Childcare for home educators

[Joyce2020]

Hi all. For those who home school, could I ask if you would use childcare/education provision if it was available? So 2/3 days a week at a 'school' run by home educators who are qualified teachers.
If so, what daily rate would you think was reasonable?

Thanks in advance

I have used a childminder and would have considered group childcare provision during weekdays. However, I would have wanted a playscheme, not a "school", nor would I need qualified teachers to run it. My reasons for home educating include wanting a completely individual education for my child, which cannot be provided in a school. So I wanted someone to look after my child and keep her safe while I worked, and then I educated her myself when I wasn't working, which is easy enough to fit in given how much more efficient home ed is than school. As for rates, I'd want it to be competitive with childminders and after-school/holiday playscheme rates - but I expect this wouldn't be viable for the provider because they wouldn't get enough home ed children to keep costs down.

Home educators do often set up group learning sessions, such as French classes, and mix and match among all the offerings. There are also a few centres where children can be dropped off for, say, six hours all in one go once a week and choose from among various classes. Typically these are for preteens and teens so the childcare aspect is less significant. These centres are carefully arranged so as not to exceed the number of hours which would lead to being classed as a school with the huge amount of government regulation that would bring. As far as I know, such centres have all been started by people who already have a lot of experience in home education. There are many things which are a bit different about working with home ed families, and it's important to have a really good understanding of the issues.

Thanks @Saracen, I home ed and I'm part of the local home ed groups. Lots of different viewpoints and lots of different factors brought us to home education. I just wanted a wider response to my 2 questions. Good to know your thoughts though.

Oh! Okay, I had the impression you weren't home ed. I should think all that really matters is whether there is a good market for the service in your own area, right? That must be quite variable from one area to another depending on demographics, transport etc.

Hope you get some useful feedback!

@Saracen thank you

Do you know about what sort of registration/premises you’d need to do this?

I think I’d enjoy running a playgroup for, say, under 8s, and I have relevant experience so not just a romantic fantasy!

An outdoor nursery that is fairy local to us accepts homeschool children of primary age for two days a week. They join lots of the nursery activities (craft, forest school, walks etc), and take ‘responsible roles’. It’s become quite popular and the kids seem to love it.

I’m not currently HE but have in the past. I’d like somewhere focused on really high quality play, lots of energy used up and choices for children. LA nursery schools to a great job at this sort of thing for under 5s, so something similar where education was entirely through play.

I would expect to pay a similar rate as for a holiday club or after school club locally.