Insane rise in home schooling?

[whyohwhy246]

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in home schooling? Someone I follow in IG has just deregistered their child and I just can’t believe how many families are choosing to do this.

Of course it is sometimes the right choice for the child but it seems that more and more children are being allowed to opt out of formal education.

Teenagers need to learn that life is hard and school will throw challenges at them. How they learn to deal with this impacts how they handle things as an adult. What happens when they enter the work place and they can’t just opt out of the difficult things? Where do they learn that resilience?

I have worked in education for 20 years and whilst I agree that some aspects of the system are broken, I don’t think home schooling is the answer to this.

The social aspect alone is impossible to replicate (walking to school together, having your first crush, a detention, school trips I could go on and on…) but I also don’t see how all of these parents can have the skills to teach their children to GCSE. I also find it so insulting to teachers who spend years learning their craft. It’s not just something you can pick up and do effectively.

Has anyone else noticed this?

To add we have had 4 or 5 kids join our childrens school from home schooling in the past 3 years and all of them were miles behind their peers in terms of reading, maths and comprehension.

Did you miss the bit where I said I've been doing this for 12 years? Are you honestly suggesting that young children who don't go to school every day will somehow never develop the ability to be away from their parents? Why is it necessary to learn that at age 5 specifically?

This is a very sad list. It's also statistical fact that children are far, far more likely to be killed by a parent or step parent than anyone else. There were 44 child homicides in 2023-24: 43% were killed by a parent or step parent. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2024#suspects-in-homicide-cases

There are tragic cases, and no setting is entirely safe. But overall, childcare is protective because it provides an opportunity for someone else to identify the greatest danger to children: abuse within the home.

I was a qualified and experienced senior teacher. I now electively home educate my children.

(It's home educating you're complaining about, by the way, even though you, like some politicians, apparently know so little about it that you don't realise "home schooling" is an entirely different thing!)

My teacher training focused heavily on managing and teaching fairly large groups of children. There's some overlap with teaching one's own children, but less than most people would assume.

Most parents teach their child to walk, speak, have good table manners, and ride a bike. A lot of EHE parents I know were also once teachers to some degree - and the majority of the ones who have never been professional educators felt forced in educating their child at home because school was damaging their child. I don't mean upsetting them a bit, I mean completely failing to meet their needs or making them suicidally unhappy.

I love that I can give my children a Christian education. They aren't in a Christian bubble - they have lots of atheist friends and some of other faiths - but they aren't having an adult they look up to training them for hours each day in a direction we disagree with, such as disciplining them if they refuse to join in with lies about someone's sex.

They are happier, more well-adjusted and better behaved than many of their peers. In each subject, they range from average with their peers to well ahead. They often have to do what they don't want to or persevere when tired, and they have plenty of opportunities to work in a team or to have to find a way to get along with children who aren't naturally their friends.

So yes, they are developing resilience and grit - and no, strangers aren't the only people equipped to train and teach my children.l!

I would be very interested in this data too but I suspect where some thrive, others can fall by the wayside as it’s firstly very dependent on the ability of the child, and secondly and the commitment of the parent. I know a lot of people within the home educating community dislike the term homeschooling but it’s always been a term that we used in our family as we did follow a curriculum, stick to school hours and school holidays. They did, in every sense of the word, do school at home. With less time wasted on disciplining, catering for a range of abilities and moving between classes we were able to eliminate homework. As my dc’s got older they became a lot more independent and took on more responsibility for their learning but it’s still a huge commitment for a parent. This will be my last year doing it and rewarding as it has been I am glad it’s ending to get a bit of my life back too.

We home schooled for a term as we found the right option for my nd child. I think you fundamentally have no idea what's out there. We had 3 amazing tutors covering the main subjects, then we did incredible social things;
Home school at the zoo, with their education team, great socially and an incredible opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn from vets etc
Home school art club every week, social and way more facilities and materials than any state school
Music therapy
Farm home school days every week
So many sports clubs
So many online resources, socialising opportunities
Museums
Forest schools
Reading groups
Library clubs
Drama workshops
Honestly, he socialised (as in, meaningfully interacted with others) way more than sitting silently at the back of a classroom being ignored. He learnt absolutely tons more, we could whizz ahead in some subjects and the focussed 121 from the tutors meant tricky areas got the focus they needed.
We now have found a wonderful school for him, he's happy there but if he ever became that unhappy, withdrawn and stopped making progress then I'd home educate without blinking. If done properly and woth a good mix of social opportunities, learning outside, visiting places and subject experts then it's way way more beneficial than "normal" school. Normal mass schooling that we have wasn't "the norm" until victorian times, most families employed tutors or governesses to educate. Schools can be amazing but it's very naive and narrow minded to assume that a) they're the best option for every child and b) any other type of education must be bad/worse. Ironically, educate yourself on education...

This is even more true if we're looking at younger children, by the way:

Homicides of children fell into two distinct groups: children under 12 killed by family members (44% of homicides of children), and children 12 or older killed by acquaintances or strangers outside the home (38% of homicides of children) https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/homicide-prevention/patterns-trends-homicide-implications-policing

Firstly, the term you are looking for is Electively Home Educated. Home schooling is being sent home from school to complete work set by school.
Secondly, EHE is the default in the UK - you opt into School, not out of it.
Thirdly, GCSE's are not compulsory. If our child choses to gain qualifications, which many do, us parents foot the bill.

The world isn't run like it was when schools were introduced.

All the aspects you mentions; walking to school, first crush, trips etc. The Home Educated Children have exposure to. We take our children to clubs/classes, we take them to do the same Field Trips that the schools do. The bonus being we are smaller groups so our children get more out of them that a coach load of kids would.

I think we can all relate to not enjoying certain aspects of our school life, forgetting pointless lessons which we wouldnt have chosen to do. We have all chosen our career paths based on our interestest/skills. The best thing we can do for our children is encourage them to follow their dreams and give them the tools in order to cope with life.

You may want to do a little more digging into EHE and the different philosophies behind why some of us choose to do it. Sadly, most now do it as a necessity as our children don't fit the narrative of mainstream education.

So how would you pay your bills?

I was just curious that's all. Is that allowed?

Wonder when they will develop the ability though

What age is it necessary by?

Different in what way? I’m not being antagonistic; I’m genuinely curious .

I think there are pros and cons to both.

I went to a tough school in a working class area. I was badly bullied at school and it still affects me to this day. I was a good kid, obeyed the rules and did well in exams. The teachers all loved me, but my classmates - well, not so much. I wasn't good at sports, didn't wear fashionable clothes (lots of hand me down clothes ), didn't have a stylish haircut etc. - those things were far more important than academic success. The bullying had lifelong consequences. For example, I hate confrontations and go out of my way to avoid conflict. It turned me into a people pleaser. Our teachers spent a lot of time on discipline. I occasionally wonder how much more learning would have been achieved, if the teachers didn't have to spend so much time reprimanding my classmates for talking and messing during class. Although, with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if some of those same kids had special needs, which were never diagnosed, and which made learning and concentrating much more difficult for them. There wasn't the same awareness of special needs in the '70s and '80s.

The primary school years were tough, but my secondary school years were much better. I made a core group of friends, so I was less vulnerable to the bullies. There was a much wider variety of subjects, and we had different teachers for each subject, instead of the same teacher all day long. As we moved up through the years, a lot of the more disruptive pupils dropped out. We did school plays and concerts and went on more exciting day trips. Our teachers treated us with more respect. It's not that they treated us like friends or anything (that wouldn't have been appropriate). But they treated us more like colleagues than naughty, disruptive pupils. We had some amazing teachers who gave of their time freely - doing sports coaching, organizing fund raising activities, taking us away on trips, doing extra tutoring outside of regular classes etc. They really cared about their pupils and we appreciated that (although I appreciate it a whole lot more, now that I'm an adult myself) and we respected them for it.

My parents left school in their mid-teens, so they were never going to be in a position to home school us. But let's say they had made the choice to home school me, when I was being bullied. I would have escaped the bullying, but I also would have missed out on so many good things - making friends (who are still friends some 40 years later), having shared experiences with a big group of people (the concerts, trips etc.) and being part of a wider community. Also, relating to people who are older (teachers, school staff etc.). When I get together with my school friends, we have such a lovely time reminiscing about our school days. If I had been home schooled, who would I reminisce with? My parents? My siblings? And if I had experienced adversity at university or in the workplace, would my first instinct have been to leave? To stay home where it's safe?

I think home schooling is probably a wonderful experience if it's done right. By parents who are well educated themselves, and are passionate about education, and ensure that their children are socialized by seeking out opportunities for their DC to socialize with others - enrolling their DC in afterschool activities or joining other home school groups.

I think home schooling is probably a terrible experience if it's used by parents as a means to avoid their children obtaining an education, or to avoid their children mixing with others of different faiths.

And I'm mindful that there are lots of parents who never set out to home school but have no say in the matter. Due to special needs, their DC aren't thriving at school (or even attending school). If they don't home school, their DC won't receive any education at all. It's not really a choice for them.

To summarize, I'm open minded on the subject of home schooling. Some children are losing out by being home schooled. And lots of children are losing out in the traditional school setting. I got off to a rocky start but you know what, I reckon a lot of the same bullies who made my life miserable and subsequently dropped out, were equally ill-served by the school experience. And I know some of the posters here despair of parents who opt to home school. when it's apparent that their literacy skills leave a lot to be desired. But I'm a member of a Facebook group for the area where I grew up. Afaik, home schooling wasn't a thing back then. So all of the members who contribute attended school. But still have poor literacy skills. How did that happen?

Surely there are different scenarios at play here and for sure there are some parents who are doing an appalling job and not at all equipped to home educate, and the kids would be far better in school. However there are a not insignificant number of kids who are neuro diverse/ struggling with seriously overwhelming anxiety who are learning at home because there is no other option. I say this as someone with children who are neurotypical and excelling in main stream education, but I have a family members who finished their school education online, because being in school was damaging their mental health and I have very close friend with a child who's undiagnosed neuro diverse, but literally can't deal with school and is at risk of self-harm. They haven't been to school in 18 months, and it's a real struggle.

How are these people affording not to work and homeschool their kids?
It was all so terrible during Covid and not going to school had such an adverse affect of kids and their development … now suddenly it’s all great and fashionable!!

As others have pointed out it's only parents with a bit of brain ( to even find out about these resources) money so they don't need to work, and ability/ money/ transport to take kids to these enriching places

What about the home educated kids that are going a few bits on a laptop and not much else ( and I'm sure outside the bubble there are plenty

No surprise … you have to be trained to teach someone properly, and actually know what you are teaching and how to teach it 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

My DC are young adults now and both thrived at our local comprehensive, attending Oxbridge and doing well in their careers.

If I had young children now, I would be very tempted to HE. The system is totally broken.

Edited to add that I am a qualified teacher.

Because there is a lot of human variation which historically has just gone unacknowledged. Most of my family are SEN. But back in the day it wasn't recognised.

I have Home educated now for five years

I originally did it because my daughter was being dragged off of me every day and would spend hours and hours and hours every single day sat by me just begging me not to go and it would be about 35 hours each weekend that it would also continue

She would be ripped from me kicking and screaming for four years and I decided that she could always redo exams, but I could never redo her mental health and I had to do something or lose her

It’s the best thing I ever did, but it is incredibly difficult. It is extremely time-consuming and you spend your entire life running around for them.

Home education isn’t just sitting back and letting them work. It’s a lifestyle

They now get wanting to go back into school voluntarily and that is all I really worked for is to keep their heads above water so that if they haven’t wanted to do that, they could

She’s voluntarily chosen now to go back, but it wouldn’t bother me if she hadn’t because we had already been set and had booked her GCS in for a few years time

Being Home Ed doesn’t mean not being educated it just means not being educated at school

My children attend an excellent state school, but I am all for parental choice over governmental control, so I fully back parents who exercise their choice to home educate.

If our local state school didn’t happen to be as good as it is, I’d consider it for sure. I attended an appalling secondary school myself, I actually taught myself most of some GCSEs at home using revision guides.

Loads of places locally are now running daytime sessions for home ed children, so I guess if there are more they can socialise with like-minded families as suits them to still interact with others.

I admire parents who are so committed and passionate about educating their own children, mine have been helped by many teachers and TAs, so I really do admire those who take on this mammoth task themselves.

Just out of curiosity, how do you know this information about these children?

The disdain for NT children who do well in school on this thread is really uncalled for.

Because they are in a class with our children who age 8 can clearly see when a child can't read or write and has never heard of common words associated with education

But being Home educated doesn’t mean leaving them to it

I have a wide range of Tutor that come to our house every day to teach the children different subjects

Just because it’s not in a school doesn’t mean that it’s not an education

The school system is broken, the transition from reception to year 1 is ridiculous, going from play based learning to structured sit down lessons doesnt teach anything.