To think that homeschooling (without additional needs) is selfish?

This is always young kids though. It’s not common for 14 year olds to be traipsing round the local farm experience in their wellies or singing in the library on a Tuesday morning with their mum.

There is still the issue of what happens when they’re older and you finally admit “learning to read by reading the shopping list” or “learning maths by making cakes” isn’t actually very educationally enriching past 6.

"You only need 5 to get into college"
You don't need any. You can take a Functional Skills class and get into college.

Also - different kids learn differently. Some kids learn well in a group, others not. I personally am not SEN but just couldn’t concentrate in a busy classroom, ever. I used to stay home a few days a week to catch up on schoolwork as i needed the quiet at home. Thankfully my mum let me and I did well academically, if i’d been forced to go to school every day I’d have done worse, as I took nothing in in lessons. I’d have definitely done way better being full time homeschooled.

I have some home schooling acquaintances and they were / are at groups and home ed school type settings all the time, not sitting at home doing nothing by themselves!

One of them was an ex teacher so was very good at using her skills to give her kids a good grounding at primary level.

The other seems to have a lovely life following her child's interests, alongside groups and lots of trips and luckily doesn't have to work. Yes they might not get loads of gcses but lots of children who go to school don't get many / any either.

Having said that I am aware of other families "un schooling" where they seem to let their children do whatever they want all day with no intention of any academic work or even learning to read etc, I hope these are in the minority

Well even if you got some low quality group tutoring for half the price it’s only 4 hours a week isn’t it?

I think there's a bit of this, but the answer is complicated.

Home schooling has been 'normalised' to the extent that parents pull their kids out of school and think doing an online homeschool lesson once a day is a good substitute without perhaps putting a lot of thought into it. I don't get that at all. If you homeschool, you need to properly be your child's teacher.

Plenty of parents who don't want to do the school runs, or have their time messed up by the school schedule.

Plenty of parents who see bullying not sorted out by schools and feel they can't keep sending their children into an environment where they'll be targeted.

There are good intentions and also lazy intentions. It's difficult because plenty of kids get messed up at school. Personally I'd only do home school as a last resort having tried other schools if my child was unhappy.

I think reasons are often more complex, or at least matters of opinion, and it often does come from a good place. There is not only one answer to the question of what is in the best interests of the child. Cramming 9 GCSEs into one isn't the only way to set them up well for life.

None of us should sit in judgement dividing a group of parents into those with acceptable reasons and those without. Ultimately nearly all of them will be doing it in sincere belief it is in their child's best interests. And as parents that is all we can ever aim for.

The law requires parents to provide a suitable standard of education. Sometimes that is better done at home for many different valid reasons. Sometimes school simply isnt a good fit for the child or the family.
The children still have the option of sitting GCSEs and increasingly they are not even required for jobs.

I am studying an OU degree. I am not on my computer 24/7 and the modules only run from October to May/June, with breaks at Easter & Christmas. They’re very doable.

Well that’s just silly. In most of the country there aren’t grammar schools. And going fully private isn’t an option for many as to afford fees of £15k you need to clear a wage of 25k with taxes to pay the fees with no change. If you’re not a high earner, it would make more sense to not work (and get some benefits) than work for free to pay fees.

Regardless

many reasons people may home school. Sure there are some mad / irresponsible hippies out there. Many more where they may not like schools in their area. Or super gifted kids who’s needs won’t be met in mainstream school.

Weird you say the parents ‘aren’t teachers’ - the people I know who have homeschooled are qualified teachers. That’s why they’ve felt able to take the decision to homeschool?

On a purely practical level in mainstream schools up to half the school day is crowd control - settling down, lining up, assemblies, kids getting told off. If you homeschool you can massively condense the day and cover more in 4 hours than a kid would cover in a full school day, leaving free time to do fun stuff like going swimming or to galleries with other homeschooled kids.

I’d never homeschool as I am a terrible teacher but I totally see the appeal.

State schools are diabolical. If we couldn't afford to send our kids to private school we would home school before we would resort to using state schools. They are not fit for purpose anymore sadly.

A psychiatry degree no less! When some commenters pointed out you can’t do anything with a psychiatry degree she said “well she’ll be done by 19 so she can catch up with her peers if she wants a more useful degree then” well, yeah… she’ll already be in £27k debt too, presumably?

You're getting robbed then

I'm an ex-teacher. I home educate my secondary age DD, who has no ALN or medical needs.

There's as wide a variety of those who home educate their children as there is of those who outsource their children's education to schools, so YABU to generalise.

£100 a week doesn’t get you much tutoring though does it? I pay that for my 2 (school educated) children’s tuition, and they get an hour a week each.

There is a strange tiktoker who has done videos about her 15 year old home schooled child being accepted into university to show what a success homeschooling is.

she isn’t that transparent that the child is going to the open university for which you don’t need any qualifications and any 15 year old could do if they applied as opposed to, you know, attending school and taking GCSE’s.

Op, you don't know what you're talking about. Embarrassingly ignorant. Most HE parents pay up to £100 a week for private tutors across the curriculum for their children, who also enjoy a very active social life with their peers.

I'm another one who finds it telling that a lot of ex-teachers home educate their own children.

Parents are the child's first educators. While they might not be qualified teachers, they know their child's interests better than any teacher, and are likely to want and care much more deeply for the child/ren than a teacher.

I live in an area which seems quite active (from an outsider's perspective) for home educating families. There are sports and activity classes with dedicated day-time slots for home educated children in gymnastics, aerial silks, swimming, dance and forest school sessions. Well-meaning parents do not isolate their offspring and do take their children out into the world to socialise! I can't say that I've met any unsocialised home educated children. They are usually much more confident and comfortable in speaking to people of a range of ages, including adults.

I agree that all home educated children should be given the opportunity to obtain GCSEs, A-Levels and other qualifications. I know a couple of home educated children who have ended up on lower-level college courses while they study for the course of their interest, alongside GCSEs in Maths and English. Others have flown academically, and often seem much more mature and able to cope with the world than many teens who were educated at schools.

On many of the homeschooling pages a common complaint is that their DC have the bare minimum (if any) GCSEs and are therefore struggling to progress into further + higher education. To me this is the height of parental irresponsibility - knowingly putting your child’s future at risk should count as neglect

I was on multiple home ed pages for years and can honestly say I never saw this. Maybe it’s where we live but there are multiple opportunities here for kids who didn’t achieve GCSEs to go to FE college and work up from level one courses in their chosen subjects - eg art, media, business etc - they compulsorily study maths and English GCSEs alongside the courses. Once they complete level 3, and pass the GCSEs they apply for uni or apprenticeships. It is untrue to suggest that GCSES -> A-levels are the only route into higher education.

What sort of evidence would you expect from someone sharing their experience?

Do you have any evidence of this beyond a few TikTok videos?

I’ve been a part of this community, including some who now post on TikTok to help others starting up, and none of your post rings true. I know more people who HEd to avoid the trans identity placed on their children with school than the other way round.

I home educated one of my children - autism, no choice, school was completely destroying him.

My other child went to school - also autism but more able to cope. Wanted to go and with support was able to manage at a wonderful mainstream school who adhered meticulously to the EHCP.

Having done both, I would always choose school if possible. My second child came out with good GCSEs and 3 x BTEC merits, place at uni though has decided take a gap year. My first child is also doing well - completing various college courses and now an internship but it was very hard, for him and for me.

I don’t think it’s selfish to choose to home ed though and I think it’s quite rare that parents arbitrarily remove their children from school for no real reason. I have known 100s of home ed children and of all them there was only one family I was concerned about - the parent was a complete conspiracy theorist and when we went for a play date she offered me a beer at 10 am in the morning then proceeded to drink five in quick succession. Every other family I met had made that choice because their child had additional needs or there were other extenuating circumstances - bullying, health issues etc and/or the parent was degree educated, with numerous teachers choosing to home ed presumably unable to tolerate the idea of putting their own child into the education system, which was very telling.

There does seem to be a prevalent idea that elective home educators are mostly silly lentil weavers who are incapable of educating their children efficiently, but that was not at all my experience.