to home educate due to not getting a decent primary place?

[fluffymouse]

Reposted from home ed to get more responses.

Dd (4) did not get a place at our local school, which was our first choice, to start reception in September. I'm absolutely gutted. I felt that this school would really suit her, and the schools which still have places are terrible (London).

I'm on maternity leave and seriously considering home schooling her for a term, deferring her entry to less preferred school till December, and hoping a waiting list place will come up in the meantime.

Dd is extremely active, excellent motor skills, but speech and language is a bit behind (awaiting salt referral). We have tried gently introducing her to numbers and letters, which she is also learning at nursery, and she is making slow progress in recognition of these. She however hates picking up a pen. While she is able to write her name she usually refuses.

I was planning to do learning in a manner that suits her, through activities, going out looking at things etc as I know she would struggle to sit still. I however worry this would leave her I'll prepared when she does start nursery. I will also have a baby, who will probably be crawling by September!

Any thoughts? I am very new to this.

Go for it, you'll enjoy it and children start school far too early in this country. Nothing to lose, everything to gain.

I would home ed her for part of reception with her name on a waiting list or two.

Would be good to do basic phonics, basic numbers, basic sums, basic word recognition in ten min slots. Tons of creative and active stuff.

My ds's school has a higher proportion of FSM etc etc and relatively deprived intake.
My ds is doing really well. I actually realise that he doesn't need to be pushed at the age of 5 - it really turns him off learning. I wish I could not have him in class being forced to do numeracy and literacy - let him play until he was a bit older. He's a bright kid, as his teacher tells me, so why put him off now (which they are)

I believe that not many things are as damaging as early formal education. A lot of folk don't agree with me and that is ok.

Op look at this channel 4 documentary and you can get a good idea where we as a country missing out on early years education. It is a very old programme, but things are worse since it was made, not better.

Maddie I do somewhat agree with you. I have straight A*s at GCSE, a degree and a PhD and there is no way I could teach any arts or humanity subject to a GCSE candidate.

That said this is reception not GCSE and there are advantages and disadvantages of each option. OP might not be a qualified teacher but she'll be able to be much more flexible and provide much more attention to her daughter than a teacher or TA at school.

We start school in the UK much too early so it's easy to believe that OP's daughter might not be ready for the classroom setting yet. There is a lot of evidence that a poor start to school (and in particular children with language delays) is something that is often never recovered from. The knock to the confidence can be huge and permeate through the rest of their education. (Of course this isn't always the case but it is a statistically significant effect).

On the other hand reception is an important year where the child adjusts to the school setting, makes friends, leads their way around school, adapts to the routine and it is an advantage to have this year before the very formal learning starts in Yr1.

No one can tell you absolutely that one prion is better than the other - you'l have to carefully weigh up the pros and cons of your particular situation.

I second another poster's suggestion of starting school at CSA and request ion a reception start from your LEA. Although this only works if your daughter is summer born (i.e. born between April and August).

I really think this isn't a discussion about long term HE - the OP at most will only HE for 3 months. That first term isn't a long time really, you aren't going to make a massive improvement in her abilities in that time, but what you will do is effectively miss the gentle start, all the home visits by teachers and TAs, the first days being only a couple of hours to 'ease them in' to school, then staying for lunch and being picked up after lunch, then staying full days.

The other issue is - will you be working full time when you go back to work? If your DD isn't great at change, then you being there to do the drop offs and pick ups while she gets used to school and it's only short days, might be better for her than going from full time at home with mummy, no nursery and no school, to a full school day and wrap around care to get used to as well.

The HE for 3 months might delay the problem for a short while, but it seems that when you do have to start school (and most movement in places happens between now and september, few people give up a place once they've started the year, so it will be unlikely to be your prefered school you start her in in January if you've not got a place by first week of September), it'll be a much bigger problem than it would be in September.

If you can't HE for at least the whole academic year, I really wouldn't go down that road.

My dd has been H.ed for 3 years now, going to school in september.
I haven't taught her anything, in fact she's better at maths than me, I don't see the connection tbh. It's the kids that are learning, you don't need to teach them
Ther are some strange assumptions about H.ed, from people who have probably never done any themselves.

You don't need to HE, keep her at nursery and just carry on as you are for the time being.

Accept the school place you've been offered though and delay til January.

I dont really see a need for school at age 4 tbh. I dont think it'll do her any harm just to carry on doing whatever she does now til december. No real urgency for home schooling (or any schooling) at this age IMO.

morethanpotatoprints I don't really understand your post; surely someone has to teach the kid if they're missing part of their formal education. Wouldn't that be the parent if you're home-eding? Of course an older child could read the information from somewhere but that's clearly not going to be a substitute for an actual teacher (explaining points they don't understand from the book, explaining why something is wrong and how to do it correctly etc. encouraging them if they think of an alternative method or have a bright idea etc. showing them how to improve.)

This isn't meant to be snarky I'm genuinely curious and know nothing about home ed.

Two HE is often (though not always) very child led with children learning largely for themselves. This is steered and managed by the parent but not taught.

When I was young I was HE for a year because of living in France and my French just wasn't confident enough to be plunged into a school. My dad taught me. I had an interest in marine life and my dad hadn't a clue but we just learned together :) For example, we visited an aquarium, got a lot of books from the library, read fiction books about the ocean, had a day by the sea - it was amazing :)

Hello TwoOddSocks

It isn't normally my style of H.ed but some subjects like Maths, i can only give this example can be learned in various ways without much input from another party. When I could no longer help dd when she was stuck and dh wasn't here, we'd learn together. There are numerous websites, and some study programmes some parents subscribe to. The info is there and sometimes free.
By the time they are ready for GCSE they are completely independent learners with incredible research skills.
I do have a PgCE (PC), and Masters credits in Education, but struggled with maths only gaining a level 2 C&G. although this is pretty irrelevant to a H.ed situation.
It has worked incredibly well for dd, it was a bit of a gamble 3 years ago, but we are all glad we did it.
I hope somebody else comes along who can better explain, because i don't think i've given this style of learning enough credit.

If it weren't for wanting DD to be bilingual (Welsh) I'd be homeschooling her.

It's learning through discovery rather than being talked at. Kids now are taught how to pass exams. They don't learn concepts or critical thinking. They can learn all that themselves if they have the space to do so.

"It's learning through discovery rather than being talked at. Kids now are taught how to pass exams. They don't learn concepts or critical thinking. They can learn all that themselves if they have the space to do so."

Extraordinarily sweeping statements there!

I agree entirely Disappointed.

DissappointedOne

Many thanks, hit the nail on the head.

Nice to see some of the normal old bollocks that always get spewed out on threads about HE.

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like a really interesting style of learning. I can see how it would be really beneficial for some kids.

I teach maths and I do think kids are taught to pass exams and it's massively frustrating when I have students that never think carefully about a problem just try to regurgitate the algorithm they've been taught. On the other hand I would say that there is an advantage to having someone to give some help with problems either when things aren't well understood or when a student can be pushed to think more deeply. (I don't necessarily think it outweighs the disadvantages of the exam treadmill). Again thanks for explaining it's made me think :)

There isn't a "thing" called HE. There are lots of different styles, expectations and techniques, from the pedagogic "just like school but not actually at school" to the completely autonomous. Some people stick to exam schedules- some people don't. And it's perfectly possible to home educate in subjects that you know very little about yourself to GCSE level. Does always make me grin when people rant on about how wonderful private schools are because they only have specialist subject teachers with relevant degrees from Reception up, though.......

It is really interesting to hear the range of responses, thank you.

I take in the opinions that it may not be worth home schooling for just a term, and that once children start school there may not be much movement on the waiting lists.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that we will get s space from the waiting list. I don't know how likely that is. On our area I don't think anyone will be going private, but some may move.

I still have lots of thinking to do.

I would be inclined to start at the school you have been given and see how that goes. Contact the school you prefer and let them know you would still be interested in a place if one comes up during the year. Then if one does, you can make a decision at the time. Some parents won't want to move their kids mid year so you may have the advantage. My son is now 8. Each year there have been children leave and new children start but the school will be able to advise how likely this is. Even if they have quite a waiting list, people will start their kids at other schools and decide not to move them (as might you), so the list isn't really as long as it may seem.

At this age it is mostly play based learning but they start to make friends and learn the structure of the school day (and begin reading/writing). I believe they start reading and writing to early in this country but wanted my DS to be on the same level as his peers. I did consider alternative schools (steiner etc) but wouldn't start him late for that reason. I am a fan of homeschooling but it isn't for me. I would revonsider if DS struggled but he loves school (despite not liking writing) :) Good luck.

I agree with madwoman and mrsdv. The school you aren't keen on due to high proportion of esl may be just the place to bring on a child with mild language delay, as they are likely to focus strongly on the sort of language and concepts needed for the primary curriculum. My child had language delay and went to the sort of school naice parents ran a mile from.