To find the homeschooling fad really braggy

It's so weird that you're so confident on talking about stuff that you really just don't know anything about.

The entire point of flexi schooling is that parents DO keep the child caught up on what they're missing when they're not in school. That's what flexi schooling is. So you're getting your knickers in a twist about... Nothing.

@Marshmallow4545 I don’t think Ofsted inspections are particularly beneficial to state schools, so I don't feel homeschoolers not having that kind of inspection is any great loss. In some ways they can even make things worse, schools can end up prioritising looking good to Ofsted over the actual needs of pupils. I think you have a rather naive and idealised view of state education. I don't see why with homeschooling an inspector would need to 'look at a bit of carefully curated work', the parents can be asked to keep a record of all the written work done that year, the inspector can have a look at it and ask the child some questions if need be to gage their understanding, which actually gives them a better idea than an ofsted school inspection where the inspector will never see the individual children or their work, in fact many schools have been known to keep disruptive or sen children off school when ofsted come.
I would only consider removing parental choice to home school to be in any way appropriate if we got to a point where the state education system provided a safe environment and a good education for every single child, and that is very far from being the case at the moment. If we could get there that would be great, but at the moment we aren't even moving in that direction, if anything things are going backwards!
Right now home schooling provides an important alternative to many families where children have been badly failed by schools.
Most parents don't have a choice of several state schools. Many people live in areas where good schools are massively oversubscribed, or the cost of housing in decent catchment areas is extortionate. Many live in rural areas without a choice of schools. Many parents have children with sen who have no access to any school that can meet their needs. I didn't have any options of other state schools for my daughter, we were very lucky we had the option of private school but for many people home school is their only alternative.

But can't you see that the kind of light touch inspection that you suggest isn't massively useful and can be easily manipulated by the parents? It's not robust enough to identify where a children's emotional, social and educational needs aren't being properly met and would struggle to differentiate between parents talking the talk and actually walking the walk. Would you accept this kind of inspection for a school or nursery setting? I imagine you wouldn't as you know that an inspector really needs to get into the detail to spot failings, especially when it's in the school's/parent's interests to hide them. An inspector popping over to setting for a few hours looking over a bit of carefully curated work, chatting to teachers and some kids that have probably been coached and then signing everything off as ok would be extremely worrying. This is even more true in a HE setting where there are less adults involved and therefore less potential whistle blowers that will highlight wrongdoing.

I think most children have more than one state school that they can choose from or move to. Focus should be on getting these up to scratch and tackling issues. I also think that VAT should never have been added to private school fees.

Obviously, it wouldn't need to be the same type of inspection, as it's just for one or two children. But I don't see why someone can't just visit, look at the children's work, chat to the parents and the child, and make sure it's all okay. I believe that's what happens now, except it's not compulsory.
I wouldn't like to see homeschooling banned or parents not given the choice. From our own experience, my dd had a horrific time at state secondary school, experienced appalling violence from other pupils, and the school and LEA were worse than useless. In the end, we withdrew her and sent her to an independent school, but if we hadn't been fortunate enough to be able to get help from family to do that, we would have considered homeschooling.
I think parental choice is important, and frankly, after our experience, I really don't trust the state education system to have the best interests of children at heart. I've seen plenty of threads on here of people who have had similar experiences to ours, so I know we are not alone.

I don't think home schooling people should be inspected as such but i think there should be someone similar to a health visitor or school nurse to look after homeschooled children in the same way that health visitors do for little ones. Routine development checks once every 18 months or so, vaccination clinics, free sessions similar to "stay and play" toddler groups but for older ones.

Because that would be completely unrealistic for both the parents and the inspectors. Schools have to provide an overwhelming amount of evidence to verify what they're doing which parents realistically simply won't have if they're HEing. OFSTED often reach out to parents with children at the school to gather opinions and views so that they can check what the school is saying they are doing and the perceptions of external parties. They observe a variety of lessons for days at a time and interview lots of members staff. They review things like staff training, leadership and processes etc. They also take into account academic performance across lots of subjects using objective measures.

From doing all of the above, they can begin to understand how a school functions and how it is performing. There is absolutely no way such an inspection could be carried out for HE. All too often they rely on some submitted work as evidence and will carry out a relatively light touch review. There is far more lenience in terms of expectations in HE than there is for schools. For this reason it is absolutely possible for crap HE to not be identified and for children to be completely failed. Education is a human right and we are placing too much trust in people to deliver this properly. Ultimately the children will be the ones that pay the price and society will be stuck with a bunch of adults lacking basic skills.

Yes there are times where it has to be bit generally i am not for it, but i dont get people who have to make something about them, people talk about home schooling no i dont think it is bragging

If people think what others do is bragging i would say they need to look what is wrong with their life snd it says more about them than the home-schoolers, this 'they need to stop because it is all about me' is weird

But why can't home schoolers just be inspected like schools are?

@ThisGentleRaven Really? I haven't seen any threads like that.

I completely disagree. I don't think it should be within parents' scope of authority to remove their child from school unilaterally. This can be incredibly risky for a child from a safeguarding perspective as well as the adverse academic and social implications this can have that a child can't even begin to understand. They simply don't have the required capacity to make a such a decision.

Schools are inspected by OFSTED or an equivalent body. Choosing to HE absolutely isn't the same as choosing a school for a child irrespective of whether it's private or religious etc. Extremism, abuse and generally crap educational standards are far more likely to be identified and resolved in a school than in a domestic setting where you would need an insane amount of resource to really audit what is going on.

I think with a lot of these things, the majority of parents are getting on with things but the braggers are loud so we hear about them more. It's not just homeschooling either, it's travelling, holidays, meals out, food in general, starting school at CSA, books, films, vaccination etc. Some people will brag about anything and everything.

You cannot have been looking very far, there are plenty, about the poor institutionalised children, neglected by their parents 😂

How bizarre, that would be incredibly difficult and an inefficient and inappropriate use of resources. Would you apply that to parents sending their child to a particular school such as a independent or faith school too?
Better to just let parents choose, and have inspections to check the children are getting a decent education when needed.

you have to spend so much time trying to find fault with people who make a different one. In my experience people who are happy with their own life seldom behave like that.

your understanding skills are outstanding.

Who's posting obsessively here? 😂

I imagine it would be done in the same way that the best interests of anyone without capacity can be determined usually through a checklist of factors and exploration of available options.

How on earth would that be defined and proven?

Because I think I believe it should only be allowed if it could be proven it was definitely in the child's best interests.

Why would it need to be restricted?

I've never seen a home schooling parent start a thread to criticise those who send their children to school, but there are constant ones like this with people criticising home schoolers. I think OP and other posters should try to focus on their own lives rather than comparing themselves to others.

Oh god, not this old chestnut. It is so tiresome that anyone with an opinion on anything now automatically gets accused of being either jealous or unhappy in their own life. I have loads of opinions about loads of things that aren't fuelled by either motive. I imagine you do too! For example I think private jets should be banned in almost all cases. Not because I'm jealous, not because I'm miserable but because they damage the environment. I also think HE should be restricted and far more regulated for the sake of children.

Hmm the endless obsessive posts about every aspect of home education suggest otherwise. 😂 I don't home educate (or have any kids yet) but I have friends and extended family who do and their kids are doing great. 🙂 It's a shame you're so insecure in your own choices that you have to spend so much time trying to find fault with people who make a different one. In my experience people who are happy with their own life seldom behave like that.

Its the ones who take the kids around in a van claiming nature is their class room that are the most gringy.

I don't care about home education in itself, I am very amused by braggy people.

Sorry I touched a nerve with you 😂

It's true that there's a very vocal, very judgmental braggy "home educator" type, who not only lecture you about home education and the ONLY way to do it right (their way) when frankly no one cares,

but also is very judgmental and try to explain that THEY bake/ teach when others parents don't.

What do they actually think? That kids at school are picked up, plonked in front of the tv, and not seen until the next morning or until Monday? 😂
They are confusing home education and parenting.

All the kids I know have very similar bedroom set-ups that vary by age but not by content: they have books on anything and everything, a globe, telescope because they wanted to learn about stars, some random toys and digging bits about dinosaurs, microscope they MUST have , musical instruments, cookery books, reconstruction of roman catapults, building material, wood work tools, legos, and a pile of stuff covering the most random subjects 😂

Kids learn every day, and about everything, but that's just being kids with normal parents. They go to the library, to museums, to parks, nature reserve, historical places, what you do on normal weekends and holidays when you have days off yourself.

That's the part I find highly amusing, the idea that these home "educators" are doing anything special just because they don't send the kids to school.

The most brilliant ones don't need to brag.

What an extraordinary number of posts you've made on this thread for someone who doesn't care and is not obsessing. 😂