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Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Long-term homeschooling post Covid19?

2 replies

Semita12 · 18/04/2020 21:57

Hi All,

As I am concerned about the virus, we have decided to homeschool our 6yr old daughter longer.
Is anyone thinking of HE for the longer term? I know daughter will love it as she’s always wanted to be at ‘home-school’ as she calls it but wondering if I am taking too much of a radical decision to withdraw her from school.
Thanks

OP posts:
Hellokitty82 · 18/04/2020 22:13

It wouldn't be for me (there's no way we could facilitate it anyway we both work) but I've got friends considering it for the same reasons although covid19 has maybe made them consider something they never really would have done before.

I think if you think it's right for you - go for it but, and I know the home schoolers round here meet up, but for me - I think that part of school is building friendships etc... maybe speak to people already doing it see how they plan their time etc...

Another angle to consider is my mum who's a teacher (and several friends who are teachers have said this) said kids who are home schooled at this age, then when they get to secondary (or even y5/6 in some cases) and it becomes apparent that unless you're Wonder Woman/man your ability to cover all areas of the National curriculum is a challenge and then you re-integrate them into a school (if there's a space at that stage!!!) that kids can struggle to settle down in a more structured setting and although have good "life skills" are sometimes behind academically as with the best will in the world unless you're a qualified teacher planning on lesson planning every day, there's no way they'll be getting the same input as other children in school.

Until there's a vaccine Covid19 will always be in peoples mind and even after (while they experiment to see how effective the immunisation is) it might be about but then again so are lots of other illnesses too.

Good luck with what you decide

Saracen · 19/04/2020 10:12

If you think your daughter will love home education in the longer term, that is reason enough to do it.

In normal times you'd need to make a decision quickly about whether to deregister her from school, because if you kept her off school without deregistering, then fines and a truancy prosecution would be coming your way pretty quickly. But with coronavirus in the picture it's different. You can take your time about it. Schools may not reopen for a long time and even when they do, there might be a phase during which government are less gung-ho about requiring attendance - they'll have to recognise that a proportion of children (or their family members) are particularly vulnerable to CV. It won't look good to force attendance where that would endanger lives. So in these strange times, you may be able to effectively home educate while leaving your daughter on the school register for a while longer.

There are two reasons why I would suggest leaving your daughter on roll for the time being, with a view to deregistering only when the LA start pushing her to attend. The first is that there might be some things which the school can do to help you. For example, at the moment children entitled to free school meals can receive food or vouchers if they are on school roll, but not if they are home educated. School may provide free access to educational subscriptions to online services etc. Possibly not a huge factor for you, but it couldn't hurt.

The second reason to delay deregistration is that at the moment home educating parents are still expected to provide their children with a satisfactory education, while those who usually use schools are being cut more slack on that. Obviously you will be providing a good education, I'm not suggesting you wouldn't! But as soon as you deregister, the LA may start requesting information about your child's education. You'll probably be involved in at least some routine correspondence with them about that, you may need to submit a report etc. Some LAs are very badly behaved towards home educating families, for instance by misleading them by implying that home inspection visits are compulsory, or that they must do formal school-style lessons. Such deceptive practices can create stress for families who are new to home education and finding their feet.

Dealing with the LA needn't be too daunting if you are connected with other home educators who can point you toward the relevant legislation and provide advice on drafting letters and reports. You can ask here or on other local or national forums. But there's no denying that it's a hassle, and you probably have better ways to spend your time. By delaying deregistration, you can delay the time when you have to deal with your LA until you have some experience under your belt and are more settled into your way of educating.

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