I watched my 15-year-old daughter walk into a classroom for the first time this month. While most other parents dropped off their four-year-olds for day one of school, I waved off the daughter I had, until now, been educating at home.
My daughter had made her own decision, and for her own reasons she put on a uniform and joined our local school in year 11. I, meanwhile, will continue to home educate my 12-year-old and five-year-old. My three-year-old won't be going to preschool.
And so, while many parents are sharing pictures and anecdotes of their child's first month at school at the moment, a growing number aren't. We are choosing, instead, to home-school.
In my view, the traditional school system is effectively a sausage factory. No matter how much is said about individualised or child-led systems, the nature of the beast is that it's mass processing. I wanted my children to have time to be children, and time to be themselves. Individuals.
The rise in this movement is perhaps driven in part by changes to the education system, but also, I suspect, because it is now so easy to network. There are national and local Facebook groups, and depending on where you are, lots of groups meeting up.
Home education is easiest with younger children - there's lots of outside play, lots of art, craft, and stories. There are so many resources now that primary age education is very achievable either following a structured school-at-home model, or completely following your child's interests or, as is most likely, doing something in between. That's my approach with my younger ones - the five-year-old is very interested in art and nature, and I've picked up great nature resources very cheaply in Lidl. We do some semi-formal activity most mornings - I'm also Montessori trained and use these resources regularly too. Afternoons are more free format.
I'm a lot more relaxed and confident with the younger two than I was first time round. There were all sorts of panics about learning to read with my eldest, as we felt it was the central skill. Now though, I know most children get there when they're ready, and that happens at varying ages. So as long as I'm making sure we're offering the chance to develop skills, I don't worry about ticking off any age related boxes.
Questions about academic issues tend to come later in the age range, and I will admit that qualifications can be the issue. There are courses that can be studied from home, and there's a thriving support network helping families find examination centers that will take private candidates. If any government was serious about helping home educators, they could make a single change to say that every area should have at least one state school that will take private candidates, Having details of the exam boards on a central website would also make life easier.
Qualifications are why my daughter has chosen to go to school. She believes it will be easier to follow courses done with her peers, and for her, I think it's the right choice. She is finding the organisational aspects of school more challenging than the academic side and she does have an uneven level of learning, being advanced in English and creatively, but not having covered all the maths she needs. But we are well placed to support her through that.
My 12-year-old, however, is determined that he won't go to school for any reason. He's already started to prepare for the maths and computing qualifications that will suit him, and in a year or so, I'll be hunting for one of those exam centers.
Home education was a philosophical choice for me and something I considered before I had children. I discovered the potential while on a teacher training course back in the 90s. Once we had children I looked into the subject further and found a wonderful network of early years home ed families, brought together by the Muddlepuddle email list as it was then - it is now the Early Years HE group on Yahoo. As well as the email list, there were local and national meetups and camps. There are now a number of national organisations too, such as the Home Education Advisory Service and Education Otherwise. Although home educators don’t have to follow the national curriculum, resources are available if they choose to.
My traditional teacher training (PGCE) is of next to no help as a home educator, as most of what you learn that way is about lesson planning and managing a classroom, although some of the incidental reading was interesting. My Montessori training and experience, however, is very useful, particularly with younger children, as it's all about practical hands on learning and seeing children as independent learners.
As for socialisation - yesterday we went to home education roller skating and soft play. Today my 12 -year-old will go to an after school hours computing club. My 15-year-old is (almost) struggling to fit school in around her other commitments - paper round, swim club, army cadets. On offer locally there are home education art sessions, forest schools, and a communal group where each family brings an activity.
Is home education for everyone? No, there's no one approach that suits every child or every family. But it's great to see a rising awareness of it and for people to know that they have choices. When it comes down to it, that's the important thing.