TEENAGERS - BULLYING AND HOME SCHOOLING

[Faith8]

My 14 year old daughter was bullied at school and this has manifested itself in schoolphobis. She is a very bright girl and was due to sit one of her G.C.S.E.'s this year (2 years early). She currently has 5 hours a week home tuition, which certainly is not ideal. She is depressed, angry, confused and has little self esteem and confidence. I hope there is no-one else with the same problem but if so, please get in touch. I really do not know what more I can do to help her. Thank you.

The best organisation to contract would be Education Otherwise

I know of someone who pulled their teen out of school for the same reason as you, and also knew a family who didn't send their children to school at all until they were actually in their teens. Both families had support from Education Otherwise - hope it can help you.

Faith
I work w/a student who's now happily in his second year at a highly regarded university who was homeschooled for the last 4 years of his education due to bullying. He's a bright, pleasant and lovely young man who's doing great!

I read up on home schooling and was very inspired. I came very close to de-regging the kids but chickened out at the last minute. My kids are young though and having done the research into home edding I was so impressed and inspired it will remain an option which we may well pursue.

Sorry to hear about your dd. There are many like her who are home edded. Eduycation Otherwise have a busy and thriving yahoo newsgroup which could help you.

Good luck.

i left school at the age of 14 too, due to bullying...i got severly depressed and it took 2 emergency hospital trips before the school realised how seriously destressing it was for me to go.
i was given counciling and a few hours home education.....i was always very bright at school....but due to the lack of hours i got...my grades slipped...and in the end there was absolutly no point in doing my gcse's at all........i got a job day after my 16th bday and managed to gualify as a hairdresser......
it wasnt as straight forward as it sounds....i was battling with depression, anger and misplacement for along time.....
i wish i could say it was easy to solve...but its not...counciling, support and unconditional love from my mum was what kept me afloat...
...i believe a positive thing came from it all though....it showed me that no problem is petty or not worth worrying about....it just needs to be shared...then it most definatly gets halved..........
6 years on, and still feel angry at the bullies...i do feel like the took away my 'free years' and my chance of getting good grades....but at the end of the day, you dont have to have a bit of paper with A's on it, to make you successful in love and life.
your DD will find herself again one day....and she will blossom into who she is meant to be..... unconditional love and support is what she needs.....it will be extremely difficult at some stages....but you are what keeps her going...even if she points her anger at you.....
you always take it out on the one you love the most.

Great post faerimum. I'm so sorry you went through this. I hear this story again and again. I only suffered very minor bullying at school but even that was extremely traumatic.

Faith8 fwiw there are many home educators who believe more in autonomous learning and never try to stick to the school time table. Universities are happier to accept people on merit these days and won't necessarily insist on specific qualifications. After all, many private schools don't do GCSE's anyway.

This is what the home edders I talked to told me about. Their children were leading their own learning in their chosen subjects at any given time. Learning through living is, after all, what we all did before we started at school as toddlers. I see no reason why that can't continue. People go on about how home edders miss out on vital socialisation - I no longer believe this to be the case.

The only thing I can suggest Faith8 is to de-register her from school pronto then there would be no obligation to attend these tests - this may affect the 5 hours home tuition she is receiving though and if you are officially home-edding you will probably have to show your LEA what you are doing to ensure she is receiving an education "appropriate to her age and ability" as required by law. All the people I know who are/were home edding have younger children so I'm afraid all I can do is reiterate: get in touch with education otherwise. Their advice line would certainly be able to help you with this.

Oops, just saw the date on this so way too late - sorry!