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Home ed

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Thinking of homeschooling 6year old. Advice needed!

3 replies

Mumma17988 · 03/01/2019 12:26

Hi all, so my daughter really hates her school, I don’t feel she is coping very well. I have applied for a different school opposite my eldest daughters senior school (will be helpful for one school run instead of two!) while I’m waiting for her to get a place I am thinking of homeschooling her. Basically I would like to know where can I get resources to teach her? Also on our local council site it says it has to be a full time education but doesn’t state how many hours a day or week I should be teaching her. I know I don’t have to follow the national curriculum but what subjects does everyone else teach their children? Do you have a set timetable etc. Also how often do the local council check on you ( I have no problem with this whatsoever) I basically want to homeschool as a stop gap until my daughter is accepted into the new school. Thank you

OP posts:
Saracen · 04/01/2019 09:05

Hello and welcome! I'm sorry to hear that your daughter is so unhappy at school. I think that when a child is miseraable at school, leaving that environment has got to be a good thing. She's unlikely to be learning much if all her mental energy is occupied in just coping with a difficult situation. In such a case, even if home ed isn't perfect, it must be better than the alternative.

It seems to me that how you approach home education will be affected by the question of how long you expect to be doing it. What's the waiting list like at the school you want to get her into? Is there much movement in your area? Is the school or the council able to give you any idea of how long it might take to get your daughter in there? Are there other schools you would consider if it looks like she'd be waiting a long time to get into that one?

If your daughter will probably be in school soon, then you may just want to keep up the basics of reading, writing and maths. You can get workbooks at WH Smiths and this might help you address anything your daughter needs to work on. Alongside that, you could take advantage of this opportunity to give your daughter some fun educational experiences which aren't so easy at school. For example, you could do some day trips to places of interest or visit local museums or art galleries. You could let her throw herself into some subject she really loves. For example, my daughter is interested in sea and pond creatures at the moment. We have been borrowing books from the library, watching videos, reading all about them on the internet, and going to aquariums. She has a pond and some goldfish, and is about to hatch out some Triops.

There is no legal definition of full-time education. The benefit of one-to-one teaching is huge, so much so that when ill children are being tutored by the LA, the LA is only required to provide a minimum of five hours per week of tutoring to them. Also, education doesn't have to look anything like school. Children are often learning when they aren't sitting doing formal work with an adult, and this counts as education also. In fact, some HE parents like me do no formal education at all, but instead let our kids learn by following their interests, asking questions, going places, reading, and playing. We don't see education as distinct from the rest of life, so it would be impossible to say how many hours per week the child is being educated. (How many hours per week do you spend "parenting" your child? Educating can be seen in a similar way.)

The LA has no legal duty to monitor home education on a routine basis. Most LAs contact parents soon after children are removed from school. One reason for this is to ensure parents haven't been pressurised into taking their kids out of school when they don't want to: schools have been known to do that. Another reason is safeguarding: the unfounded belief that home education is a somewhat dodgy thing to want to do and that parents might be doing it to hide abuse, forced marriage etc.

Your LA is likely to offer you a home visit to discuss your child's education. This is optional. If they TELL you they are visiting and don't make it clear you have a choice, this is an indication that they aren't inclined to follow government guidelines and you should be very wary of them. Some LAs behave really dreadfully because there is no comeback on them for doing so. On the plus side, if you take advice you can write assertive letters to get them to back off. When there is no legal basis for their demands, there is nothing they can do to you. You should never ignore a communication from them.

Some LAs say they want to visit your home to offer you "advice", but unfortunately they tend to be completely untrained and know little about home education, so their "advice" can do more harm than good. Most LA home ed staff come from a school background and don't understand home education very well. If you are after advice, you can get it online in a forum such as this one, or meet up with local home educators, who will be happy to chat with you. The best way to find them is to go on Facebook. In the search bar, type "home education" followed by the name of your nearest big town or your ocunty.

So long as the LA has not identified a specific concern about your child's education, they might get in touch once a year asking for an update to the information you provided. It's questionable whether there is a legal basis for this, but most home educators go along with it, often by providing a short written report. More often than annually is certainly out of line, unless of course they have raised a particular problem with the education you are providing.

Mumma17988 · 04/01/2019 13:24

Thank you for replying. I’m about 80% sure I want to home educate, it’s not a permanent thing so I’m hoping LA won’t be too bad on me lol. I’ve no idea how long the wait for a new school will be and the school I’ve applied for is in a different borough as I’m borderline for two boroughs but I’ve clearly stated on the forms I don’t want her staying at her current school so I’m hoping worst case they put her in any school with a vacancy, which I don’t mind as my boroughs schools ofsted are all poor. So my LA will contact me once I’ve de registered my daughter yes? I’m really hoping they are going to be nasty to me lol I don’t mind them doing a home visit I have nothing to hide, what do I do if they are dreadful to me? Can they force me to put her back into a school? As I say it’s only a temporary thing anyway. Also I have a two year old at home are they going to judge my home education because I have a toddler too? Does anyone know if me home educating will affect my school application to the new school?

OP posts:
Saracen · 05/01/2019 01:28

"I’m hoping worst case they put her in any school with a vacancy" I don't know exactly how it works, but you may have to specifically request a place rather than hoping the LA understand that you want a school place elsewhere if your preferred school is full. Why not ring them, explain the situation, and ask what you have to do?

Yes, most LAs are pretty quick off the mark about contacting parents who have removed children from school. Not always.

"I don’t mind them doing a home visit I have nothing to hide, what do I do if they are dreadful to me?" It isn't really about whether you have anything to hide though. Home visits are an invitation to let the LA make a subjective judgement based on whatever they happen to see on the day and how they want to interpret it, rather than looking at information you have chosen to provide in a report which is presented in the way you want.

If, for instance, your 2yo (or your 6yo!) is in a mood and is being disruptive on the day, will the visitor decide to judge your educational provision based on that? Or if you've been ill and the house is a mess? Or if they seize on some remark you make and take it out of context as if you meant something entirely different? It's a risk I wouldn't take, given that they have no legal right to insist on a home visit. The safest course of action is to keep them at arm's length and do everything in writing instead.

Yes, ultimately your daughter could be sent back to school if the LA does not like your provision and takes you to court and a judge agrees. Most judges are more sensible than most LA home education staff, so it is uncommon for School Attendance Orders to be upheld in court. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. But going to court is stress and hassle which is better avoided by not giving the LA anything to use against you.

Home education does not affect your daughter's chance of being given a place at the school you want. If the school has a vacancy, they must accept her. If they don't have a vacancy, they must put her on the waiting list. The order of names on the waiting list is according to set criteria such as who lives closest to the school, and doesn't depend on whether the child is being home educated.

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