I home educate my 3 children

[LilyTuesday]

As the subject title says! I have found myself answering lots of questions over the years, once people find out we home Ed our children… but they are probably being polite and not saying how they really feel about the idea of choosing to never send a child to school…. So AMA if you’ve ever been curious!

Likewise swimming. I applaud the OP for doing this because whilst some people are genuinely interested and intrigued by HE. Others just take utter offence to HE for some reason!

For what it's worth, my three have always been HE. Eldest finishing her final 5 GCSEs this year to add to her other four and has been offered places at two sixth forms this year.

Right now, so far we have no regrets whatsoever and would do it again in a hearbeat especially as the situation in schools is far worse than it was when we started our HE journey!

I ended up at a top uni, and I don't think they particularly cared which years I took my GCSEs

You'll have been asked on your UCAS form to give dates.

Yes. I’m not saying that you’re a bad teacher, I’m sure you’re great. I just don’t agree that a teaching degree is the only way someone can be a good teacher. My friend’s children, for example, attend a public school where some of the (great) teachers are subject specialists but don’t have teaching degrees. Yet the school has great results. Lots of home ed children we know have great results. College/uni lecturers don’t need teaching degrees.
What more could you possibly need than the course text books, an engaging teacher and interested student? Plus the other things I mentioned such past papers, websites such as bbc bitesize, YouTube.. Home educators are often able to go on more field trips for the subjects that need them so are at an advantage there too.
I’m genuinely not trying to dismiss a teaching job. I’ve been there, it’s bloody hard work and I really admire you all. But it’s a completely different thing to teaching your own child, one to one, with all the same info a teacher has, with methods you know will work to help engage your child (not a one size fits all approach that teachers have to take in their classes), field trips if the subject requires them, as many hours in the week as is needed etc. It is entirely possible, as evidence shows, for a person without a teaching degree to do as good a job as someone without one.

She wanted to do them- as they aren’t the core subjects, they are more ‘bonus’ ones. She wants to be a mental health nurse, and could maybe even do the access course at college if need be. As I said, she plans to take English, maths and science at the same time as her peers. And she’s currently exploring other GCSE’s, so she will hopefully end up with more than 5 overall. She’s in year 9, and will begin her other chosen subjects as soon as she makes a decision. We are always happy to listen to advice and recommendations, so if anyone here has any advice for my DD please do share. 😊

@ChildminderMum that's one of the reasons children under 5 are seen by health visitors. For safeguarding and welfare checks. Although, just like school, health visitors aren't compulsory.

When you say 'science' OP do you mean triple or combined?

she doesn't have two "under her belt" as they will be disregarded when adding up her GCSE scores, which only include GCSEs taken within a12 or 18 month stretch, because doing them one or two at a time over many years is so easy, and no comparison to doing them all together

We would be able to do it but it would certainly be difficult. We are fortunate to have family, friends and a supportive home Ed family and we all help each other out. We’ve had parents become SP’s, we’ve also had one mum become a widow. Life throws many ups and downs and you do need that ‘village’.

Do you worry your children are missing out on the huge network provided by traditional school? People from primary and secondary school have popped up over and over again in my life. But beyond the actual connections, being exposed to a huge range of people and families and understanding their place in the world? I know you hang out with other HE families but it can't compare to the exposure traditional school gives a kid.

Nonsense.

It really concerns me when people say things like this online, Home ed children can take their GCSEs spread out, and get them "under their belt early" because when it comes to sixth form enrolment, and we are turning them away, then they are often devastated and inconsolable. I dont understand why people dont research the entrance requirements for sixth form better. I have seen students try and enrol onto English A level, for example, without having done any English for two years, because they got it "under their belt" earlier. No, we don't accept that. If you do it on its own, it is so easy it doesn't count, and if you haven't done further study since, you are not suitable for A level - English is just an example, because I well remember the hysterics we had to deal with from student and mother on one particular occasion, but I've seen it with many other subjects too, including students turning up with 10 grade 9s, and expecting to walk in, but being turned away, because they are too spread out

@HospitalHelp I honestly don't know where to begin commenting on your post as I disagree with so much of it. I teach a very specialist subject for which my own 'training' began at a very young age. I am highly skilled in that field, I have worked professionally in it prior to becoming a teacher. My teaching most certainly is not text book led (Ofsted would have a field day with any teacher depending on text books solely) and nor am I reliant on others on Twinkl or Oak Academy (teachers I might add) to provide resources for me. I have a solid understanding of pedagogy which, in my 23 years as a teacher, I have sought to extend and develop. There are huge amounts of research about how pupils learn and how information is retained that teachers explore and use to alter their practise. Good teaching is most certainly not crowd control with added worksheets (made by someone else).

Most GCSE’s are disregarded in later years anyway. We know plenty of home Ed families with adult children, and they have all done well for themselves. Not every child at school will leave with qualifications. We have classes and tutoring with qualified teachers, the teachers they’ve had used to work in mainstream education. I would not say I have taught them, I have helped guide them and find the learning style that works best for them, encouraged them to follow their passions, spend a huge amount of time outdoors, and they’ve grown up in the world outside of a classroom. School is nothing like real life and doesn’t teach life skills… whatever works for your family is fine. Home Ed works for mine.

sorry, but it is not nonsense, I've got years of experience of sixth form enrolment, and UCAS applications.

If you take one GCSE every 6 months for 5 years, it is very hard not to get top grades in all of them, and it means nothing

Sitting 8/9/10 in one or two sittings close together shows what a student is capable of

@Nimbostratus100

This.

It's so frustrating and ultimately sad because the people who miss out are those with the least power to change it.

@LilyTuesday thank you so much for this thread, it feels somewhat serendipitous as we are seriously considering HE for my DS who is currently in an awesome school but yr6 and the transition to yr7 might not be right for him.
We’re also in Essex so thrilled to hear there’s a thriving community, off no to investigate what there might be locally.
Any suggestions or pointers for those about to embark on HE?

You do whatever, but don't go spreading misinformation that a year 8 or 9 student can get GCSEs "under her belt", because it is me that will be left with the sobbing hysterical child as I have to crush all their hopes and dreams as they expect to walk into my A level class and I have to say no.

Cool can you post a link to something showing that it will be a problem getting on to a nursing course because a student took two GCSEs early?

OP- whether GCSEs will matter later on in life depends very much on what career your child chooses to go into. You are limiting their choices by definition.

Haha it’s okay. I didn’t even notice any mistakes in your post but I read mine back and realised it was full of them and thought, oh dear, they’re going to come for me now when I’ve just said I went to a top uni and that I’m home educating my children 😂
I can only talk about my own experience but for my dd’s home ed friends they all did really, really well in their GCSEs unless they had a learning difficulty or another obstacle making it difficult for them (two of her friends are super bright but their autism/sensory issues/anxiety made it impossible for them to sit exams) but I think this would’ve been the case for them had they been in school too.
I'm not sure how old your sister is but I know that it’s become increasingly easier for home ed students to sit GCSEs, I’ve even seen a huge positive change in the years that I’ve been home educating. Some local authorities will even fund classes, activities and exams now which helps shoulder the financial burden if that’s an obstacle for families.

Just like all those parents limiting their children's life chances by sending them to crappy underfunded schools, with a shortage of teachers, plagued by sexual harassment, violence and bullying?
So many children are ending up with lifelong mental health problems and poor exam results from their parents' decision to send them to school.

@ChildminderMum well I'm certainly not going to disagree that schools need more funding. I'd still rather take my chances with educated and experienced professionals.

I’m not the op so apologies for jumping in here but I’ve found that home educating has meant my children have developed friendships with people from so many demographics that we wouldn’t otherwise have ever come into contact with. Rich/poor, different religions, ethnicities, geographical locations. If you think about school, most of the children there will live within the same catchment area and therefore have similar backgrounds in terms of class, wealth etc. As an atheist family I doubt we would’ve met many religious families but there are a lot of religious families home educating due to lack of faith schools in the area. We also wouldn’t have met many children with special needs but again there are lots in the home ed community.

I think that all colleges will have different entry requirements and I would recommend parents find out the requirements of desired college but for ours dd was absolutely allowed to do A Levels having spread her GCSEs over three years. Her schooled friends had also spread them out over two years so this would be an issue for everyone, no?

Luckily you are free to take your chances with your own children. I hope it works out for them.