Do home-educating parents need qualifications

[SDeuchars]

ReallyTired wrote (in Letter from School Health Service - wwyd? on 26-Jun at 15:34):
I think that it should be complusory for home educators to have the equivalent of 5 GCSEs including maths and English at grade C standard or better.

I've home educated for 20 years and have NO GCSEs - because they did not exist when I was at school. I do have school qualifications but they are not particularly relevant to EHE.

There can be all sorts of reasons why people do not have qualifications but that does not mean that they are unfit to home educate. If a child of a home educator were not to achieve such qualifications, would that mean the EHE had failed? I would suggest not if the child became a useful adult member of society and enjoyed his or her life.

OTOH, if a young person achieved lots of A*s and became a doctor, does that mean their education (of whatever sort) succeeded? What if they could not stand the pressure and dropped out of society at 35?

Do you actually need maths GCSE to teach in a school? I thought you could do some kind of equivalency check during teacher training.

You need Maths and English GCSE (or equivalant which means certain foreign or Scottish qualifications). You also have to pass QTS tests in Maths and English.

I am a qualified teacher with QTLS but no GCSE's whatsoever. I have a level 2 English and Maths which I gained during teacher training. I can't see as it makes any difference to be honest espeially if going down the autonimous route. The dcs might not do GCSE's anyway.

But QTLS doesn't qualify you to teach in schools (although they can still employ you as an unqualified teacher).
However this is all irrelevant to HE, as lots of parents buy in curricula etc. especially to help with GCSE years.

My sister is a teacher and she did an access course in order to do her degree, she didn't have a maths GCSE as such.

I'm educated to degree level (with GCSEs and A' Levels), and, as I said in the other thread, was about to embark on a PGCE course. However, I still cannot see how the PGCE would have proved very useful for home educating.

I've often wondered how those without qualifications manage to teach to a high standard, but it does seem to be possible, and there have been studies (though I can only recall one regarding American home schoolers) in support of this.

MTPP, what do some home educated children do instead of GCSEs? Do older children have to sit some kind of qualification?

IGCSEs here.

CaramelTree wrote:
MTPP, what do some home educated children do instead of GCSEs? Do older children have to sit some kind of qualification?

There is no requirement to sit any kind of qualification. A young person might set up their own business or join a family business for which they do not need qualifications.

Until now, some DC (inc mine) have taken OU courses in order to prove their academic ability to bricks'n'mortar universities. The change in funding from this September makes that a less attractive route.

I haven't started H.e yet but many on here have told me about IGCSE's which are quite often taken much younger sometimes at 14. Some start Open Uni quals instead of GCSE's or some go straight to A level. Tradional GCSE's are difficult out of school environment as coursework is involved. However, rather than restrict dcs from what I gather it opens up doors to GCSE's not offered by the nc. These can be taken at a centre.

Maybe not all this is right, but please give me 10 out of 10 for listening to others.

Mummytime, it isn't the school its the level apparently. My friend exactly the same qualification as me teaches in a high school 6th form, the level we are qualified to teach. She also covers any subject asked in any year in the school. I have also done cover there and was paid qualified wage. Maybe it shouldn't happen, but it does. I left for this reason, I struggle with Maths and the thought of having to cover a GCSE class scared me half to death

I think having a PGCE is useful to someone who HEs (having done most of one), in fact I think it is useful for parents. It introduces you to some ideas on how kids learn etc. Actually I think it is useful for parents in general, and helped me be a better parent to teenagers.
But it's useful much as a city and guilds in plumbing, or a qualification in electrical installation is useful to a home owner. It really isn't essential.

IMO the whole point with the freedom to HE is that you have the freedom to choose to develop in your child skills other than the rather arbitrary ones that the educational system promotes.

We are HE dc to a great extent because we do not believe that the exam system and the focus on a particular level of regurgitation at a particular date is a valuable way to evaluate is a useful way to evaluate our children's development.

One of our issues is that the schooling system favours exam-based rote learning over practical life skills - children can talk crap about a number of trivial topics, sometimes solve very theoretical physics problems on paper, but would be unable to build a plumb and level brick wall or calculate how strong it needs to be to withstand the load it is to take.

So actually most of the schoolteachers I have ever met would be inadequate to teach my child many of the skills I want them to get.

I think my PGCE has helped me to understand curricula, planning, schemes, making resources and assessment criteria. I'm unsure whether teaching will be a help in a H.E situation. I agree it is of use to parents in general, but not much benefit if your child is to learn autonomously as this questions everything you were taught in ITT.

"Maybe not all this is right, but please give me 10 out of 10 for listening to others."

Morethan, you are empowered now. You have broken free. You don't need anybody else to validate your learning by marking your work. Give yourself the marks you deserve... if you feel the need to be tied to a marking scheme at all. Perhaps you'd rather be filled with the simple joy of True Enlightenment.

(Don't mind me. I am always extra cheeky after HE parents' night out at the pub. I'm even more insufferable in person.)

My 10yo is an expert on maps of the world, metro systems of any city, birds of the world and astronomy.

I don't have GCSEs in those subjects though

i do think most people who have never HEd have a clue what they are talking about so I tend to ignore their opinions about it. In the same way I'd expect them to ignore me if I tried to tell them how to do their job.

There is a very interesting piece of research from the Frasier Institute in Canada that suggests that children of parents with no qualifications do much better when they are home educated, than they would if they were schooled!!

"Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels."

Saracen, thank you. I'm just still aware that I haven't started yet and don't feel in a position to advise people but really feel like I want to respond with all my new found knowledge. Its that flamin book I'm reading. The red one Doin for themselves or something. Its packed with theory that I thought OMG had enough of this during PGCE but its relevant as it puts it into context. I can't wait for dd to leave. Haven't sent letter yet as want to leave on good terms. We are in a good position of really liking her school and it will be a shame to go, but we all agree its for the best. She better make a bloody good musician now, lol.

I tutor Maths and I didn't complete my PGCE. I think my training helped but it is a tiny element of what has led me to be a successful tutor in Maths. In my case I learn most of all by doing. I think that's what makes homeeducators/tutors good at what they do. They work in a more intuitive, holistic way where they know their children/student very well. I totally agree that home educators should have 5 gcse's.

Sorry - I meant to say disagree.

I have got GCSEs but the majority of the things the DDs ask for my help with I either learned outside school or have to look up.

I would argue that critical reading skills (for filtering through Google results!) are more important than qualifications, although I believe that HE can work fine without them too.

adrianbeckett. Would you like to come and live at my house please and teach us all some maths. This is the bit I am dreading. We will probably end up with a tutor as my dh won't have the patience and I can just manage ks2 maths, certainly won't be able to help dd much, lol.

You'll be fine. I homeschool my dc and it's the best choice I have made.

i think the qualifications any home edder needs are as follows:
patience of a saint
boundless energy
ability to get enthusiatic about bugs and insects
self closing ears for during music practice
imagination
the ability to admit that we don't know the answer (but i bet we can google it)

Personally, i am considered highly educated (not bragging, just saying ) but it is the above list that helps me most. In a couple of years I may well use a tutor for the sciences but apart from that we'll give it a go ourselves.

(oh, and of course, let's not forget : wine and chocolate for the teacher )

I have gcse's but my dd has a distance learning tutor for English as my GCSE didn't prepare me in any way for the current system of teaching English.
So I really don't think it is helpful to have qualifications - my kids are most interested in music and history and I have no qualifications in either.

My husband failed his mathematics GCSE, but in his working life found himself doing very complex mathematics, well beyond degree level, for finding oil wells. All that not having a GCSE proved was that at 16, when he sat it, he wasn't in a good place for jumping through that particular hoop.

When he needed maths well beyond GCSE level, he found the right experts and information from which to learn. He was motivated by the challenge and because he needed it for his career - thus he learnt it quickly and easily.
I think with home ed, the most important points are that people do things in their own time, usually with their own internal motivation for doing so and they seek out a mode of learning that suits how they learn and generally that makes their learning more natural and efficient.