Stop homeschooling your children.

[pentagonisapentagon]

I run an educational consultancy and exam company. We produce books that most parents in our area of education will purchase. Home educating your children makes us money.

However. STOP. Now I don’t mean those that have children with severe issues (this is a small %, everyone likes to diagnose their children with some form of disorder and it isn’t those I’m talking about) who would benefit out the classroom / often awaiting a better school option.

I mean the parents who are tired with the education system - lots of moans that they can’t take their children for a holiday, annoyed about not being allowed make up, the rules being too hard. You can barely spell, stop trying to teach your children yourself. These children are being FAILED by their parents.

By all means, if you have the relationship, time, ability and means to provide a solid home education system (inc money for tutors which will be needed) - go ahead. Just ensure you’re covering the social aspect.

I am seeing the advice to home school EVERYWHERE. Mumsnet and Facebook filled with the poor advice. It’s detrimental to all parties involved.

I’d love to know others thoughts on this.

read one recently who was asking for advice on how to convince the LA that hours on roblox is educational

Yep, there’s a frightening amount of stuff on there about gaming the system in various ways. Advice about persuading the LA not to investigate stuff etc. Very little about actual school.

The thing is...there is 'learning' in Minecraft and Roblox, especially if you are coding or doing chemistry in Minecraft Education Edition etc. So it is perfectly valid to ask that question and to add it into a report.

However, the issues come when
a) it is assumed that this is all that needs to be covered for a well-rounded education (of course, generally a child plays Minecraft/Roblox (though maybe not for as many hours/in as much depth) and does a full programme of formal learning in school).
and/or
b) the 'learning' is not age-appropriate/doesn't go into greater depth as time goes on (this comes up most in the infamous "maths in baking" example - there is definitely maths in baking, but it definitely won't cover the whole syllabus even for mid-primary school - so great for a report on a 5yr old but generally not that relevant for a 14yr old).

Yes, often the issue isn’t the schools though. Teachers are FANTASTIC. It’s rare to come across a bad teacher. So many inspirational, dedicated people who work so tirelessly to help children.

Lack of funding pushes them to their limits, yes, but they’re still there teaching. Children don’t or won’t engage. Minimal repercussions from parents. Tired children playing up from Snapchatting all night. Teachers sick of being questioned by parents and second guessed at every turn.

The outstanding schools aren’t that because the teachers are “better”. They have children from more supportive networks, a desire to learn, and strong implementation of behavioural policies.

The academies you’ll always see complained about such as Outwood as an example (always in the Daily Mail) have made a huge impact. But the behaviour policies “outrage” parents because OF COURSE a detention for drinking their water is against their human rights (eye roll) and then they fall into the online trap of homeschooling and boom, the issue continues and worsens.

This.

people moan about these things and then carry on. I don’t think they are motivators to enroll in homeschooling.

Unfortunately you’re wrong. We collect statistics on it. It’s the fastest growing reason to homeschool.

i know someone who “homeschools” her 15 year old whilst her and her husband are working full time jobs ! How this is not classed as child neglect I don’t know !
I’m sure if you’re capable and have the time and resources to do it properly it can be a wonderful thing but it’s not regulated enough in my opinion.

I don't think you can make statements like this. There are kids and families where home educating allows them to flourish. They have lots of opportunities through co-ops, homeschool groups, hobbies etc. There are others who shouldn't home educate.

There are very few things in the world that are either all good or all bad. Home educating is one of those. As is our school system - which one could easily argue if it didn't have the issues it has, may result in less families home educating!

No one homeschools for silly reasons so you're being very unreasonable
And you've seen a small group of homeschooled children.
Also the benefits of homeschooling extends beyond doing a certain amount of GCSE's at 15/16 did you know that?

Oh they absolutely do - usually to kick back against school rules, seen it several times

I don’t have a problem with people home schooling children if that’s their preference. I have concerns though that these children are off grid and neither their welfare or education are being monitored. Before the home school brigade pile on, I have a relative who has been home schooling her 3 kids for 9 years and not once has she been visited for any kind of check to ensure that she’s actually teaching them! She absolutely is but no one knows that.

I also worry that some people will be keeping their kids away from mainstream education to keep children who are not being properly cared for or who may be being abused, off the radar of the usual safeguarding checks.

This is of real concern to me particularly given the ongoing disasters we have seen on the back of Covid with some terrible and high profile murders of young children during lockdown. I’m not equating home school with abuse but it’s the being off the radar.

ok. Send the link?

then we can all see that people take children out of school for:

• going on holidays
• because the teacher won’t let the children trash the class

I doubt you can provide it because it just isn’t realistic. Homeschooling is hard (I am not btw) so doing so just for less expensive holidays and having a trash living room doesn’t add up. Sorry op.

There are different types of home schooling

1. diagnosed SEN or undiagnosed SEN and severe anxiety etc absolutely reasonable
2. too violent or aggressive and multiple exclusions- fine to home school
3. kid doesn’t want to get up and doesn’t like authority or being told what to do - they need to go to school
4. parents think that their precious child can’t go to school with all the nasty rough children - they need to go to school. I’m looking at you parents of Flora 10 years ago who kept young flora at home painting etc and not dealing with others as anyone else and every other child was not good enough etc
5. parents would can’t be bothered to take them - they need to go
6. parent who is lonely and wants the company - they need to go
7. any parents that can’t provide the resources for them to actually learn - they need to go

YABU, also uninformed and very ignorant. I home educated my kids for years. I’m also a fully qualified secondary school teacher and GCSE examiner. I provided a vastly superior education to the one provided by our local primary school. My children went into private school and the local grammar in the top sets at 11-13. One of my children had several SENDs and the other is neurotypical. They also had lots of term time holidays, got to pursue their hobbies and had good mental health due to a lack of pressure in their early years. It was the best thing for all of us.

I home educated my DS. He had a great education. And the worry about the 'social aspect' always made us (fellow homeschoolers) laugh as the social aspect was more than catered for. I can honestly say during his education my DS had a more diverse range of experiences and socialised/met/worked with a greater number of people of all sorts than DC at school.

He is now 17 and doing T levels at a Digital Technology college, has a job and is an all round lovely human.

@BestZebbie

The thing is...there is 'learning' in Minecraft and Roblox, especially if you are coding or doing chemistry in Minecraft Education Edition etc. So it is perfectly valid to ask that question and to add it into a report.

There absolutely is I agree. But when it’s happening for five hours a day with no supervision (as some of the parents on these forums cheerfully admit) snd there is no academic work being set whatsoever children are being failed. This is not education it’s children not in school. I am very aware this is a percentage, not the whole story. But it’s not right that this is happening without scrutiny or accountability.

I home educate my son. He stopped going to school at the end of year 2. He really hated school as he's autistic and found the environment, rigid lessons and being apart from his parents all day too much and was extremely dysregulated. We live in Nottingham where there is a large home education community with lots of opportunities for the children to socialise. It is noticeable that the majority of home ed children I've met are probably neurodiverse which might explain why some of the kids you mentioned are a little bit clingy to their parents. My son certainly is. Neurodiverse children often take longer to mature.

Agreed

The thing is home educated DC are not generally 'off grid'. They go to the GP/Dentist, they go to home educate groups, classes and trips, they go to after-school/weekend clubs.

However looking at for example Baby P he was seen by doctors and health visitors etc. His siblings were at school. Most abused DC are at school (if of school age.)

@Thebestwaytoscareatory

i cba countering her nonsense, better things to do than engage with that tripe

I've always thought homeschooling is usually a bad idea. I live in the US and find that most people seem pretty uneducated here. So many believe in weird conspiracies that they teach to their children.
Also real teachers go to school for over four years to learn to teach. They must know more than many parents!

The fact that you call it homeschooling says it all.
I’ve been home educating for a long while now and occasionally I meet people like you.
I wish I didn’t.

It’s so scary isn’t it?

I home educate my 2 DDs 14 & 15. They’re thriving! They did attend school for two years and it was unbelievably detrimental to their education - they were both held back and re-taught so much we had already covered, their mental health suffered due to peer pressure and bullying and they stopped behaving ‘normally’ and spent their whole time trying to fit in. I’m not raising my DDs to fit in. I’m raising them to happy, interested, driven and healthy. There was zero chance of achieving that in mainstream education…and we live on an island where the high school only has 222 students.

This is fairly common. Parents sign them up to online learning or buy some textbooks and leave them to get on with it.

They are! I work in a large secondary. We have had four sets of parents remove their DC in the last 3 months. Of those, I would suggest that one had an undiagnosed need (ADHD) and struggled to conform in an environment which is not flexible enough. However, I am sure homeschool is not the answer for him either. He needs a specialist provision.

The others could not accept that their children actually needed to adhere to some school rules. Two had received fines for attendance because they wouldn't attend the sanction for the fact that their DC had physically assaulted another child. Their issues arise from poor parenting.

The last one was similar but had been indoctrinated by Andrew Tate and believed that school was a factory for suppression. He was rude, misogynistic and belligerent. He couldn't care less about boundaries and learning. Parents felt the school was failing him.

I think at least 2 of the 4 will re-enrol. I certainly hope one does at they are so very vulnerable.