Are there any benefits of Primary school that HE can't usually provide?

[carolinecordery]

Hello all, I haven't registered my DD for Reception, which she would be eligible to start in September.
I was just wondering if you thought there were any benefits of primary school that HE can't provide. What things are good about primary school that are only available through attending?
I'm planning to HE and am convinced of the benefits of doing so, but want a rounded picture. It's easy to think of loads of things that would be, relatively, a bit crap about primary school, but is there ANY really good reason to go? DD's non-resident dad would rather she went.
Thanks, Caroline

I think the social aspect of school is very important - teaching children how to get on with each other, how to deal with conflict etc etc. DD would miss out on so much of that I would never consider HE

The fact that they see the same friends every day, they choose them for themselves and they are not dependent on you for getting to see them.
They learn to cope on their own-to share and have give and take. To listen to others and not always come first. To be able to fall out and make up.
To have the stimulus of other children and other ideas. To bounce ideas off each other.
To be able to do PE in a hall with apparatus. To do music and drama with others. To get used to speaking in front of an audience.
To respond to different adults and be exposed to different ideas.
To mix with children of different ages.
To get a break from siblings-if she has any.

Cheaper for you and childcare if you work
Learning to trust and rely on other adults
More independence in early years (not so much when older)
More sociable if you are the type to stay at home a lot
Meeting different types of people, not just the type who he

hmmmm, he good as well tho

The teacher is not having to fit in the shopping or cleaning or going to the dentist etc.

Freedom for parent(s) to work? How will you manage if you're a lone parent? (Forgive me if you have independent means)
It must be very difficult if you both want different types of schooling for your child

There are a lot of benefits to primary education (I'd have listed similar to exoticfruits) that you will be missing out on, just as there benefits to home ed that those in school will be missing out on. It's not that one is good and the other bad but a weighing up of the pros and cons.

I always thought I would home educate but ended up sending my daughter to pre-school 2 mornings a week when I wasn't coping with pregnancy sickness. I agonised over it, researched them all, chose one at the same venue as a mother and toddler group we went to so she would know some of the people, had a leader from the church we go to and was just amazingly well run. I went to visit in advance and prepared her well for going (we rehearsed "mummy and DD are going to walk to X, DD is going to stay and play while mummy goes home, then mummy will come and pick you up" over and over).

She loved it. After a term I let her go up to 3 mornings as she was asking me and I could see the immense good it has done her. It is a fantastically well run place and has given her so much in terms of development that I just wouldn't have given her (I'm oxbridge educated, I'm a teacher, I'm very child-orientated BUT another adult and another setting does provide variety and other ideas). She has loved the chance to play parachute games and sports hall games she can't do unless in a group of peers. She is developing into such a lovely child and I love that pre-school has added so much to her that I couldn't believe was possible.

I'm beginning to change my mind about the local primary as so many local parents have been so pleased with it. So yes you are missing out on things but if you choose to HE then stick with all the reasons you are choosing to HE and enjoy the independence it brings.

Watching with interest. I would like to HE and have a 15 month and 2 month old. My sister reckons school teaches "how to play the game" ?!

The only downside I can foresee is that my relationship with them will need to be superb. Probably place myself under more scrutiny.

Wonderful to try though. They'll have grown up and left home before we know it.

To become part of a unique community made up of people from a cross section of life exposing your dd to ideas beliefs and people she would not normally meet in her every day social surroundings or environment. To have a life outside of the home.

Large class sizes, will be learning with lots of same age pupils.
Gym and leisure equipment and facilities.
Being able to trial some of the new educational software, as a teaching establishment for free, plus reading schemes and so on.

I can't think of anything else Home ed. couldn't provide.

I would add that I never fit in shopping or cleaning during 'school' hours, I clean the kitchen and load the dishwasher whilst dc eat.

When does the non-resident dad have her? Will it stop him being able to have contact if he is working and can't drop her at school etc?

I only just saw that you weren't in agreement. I think that is quite a difficult one to sort and not entirely sure how you would go about it. I think I would be tempted to do the extra-curricular type thigns you would do if you were home-schooling at weekends/holidays and work around the curriculum if it will make life between you and her father easier for her.

I don't HE so my views are skewed by that, just to be upfront.

Good things about primary, and in fact school in general:
Socialising - and I don't just mean playing with friends, tho that's part of it; I mean learning to get on with others and work together and listen - HE-ers will say they go to HE groups and meet-ups and I am sure they do, but I don't see how it can replicate working out how to get on with a group of people for several hours of the day, which is a massively important life skill.

Sports - I would imagine it's hard to organise sports teams and such when you HE. Though of course you can do out of school clubs etc.

Facilities - eg PE apparatus, science equipment

Learning that is better done in a big group eg drama, music, PE again.

Expertise of teachers and TAs with huge experience.

The social one is the biggie for me tho.

I hope this doesn't offend. However, surely this is only a question for the home educators. Those who have no experience of home educating are only listing what they think home education doesn't provide. And I'm afraid I disagree with quite a lot listed, especially as regards the socialisation aspect. We take this quite seriously, and it's something the LA expect you to do also (if you're registered with them).

Yes! Childcare.

They are public threads open to anyone! I answer questions about private schools or selective schools, despite not having a child at either. You don't even have to have a child at all to take part! If you want to know what they are missing it is surely better to get answers from those in school.

All the other things listed can easily be addressed by HE.

HE doesn't mean actually STAYING at home you know!

You can't replicate the friendship question. In HE you can pick and control the friends. At school the DC has the control and can see them everyday.

free childcare

Of course these are public and open threads, I don't dispute that.

However, your 'help' is anecdotal at best if you're only guessing at what home education cannot provide. You can relate the positive aspects of primary school, I agree, but you cannot know what home educated children are missing out on.

Exotic, that very much depends on the networks you are a part of.

The freedom to chose friends according to interest, developmental stage and maturity is easier when HE than when stuck in a class of 30 Chikdren you may have nothing in common with except the year you were born.

I have friends who HE so I see it fairly close hand. I know that you can't see the same friends everyday. My mother didn't like my best friend from school and she wouldn't have let me have 6 hours a day, 5 days a week with her. She could have justified it with 'exotic picks her own friends and she sees them at ....... ' which would be 2 hours a week. We would never have got the friendship on the level we have, godmother to each other's children. Luckily we were not relying on our mothers.

A big school gives a huge choice of friends- from all backgrounds and all opinions. I think it highly unlikely that out of 30 people you can't find at least a couple of true friends. It isn't restricted to 30, one of my good friends was 2 years younger and one a year older.

I would have thought the OP wanted responses from those who send their DC to school.

It seems to me to be the best way to understand the benefits, surely? Just as, if I were planning to move to a big city, I would ask those who lived in one, not those who had only lived in villages.

FWIW I am sure home educators strive to provide their children with all the experiences they think they need, but just as 1-1 stimulus and attention is impossible with a school education, so learning to mix with a group of 30 kids every day for six hours is impossible if you home ed.

Good luck with the gym apparatus too!

Seriously OP, good luck with your DD's education. Hope it goes well.

It has the advantage that parents of friends have different parenting philosophies to your own parents.

I thought so too Clary- OP asked for the good things about primary school- something you need recent experience of to respond.

The OP posted in the Home Education topic.

I really don't mind people relating the positive aspects of primary school, I have done so myself, further up the thread, based on personal first-hand experience (not friends or friends-of-friends). But I do find it odd that people with no personal experience of home educating think themselves qualified to state what home educators are missing out on. They can only guess, and I don't see it as helpful to the OP, personally.