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.

Also an alternative path into post 16 education is needed as so many courses require certain amount of GCSEs at set grades. There needs to be a alternative set of entry criteria for home educated children so they can access that if they choose to perhaps something like a maths and English skills assessment plus interview etc rather than needing those set GCSEs they may not have sat to level things up at 16 and improve outcomes

How much of the difference between your child and hers is only down to the school choice and not outside factors?

Maybe her children have additional needs that you don't know about. You're measuring her children's success through your own very narrow scope because you're patting yourself on the back that you did it right by sending yours to school, but who is to say you're the one who got it right? Maybe her children will turn out to be happier and more well rounded individuals than yours?

A lot of children can be very damaged by school. I think if any children made it through unscathed then they're very lucky.

It isn't! The children who are being pulled from school for reasons which don't benefit them, and whose education is in the hands of people who do not educate their children properly, is a cause for concern. There are many people doing a wonderful job of homeschooling, and some who aren't. Children deserve a good education and if they aren't receiving it, should we all sit back and pretend it isn't happening? Doesn't it border on a safeguarding issue? Don't we, as a society, have a responsibility to have these conversations?

Yet most people who actually homeschool never meet these mythical awful homeschoolers. They seem to only exist in the minds of anti-homeschoolers or on Mumsnet threads like this which perpetuate the myth and end up hurting all homeschoolers.

I saw something called something like unschooling and frankly it just looked like neglect.

I taught my DD to read before she started school, we also did maths work, it all went swimmingly. I would still be extremely doubtful of my ability to deliver her a rounded education. I think it takes a lot of thought and effort to homeschool adequately and I rate anyone who can actually do it. But tbh I think there will be a bunch of people out there who will do a fucking horrible job and permanently harm their childrens prospects.

I do think we should have some level of interference here from both a child safeguarding position and a “are they actually learning appropriately” position. I get for effective homeschoolers it would feel intrusive but I’m concerned about kids who basically get zero actual education. I remember watching a documentary where the parents thought a child would “just pick up reading when they were ready”. They had a 12 yr old who couldn’t read. It was appalling.

I run a business coaching children and have had quite a lot of homeschooled kids over the years. Without exception the parents are overprotective and there is s lot of co-dependency going on. None of thrm could tell the time by an analogue clock at 7 to 9 years old!

You can teach in English state schools without being qualified. Academies make up 80+% of state secondary schools and you don't have to be a qualified teacher at any of them.

Having worked with our local home schooled community for decades I can see a huge shift now I work back in a school. My school has an intake much less affluent, much more likely to come from difficult backgrounds and much more likely to have already moved around the school system. The number leaving our school to HE was once negligible but now it the the option not of our politically or philosophical anti the system parents but instead of those about to face attendance sanctions, under pressure for meetings due to behaviour issues, at risk of expulsion etc. We can usually get our SEN learners back in school or into the medical needs or alternative offers provision but these students who are most vulnerable to becoming socially excluded are now just withdrawn. We have a lot of travellers where I am and while it’s not great that they don’t get more choices (for the girls especially) they do leave and have jobs and a community. My son’s best mate from primary left school when he left primary and now is a tree surgeon doing really well for himself. He has a big loving family and a strong community. There is no equivalent for the children I see leaving education. Our LEA now has a whole high school worth of HE students and I fear that many of these will no longer have the good outcomes the HE once did.

You would have got him a tutor, presumably.

Home education isn't always provided only by a parent.

I don't even home ed and i know this.

I think the problem is there is such a spectrum it’s hard to label the homeschool community. At the one hand, you’ve got elite sporting kids doing online school, you’ve then got the kids who have dropped out for mental health reasons from secondary, parents who want a more nurturing infant type curriculum for primary and then a chunk of people who are just wasters and using it as a cover to do nothing.

I have sadly seen a few of the latter but I have increasing sympathy with people withdrawing from secondary. So many secondary schools just seem to be quite horrible places. I have just moved a year 5 from a state primary to a prep and she’s significantly less stressed which I wasn’t expecting- she’s said that because behaviour is good, they atmosphere is just more relaxed.I think as adults we all underestimate how stressful being in a busy, disruptive classroom can be.

No, but in practice nearly all the teachers are

A rough calculation based on the DfES's figures suggests that it's just over 1% of kids in homeschooling? It's a teeny tiny number and if the govt shifted themselves to make schools more supportive of SEN and health needs, would be teenier still.

That doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of issues but it's a very minority thing.

Agreed.

I was a homeschooling parent. It wasn't my choice, I would rather my son had stayed in school. But he couldn't cope.

And, after I bought KS3 workbooks and attempted to work through them, it became very clear after the first hour or so, that he was totally out of his depth. We went back out the next day and bought KS1 and KS2 and worked our way through them and slowly filled in the gaps. He was way behind in his abilities. That was probably why he wasn't coping in secondary, but somehow this was completely missed by primary and secondary.

He has no qualifications, but even if he had stayed in the school system he still wouldn't have had any. However, if there had been a GCSE in WW2 aircraft, he would have definitely passed that. He surprised me on a daily basis with what he did know, he had taught himself so much, but unfortunately none of it was on the school curriculum!

He is 23 now. He works, pays into the house hold budget, saves every month.

I have a friend who is homeschooling and posts this kind of stuff, as well as showing their extremely basic maths activities (way below age related expectations). Although they would argue this suits their individual child, is it not holding them back massively in the future when they’re competing for jobs/college/uni places?

I was pointing out an inconsistency in PP post because most teachers in independent schools are also qualified and they committed to say that the same applies in state schools

Agree with OP, but there’s another problem, too. If a child is never enrolled in a school, then there are NO checks on their progress - only if the child has attended a school then been withdrawn…
My lazy cousins never bothered to enroll their DC, opting to “homeschool” them instead. None of their DC are fit for the workplace, or any social situation. IMO, this was child abuse.

I think many parents who decide to homeschool are simply not up to the task. But growing numbers of students, not just SEN, are miserable in school environments, so it’s inevitable.

If people try to bunch local homeschool kids together in a small tutor group - more than 5 kids needs to be registered as a private school with all the regulations that apply.

In principle I think small local tutor groups which gives kids access to proper teaching and some degree of socialisation that would be a better option.

Difficult to regulate but not as difficult to regulate as home schooling.

The setting/home, the education and the children's attainment.
But I'm sure you understood...

So if i did a survey of tree surgeons, you think they would all have been home-educated? Clearly not, so what's your point?

Ironically, neither could DD (has always been in school) until Covid lockdowns when I taught her at home.She was 8 and a half.

My class of Year 9s couldn't read an analogue clock back in 2022; that phenomenon isn't limited to home educated children.

I totally agree. Even from the threads on here it seems like many people are having to resort to homeschooling because their dc are unable to cope with school. Either as it’s not good or the kids are SEN and insufficient special schooling for their needs.

I tried to go back and do an old past paper from back in the day. Didn't even understand the questions it a been so long. And ive got multiple As from school o grades so im not totally thick. You lose the knowledge if you don’t use it. Mines gone. It’s come back with some lessons right enough.
But I couldn’t teach a child to exam passing level nowadays

There should be some kind of benchmarks to prove that the home learning is working. And a plan if it isn’t to rescue the child from a life of not being able to read or whatever. It’s fine teaching kids what mushrooms are poisonous and how to tie up a yacht safely but you do need other more mainstream type skills too, like maths and English, to get a job for one thing. Ten students go for a job. Which do you pick. I bet the ones with lots of A’s is near or on the top of the pile. The one with no qualifications as he was homeschooled probably won’t be in the top three.

I do fear that there will be a load of uneducated youngsters in due course who are unable to get jobs and have no money. Maybe foraging skills will come in handy then right enough. However round here people with jobs and no money steal stuff to sell and then they drink or buy drugs, to dull the pain if their unhappiness. That was my ex anyway.

My neighbours is now homeschooling. Her tween is bright but very spoiled and just refused to go to school. Her parents are unemployed. He’s got a criminal record and struggles to keep a job. Shes bright but addicted to cocaine. It won’t end well for the child’s education.

@ClawsandEffect know it wasn't the point of your post, but for your nephew, bear in mind The Open University could be a good option. No prior entry requirements required, so lots of students who have had bad prior experience with formal education for whatever reasons, many students with autism and other neurodiversity, very flexible. Good disabled student and careers support, and because 70% are working full time alongside studies or housebound or with care responsibilities, attention paid too to virtual placements which can be done from home/in evenings. He might find it a supportive, stimulating environment.

I think the people that are not able to form a coherent sentence, are totally unaware they are not able to home school due to their own lack of ability.

They truly believe that their jumble of words makes sense, and truly think that others unable to understand what they have written are illiterate.

In another life I answered email enquires from the public, this was similar to the email I was supposed to answer.

i have lost my grandad in nunhead cemetery

People know what they want to ask, so assume you will also know the context of their remark or question.

They will become frustrated if the query isn't answered correctly, but I'm left not knowing if the man is homeless and living in the cemetery - which did happen, or dead and buried and they can't find the grave

In my school we have five children who have come back from a period of home schooling. They're all miles behind.