To disagree with home ed

[Freshton]

Unless in extreme cases (ie SEN, extreme mental health or other complex needs) or parent is qualified teacher, I fundamentally disagree with home ed.

It's insular and doesn't prepare kids for the real world.

I've seen first hand some shocking examples that I can't go into for confidentiality reasons but common thread was parents arrogantly assumed they had same skills as teachers with masters degrees. Reality was kids were really behind, had no proper structure or routine.

It's worrying that so many people see home ed as a viable lifestyle choice. I know school system not perfect at all but isolating children at home or in small home ed group echo chambers isn't healthy.

It is possible to self learn to read.

Schools sometimes fail to teach reading.
If he was at school and not able to read would this be due to school fault

Yes? At no point did I claim otherwise.
They can just be neglected with less outward signs or community awareness given they potentially have far less contact with other people and agencies.

Precisely.

That poor child was always known to SS, she murdered during what was the school summer holidays.

Rather than focussing on the catastrophic failings of the state in this case when they knew Sara was in danger, they blame home education. Her being deregistered was a red herring. She was murdered in August when no children were in school. Ramping up regulation on home education would have done nothing to save Sara. Nothing.

Parents start off the process of learning to read by reading to infants and young children. Teaching them how books actually work and the pleasure of stories etc.
Spontaneous ‘self-learning’ is a bit of a misnomer.
Not teaching your kids to read or at the very least supporting them in it is pretty neglectful.
Blaming schools entirely is missing the point of parenting?

I agree with you.

there is also a massive safeguarding risk for children who are not in school and may be being abused at home…. Hence why in the Uk there is not going to be a register for home schooled children.

for me. You either have to be really rich to afford to homeschool or you have to be on benefits because you can’t be at work and homeschool.

I think I’d take the NSPCC’s advice (2025) on this rather than a singular case. They have raised the alarm and called for greater investment in safeguarding for local authorities to adequately fulfill the needs of vulnerable children in Home Education.
They have called for proportionate oversight. They are clear that this is about vulnerable children not the broader population of home educated children, but that nevertheless more support for safeguarding is needed and children are at risk.
I cannot understand why you would possibly oppose that.

I know numerous home education families, and the overwhelming majority of the kids are massively behind and have very poor social
skills (not just with kids their own age, but also they monologue over adults and cannot do simple things like share and take turns or lose at anything ever). One family in particular home school their kids in order to be able to travel adventurously apparently (and be influencers about their lifestyle of course) but in reality they’ve had one week AI in Benidorm and one week SC in Malaga in the last 4 years 🤣 their kids are the equivalent of year 10 and 11 and will sit one I-gcse apiece this year and one next year, neither of which are maths, English or science (think photography type courses). They are so far behind in all subjects that they couldn’t even drop back into school now, and the reason is that they only do one online lesson a week. That is the sum total of their education currently. The rest of their time is spent gaming, on iPads, or watching tv. They rarely go out, and when they do it’s never without their mum or dad, and the saddest thing is that at an age when they should be growing more independent and broadening their horizons in the safety of friendship groups, they don’t have any friends at all and don’t get on well with each other either.

It should be monitored WAY more stringently. There’s a vast difference between delaying a school start due to cultural or other reasons and ensuring children socialise, join clubs, spend their time at museums/ travelling etc to parents who withdraw children when they are older NOT to meet special needs from the children but truthfully because a. Parents don’t like routine and getting out of bed early; b. Parents don’t like “ wasting money” on buying and washing uniform c. Parents fear children talking about lifestyle ( drink, drugs, benefit cheats, physical discipline and / or abuse) at school and being exposed. At the moment the latter category are treated exactly the same as a dedicated, conscientious, academic parent who ensures their child/ children meets up and socialises with other home schoolers and in effect can sometimes have a better childhood ( And still end up with great qualifications/ uni places) than children in school. It’s terrifying the children that currently slip through the net.

Well yes obviously parents should introduce books and read to their children. Ensure opportunities and facilitate

But if a child is at school that has had that early support and hasn't learnt to read while at school

Or

A child who hasn't but goes to school and hasn't learnt to read

Both cases the child in school hasn't learnt to read. How is that any different to a child not reading who is home educated?
It's extremely rare for a home educated person not to learn to read. It may be at a different time to a school pupil but in majority of cases they will learn to read. Just like in majority of cases children in school will learn to read but their is always outliers (both in school and home educated) for varies reasons.

We oppose it because the LA is failing many children in school which has led to the rise in home ed. The LA home ed team often aren't educated on home ed or on the reason some children are home educated. They often overstep their remit and cause damage to children who are recovering from damage caused by schools.

If this was done properly, with correctly trained people who knew what they were doing it would be one thing but can you truly see that being the case.
It will further dilute the resources and means that the LA will be busy targeting safer homes while actual at risk children fly under the radar

Unfortunately sometimes you don’t have a choice.

my eldest couldn’t get into school, she physically became so ill by the thought of it. She has autism and ADHD.

We had a very structured schedule - I have a education degree and I’m an English specialist.

She achieved a 7, 6 and 5 5s.

She is very sociable but still has her struggles.

I am home educating her sister who is 15, hated the social aspect of school so what’s the point of making her ill.

She is taking 3 GCSEs this year, and 4 next year.

Both are on track to go to university - either forensic science or health care based.

So please don’t judge. Anyone wants to visit my house they can - they’ll see two very happy teenagers.

I home educated for 10 years . My children went to forest school, Maths and English groups, French language groups art classes, sports, scouts ,guides etc. If I wouldn't have been able to out source most of it I don't know what I would have done. 2 of my children have scoliosis and total spinal fusion. Mainstream school could not give them the rest breaks needed during the day to be able to be in less pain. They couldn't have sat down most of the day . They needed to be able to get up whenever they felt they needed to. And mainstream with all the bullying and oushing and shoving was too much of a risk to them.They went to college on a 14 to 16 placement at a higher achievement rate than most school pupils their ages and they are still college doing A levels and the like.

As for safeguarding, it is of no more concern than children in a school setting. Home educated children are not shut away from the world fgs. There will be a few but its really not the norm. My children see dentist, doctors, opticians and everyone else they need as well as group leaders and private tutors who all have safeguarding training .

I did register with the LA and only had 1 visit in that time ,the rest of the time examples of work and learning groups were sent in. The LA officers I have dealt with have all been of the opinion that school is only suitable for a minority of children and not the majority, especially at the moment with everything going on.

So no I don't agree with everything that you mentioned, but I can see where you're coming from

Most families don’t have a social worker overseeing them from birth to five. Health visitors aren’t compulsory, and I’m not sure how often they see a child after age one. There is no requirement to send a child to pre-school or nursery.

Of course I agree that we should concerned about EVERY child, but it does seem that “safeguarding” is shouted out every time home education is mentioned. The risk remains whether the child is aged 5-16 or 0-5, and the implication that home educated children are at more risk because a teacher doesn’t see them every day is wearing a bit thin.

This sounds a really difficult and upsetting situation for you and your son. I can absolutely see why in this situation why you might have considered home-ed. I hope that you get proper provision sorted for your son to meet his needs as I appreciate how upsetting this must be.

As I wrote elsewhere it’s the NSPCC who have looked closely and highlighted the risk. Also it is obvious in that post I was answering a specific point about needing to have some kind of state oversight throughout childhood.

If we assume that the same percentage of children who are homeschooled as at school are at risk as a proportion of the population ( it might be more or less but I don’t have those statistics) then we should all be concerned about the visibility of those children in society. It might be ‘wearing a bit thin’ for you but so what really. More concerned about the kids, ALL kids, being neglected and isolated than about the defensiveness of the home schooling community.
If you’re doing a great job then what’s the problem. Look out for the kids who’s parents aren’t (and it’s pretty clear it’s a growing phenomena)

Some home schooled children are shut away from the world - isn’t that the point - and it’s a growing phenomenon.
Everyone responds to this issue so personally, but really it’s not about the individual it’s about the outliers and some kind of shared social contract to protect vulnerable kids.

Just opposing it won’t save those children though, in fact just abandoning them because you don’t like some of the methods used or assumptions made seems pretty cruel.
Maybe collaborate with the relevant bodies to put guidelines in place/ help educate?

I have a PhD but I wouldn’t dream of thinking I had the skills to teach my children. Also, it’s the social skills and the various tricky scenarios with friends that is just as important as the maternal. Especially now we have AI.

Sorry to hear this. Sounds so, so hard. There are definitely exceptions.

hope you are all ok.

People who are anti-homeschooling don’t understand how bad many mainstream schools have become.

I agree that a good school is better than homeschooling, but even average homeschooling is better than a bad school.

I say this as a teacher of 17 years, currently still working as a classroom teacher.

You have to admit that there are quite a few home ed parents whose choice to do so is based on the idea that school is brainwashing children.

In the US, where I live, certain loony fringe religious / lentil-knitting-crunchy types tend to home school because they've bought into paranoia about 'the system' and are opposed to secularism/ teaching evolution or some sort of government messaging they think their children will be exposed to. Many of these groups refuse to vaccinate their children too.

I HE because there was no choice, my son is autistic and couldn’t cope.

We are part of quite a large HE community, the vast vast majority of whom are ND and, like us, were basically forced out. The rest are ex teachers who refused to put their children through the system in its current state.

People can criticise HE all they want, but at the end of the day they are wilfully ignoring the structural failures that have led to so many children being unable to access education in mainstream settings, and so many teachers leaving.

My children can be a little different, but that’s the autism, not the HE that was our only option.

YABU to post yet another HE bashing thread! Just jump on last weeks and you can punch down on there.

WHEN home ed is badly done which of course sometimes it is, by parents who have for some minor reason got a bee in their bonnet about school being bad, and don't really have the energy for or commitment to educating their child, then yes you are right it doesn't prepare children for the real world.

However my dad 25 years ago, used to be involved with home education families and some children would be getting a much broader education, with much more learning relevant to the real world, than kids in school ever got. I think you can't really make sweeping statements about home education, because the breath of what parents cover, methods they use, how much time they spend, whether they meet with other kids most days or hardly ever, whether they try and follow a curriculum like school, or not etc is huge. And also it will depend how those things fit the child's needs and abilities.

Making a sweeping statement only really shows prejudice as you can't possibly know the outcomes for all HE kids and even less what those outcomes would look like had those kids been in school.

People always think that children need to go to socialise, which is just not true.

Forced socialising for many children just doesn’t work, and many children are mentally destroyed by school, particularly secondary. Sure some children will thrive and look back on their school days as the best days of their lives, but they are in the minority, and I feel a little sorry for those whose lives peaked before they are even adults.

Very few jobs rely on people being able to socialise in a school-like environment, and as adults we have choices over what we do. Seems bizarre to hold school as the pinnacle of social experiences when so many hated every second of it!

I do not have a PhD but by being HE my son is learning more than he did in 8 years of school being taught by trained educators.