Why does home schooling appeal ?

[SeptemberFlowers]

I myself would be far to scared to do it with my dc's as I'd be needing to reach for the most weekends of having to teach them curricular that I was shit at at school.

Why does it appeal to so many people ? There are a few children in the next village (live in a rural location) who are HE but only because their mother doesn't trust other adults with her children. I know this an extreme case but the only one I know personally.

How would you know your child is learning all the correct syllabus for different subjects ?

Anyone

Parents in the UK are required to ensure their child has a full-time education that is appropriate to their age, aptitude and ability, and any special needs they may have. This can be by sending them to school or otherwise. It's the family's choice.

Nowhere is full-time defined, nor are curricular requirements. People who home educate do it in a whole range of ways, to suit their child/ren and their family. It is not necessary to be a teacher or to be degree-educated to home educate.

My own home-educated child decided to apply to university, having been out of the school education system since year 4. He's thriving and loving the whole experience. I never judge people for sending their children to school (my other DC did go to school). Why judge home-educating parents for doing what is right for their families?

The cases I know personally have been families where the schools have done nothing to meet the SN of the child and the child has consequently not been learning anything at school.

Once HE has started the child has actually started learning something and has developed the confidence to have a social life on terms that they could actually handle. Of course it's been hard work for the parents- but that is hard work that should have been done by the school and hasn't been done.

Just because some children are failed by ss I don't think that's a good enough reason not to monitor home schooling Sparkly

I should add that we took a broadly autonomous route, although DC chose to do GCSEs and A levels. However, we declined LA visits after the first one (as was our right) because they kept asking irrelevant questions about following the curriculum and didn't seem to have any idea about home ed.

Well you are of course entitled to your opinion. I am just not sure that a blanket "no" to HE is that well thought out on the basis of possible abuse.

loopyloo. I agree. Yes, children do learn in all sorts of different ways. I certainly don't believe that they have to be at school sitting at a desk with pen and paper to learn. I've got nothing against HE, in fact I was looking into it at one point for my youngest who hated school, but it wouldn't have work for us for other reasons.

However, I think there needs to be some way of ensuring children are actually making progress. If there is no-one to assess them they could be learning absolutely nothing.

Whilst most HE parents want the best for their children not everyone is able to teach.

And what of those parents who claim to be HE but just use it as a way of getting out of having to make any effort to get their children to school.

I'm not saying a blanket no to HE. I think cory for example makes an excellent point. I just don't think it should take place without monitoring and checking that the child is thriving.

Sorry bit of a cross post there about vulnerable children.

MY child was assaulted by a teacher, while in the care of and being monitored by our LEA. Make of that what you will.

I'm sorry to hear that sparkly but I don't think it negates the point I'm making.

I am Home educating my dd because she has health issues that even with the help of the HNES ( which was brilliant btw) cannot be catered for in a formal education setting . We are doing IGCSEs at the moment ,and I actually find it very liberating after a couple of years of jumping to the tune of the LA

It kind of does in my situation I think in that we had no come back in that situation. Nothing happened to the teacher and the LEA are quite happy to keep quiet and not take responsibility for my ds and his education and I hear this kind of experience repeatedly amongst HE families especially with SN.

Anyhoo! Fwiw I do accept the visits as I have nothing to hide and it seems a small price to pay for the totally happy and different child I have now in comparison to the one who was at a school.

We were in a similar situation to Floralnomad- the only difference, and this is crucial to me, was that dd wanted to go school and I felt that if that hope was taken away from her she might just give up altogether. So we struggled through, with the constant threat of EWO's and fines hanging over our heads, and dd has just got to the point where she is able to attend Sixth Form college fulltime (and with a long commute). Not home schooling was important to us, because it was important to dd. But home schooling would in some ways have been both easier and less stressful.

My DD1 was miserable for the four years she was at school, she has been HEed for a year and a half and is now one of the best behaved children I know and very happy. We have a good relationship with our LEA, I understand their need to keep tabs on her welfare. My other children are at school, which they enjoy. I would certainly say that I acted for the benefit of my child rather than out of 'vanity and self-indulgence', pictish

HE doesn't appeal to me. I could give a long list why not. But among the many people I know who HE & love it, the reasons why tend to be:

• No fixed curriculum
• Firm conviction that state school standards are too regularised, not set to develop individual strengths, square pegs in round holes, all that
• Direct participation in their children's love of learning
• Flexible scheduling, allowing travel & holidays whenever they like (yes they do talk about how wonderful this is!)
• Fear that regular school environment & peer groups teach the "wrong" values
• Dislike of targets-driven teaching
• Fits with existing lifestyle (parents already working flexitime or PT)
• Firm conviction that science & maths teaching especially is very poor & the parents think they can do far better
• Removes the fear of bullying by peers or teachers
• Dislike of school regimentation, uniforms, so many rules

We considered HE. I would really love to do it. We'd probably use curriculum guides for literacy/numeracy but be pretty unstructured on everything else, following their interests, lots of music and art and time outside (we are mad about birds etc)

I think we'd be pretty good at it, we are all very enthusiastic about learning and would be able to find lots of resources etc. The only thing we would struggle with would be the social aspect - DH and I are both very introverted so it would take a huge amount of effort to make sure the DCs found friends.

We did send DCs to school - the local infant school is fantastic, they are in yrR and yr2. However the local junior is a different story according to some parents I know (lots of bullying as well as very bad OFSTED etc), it's also huge and I'm not sure if DD will manage that. We're going to give it a go (there's no other school near enough) and we may be moving somewhere else in the next year or so anyway but if it doesn't work out we will HE for a bit.

Just to add that HE isn't a fail safe against bullying. There are nasty little beggars who are home educated as well as at school.

Ds was bullied by one particularly nasty kid at a home ed sports group and by another at a drama/dance school he attended most evenings. However, it is easier to sort out when they are not at school.

frugal it may be worth you having a look at your local HE groups to see what social things they do before you make your decision, lots are very active .

It doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. I would have to be very sure of my parenting abilities and I am more 'it takes a village....' mentality. Teachers have certainly got sides of my children that I would never have come across and it has been wonderful to see them blossom.
I agree with Ilovesooty and I think there should be more monitoring. I am shocked at the amount who spend most of their time on computer games while the parent tries to justify it it is educational terms,rather than simply switching the computer off!
However I am not a fan of autonomous education-children need to be guided.
I also think it gives the parent too much control-all very well if they have reasonable, mature and sensible parents-unfortunately they don't all.
There is a view that anyone can do it and they certainly can't!
Everyone will admit that there are brilliant schools and dire schools with everything in between but you will never get any home educators admitting that they come across some very dubious home educators.
They have the same mix as anything else. They also get the bullies,as loopyluu says-human nature is across the board.

Thanks floral :)

BTW with the bullying the issue wasn't so much that there was bullying - I agree that can happen anywhere - but the fact that the HT point blank refused to admit there was a problem, and nothing was done about it. And that made me think, even if DD isn't bullied herself I don't want her in an environment where bullying is seen as ok.

However there's a new HT there now so maybe things are on the up - we will give it a go and see what happens.

ilovesooty so what happens to children before the age of five then, are you suggesting that they should all be 'monitored' at home simply because they are not in a school system yet and therefore open to abuse and not thriving? Should all prospective parents be assessed before they have children?