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.

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'd love to know what you mean by everyone liking to diagnose their children?

I assume you also believe people should have to pass a test before they are allowed to become parents.

According to the Education Act all parents are ultimately responsible for their children's education. They have a choice whether to subcontract that to a school or not. Should all parents therefore be tested to make sure they can make appropriate school selections?

Successful home education is not about academic qualifications, it's about being able to meet the needs of your child, educationally and socially outside a school environment. It's hard and takes an enormous amount of time and money and effort and the community has changed immensely since the government stopped funding special educational needs provision adequately. But the heart of home education, like all parenting, is wanting the best for our children.

I'm sad to see the OP make a living from a community she holds in contempt.

But i also work in a school and some parents deregistering their child are not capable giving thier child a good experience

From what I regularly read on here and the experience of friends IRL, a lot of schools are not capable of giving children a good experience. Poor behaviour in classrooms leading to hours of lost learning time, lack of specialist subject teachers, bullying issues that aren’t being resolved etc. Why would parents want their children in those sorts of environments?

* 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)

Not a homeschooler myself, but Jesus, this is offensive and inaccurate on so many levels! Kids with big SEND issues are massively over-represented in the homeschooled population because there's a dearth of SEND school places. I have a room full of experts (SALT, OT, Headteacher etc) all saying my son needs a SEND place and we can't get access to one for love nor money. So if a kid's needs cannot be met in mainstream and there's no suitable SEND place, what choice to families have?

Secondly, the idea that we're all desperate to label our kids with some form of disorder...In most cases I know of where families have self diagnosed, it's because the waiting lists for proper diagnostic tests are ridiculously long. Takes 2.5 years to get an ASD assessment for a child in my area. So there's lots of kids with needs falling down the gaps because they are waiting to be seen.

Honestly, I can't believe that someone who works in the sector doesn't appreciate all this. The complete and utter lack of empathy in your post is appalling.

As a school governor , I certainly came across a child who we permanently suspended and his Dad was planning on homeschooling him. Trouble is the kid was in y10 and the dad openly admitted he wasn't well educated.

This could be an isolated incident though.

I don't HE, and wouldn't, but we did opt out of the state system by choosing private school.
The state system is broken and fails to meet the needs of the majority of DC. I can completely understand why so many parents have decided to take their DC out of the state system. Until that is fixed I believe the HE sector will continue to grow.

I wonder if some of the difficulties now lie in the fact that not all parents WANT to homeschool , but are struggling with schools that don’t have the effective resources to manage complex situations.
If I end up homeschooling it won’t be because it’s anything I’d want to do , or have a natural propensity for, it’ll be because school simply don’t have the capacity to manage a child who hates being there, and increasingly finds ways to escape lessons/ avoid school. There are only so many times school can refer to camhs etc (with massive waiting lists), and this is fully reliant on a child engaging in any case.

The education system had DS down terribly, he left at seven and went on to do very well in his GCSE's. He now has a career as a Nautical engineer in France as he is fluent in Spanish/French.
Yet DD loves school and would hate to HE. Your post doesn't reflect any HE families I have come across or ourselves. Each to their own and all that.

Professionally I have met more than a few homeschooled children who have been horribly abused safeguarding. Homeschooling was used by the parents as an opportunity to abuse their children further.

Cannot emphasise enough that this is the exception, rather than the rule. However, those children must be protected. Better checks etc must be put in place.

It is an interesting one.

My dear friend has two that she homeschooled. She researched the hell out of it, found tutors, did an amazing curriculum and so on. Cost a bloody fortune - these tutors are not cheap. I do notice when hers and mine are together now (17 and 15) hers have better critical thinking skills. Without a doubt. But mine are more easy going with the rough and tumble of society. If I was hiring I would want one of each.

The other hime school child I know is a 15 year old female friend of dd. She is entirely self directed as her parents believe in the “power of discovery”. She is a huge Aimee gamer and does that mainly with an occasional foray into Khan Academy.
The whole family gets up around noon /1pm and go to bed at 2/3am.

To my mind she is being utterly failed - academically, socially, emotionally - every way possible.

excuse typos!

I saw a comment on a Facebook page the other day, the post was slagging off a local primary school and a parent wrote 'I stoped sendin mine I teech them at home now'.

It all depends on the parents. If the parents themselves are educated I don't see a problem but judging by some things I have seen the parents should have to pass a basic literacy and numeracy test.

"everyone likes to diagnose their children with some form of disorder"

Do they now. I stopped reading whatever you had to say after this ridiculous comment.

I'm not homeschooling but I know local home educators and your views seem quite outdated and I suspect based on prejudice more than knowledge.

In some ways homeschooling is more social because the children mix with different age groups regularly. They often have some group lessons anyway, for example in languages if the parents aren't bilingual it's common to outsource elements of the curriculum.

Compare this to mainstream education which involves hours of wasted time most days where the kids are learning nothing, I don't think it's so black and white to say that homeschooling is bad.

YABU.

A lot of home educated children are indeed SEN and it's often due to necessity rather than an active choice of the parent. Lack of specialist settings for those who really need them is a major issue - ask me how I know!

The education system on the whole needs an overhaul so I won't condemn parents who choose a legal alternative.

I haven't seen the education system in action in recent years so may well eat my words in 5 years or so....

But my DH and i discussed this and both agreed we dont believe we could adequately educate our children beyond maybeeee(?) primary.

we are no slouches... He has a first from oxford, i have a 2.1 from a russell group and
between us we have A-grades alevels in chemistry, biology, maths, english, history, french, russian!... but that doesnt make us good teachers!

The school system would have to be catastrophically failing my child with absolutely no alternate schools available for me to even countenance HS.

I believe there are certain children who struggle at school and thrive when home schooled. However, I know some families who home educate and they mainly seem to want to rebel against the system. They are highly educated parents who went to school themselves but seem to seem it unsuitable for their own children. However, some of their education seems sporadic and rather one-sided - more attention given to topics the parents are interested in, for example. Some of the materials they use are outdated. Though they have friends I still think they are missing out on the social side of learning - all the fun bits and interactions that go on every day when you are with people. They tend to have helicopter parents who nurture their friendships rather than let them find their own friends. However, I completely agree that homeschooling is the answer in some situations- just not the ones I’ve seen. And my children have been better at me in maths since year 6, so I would be doing them a disservice if I tried to educate them at secondary level.

Oh shut up😂

When did Rishi get a MN account?

Why can’t you - maxerouteriqperson- make your point without getting personal and insulting the op?

I have to give you all my admiration here. I have an Honours Degree in education and taught in senior school all my life in several subjects. Over 35 years experience.

I would have been totally unable to teach my 3 boys chemistry, physics and maths GCSEs, let alone to the leverl required for 9s, and tutors would ahve been totally essential for those subjects.

How on earth did you do it?

The awnser to this is better sen provision so less parents would feel the need to homeschool.

I’d love to know others thoughts on this

Insufficient information to judge.

I'd want to see some evidence - outcomes for HE versus schooled children both in exams and in later career/life success. It would also be fair to split the schooled statistic by private/state when comparing.

In other countries where HE is allowed, parents have to prove that they are able and educated to the necessary level, or have stuitable tutors- and children have to follow exactly the same curriculum as in school. This to ensure those children are able to go on to 6th Form or other education, and eventually, University, if they so choose.

It would be almost impossible for a child HE to go on to study veterinary medicine, or medicine, etc- without spending years catching up first.

I think this is very complex and there are no black and white answers.

I was home educated and went on to do extremely well academically - but I did struggle socially. I have met a number of young adults who were home educated who also found the social side of things hard.

I always said I would never home educate my DC and I have stuck to that. But their experience in secondary school hasn't been great and it has certainly damaged their mental health and their academic aspirations.

Plus as posters upthread say, there are lots of lots of children whose needs simply cannot be met by the state education system due to SEND.

I don't think it's an option for most people as rents and mortgages are astronomical.

It wouldn't have worked in any branch of my wider family as would have caused bullying situations. Time apart via the school day nipped that in the bud.

im worried it will eventually be used to rundown schools anddefund the school system. In some parts of the USA schools are already down to a four day week

I just wouldn’t be capable of doing it personally and would need to lean heavily on tutors. I think it could be probably be quite beneficial for the right sort of kid with the right amount of resource. But I would never do it voluntarily DD’s pre-school is really creative in the way it delivers learning and I look at that and think “nup, can’t do that”.

There was a report in the newspaper about people saying they were homeschooling and sending their kids to an illegal school which taught them conspiracy theories about Bill Gates and they kept banging on about crystals. Clearly it’s a bit of an ungoverned space. I think homeschoolers should expect some sort of inspection and welfare checks on the kids.