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.

New legislation proposed (obviously will need debating and probably some amendments) -

Parents will no longer have an automatic right to home educate if their child is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan. For all children, if a local authority deem the education and/or home environment unsuitable, local authorities will now have the power to intervene and require school attendance.
There are many reasons why parents choose to home educate, including where their child has special educational needs. As long as they are providing a good, safe education they can continue to do so. The measures will ensure that the most vulnerable children cannot be withdrawn from school until it is confirmed that this would be in their best interests, and that the education to be provided outside of school is suitable.

educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/17/the-childrens-wellbeing-bill-what-parents-need-to-know/

I know lots of parents doing an amazing job of home education and I don't think it should be made illegal.

Would you aye.?
Absolutely no supporting reasoning given?

I do not think home schooling should be illegal and I think the vast majority of home schooling families are doing it in the best interest of their child and school isn't appropriate for all kids.

I unfortunately know two home ed families personally and I don't think they're made this decision based on their children's best interest and it is all about their own anxieties. One family in particular their children don't mix with other families ever, don't do any formal learning (child year 7 age cannot read or white but will apparently get to it when they want), and just spend their time in the woods or at home.

What worries me the most is the children don't get any time away from their parents so if they wanted to tell another grown up that they're not happy for any reason they'd never get the opportunity. They are in the minority but think some form of monitoring would help these children.

I also think if you are home educating because the school has admitted they cannot meet need, parents should also receive an education fund commensurate to what the state would be paying for their education normally.

DD does online school for GCSEs but it has cost us thousands. A lot of parents cannot afford these resources.

I know a family who home schooled.

They feel out with one school over safeguarding issues. So they pulled the kids. The schools safeguarding issues were fair and I know they had similar fallings out with our of school activities.

They then had a falling out with the older child's school. So he was pulled too. He didn't get any qualifications as a result.

Not only that but the mother was claiming benefits and had a council house. Except she wasn't living in it. It was empty. (We checked) Instead we believe she was living with her parents somewhere. It meant we couldn't actually report anything because we had no idea where they were actually living.

I dread to think where they are at now. The eldest would have left school by now. He had basement dweller vibes as it was.

I think there are far too many cases like this. Often packaged as 'SEN issues' but actually it's school having a legitimate concern and the parents being in denial or not liking what they are hearing.

There are lots of good reasons. It is hardly as though mainstream school is always ok for am individual child, or fits individual needs.

For some people it is the only hope for their children who were bullied or had unmet special needs at school.

For others it is a way to a much better education.

For some it is to keep their child away from certain indoctrination the school espouses.

“For religious reasons or worse?” What?

All parents a right to educate their children according to their world view. I know a lot of religious HE families and the children are all well-rounded individuals. The older ones have nearly all gone on to university.

I do agree there should be more checks to confirm that education is taking place. A cursory assessment of Sara Sharif’s situation would have shown that this was not the case.

Sara Sharif was NOT home-educated - her “parents” lied about home-educating her in order to hide their abuse. Sara should not have been living with them in the first place. Home Education was not the problem here.

I don't think it should be made illegal but I do think there should be more checks and balances. I agree that children who are on the CIN register or who are known to children's social care shouldn't be home educated.

Of all the people I know who have HE their children, most have done so as the child has needs that mainstream schools can't meet. There is one family I know where the children are all home educated but seem to have very little in the way of education. No one ever seems to check up on them.

If OP can be bothered to actually write a post that explains her thinking and arguments, then I'll engage. In the meantime however, Im' chalking this up to yet another goady MN thread.

I think the OP was probably thinking about the welfare of the children (even if her OP is wildly misguided)

Why? I've got a child at uni who was home educated to GCSE level. His offers included Russell group unis.
Without some of the choices he was able to make and some of the skills he gained, he wouldn't now be doing what he is doing.

Every school in our town has a 50% pass rate or less for English and maths.
GCSEs have around a 30% failure rate because of the bell curve but our town gets a much bigger share of those children that fail.

Can you imagine sitting at a desk from 4-16 and being one off those 50% that do not get a passing grade in English and maths? How demoralising must that be? Is it a good use of a young person's time?

I agree with you OP. My opinion is influenced by the people/children who I know that are involved in HS. In every one of those circumstances, those children are in vulnerable situations when it comes to receiving optimal education

The problem isn't just home-ed, its that there is little oversight of kids who are not in school. Home-ed is well supported and can be essential for some e.g. SEN. But there is little oversight, especially where 'religious' reasons are sited for needing it.

Are you thinking that we should also adequately fund the school system? Because that would be nice, but I really doubt you are offering to pay for it.

I home educated my eldest until secondary age.

Home education is not perfect. You have to work very hard on the social aspect, but not many home educating families will admit to that.

My younger two Go to school, mainly because when I was home educating my son, I found a lot of other home we parents to be fucking hard work and very judgemental. Dot to the nature of home ed, you spend a lot of time around other parents and to be honest, I couldn’t put myself through years of it again.

My younger sons have had opportunities in school that my eldest never had with home ed, but again, I’ve been repeatedly shot down by home educators for saying that.

We were “registered” for want of a better term, with the local authority. Once a year, a nice man from the council, who had previously been a head teacher, came over, my son was keen to show him the work he’d been doing. He’d chat to us, tick his boxes and leave. That really didn’t make me popular with some of the other home educators who would scream from the rooftops that it was an invasion of privacy. It didn’t bother me.

It's been illegal in Germany for many years. I can see the logic and reasoning, especially in light of Sara Sharif.

Why do you think that an overburdened, underfunded state system based on a 100 year old, one-size-fits-all model in classes of 30 should be trusted to educate children, but a parent providing 1-2-1 education tailored specifically to their child should not?

Hopefully everyone agrees that children should be provided with "education" - whether that's at state school, private school, or home education. But what actually is education? There doesn't seem to be anything stopping a parent from saying I'm going to home educate my child, and personally I don't believe in teaching children maths. So they never get taught even basic maths. When that child becomes a teenager, their life opportunities have been severely restricted. You might say I home educate and my friends home educate and we all teach our children maths - great. But some parents might decide not to. And what is stopping them? Local authorities have very limited powers to come and look at what educational materials you're using and speak to the child, no one is quizzing an 8yo on their times tables to check if you are teaching them or not. When that child is 16 and maybe wants to go get a job, they're stuck.

That is before you get into what some parents DO want to teach their children - to isolate them from wider society and indoctrinate them with their own world views, for better or worse. And I apply that to some religious schools as well. Some 'illegal schools' which are off the books, parents choose to send their kids there on purpose to avoid mainstream education. They claim to home educate their children, and the 'school' is just additional religious instruction. But it's 12 hours a day of religious teaching and kids coming out unable to read and write in English and with no understanding of science or art or anything else. What does that prepare them for except a very limited path to continue the same religious indoctrination for the next generation.

@Sortumn some parents do HE well. Others simply rubbish the idea that qualifications are a good idea or say they can not afford to pay the exam fees.

1 in 3 children leave school without qualifications. Schools fail thousands of children a year and plenty of abused and murdered children regularly attended school. Knee jerk reactions of control are rarely positive.

It's way to easy to take your child out of school and not educate them. I personally know 5 people who have in the past or currently home educate their children. Not one of them actually educates them.

One her son was a school refuser. She was sick of being challenged on attendance so chose to home educate instead. He refused to be educated so now has no qualifications.

One has 3 kids between 18 and 11. None went to school at all. The two youngest have stayed at home being 'looked after' by the eldest for the last 4 years while she works cash in hand jobs. Eldest is now unable to get a job due to his lack of qualifications and social skills. He roams the streets vandalising gardens and intimidating people but he is her little darling of course.

One has a child who was really badly bullied so she took him out of school. He has a tutor once a week for an hour but otherwise is home alone at age 11 while she works.

One has 3 kids who she didn't send back to school after lockdown. Sent them back in September but they are constantly in detention as they have no behaviour boundaries.

One is actually educated a bit at home by her hippie parents, but it's more a case of "'look at that darling!" rather than anything formal. The reason she's home educated is that they want the freedom to go travelling for extended periods.

I feel sorry for these children. There should be more controls.

I home educate with an EOTAS package so we will be inspected and I have no problem with that. If I could get a school place for my DS I would be delighted but there is no school that can meet his needs.

Locally (in the UK) there's a (christian) cult that uses home education to restrict access to education by gender and ensures that none of their children even consider university.

You need to broaden your view and realise that not all parents have the best interests of their children at heart when they choose to home educate.

30% of kids in state schools leave without GCSE pass grades. So fair to say that they aren't getting an education either

Because a lot of parents are not providing 1-2-1 education based on the needs of their children

Sone - mix with loads of other children, share tutors with specialist knowledge , get out and about with a wide range of experiences

Some are parents muddling through as best they can with SEN kids

And some teach them what they know, isolate the children, and dress up a home baking session as gcse level maths