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

[PennyRa]

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

Well that is strange, because individuals don’t need to let the situation go on “for a long time”. JR for medical needs tuition is a relatively quick resolution. SENDIST for EOTAS via an EHCP takes longer but even then it isn’t the number of years you are talking about.

I would be intrigued to know this LA which is apparently immune to JR as the law and the avenues of legal recourse equally to all LAs.

No, but they still had contact in other ways - paeds appointments, dr appointments, specialists they’d had contact with via school (eg, I had regular contact with autism outreach teachers - they supported me through the EHCP process and would have sessions with ds every couple of months for a while), many had other children still in school, so the child was still seen fairly regularly by school staff.

Everyone I knew stayed in touch with the scant support they had, so the ones in other areas who opted out of EHE didn’t have a problem.

I don't have any definite thoughts about the socialisation part. My children are too young to draw meaningful comparisons, but I certainly would imagine home education might make it more difficult for the shyer child to form good relationships with peers.

My comments as a university lecturer are entirely about the education part: I have never interviewed or taught a home-educated child who was remotely well educated. Sometimes knowledgeable in a narrow field (including the subject I teach, considered minimally) but never generally well-educated. The three I taught for some time were very intelligent but frustratingly pedantic and /or 'eccentric' in a self-congratulatory way. All did poorly in the university course.

Thank you for this well balanced post which I totally agree with.

I do think in the HE community (which I am part of) there is a refusal to accept that school can be lovely for many children (especially those with unsafe or unstable homes).

Ummm... actually legally you can. The law Currently is phrased in the negative. The LEA have to prove you are providing an inadequate education, if you get the education approved initially and submit your annual review successfully. The LEA never once visited DS or even saw him the two periods I have home educated him. To be brutally honest they have no idea if the evidence i provided was actually from him.

If you fail to provide any evidence then yes, you are likely to get slapped with a school attendance order. If you provide the right evidence, you can refuse any further oversight (which actually I did when the LEA tried to install themselves in my son's EHCP review without permission).

That's not adequate safeguarding oversight

I know someone who home schools this consists of eating out for breakfast, lunch etc in cafes all over instagram with the hashtag #toocoolforschool it's cringeworthy.

But nobody is checking whether a parent who decides to home educate is generally well educated.

As a (former) University lecturer I have the total opposite experience to you: the few home educated children I came across did extremely well. They were part of the reason I felt confident home education was the right choice for us. I don't think I'd have considered it otherwise.

BTW, I was a shy child and school was hell for me personally. Everything I found difficult at 5 years old I still find difficult at the age 35, and 13 years of being at school did not make those things easier. My shy son has blossomed and grown in confidence since he left school. He went to a new drop off drama group the other day with kids he'd never seen before in his life and didn't even give me a second look back, joined in immediately. I would never have done that at his age.

I haven't disputed that.

Thanks, that’s really interesting. If you opt out, do you have to prove how you’re educating your children? I know people have been fined for taking their children out of school for holidays etc, what provisions do you have to make if you’re home educating?

Is there a limit to age? Can you do GCSEs, degrees etc? Would they be recognised by employers? I think I’d have the skills for sciences and maths, but history I would be terrible at, same as religious studies. I have piano to grade 8, but would struggle with other music lessons and PE - not sure I can fashion a netball, football, cricket pitch, let alone have the network to get people together to do it!!

Is there a network for sports days and plays, choir, etc?

Why should less educated parents mean a child who would learn better in a home environment doesn't get the opportunity?

Perhaps the parent might be better educated if they had the opportunity to learn in an environment they were comfortable in or if school hadn't put them off learning.

Home educated children can do all the same exams that schooled children do, you just have to pay for them yourself.

@Magssss do you think the area you live in has a strong impact on home ed experience?

I am considering home ed for my DC and have started looking into what is available locally in terms of socialisation and your post rings true. I wonder if the people successfully doing home ed live in places like London with really great HE community.

You do have to consider that if a parent who has likely been through the school system isn't considered well educated, it's hardly a great incentive for them to put their own children through the same system that didn't educate them.

Area has a massive impact and cities are best IMO. I'm in Bristol and there's a huge home ed community here, lots going on.

I can see how it will suit some people but having worked in a school book shop and having watched people speak about home schooling and choosing to do this subject and that, and going certain ways about it I really don’t know. We had what I thought was a decent lockdown, loads of life lessons learnt etc, and within a day of them being back I was saying’whoah, they really needed school’. BUT I do think with the right parent and plan some children might be better off home schooled, especially if not happy

I never got my Higher Maths.

i am not arrogant enough to assume that I could teach my child Higher Maths 🫤 (I absolutely, definitely could not)

I've been a teacher for more than 30 years and absolutely value HS if it's done for the right reasons. It's reluctance to take children out of school when they're drowning which causes so much heartache down the line.

This isn’t logical to me. Poorly educated parent educating their child is better than sending that child to school where they could very well have a better experience than their parent and come out of it better educated?

To those who might be curious, our typical day looks like this with a 6.5 yo.

AM (every weekday AM) - sit down learning. Always do Maths and English. Read another chapter of whatever chapter book we are currently reading (currently The Railway Children). 3-4 times a week we do all the additional subjects: Science, History, Geography, Art, languages etc.

Lunch

PM - activities, usually with peers. Swimming, art group, drama group, music group, general play dates, outings to museums, national trust places, the park

He does Beavers and a couple of after school groups as well.

It really does depend on the reasons and set-up!

Personally, I'm afraid I'm a little biased in that two out of three families I have known to choose to HE have been doing it for purely ideological reasons:

Family #1 is extremely religious and, from my outside perspective, just seems to want to avoid their children learning anything at all useful about sex and reproduction. I'll have to admit: I'm pretty horrified!

Family #3 is not traditionally religious but deeply into conspiracy stuff. Unfortunately for me, I know them because dad reports to me at work. That'll be the same bloke whom I've had to threaten with disciplinary action due to him loudly voicing his opinions (which would, as such, be okay to a reasonable extent) and making other colleagues deeply uncomfortable (this just isn't - this is a workplace, not speaker's corner!). From what I know, the three kids are currently being taught "actual facts". Again, I'm deeply concerned.

Family #3 I totally understand: they have opted to HE daughter #2 (out of a total of 3) due to some utterly horrendous bullying at multiple schools running. From what I know, daughter is both academically gifted and supremely socially awkward. Still not perfect, I suppose, but: I'd sooner have a child HE'd, hoping they'd grow into the "other people" thibg eventually, than spat on and beaten on a daily basis.

I wasn't saying it was better, I was saying that if you went to school and it did a shit job of educating you then why would you assume it was the right place to send your child? You wouldn't make that argument for anything else.

I couldn't either, I'd get mine a tutor if we got to that stage.

Do you get help with the curriculum? I think I’m more concerned about sports, music, drama, if I went down that route. How do you get them collaboratively working with other peers? I work full time at the moment and would have to work through the evening and weekends if home schooling, so wouldn’t have time to take them to things outside the traditional school time for socialisation. Also, would not know how to access groups who had other people in my child’s age group who could put on things like plays, sports matches, orchestra, etc.

No, you get no support - all the planning etc falls to you.

There will be a home ed Facebook group for whatever area you live in, they are the best way of accessing activities and meeting others.