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?

If the school raises a concern about possible abuse and neglect, surely that should be taken seriously whether the child stays on at school or not?
How is it possible that a concern is swept away because services are overstretched?

My 14 year old son is doing well in the education system. It suits him. Hurrah. Yet, I, on the other hand believe the majority of the rules & policies that come with English secondary schools are there for hard of thinking staff that’s only contribution to these establishments is their totalitarian attitudes that they have no idea how to justify.

Blaming home education for that poor child's death again.

The facts - She was well known to social services prior to her "parents" attempting to de-register her. Because of the known history, the deregistration wasn't automatic and the LA were supposed to do a home check. That didn't happen. There were further errors and delays on the LAs part including visiting the wrong address. A further visit was planned for the September but she was found dead in August.

No child is in school during the month of August. She was killed during the school summer holidays.

She was failed by everyone that knew what was happening, not because of home education. They were all more than aware she was in danger yet they didn't intervene.

People need to stop using Home Education to distract from the failures of LAs and SS.

I was a primary school teacher for over ten years. Then I had my kids and they never went to school. They are 10 and 7. I’ve noticed a huge increase in our community but also what is on offer now compared to when we started out.
Yesterday was woodworking, today was history group, next week we are off to a stop motion artist and reptile club among many other things.

Anyone interested in home ed go and listen to Stark Raving dad.

www.starkravingdadblog.com

Your first point is utter nonsense unless you believe that home educated children are just at home all day every day with their parents, which I assure you they are not.

Home educators are absolutely exhausted of hearing poor Sara being used as a scapegoat. That poor girl was known to social services from birth. The link to home ed is absolutely ridiculous

Was very surprised to see the BBC reporting that parents who are unhappy with state schools and send kids private should home school if they are unhappy with the extra taxes. So it is being encouraged largely because of the shocking state of the education system.

I hear you, but honestly the general public have no idea how high the threshold for children being placed on a Child Protection plan actually is nowadays. In the majority of cases, parents will be offered support that's voluntary, which means they can't be compelled to engage with Children's Services, it's entirely their choice. They don't even have to agree to let a social worker talk to their child unless they meet the threshold for a section 47 assessment and for that to happen there has to be very clear evidence of neglect or abuse. School's often have to make multiple referrals over a significant period for Children's Services to agree to a Strategy Meeting so this can even be discussed, and they may still say the threshold for Section 47 isn't met. Some parents are also very good at appearing co-operative and taking on board Children's Services advice during the assessment process, appearing to make positive changes but then as soon as they are no longer under scrutiny things go rapidly downhill again.
We have children in my school who 10 years ago, without a doubt, would have been on a Child Protection plan but now we as a school are the only agency monitoring their risk and providing support. It's not ok, but that's the reality.

Many of my friends children have wet or soiled themselves at school. Staff will causally hand over a bag of dirty clothes to parents. Imagine if this happened at home. A parent arrived at school. “Oh sorry they have wet /soiled themselves because I wouldn’t let them go to the toilet”

My children are out in the real world socialising every day!

Utterly bizarre to me how many people on this thread seem to think that bullying builds resilience and therefore children need to go to school to learn this. Not exactly a great advert for school is it!

Resilience can be learned in so many different ways. I home educate my 4 children. There are lots of social opportunities for them, and they attend many groups. I mostly love the educational freedom. Eg one of my children is currently obsessed with knitting so I’ve got her a knitting teacher and her progress has been amazing. Another of my kids is currently on a deep dive into military vehicles in the world wars so we’ve been to loads of museums. What’s not to like? They still do basic curriculum stuff every day but I mostly find that can be covered pretty quickly!

I’d say it can be more expensive than you think. Certain groups and trips can add up, but a lot of social groups and meets are free.

My children are primary age and the majority of the home ed kids we know have never been to school. I hope it does continue to grow in popularity!

@TheDaysAreGettingLongerAtLast I agree there is a big increase in SEN kids but please don't assume it's down to kids watching tv at a young age. Life is already hard enough with the amount of judgement SEN parents face. My son was diagnosed with ASD at 3 and it was obvious to me from the age of 18 months that he was different. He is verbal and deemed as high functioning but has a PDA profile, likely has ADHD like his dad but too early to diagnose. We didn't own a TV until DS was 4. TV did not give my son ASD and does not cause ASD. TV can of course impact children's behaviour - good and bad.
It's incredibly isolating being a parent to a child like mine. If you haven't experienced you will not understand. Everything is hard all of the time and there is very little support. I do think sleep, diet, undiagnosed PANDs, brain and gut health, environmental factors like allergen and moulds may factor into the rise as well widened diagnostic criteria.
My son was not able to fall asleep at a normal hour like other kids until he was prescribed melatonin at age 5 and that was a game changer. He had been chronically sleep deprived for such a long time and now he gets an extra 2.5 hours sleep per night which has meant his behaviour has improved dramatically. Before that bedtime could take between 2 and 3 hours despite us trying everything - he simply did not produce melatonin. Fortunately we live abroad with a great pediatrician who has followed our son since birth. But I know how difficult it is to get melatonin prescribed in the UK for kids. There are so many hurdles parents face to get help and there is still so much to learn about ASD.

What life lessons are they learning by being stuck in a room with 20+ same age kids for 6 hours a day. If you think about it, that is a very unnatural environment.

I think it's dependent on a child's circumstances.
However saying that our area since covid has developed a small group who are very vocal at local groups surrounding home education. They are very good at trying to make parents feel guilty from nursery through to school. Some of the stuff they came out to me with about my children's future was frankly farcical.

If a child needs it and it works for them then great but trying ro guilt other parents to expand is not acceptable.

DS1 attends a club with one of the home schoolers unfortunately this child has never learnt to take turns, to share or to wait. They are a nightmare and no additional needs (DH has spoken with the parents previouslydue to issues to be told they are a free spirit) just always and used ti 1 on 1 and seems to have the inability to interact properly with other children.

School was rubbish when I was there (I’m 40) and it’s getting worse. I would actually like to home school my daughter. If we had a spare room I would as would like a designated work area.

When I was there I was bright, no trouble. But had no idea what to do. Because I wasn’t struggling I was just left to it. I enjoyed school but I also know it did not help me.

No, not at all, no one deserves to be bullied at any point and no it is not a part of growing up! If you were in a job and were treated like that you would leave. It’s never okay and is incredibly damaging as the brain is still developing.

Schooling is weird.
The only thing about it that works is cost effectiveness.
No one at all, certainly no teachers think that educating people of the same age all together and thirty at a time, to a timetable the best way of educating them.

I don’t think it’s actually healthy for teens to be forced to wake up. I think there is some evidence to suggest that teens should sleep longer and further into mid-morning. There’s a natural shift in their sleep pattern.

I’m not sure that people are really understanding that you don’t need to be sat at the dining room table together mon-fri 9am-3pm. You could work part time and fit education around various activities/clubs/learning activities. Sure, you can offer a paper and pen type workbook education but you don’t have to. It can be adapted around your child.

I think what you will find I said is that it’s okay for children to be exposed to difficult situations and then learn how to deal with them. No one is saying that bullying is okay- it is not. What I am saying is that wrapping children up in cotton wool does not help them build resilience and teach them life skills for when they have to manage difficult situations as an adult.

Level 2 - the equivalent of a GCSE grade c and she would be in year 9.

I'd have happily home schooled mine if I had been able to not work. My children were quiet, compliant, studious types but were failed by so much of the teachers attention being directed towards children who didn't want to learn or behave appropriately. They were massively let down by the system, just like for SEN children who classroom learning isn't the right fit for.

There is nothing about school that fits real life when you hear about toilet breaks being denyed and lunch breaks too short for all children to access food in.

I have every respect for the training of teachers but it is rarely directed towards the pupils who want to learn, the attention goes to those who don't.

I don’t homeschool or planning to but I get why parents do it. I live in south west London and have you seen what happens in all high schools the past few weeks? They call them school wars! It’s a tik tok trend that school kids meet with knives and fight. Where the hell do we live? Met police is outside every school!! Is that the environment that you think it’s appropriate for the kids??

I can't believe you're talking about bullying as a normal, and even necessary, part of teenage school life.

So many children have very traumatic experiences in school, and their lives are just miserable.

And I speak as a person who worked with SEN children, mainly in secondary schools, for 21 years.

There is an issue with schools, in that they are not flexible enough to provide adequate learning for all. Home schooling has more flexibility but less cumulative resources, however it is much more tailored to the individual child's needs. I understand more children are being funneled into mainstream legally but the assessment system is not undertaken by trained teachers, nor does it have a rebuttal option and as thus is not suitable for use and more likely to cause harm to the families involved. If the government was more thoughtful in their approach they would offer 5 GCSE examinations (incl Maths/ English) and coursework to home schoolers to allow a more even opportunity to children.

I think it's a huge sign that the education system needs an overhaul.

My daughters friend was home schooled, She did a few years at primary and didn’t go to secondary school, SS got involved because the health visitor got them involved with the family. So her siblings, 10 years younger had to go to school , when they looked into the eldest daughters education it was discovered she hadn’t learned nothing since she went to primary school!!
She was made to go to college by SS to get an education and qualifications at the age of 16, and she left 2 years later failing all her exams!
Shes never worked a day and she’s now nearly 30, got no friends and still lives with her mum, the 2 younger siblings are no longer in the family