A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

[RedSkyatNight25]

Prepared to get torn apart, and I know many homeschool because the school environment isn’t right for their children (SEN, sensory issues - whatever else) and their needs aren’t met by school with a chronic lack of SEN placements and too much demand etc. I’m not naive to that. I also know some parents with adequate resource will ensure their children have a rounded education whilst being homeschooled.

But there seems to be a movement to homeschooling by people who are simply anti establishment with a point to prove. Their grammar and communication on social media tells me they’re not equipped to homeschool a child. Not least I think the socialisation and soft skills school provides are hugely important too. I suspect most of these parents either haven’t considered the benefits of school or hugely underestimated it, especially past primary are parents really equipped to teach ALL the subjects with sufficient skill if they lack the knowledge themselves? Are they not underestimating the skills and expertise of qualified teachers?

AIBU to think it’s really concerning? These are the next generation of our workforce and infrastructure. I personally think we are hugely privileged to live in a country with free education - I know it’s not perfect but I’m not convinced homeschooling is better for a vast majority.

I agree. I think the optional nature of having LA involvment is wrong there needs to be a middle ground of a minimum amount of contact / checks not just for safeguarding but to ensure good outcomes for all and I also think there should still be opportunities for home educated children to access like you say tutoring or other at schools if needed / wanted. Or even social occasions where they are included if they want to be as currently if you home ed you’re mostly on your own it’s all or nothing.

This is such a complicated one. Not least because as soon as you offer the view that not every home educated child benefits from it, you get jumped on by home educating parents. But that’s the whole point - yes some of them are good, some are bad, and some are neglectful. Just like any other cohort of parents.

Im really pro home Ed when it’s done well and for the right reasons. And there are loads of people doing that. It’s an option on the table for us for secondary - kids with SEN, surrounded by several truly awful schools (do I want the one where half of year 9 are on ketamine, or the one where my kid is likely to get his head kicked in when they realise he’s “different”?), one good school but massive house building programmes with no investment in schooling means their catchment gets smaller and smaller every year.

But I absolutely agree there are loads of kids who are being let down. Some are being let down now by their parents but a hell of a lot have been let down first by their school and frankly by society. We have such a crisis in education.

For me op, I also see a lot about homeschooling and parents asking questions about how to do it, after they have deregistered their child.

i worry that they are woefully unprepared and setting up their child to miss out.
they haven’t done research, they think the LA will sort books, exams etc. they seem surprised they have to evidence the education they give, they give no thought to PE, socialisation etc.
surely as an adult you prepare, plan, research and not knee jerk cos you don’t like something then start complaining how you go to work and homeschool? They ask how do I write to tell the school I am deregistered? Like if you can’t write a simple letter, why are you thinking you can educate yr child?!

absolutely agree UK secondary’s are not suitable for all kids esp SEN, but there are other options.

education needs an overhaul authorities should have sight of kids, too many horrors about unseen kids.

Inspection of what?

A lot of people who are pulling their kids out of school do so in the full knowledge that they are probably writing off educational outcomes for their child.

It is often a difficult choice between an education, and mental health.

Family we know pulled each of the kids out of school one by one after problems with the school. Not for the children but for the kids.

One has health issues that were not being properly managed. This led to social services being involved, quite rightly, after reports from school. It was neglect. They were openly doing things that made the problem worse.

The family were living initially in a council house but moved back in with parents and just left the house empty and didn't tell the council.

They went to a out of hours club we knew, but after they were questioned about their address and contact details (as someone running it had reason to get in touch but couldn't) and asked for them to update it, they refused. Thus meaning the group didn't have emergency contact details in the case of a child with significant health problems. They parted ways at this point too.

The mother was ultra controlling, had had the children once every five years deliberately to make sure she didn't have to go back to work (by her own admission). She was into conspiracy theories.

The daughter with health conditions is unlikely to make it to thirty. If managed it would not affect her life expectancy to this degree at all.

Mother was quite simply abusive. It was really sad and there wasn't a way we could report to social services because of how she was hiding from the authorities quite deliberately.

Currently it is just a yearly report you have to do. Just written is the bare minimum. La often ask for work samples but majority refuse saying it’s the child’s property and they don’t consent. They can refuse visits too and most do. I was shouted at and told I was causing harm to the home ed community by sending samples and allowing visits . That my compliance would erode their rights . Don’t get me started on being shrieked at about my dc ‘shedding’ after nasal flu vaccine as well I managed to clear the room in seconds and was asked to leave.

I think the problem with the extra oversight that people are advocating for is the huge variation in approach from EHE teams in local authorities.

Say for example that home visits were compulsory and we'd had ours yesterday. I am lucky to be with a great LA who are generally very pro home ed. They'd have turned up to see DD sat in the middle of the table on top of an OS map learning the symbols and co-ordinates and planning a route for a forest walk she and DH are going to do, and they'd have said brilliant - you've talked to assess prior knowledge, you're assessing and adjusting as you go along, you've planned out how she'll apply and reinforce that learning - crack on.

Other LAs I know of would have watched the same lesson and disapproved of her being on the table and would want to know why I wasn't assessing prior knowledge beforehand with written questions and why there was no written follow-up test or plenary to gauge understanding, because their experience of teaching is strict 50 minute blocks with a defined start, middle and end.

LAs all approach home ed so differently, so if there's going to be a system of more involvement and checks, there needs to be consensus across the board first (and it shouldn't look like the second example).

I would imagine the statistics are skewed by travellers, who tend to leave school early and have their own separate communities

It's not just academic education though. Having everything catered to your needs doesn't teach resilience.

I say that as a parent who would have 100% home educated rather than send DD to primary where she was shamed and bullied (by the teachers) for her SEN (this wasn't in the UK, no possibility of sending her anywhere better). I was a single parent and needed to earn a living, so couldn't home educate.

Thankfully we were able to return to the UK for secondary, and her school was amazing.

But I knew several home schooling families while overseas. They followed a 'Christian curriculum ' which was excellent in English and Maths, but questionable in science and history.

They were part of all sorts of groups for socialising - and yet the children couldn't cope with losing. We got a lift home after a Scouts sailing weekend. DDs team had won, and the home schooled son's team came second. He (aged 11/12) couldn't cope with it. He said DDs team had a faster boat (the boats were identical), that DD's team had cheated etc.

There is a balance to be had between meeting a child's needs, and allowing them to experience (and cope with) everyday disappointment.

I saw posts like this on FB a few months ago. There was an intention by Local Authorities to check children at home were doing okay that the Home educators disagreed with. Some of the posts were illiterate and very ranty.

This isn't a thread demonising homeschooling. It's demonising people who take it on while not having the skills or full commitment to doing it properly. There are people out there who do a terrible job at it and they are the ones bringing derision on homeschooling, not OP.

On the other hand what happens behind closed doors when children are rarely or never seen in public?

I think that if you are reasonably well educated teaching a child up to GCSE should be possible, but whether I would be able to face it day after day on top of being the mum (and probably having to work as well). It was hard enough supervising and helping with homework, I would have been tearing my hair out doing it all day.

I'm sure 'one to one' teaching (preferably in a social school type setting) is best for every child, but it needs to be competent teaching and the teacher needs some sort of authority if any progress is to be made. I wonder how many parents are really capable, mentally or emotionally.

I’m not sure the education system in this country is fit for purpose these days. I’d love to see our education system working alongside the homeschool community maybe giving schools funding to provide online options or drop in style workshops that homeschoolers could access.

I agree, it would be great if there could be much more flexibility about the whole thing.

When they make me Queen I will make all children go to school but massively streamline what they do there so they cover the essentials of literacy, numeracy and key knowledge in fewer hours without all the padding and time wasting. Then use the freed-up time for flexible activities catering to the child's needs, whether school-, home- or community-based.

I agree it’s not demonising it at all . Home education can be a wonderful choice but it needs to be regulated to ensure the best outcomes possible for all.

But lots of this is down to the parenting. You’d be shocked to see what happens inside many homes. There are LOADS of children who live in chaotic environments, without adequate care, support and encouragement from their parents. Then add the lots who are experiencing hidden abuse and neglect.

All of those children are also in the mix in your statistics. Children who are never read to, who’s house has no books, who’s parents and grandparents can’t read well and show no desire to.

The average intelligence parent who’s commenting on this thread will push their kids to read, the kids will likely do well.

Averages need to be appreciated for what they are and who they include.

The fact that there are so many low achievers and so many problematic parents and families means it’s extremely difficult for schools to mop up and ensure all children are reading well.

The kind of kid (demographics wise, no dig to the child who didn’t chose their parents) who’s not reading well in school is also the kind who is likely to absolutely NOT thrive in home education as the parents are capable.

My experience of education is that kids do well if they have encouragement and time at school and home. If all angles in their life lead to the same message “education is highly important” then there’s a high chance they’ll succeed.

Someone I know left school early due to the severe mental health issues school caused, and years later is at Uni and thriving.

" On the other hand what happens behind closed doors when children are rarely or never seen in public?" Are you joking?

The point about home schooling is that kids aren't shut in all day, they are far more likely to be out and about doing learning through play/nature etc.

You know there are children in schools who are being abused etc but it is going unnoticed??

I'm not saying all parents who home school are doing a good job but to accuse them of locking their DC up to hide what's happening is just ill informed and ignorant.

Is there a majority of homeschoolers that fit into one particular category, though?

Even if there is , what about the outliers? The kids that fall through the cracks? Do we just shrug our shoulders? Are they acceptable collateral damage?

"If you homeschool your kids, they won't fit in." - Yes, that's the point.

"Okay, well if you want to educate your children yourself, you better do a good job of it." - Yes, that's the plan.

I think a lot of the contention with homeschooling is the fact that everyone else went to school. Why not break the cycle? Just because we were sent to school doesn't mean we have to send our own children to school. And I think it has little to do with SEN and more to do with the fact that a lot of kids do a lot better with one to one tuition instead of being in a big class of 30+ kids and knackered teachers trying to keep everything under control.

There needs to be some kind of consultation on home ed as it’s so widespread now. A register of home educated children and compulsory checks not just optional. I think as well a huge issue is that UC don’t recognise it and don’t turn off work commitments for those on it and I think there would be better compliance with any regulations if it was more ‘recognised’ as a valid choice. I’ve noticed a big part of the problem when I did go to groups was struggling parents usually mothers trying to work alongside educating and not being able to fully concentrate and trying to share childcare between them and just not managing preferring to just let the dc play together with little supervision or supervision of older dc.

How about the 1000s of children who fall through the cracks at school? We do just shrug our shoulders at those

It is becoming more common and it needs to get harder in terms of demonstrating what a home education looks like.

For those who do it well and are doing so because of SEN etc, this won't be an issue.

But it is not a decision that should ever be taken lightly (and I'm sure in the case of those who do it properly that it isn't) but they are also reporting a rise in the clueless.

If I asked my kids if they wanted to stay at home they'd probably say yes. My eldest in particular is very shy but has a keen set of his own interests and would probably learn these okay.

What he wouldn't get is broader focus. He's just start secondary in August and I worried but he has come on so much and engaged with things like music and drama which he absolutely hated at primary.

He is liking having different teachers explain things in different ways. He struggled a lot with maths at primary but he says one of his teachers explains it differently and helps him understand.

I really take my hat off to people who can do this with their own children.

I know from my own experience that certain teachers just suddenly made something click when it hadn't previously and exposing kids to a range of approaches surely increases the likelihood of that.

Education is also only one part of being a successful adult. My son has learned how to navigate the bus independently, how to get round a massive building which was a huge shock from a two form composite primary school, how to take control of his timetable, homework etc, how to queue and budget for lunch.

I can show him if course but he needs me not to be there in order to really experience it and it is these softer skills that will be as important to his future job prospects.

Completely agree with you. It's absolute nonsense, to think that a normal person could home school their children better than about 10 teachers who have degrees in their subject matter.

I did not get any A levels, I didn't go to Uni. I'm not thick (I have my own business), but my children are both educated to degree level, in very complex subjects. How on earth could I have got them there? Fucking stupid idea.

My son excels in Maths & all the sciences, he is quite a boffin. I, on the other hand, failed Math's O'Level. I mean, come on! How would I possibly educate him to A Level standard?

As a matter of fact, you can teach in state schools without teaching qualifications. The UK government has never made it mandatory to have a teaching qualification (not in England anyway - I'm not sure about Scotland or Wales).

It's a red herring though as the vast majority of teachers in both state and independent schools do have teaching qualifications (for one thing the unqualified pay scale is lower so why wouldn't you?)