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?

Which is great IF they're in an environment where they can learn about all the "other skills and life lessons", but lots aren't in such an environment. They're in an environment of disruption and bullying which means they can't even concentrate on the education/lessons, so not only don't get the "skills and life lessons", they don't even get the qualifications they're capable of. At least with home school, they get the qualifications and aren't scared for life by bullying!

I literally "hid" during breaks and lunchtimes to avoid bullying. I ended up with a lifetime of being ultra wary of other people, being unable to make close friendships etc as I've always been afraid of supposed "friends" having ulterior motives etc, even though throughout adult life I've not been bullied or abused in any way. Even aged 60, I'm still scarred by my teenage years and still always reluctant to get too close to people.

Those who were in the "in crowd" at schools simply can't understand the others who suffered the bullying etc. It not only ruins your education, it also impedes your adult relationships etc.

School is great for those for whom it works.

For others it is years of being asked to do things they can't do, in an environment that overwhelms them, with peers who puck on them.

School makes you resilient ... until it breaks you.

@Icanthinkformyselfthanks you don’t know anything about me? 😂 did I say I was teacher? I see lots of parents who are homeschooling who don’t even have a GCSE to their name so it’s not a matter of being threatened, it’s being concerned for the future generations whose parents are so arrogant and entitled that they think they know better than professionals who have often honed their teachings skills for years.

I think they think because they’re ‘cleverer’ than a 7 year old it means they can teach them. It doesn’t.

Why insane? I’d quit my job and homeschool if I couldn’t keep my kids in independent school. No way are they getting an education under Bridget Phillipson

In terms of that article in The Times. That individual had a very rigid idea of what learning should look like - and seemed to expect to see 'school at home' or home schooling from all the families they visited.

This is one choice for home educating families - but there are many others - and they are valid choices for educating children in today's world. It would not look the same as the teacher above expected - which it was clear was entirely based around written evidence of learning - a very limited assessment form.

"Under Section 7 of the
Education Act 1996, parents in the UK must ensure children of compulsory school age (5 to 16) receive full-time education suitable to their age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs. This applies to both school attendance and home education, aiming for age-appropriate, efficient, and tailored learning"

I would argue that few schools offer education suitable to ability and aptitude and any special educational needs.

Do all parents offer this - no, they don't and unless they can prove they do through evidence then a school attendance order will be put in place.

It should reassure people worried about home educated children that an increasing number of school attendance orders are being issued - these children are not being ignored when it is clear there are problems.

If you saw the way some boys behave towards girls you wouldn't want your girl going to a co-ed state. Throw in a learning issue and you have a child who has zero confidence and won't go in. Until we find a way for schools to reign in behaviour that makes girls feel secondary and sexualised more parents will opt out.

home schooling would be impossible for me as how do you home school without giving up work?

how are people affording to lose an income so they can homeschool?

I bet it’s women doing the homeschooling to, not men. So they are losing income, pension, financial security.

is it another thing that only those rich enough have the option to do?

I think school is the best place for children but there is too much intervention IMO. Fines for taking kids on holiday etc it’s just fucking ridiculous. Too much homework, too much stress. They’re kids!

You are always going to get children who fall through the cracks, you are always going I sve children failed whether they are in school or not.

Is every parent cut out for homeschooling? No. Is it a guarantee that their children will be 'saved' by simply being in school? Absolutely not.

in practise homeschooled kids are often not schooled. My daughters friend is home alone on roblox and tiktok all day. Mum works fulltime and a driving factor in homeschooling was the energy and stress of trying to persuade her into school every day was causing her work issues. I get it, but not convinced it’s the best thing for the child or that the child is getting any kind of schooling, except in how to improve at roblox!

You can home educate and work - shift work is fairly common or weekend work or working from home in the evening.

Work is not universally 9-5 out of the home any more.

Others make sacrifices to live on one income - as do many schooling families.

Agreed. I'd also go further and bring in trades to learn rather than bloody focusing on GCSEs for everyone. Some kids don't find their light and find something they might actually be good at because they're forced to sit exams. Not all kids are academic but they might have exceptional talent for one of the trades.

I don’t know anyone who home schools. Social media often shows families outside of the norm as they have the motivation and finances to do so.

@AnneLovesGilbert : They link to a survey but that survey is behind a paywall? Could you check it? They say 1/6 choose home education due to mental health. I'm curious about the other 5/6, why do they choose home education?

We home schooled our DS in Year 6 and the online education he got was significantly better than he received in state primary.

His teacher was low energy and we often found errors in the marking. Online schooling allowed him to excel in Maths and English and marking was always 100% accurate. Plus the AI component adjusted the work allocated to areas of weakness so he could improve and excel. It lifted his CAT scores by 1 and even 2 levels when he arrived at his senior school. He was demotivated at primary school and struggling in English due to lacklustre teaching. By the time he hit senior school he was on a CAT 7 for English and 8/9 for Maths.

Home schooling was a much better option.

Also the socialising argument for mainstream schooling is weak. Bad experiences make children withdrawn and socially anxious, with long term mental health issues. A happy balanced child is much better equipped to socialise more easily and maintain friendships. Our son made friendship groups in areas his was interested in, which made relationships much more positive and less forced.

He is well prepared for going into future employment and is much more ambitious and less down trodden than when he was in mainstream primary.

We will take DD out of school in Year 6 as well and home schooling her for a while. She is bored in mainstream school and finds it pretty uninspiring. She's already looking at languages she can lean alongside pushing higher in her maths and English.

Sorry but in our experience, online schooling was a vastly better experience than state primary. With much better results.

I agree op.

I have a dd who is ND and I strongly feel school is the right environment even though it had its challenges. Life will not be built around her needs so she has to find a way of coping in the real world.

As well as the fact that I am not a teacher and would have not been able to give any kind of rounded education comparable to what she had.

But what about teachers and school staff (as well as local authorities and the government) who are so arrogant and entitled that they think they know better than children’s own parents about what’s best for them?

@Softice https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czr3le77plro

This has a chart showing reasons for home educating.

My Year 9 daughter is on roll at our local academy. Her attendance has dropped year on year due to her being unwell and ND. I am on the cusp of having to make a decision about stopping work to ensure she receives an education, because the education available at the moment is inaccessible for her. Surely my efforts at home education will be better than her being at home all day alone doing nothing?

This SEND white paper is going to shunt so many more kids into homeschooling. If you have never experienced the level of distress school can cause an ND child then truly you should stay out of the debate. I don’t know anyone who wants to homeschool. Desperate parents do it because they can’t access CAHMs and have a suicidal child. It’s a failed system.

I was bullied as a teenager too. This is part of the teenage years no? I’m sorry for what has happened to you and how it’s made you feel but I think it’s really normal for teenagers to experience some times in their life which are difficult. How they learn to deal with it at school helps them as adults. Home schooling just wraps them up in a ball of cotton wool which is not helpful in later years.

Yes I have really noticed this too in our school population, I think it might be because schools are struggling to meet the needs of neurodivergent pupils or those with anxiety around going to school including stressful school environments.

You can see there are huge pressures on schools and families, so it’s not surprising if homeschooling is on the rise, but it must be so difficult for families. We certainly couldn’t afford to not work to facilitate it- we’d have to move to a cheaper part of the country to make it a viable option.

YABVVU and narrow minded. Some people find that their children are streets ahead of peers after a period of home education.

At the moment, many schools are underfunded and there are a lot of autistic people with unmet needs. Autism isn’t rare at all. People find that home education works well for some kids.

Can I explain why Home educating is the preferred term in the UK.

Using home schooling is making a values assumption that school is the best way to educate someone and that anyone who deregisters their child must follow this way of educating - that sitting down at a table with workbooks is what education looks like.

Home education as a term allows a wider view of what education looks like - autonomous learning, Montessori style learning, child led learning, community or world learning, classical education and many others.