Home Schooling - Pros and Cons

I agree. There's much more to formal school attendance than just the imparting of knowledge. I'm a big believer in there being a range of schools. The mainstreaming agenda has been a disaster for a lot of children and made life even harder for teachers.
When I started there were all sorts of schools from those with severe physical and learning disabilities up to and including schools for gifted children.

Home schooling is my idea of hell, for me and my child/grandchild.

It was bad enough during Covid…

I have similar concerns to you re safeguarding.

Also forming friendships and interaction with others.

I am very pro home ed. Done well it produces confident well-educated children.

I find the sausage factory one-size-fits-all approach of state schools, especially large ones, quite disturbing and know how damaging it can be to some children.

One of the biggest assets of home ed is that the child is free from the stranglehold of the narrow national curriculum with its emphasis on academic and STEM subjects and absence of cultural input.

I get the danger that a child in a disturbed home will have no external agencies monitoring their safety and well-being. Better input from LA is the answer to that - I wish ......

I know several home educators and they are doing a great job in every way. They should absolutely have the right to do this.

The argument that home educated children do not know how to socialise keeps being raised but is nonsense. Good home educators get together for group sessions and their children are in the ordinary local sports teams and gyms clubs, and Brownies etc.

I have serious reservations about our current education system and applaud those who are brave enough to take on the task of HE when they feel it is right for their child.

I have serious safeguarding issues with home schooling, and i do think that risk needs to be acknowledged. However I am aware of numerous children with SEN who are currently receiving in some cases as little as one hour a day of education in schools, so it is perfectly understandable that people opt for homeschooling.

It really depends on family- some home-schooled children do extremely well academically. However, it can also allow parents to isolate their children from outside influences that might allow them to have a somewhat balanced view of the world. Some of the extreme religious sects in US home educate their children and some who have "escaped" have told about abuse and brainwashing.

In Ireland there is a notorious family of 10 children, all home educated by qualified teacher mother. They all took state exams and achieved high grades, and continued to university. But their extreme fundamentalist Christian beliefs have caused them and employers huge problems and cost!

Burke family (Castlebar) - Wikipedia share.google/Dp3hCQBaYJ2etxi5R

I've just checked and we have a very special school, a 'second chance' school for children who couldn't cope with mainstream education for a whole host of reasons. The testimonials are amazing. It really seems to be excellent for more fragile children but I see the fees are £31,000 pa per child. I wonder if local authorities pay for this?

I started a thread on this matter some years ago.

I was involved with a family who were home educating their children.

In the very immaculate home there was not a picture, piece of artwork or any evidence of homeschooling.

The kitchen was really only used to prepare cold food (cooking made a mess) and there was no outside play.

We took the children to the beach for the day and they had a wonderful time but then got stressed on the way home they Mummy would be cross because of the messy sand!

There were very many safeguarding issues, I cannot believe they were checked out and signed off.

I did of course take appropriate action but do not know the outcome.

The two children were desperate to have a normal life, friends and school.

I’m sure there are good home educators but any parents that go down this route should be “red flagged” and closely monitored, there is no better way to hide neglect or abuse.
Sara Sharif was a prime example.

Luckygirl3

I am very pro home ed. Done well it produces confident well-educated children.

I find the sausage factory one-size-fits-all approach of state schools, especially large ones, quite disturbing and know how damaging it can be to some children.

One of the biggest assets of home ed is that the child is free from the stranglehold of the narrow national curriculum with its emphasis on academic and STEM subjects and absence of cultural input.

I get the danger that a child in a disturbed home will have no external agencies monitoring their safety and well-being. Better input from LA is the answer to that - I wish ......

I know several home educators and they are doing a great job in every way. They should absolutely have the right to do this.

The argument that home educated children do not know how to socialise keeps being raised but is nonsense. Good home educators get together for group sessions and their children are in the ordinary local sports teams and gyms clubs, and Brownies etc.

I have serious reservations about our current education system and applaud those who are brave enough to take on the task of HE when they feel it is right for their child.

I agree, as you’ll see from my post.

However, I do think we also need different types of formal schooling for different types of children at Secondary level.

Isn’t this what AB is attempting to do?

Also, it’s a little ott to completely dismiss our entire educational system, as it does and has worked for many children.

I absolutely agree that children need schooling which matches them, rather than attempting to mould the child to meet the school requirements. However school is about far more than just academic learning. It’s about preparing children for “real life”. In our working and adult lives we have “rules” and “laws”, so whilst I do agree schools need to fit the child attending, there comes a point where children have to learn that in life things are not always going to be “on their terms”. Companies are not going to amend their processes and policies and daily activities to suit every employee.

However, how would you deal with both further and higher education without the nationwide uniform entrance criteria?

Personally I have no issue with our Primary school education system, it works for most children and most schools have good teachers prepared to utilise the national curriculum flexibly.
If I changed anything, I’d change the approach to formal learning and make it slight later in infant education and far more emphasis on learning to play and socialising.

It’s Secondary school where I think we absolutely fail too many children.

Sago

I started a thread on this matter some years ago.

I was involved with a family who were home educating their children.

In the very immaculate home there was not a picture, piece of artwork or any evidence of homeschooling.

The kitchen was really only used to prepare cold food (cooking made a mess) and there was no outside play.

We took the children to the beach for the day and they had a wonderful time but then got stressed on the way home they Mummy would be cross because of the messy sand!

There were very many safeguarding issues, I cannot believe they were checked out and signed off.

I did of course take appropriate action but do not know the outcome.

The two children were desperate to have a normal life, friends and school.

I’m sure there are good home educators but any parents that go down this route should be “red flagged” and closely monitored, there is no better way to hide neglect or abuse.
Sara Sharif was a prime example.

I couldn’t agree more!

Aveline

I've just checked and we have a very special school, a 'second chance' school for children who couldn't cope with mainstream education for a whole host of reasons. The testimonials are amazing. It really seems to be excellent for more fragile children but I see the fees are £31,000 pa per child. I wonder if local authorities pay for this?

Wouldn’t it be great if they did?
However with budgets being squeezed what would have to be “given” up to fund this.

We have at least two schools like this near me that are LA funded.

My Dil’s DM and step-father live behind it, near the back entrance.

Every single day there are children climbing up on the roof, chucking others bags out of upstairs windows, screaming and swearing in the playground.

It takes amazingly special teachers and Heads to successfully run schools like this and control unacceptable behaviour for children who believe rules don’t apply to them.

Simply “dumping” children who’ve been excluded from other schools due to “poor” behaviour, isn’t really the whole area.

Interestingly though, my DiL’s step-father works in a local boxing gym where these same children are taken once a week and behave so much better there than inside school.

Further afield is another specialised unit where Secondary aged children, who for many many reasons, are not or cannot attend mainstream schools. This “school” spends mornings doing core subjects, maths, English and IT and every afternoon learning some practical trade, these include hair/beauty, mechanics, animal husbandry, the incidents of truancy and poor behaviour are far lower than the school I mentioned earlier.

Whatever the approach though, all children need boundaries, need to feel safe and need to be prepared for adult life (imho).

Homeschooling seems to be talked about more since the Covid lockdowns I have noticed.
Possibly a number of children are being home educated because of anxiety surrounding returning to school, rather than a decision regarding the education itself.
It must be the hardest thing to deal with, seeing your child so distressed and I would hope that there is help for the parents and children dealing with this.

However, how would you deal with both further and higher education without the nationwide uniform entrance criteria?

Home educated children take GCSEs and A levels and enter the tertiary education system and apprenticeships the same as school educated children.

Luckygirl3

*However, how would you deal with both further and higher education without the nationwide uniform entrance criteria?*

Home educated children take GCSEs and A levels and enter the tertiary education system and apprenticeships the same as school educated children.

So, clearly, you’re not totally against the formal curriculum because in order to sit these exams these children will have followed said curriculum.

I’m well aware that these children can arrange to sit formal exams.

As you “rubbished” the curriculum I simply wondered if you had any alternatives for those home schooled children who wished to rejoin further and/or higher education?

Home schooled children get a wider choice of subjects and can choose what exams they take. Or choose n9t to.
What I am saying is that home Ed does not close doors. It gives choice.

Of about 10 families who I know did this, only one came anywhere close to doing it properly.

Most of the rest were woeful.

I was unhappy with my DDs' education and would have done this myself if I had not been tied up working because my late OH was too unwell to work other than very part time after the age of 42.

DD1 - did OK at primary - very bright. Went to a private girls' secondary where the bitchery had to be seen to be believed. Very bored by all but the music and poetry. Then local sixth form college where she did well as she had choices.

DD2 - primary school was hopeless for her. They did nothing but compare her to her very bright older sister and failed to actually notice that she had a brain but was dyslexic! Secondary was no better - no help for her. Bored to tears.

DD3 - Steiner school till age 7. Tolerated primary after that - but took no joy in it. Secondary - only option was a CofE school with its inevitable indoctrination. She just coasted through, doing what she had to to get the bits of paper - what a waste of childhood!

None felt inspired - which is what education should do.

I always wish I had been able to home ed.

I have a friend whose daughter wanted to home school her child, she couldn’t afford to unless she resigned her job and drew benefits.
So the child is being badly let down by the LA who have failed to provide an appropriate school place, 1 hour a day the child has in education.

We home educated from choice nearly 50 years ago.
We never "home-schooled".

What is the purpose of a "school" at home?

We facilitated, encouraged, helped our children grow and flourish.
Over the years I've known maybe 100 home educating families personally.

Of those there were a couple I thought could be doing a better job - but of 100 or so families maybe schools haven't served one or two of them well?

The record of children brought up this way is probably the same as those who went through mainstream education.
Sometimes damage is done within the system and parents are "driven to this" rather than choosing it.
I think there are as many reasons for home education as there are families doing it.

It is important to distinguish the difference between good and bad home ed, and good and bad in school ed.

Each have their good and bad.

Cons:
- When your children are out during the school day they are constantly questioned by other people as to why they aren't in school.
- You have to pay for all materials yourself
- Only one of you can work at any one time (years of two of us working longish part-time hours)
- Lots of (extra) driving to clubs, other home educated friends, activities etc
- You never turn off being an educator/facilitator. (I know I still do this sometimes!) You are always aware of potential "learning opportunities"!

I home schooled my son from 11 and it was the best thing I ever did. One caution you do not get any financial assistance from your local authority so you have to pay for all equipment and resources. My son was only offered a place at a school 7 miles away rather than the local school with all his friends, primarily because he was in a wheelchair and the authority would not then upgrade a school preferring to send SEND children out of county.

We were fortunate that we could afford for me not to work. I accessed the Times Educational Supplement every week, was able to use my local university library, purchased computer interactive programmes and paid for him to attend a computer class where he passes his CLAIT exam. Nowadays resources are more easily available online. We also joined Education Otherwise for home schooled children and went on several educational trips with other HE children.which they organised.

The LEA did a yearly check that my son was being taught at home. This is important to make sure children are not sat doing nothing or playing games or being left alone or forced to work for their parents. I had to produce school work that he had done. Of course, there was some flexibility on the subjects we chose to do.

When they are 16 the authority will pay for these children to go to further education colleges. My son did his City and Guild in Gardening.

Tbh it worked for my son and others who maybe would find school difficult for whatever reason. To gain academic qualifications it is more achievable in the school setting.

Newer cons
- now thete are more families doing this you rarely get the museum/gallery space that we were lucky enough to enjoy.
- Colleges have much less "wiggle room" to let your 14 year old take (say) A level photography and GCSE maths alongside their own full time students and instead you have to travel many miles to sit exams in a "centre".
- when your home educated children decide to home educate you keep watching them (!)

My experience of home schoolers has not filled me with enthusiasm. Yes there are some good examples but school is about more than the national curriculum.

I do believe our primary schools are generally very good. There’s too much emphasis on academic subjects, not enough on learning through play.classes of over thirty with one teacher and no TAs is not appropriate. Inclusion is good but needs resourcing. A class of nine year olds I know had 32 children, one teacher and eight boys with send.

As sago reminds us Sarah Sharrif became home schooled

During Covid our 6 year old GD came to live with us for a few weeks as the home schooling was not going well, our daughter was pregnant and working full time from home along with her husband who sometimes does 18 hour days.

My husband did all the academic work in the mornings and the afternoons were baking, crafts,nature walks etc.

We had a lovely time together and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, when she eventually returned to school she was doing well and had gained more confidence particularly in maths.
She still talks about it now as she remembers her walks and the baking.

It was a happy time and I’m glad we were able to do it but it was very much a “honeymoon” period and being 6 she wasn’t stroppy.
If I had to do it now with her 6 year old brother it would probably be a nightmare!