To think Home Education should be made illegal

[Viviennemary]

I would like to see a ban on HE except perhaps in a very very few cases and with good reason and under strict supervision.

You are being very unreasonable. Do you want the government to own your children from birth? Nursery from 2 days old perhaps?
School is not the best option for a lot of children for multiple reasons.
Ignorant comment. Narrow minded and knee jerk reaction.
Go away and do some research because you obviously don't know what you are talking about.

The home-educated people I know include a number with Oxbridge degrees, including one working as a medical doctor and one studying for a PhD. All seem socially well-adjusted and indeed are happily married.

Home education and "traditional" schooling both have their strengths and weaknesses. A problem with schools: you interact overwhelmingly with people very close to you in age, all of whom are also children and therefore stuck with child-level social skills. This seems to me a rather poor way to prepare people for adult society. I don't know what to do about it, but let's not pretend schools are all sunshine and roses.

(Of course schools are rife other problems too, like bullying and sexual assault. But at least they try to minimise that. Whereas the basic principle that you primarily interact with people your own age (plus or minus a year or so) is baked into the system. It all feels a bit blind leading the blind.)

As I said, I am somebody who experienced moderately inadequate home education (primary). I am now a private tutor. Though I am not familiar with the particular bureaucracies in education or home education, I don’t think it’s accurate to say I’m speaking from ignorance.

I disagree with the fact that home educators do not have to follow any curriculum whatsoever, which was my point. This permits people who are ideologically or culturally opposed to education - or just low effort home educators - to destroy their children’s academic prospects and subsequent chances in life, for no reason. Look at all the travellers who pull girls from school after primary, or the kooks who think learning is cruel and unnatural and children should be free.

The curriculums for maths, science and English are largely uncontroversial, and academically essential. This is why I think they should be followed for these subjects only. If a child cannot follow them due to disabilities, that’s a separate matter. There are also children in special schools not following the curriculum.

I am aware there are no terms in home schooling. I’m not a moron - and I do remember my time being home schooled.

I just don’t think annual reports are adequate. I’m against government interference generally, but children’s progress and socialising is constantly monitored at school and there needs to be something equivalent for home schooled kids so they don’t totally fall through the net.

For example, children should have to belong to some kind of club, home education social group, a sports team, a religious group or something equivalent. The leader/organiser would have to sign the termly progress report to confirm regular attendance. This is just an example of how proving a home schooled child has access to socialising with their peers could work.

Perhaps home educated kids could sit yearly exams to ensure they are kept up to speed.

As the case of Sara Sharif has been mentioned several times.
Attempting to say that Sara Sharif was abused because she was home-schooled is a logical fallacy. years of abuse preceded the supposed "home-education" Effect can't precede cause.

So is there any link? I would say that there is, though not the one that a few others have drawn. Years of austerity and underinvestment in the public services mean that the NHS and legal system are falling apart, schools are crumbling and don't meet the needs of children, and social services can't protect vulnerable children. The common link between Sara Sharif and home education is therefore that children are being failed by public services that have been run into the ground by years of austerity.
Sara Sharif was known for years to be at risk and should have been removed from a situation that made her abuse inevitable by the social workers that were responsible for her case. That says nothing about the benefits or risks of home education.

I don't think it should be made illegal......BUT there should be a rule that kids are enrolled in at least one, weekly HE group.

And I don't see why anybody who home educates for legitimate reasons would have an issue with that.

I don't disagree with your post but the primary science curriculum is utterly inadequate in my view.

Spot on and I've experienced this first hand. Our schooling system needs reform.

There is something that makes me a little uncomfortable in principle about parents being allowed complete control over something as fundamental and life dictating as a child's education. To fully support it requires the assumption that all parents are capable of, and willing to, make the right choices for their child, in the child's interests and are competent enough to carry them out. And while some undoubtedly will be, others will not. So while I wouldn't ban it, I think high levels of monitoring would be a good idea.

With the exception of school, crime and prison, which careers, and elements of private life, involve such concepts as detention, and isolation? It's not unreasonable for me to not want my kid to be legally bound to that experience. I certainly aren't subjected to that in any part of my life.

@Daisybuttercup12345 children learn social skills together with their peers. There is a certain kind of JE child who is brilliant at socialising with adults, but at sea with their own peers. This is because adults are often kind and forgiving when interacting with another child, especially if that child is polite. But with your peers your social skills have to be better to get on with your peers and make and keep friends.

And some of the comments on here in support of HE perfectly illustrate some of the issues with HE parents.

Lots of their peers who go to school are behind (according to the NC.) Which peers would you like home educated children to be ahead of?

Schooled children aren't all at the same level.

GCSE outcomes across all subjects, for all ages, at grade 4/C and above,: 67% in 2024. This doesn't sound like great results. Do you think home educators should aim for this level of attainment?
( Home educated students are private candidates and not part of government statistics. )

www.gov.uk/government/publications/infographic-gcse-results-2024/infographics-for-gcse-results-2024-accessible

My cousin pulled her children out of school 2 years ago to HE. I was very worried about how it would all work. They are all really happy but I am astounded at the lack of monitoring. Cousins view is the government shouldn’t be involved and, as parents, they absolutely know what’s best.

That’s fine, but I did suggest not all HE children will be given lovely opportunities, and they are particularly vulnerable in that situation. My Cousin fills out a form to say what they’ve done once a year. There’s no guideline as to how much info should be on it. Cousin is really thorough but others could just write a few paragraphs if they wanted. Or just lie!

She still defended the notion that of course they should be left alone and it’s no-ones business. I’m a primary school teacher and, quite honestly, it pissed me off. So many potential safeguarding issues, I really do think it needs at least SOME monitoring.

I think there are certain children, very much a minority, who are better off at home. But l think each case should be dealt with by a bespoke order. Quite whether we have the resources and people to make it work is another matter.

Schools that are very shit should be illegal. The department for education and the curriculum literally IGNORING child development research showing how kids actually learn should be illegal!!

What child development research are they ignoring?

Every child has an equal right to a good education, and that should be in a school setting.

I see many parents complaining about the lack of SEN provision in mainstream schools, and I feel that this is an issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency! This will mean that the government need to invest more in education and properly fund it, but I worry that too many children are not given the balanced and full education they deserve! SEN shouldn’t be a barrier to attending school, and the provision of appropriate facilities and resources that can be provided in a school should be an advantage to helping them reach their potential.

As a society we have the upmost responsibility to invest in our children and ensure that they are fully supported throughout school.

Parents shouldn’t be able to simply opt out of sending their children to a proper educational setting on a whim and without oversight! Children shouldn’t be left at the mercy of their parent’s indoctrination, prejudices and personal beliefs and I would add that the concept of employing unqualified staff should stop!

I'm sure he did, and he wasn't wrong to do so, but did he also mention the part that family courts played? Because that's a massive issue nobody with any power seems to wants to acknowledge.

There could be more stretch for able students, but I'd mostly point the finger elsewhere. How much science do they really need to do in primary? In the rubbish school I attended we did none at all (but lots and lots of RE....) . I still ended up with a Phd in a science. A lot of primary teachers wouldn't be qualified to teach any higher.
I'd see sciences in secondary as more of a problem - the huge amount of repetition between KS3 and GCSE, the lack of challenge for high attainers in KS3, the limited availability of triple science in non-selective schools, the imposed premature specialisation at 16+ imposed by the A level curriculum, (which should have been reformed to resemble the IB and require students to keep at least one science to 18). The shortage of appropriately trained specialist teachers in e.g. physics.

Exactly.

This is a terribly short signed and ignorant take.

The right of a population to educate themselves independently from state control over resources and content is ESSENTIAL for a free and democratic society.

I'm quite passionate about science education and feel very strongly that it should start from primary level. So many adults still don't understand basic science and it has huge ramifications at societal level. Now my DS is at school he does one afternoon of science a week, which last week consisted of cutting out pictures of animals and separating them into vertebrates and invertebrates. We were doing that sort of thing at home when he was about 5.

Home Educating your dc is onlynan option if you can afford it. Ie one parent has to give up work.

I know a few HE families. In all but one case the families are very well off and the mother (its always the women) has given up work to HE the child/ren.

In the other case I know, the dc don't seem to get any education. Mum is a single mum in receipt of benefits. I do wonder sometimes if the HE is an excuse for her not to return to the workplace. I know that sounds judgemental.

I work in a historical building and we have monthly history events for home schooled children. Most are regulars and are great kids - engaged, curious and obviously enjoy learning and appearing to be thriving - home education is obviously working well for them and their familes.I do have a nagging worry about the few children that may be slipping under the radar - I'll always remember that little boy who died of rickets that no one but his parents had seen for years..

It doesn't matter. That's what the authorities were told. They should have been on it.