To think that most people actually do understand, and therefore support, home education...

[PennyRa]

And it's just a loud minority that are ignorant?

This is all besides socialising with family- he's an only child but our extended family is huge, and he has a big group of cousins he sees all the time. I know brits don't value the concept of the extended family, but in my culture it's really important and very cherished.

What do you mean? Genuine question. What is the difference between a range of children from different backgrounds in a classroom, and a range of home ed children from different backgrounds at an activity group or language class?

Don’t get xenophobic now.

Still waiting for someone to state how many people from lower socioeconomic economic backgrounds your home educated child meets and how it doesn't promote gender inequality.
Still waiting to hear how mums will keep educating kids at home when they're husband leaves and they have to get a full time job.

Oh give over. I'm British myself, I was born here and have a British parent. I was merely pointing out that from what I've observed the extended family is much less valued in British culture, hence I suppose many posters assumptions that home educated children are confined to their homes with only mum + dad + siblings.

Brits don't what now??!

If my husband leaves me I would simply increase my freelance hours, which I do in the evenings. I charge a decent hourly rate and would have enough to support myself and my son.

Not that that's really an argument against home education, is it. You could make the same argument against private schools. What, I'm meant to not do it because some other people might not be able to afford to do it, or because one day my circumstances might change?

Then why do you reference “my”culture in opposition to British culture. What an odd way to phrase it if you identify as British as well. Either way it’s rude and offensive to assert British people don’t value the concept of the extended family.

Because my non British parent's culture is the one I was raised in. I do not see the same importance placed on the extended family, that is my observation. There is lots of focus on the nuclear family. Again, I feel like that's where some posters assumptions that HE kids only see mum & dad is coming from.

@MilkToastHoney yep fully accept that covid home schooling wasn't reflective of home ed.

The point I'm making is that irrespective of the covid situation, even trying to help my DS with homework, or anything like that has made it clear that I am not cut out for it, nor is my husband, and neither was our son. And this is replicated in most project work or whatever else, that he ends up doing at home. And however free of the structure of school you may be in HEd, presumably there is ground to be covered/a curriculum to ensure a good level of education.

I take my hat off to those who can home educate, but even with days out, and group meet ups etc, I still would rather he (and my older daughter) go to school.

In school, he gets on with it. It's not always perfect, but in our case it's a far better option.

Attainment and outcomes of Home educated children
The DfE does not collect data on the educational attainment of home
educated children in England. This means no assessment can be made of the
impact on educational attainment of being home schooled.
In July 2021, the Education Select Committee published an inquiry into
elective home education and noted the “lack of robust data” and research
evidence on attainment and outcomes of home educated children.
In December 2009, the Children, Schools and Families Committee published
an inquiry into elective home education. The inquiry found that out of the 74
LAs which provides data (around 50% response rate), 22% of known to be
home educated 16-18-year-olds were not in education, employment or
training (NEETs). For comparison, the national average at this time was
around 5%.

The report, Review of Elective Home Education, was published on 11 June
2009. It made 28 recommendations, including that a compulsory annual
registration scheme for home educators should be established. Under the
proposed registration scheme, all parents planning to home educate their
children would have to inform the local authority; the authority could refuse
registration if there was clear evidence of safeguarding concerns.
The review further recommended that parents should be asked to submit a
statement of their intended approach to the child’s education, including what
they aimed to achieve over the following 12 months. Local authority officials
would have the right to access the home to check that the child was safe and
well and making progress against their learning statement.

Among the report’s other recommendations were:
• that local authorities should provide more support to home educating
families, for example through helping provide access to the national
examinations system, sports facilities, libraries and music tuition;103 and
• that the Government should review the current statutory definition of
what constitutes a ‘suitable’ and ‘efficient’ education.
**
The report received a hostile response from some home educators, who
believed that the proposals were unnecessary and would allow the state an
“unprecedented intrusion into family life”.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05108/

I don't feel, as a British person, that it is. Obviously individual extended families value each other but IME general British modern day culture and society is not set up to accommodate large extended families.

Anyway it's derailing the thread so back to HE.

this is all absolutely correct and it's the elephant in the room that home educating parents will never, ever admit.

Yes I do, hence my opinion on the subject.

Of course @Pascor , because believe it or not, home education doesn't mean a child glued to a desk from 9-5. Facilitating learning happens at any time of the day and night.

Most parents alternate working hours, and of course as children get older it gets easier as they are more able to work independently.

Not hard work, in fact, of the group of home educators I have had the pleasure of meeting, more than 1 are doctors in various fields.

The secondary teachers also work around their work schedule with partners, and they, as teachers wouldn't send their children through the system from early on (that is their opinion of the system not mine).

I cannot comment on all home Ed communities of course, however I have home Ed myself. Oldest went into school at secondary level (for those wondering how well we did, dc got into selective school without tutoring-adding that for the ones that believe home Ed kids don't learn much at all!)

Not so long ago, one of the families celebrated their daughter achieving a place at Cambridge (to read Russian- self taught).

I said British culture does not value the extended family. Not that all British people don't value their extended families. Of course many do.

You only have to read MN around Christmas to see that I'm right, with so many people desperate not to see extended family over the festive season, or preferring to stay in hotels when visiting family, etc. This is not only my opinion - I've seen it discussed on here many times.

I don't feel that HE parents can win tbh - if our DC are socialising then they're obviously not learning, and if they're learning then they're obviously not socialising!

I managed a small organisation for a couple of years. A young woman came to volunteer with us; she had had no schooling since aged 6. She had sat a small handful of GCSES with unimmpresive results.

I fought our company directors to fund a paid job for her. She was brilliant. at 17 i could leave her in the office, she would handle enquiries, act on initiative, developes systems for us, was impecably tidy and organised. She was always very self mtivated and interested in her work. She had a maturity and interpersonal skills of someone far more mature than her years and was an absolute asset to the organisation. Having worked around school leavers and university students, this young woman shone. Yes, there was an eccentricity about her but she wore this with grace. She now runs a successful internet business.

I have met some wonderfuly talented, kind, creative, gentle and capable children who are home educated. It takes all sorts and yes, there are those children who dont fit, who are odd, who cant socialise and are isolated. It does take all sorts and i embrace difference and creativity.

So despite these kids being SO neurodiverse that they cannot cope in mainstream school, they also can work independently for hours so their parents can both work full time jobs. I'm calling bullshit that parents work enough hours in the evenings to earn enough for the mortgage for a house in Bristol.