some children come from very difficult home lives, and school is probably their safe space.

You make an excellent point that I hadn’t considered. The government could fund 4 basic GCSEs , or even the main two, Maths and English. It would offer the opportunity for more engagement, the opportunity to keep track of children and yes, various data available for analysis.

Out of interest

If you were genuinely interested, you could find myriad comments, posts and questions on FB and elsewhere minus the confirmation bias, but where would the fun in that be?

I hope they are willing to cough up for EOTAS if they are saying that!

Are you also aghast at the thousands of children being taught by unqualified teachers, TAs or teachers that aren’t actually teaching their subject all over the country?