Home schooling

[Cinders72]

My dd is 14 and in year 10.

I've been having real problems for almost the last 12 months of getting her into school.

I have now taken her out of school and wondered what help there is available for home schooling

[AppleWax]

If you have deregistered her from school, then you may find support from your local home education community. Search Facebook using your area and the words ‘home education’ to start. Some colleges may provide some support but depends on the area and how long you have been home educating. There is no funding for home education and you will need to provide an education from day one. You are responsible for organising and paying for any additional tuition etc and GCSES etc, plus most home educators do IGCSES as they do not require work to be marked etc and are exam based.

If you haven’t deregistered from the school then your local authority is still responsible for her education and you could push for them to provide a tutor or to attend school on a part time basis etc.

Hope this helps.

[Saracen]

Yes, I agree that the local home ed community is a good place to start. Other parents will be able to give you some ideas about different approaches you might consider. They can also point you toward social and educational opportunities in the area in case your daughter feels able to join in. But it can take a while for kids to feel ready for that after leaving school. Many kids need time to recover from their school experiences first. You can also join national home ed Facebook groups or ask here if you have particular questions.

[Louise45974]

Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some advice. I'm thinking of home schooling my daughter (she's year 8) but I don't know where to begin. She's hates going to the school she's in and while I'm trying to find another school her attendance is really slipping and i know I'm going to in trouble with the school. I need to get this sorted asap. What I need to know is how I go about getting the lessons she needs to be studying? The last thing I want to do is take her out of school without something in place but I'm having so much trouble getting her to go to school in the meantime. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thak you

[48wheaties]

I'm watching with interest as I have 2 dc out of school atm, but not yet deregistered.

[Cinders72]

Hi all, thanks for the replies.

I have been working with my daughter since just before Xmas. She is more interested in learning/doing work and has also started cooking again.
It is going to be a long journey, but it is well worth it to see her smile again

[Saracen]

@Louise45974

Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some advice. I'm thinking of home schooling my daughter (she's year 8) but I don't know where to begin. She's hates going to the school she's in and while I'm trying to find another school her attendance is really slipping and i know I'm going to in trouble with the school. I need to get this sorted asap. What I need to know is how I go about getting the lessons she needs to be studying? The last thing I want to do is take her out of school without something in place but I'm having so much trouble getting her to go to school in the meantime. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thak you

Hi Louise,

Home education is a very different model from school, and there's a huge variety of options for how you go about it. One key point in which it differs from school is that because it's one-to-one and the child goes at her own pace, you don't actually have to have all the details sorted in advance. You can figure it out as you go along, and make changes as you go. There's no such thing as "falling behind"; it isn't like school where the rest of the class moves on regardless of whether your child is ready to do so.

In fact, I would liken home ed more to parenting than to school. Suppose you decide that your child doesn't have enough basic DIY skills. Unless she'd already left home, you wouldn't think, "Oh no, I've blown it." You'd think, "Okay, time to teach her how to paint. She wants her room redecorated, so this is a good time for her to learn how to do that." Or if you think she is capable of more and hasn't had enough responsibility, you give it to her now by getting her to manage more of her own money, or encouraging her to get the bus to town, or suggesting she go to see the doctor without you there, or teaching her to plan and cook a family meal - whatever she is ready for.

It's the same with academic subjects. There's no deadline. Outside of school, it really doesn't matter whether they learn algebra at 8 or 12 or 16 or later.

And even if you do have some sort of deadline in mind (e.g. she wants to do GCSEs at 16 so she can get on her desired college course the following year), they can get through an astonishing amount of material when they are ready and focused and allowed to do it in their own way. For example, my eldest, who had never done any formal maths at all, covered the entire maths curriculum and sat the GCSE exam in the space of nine months, getting a good mark. By its nature, school is very inefficient from the point of view of the individual child. They have to sit through things they already understand, sit and be baffled and ashamed when things go over their head, be disengaged by subjects which don't interest them, wait for the teacher's attention or for disruptive classmates to settle down...

So if you think home ed is the way to go, there's no need to delay. The prospect of being forced into school is probably hanging over your daughter's head so much that she can think about little else. You can just take her out and have a break from formal learning for a while, then start exploring the options and experimenting to discover how your daughter learns best. Experienced home educators recommend this as a good way to start home ed. If that idea makes you really uncomfortable, you could still have a positive start without needing all the details in place. You could do some museum visits or project-based work, so for example if your daughter is really into 1960s fashion you can cover most of the school subjects through that topic.

Meanwhile, you might like to get together with other local home ed families for academic and social opportunities and to learn more about the ways other families home educate so you can get some ideas.

Good luck! I'm sure your daughter will soon feel much happier when she knows she doesn't have to go back to school.