Home schooling

[XRHYSX]

We have thought long and hard about this for a good few years, we do do extra work with them, she learns her spellings, then a few days later she writes a lovely story phonetically!
This is only one of many reasons we have decided to pull her out of primary school for the time being

We know our kids other people don't and we will do what we think is best for them at the time,

I only asked if other people have done it..

Not one person we have spoken to so far has said "yeah we did it and it was a waste of time"

 

[asterix]

Totally agree with all those who point out the pitfalls of not living with your peers.

My formative years were spent in Cyprus during the troubles. Once things hotted up we moved to a house miles from anywhere with no neighbours and I was transported to school and back often in a military vehicle. I cannot remember a single school-friend of those days as I never met any children outside school hours. It was a crap school too. My mother taught me to read and believe it or not, I had to teach myself the alphabet aged 8 (very quickly once I realised I needed it!)

When I eventually went to school in the UK I felt like I'd arrived from another planet! I knew nowt about owt.. My younger brother's first school was in the UK; it was very different for him. When it comes to development those few early years are very precious.

 

[midliferider]

We have an Education system to address the needs of all children. There is an understanding that all children will not be able to attend school for the entire day, sit and listen, take part in activities and do their homework and will leave school with qualifications to find a job. The Special Education system will address those who are not able to access the Education as majority of the children will do. They may be supported in mainstream schools or sometimes in special schools. Even when that fails, there are pupil referral unit (PRU). Some of those units may even undertake home teaching.

If parents are not happy with this system and they feel that school or the authorities are not providing appropriate support for their children, they have access to Tribunals. Before you say, well it is well and good you say that but as parents it is not easy, let me tell you this. Being a parent is not easy. I know it.

Is home education able to provide the same level of support both in terms of academic and social ability? People who support home education will argue that they can. I don’t think we have sufficient evidence to support either side of the argument.

But the question is this?

When you already have a fully working system which is free at the point of delivery, why do you want to home educate children. In my view, those reasons could be any of the following or its combinations.

1. In extreme situations, this is done to hide children who are abused in many ways. Yes, local authority visits these children at home and make sure that they are alive and well and educated appropriately. But the level of scrutiny is less. All social services will tell you that number of referrals goes down in school holidays as there is no one to see them coming with bruises etc.

2. To meet emotional need of parents. Some parents find it difficult to let go of their children. They want to control every aspect of their children lives. They loose that control when children go to school.

3. Some parents need to find a purpose in life. They cannot justify themselves or the society why they are at home. Now home education provides a perfect purpose for their existence.

4. Extreme religious and cultural beliefs which cannot be accommodated in mainstream school settings. Our school system is good at accommodating diverse needs. As a democracy, we have a right to respect their views. But my question is do children have a choice in this decision?

So if anyone wants to home educate their children, my suggestion is this.

Please ask yourself, why do I want to do this? Is it for my benefit or my child’s benefit? Be true to yourself. Because it is impossible to get your childhood back.

 

[screenman]

We have thought long and hard about this for a good few years, we do do extra work with them, she learns her spellings, then a few days later she writes a lovely story phonetically!
This is only one of many reasons we have decided to pull her out of primary school for the time being

We know our kids other people don't and we will do what we think is best for them at the time,

I only asked if other people have done it..

Not one person we have spoken to so far has said "yeah we did it and it was a waste of time"

It is very hard to get people to admit they are or were wrong, even more so in something as important as their child's education.

I wish you all the best with this extremely important life decision.

One thing I know about kids is, no matter how old they get they are still your kids and you will worry about them forever.

 

[swansonj]

Remember all academies and free schools are able to employ unqualified teachers. Some of them might be good but all of them will be cheap alternatives to qualified teachers.

All are able to, some do so, but some do not.

I am (for the time being but that's a different story) a Director and Trustee of a Multi-Academy Trust currently running 3 schools, probably 7 or 8 by September. We have formal policies of only employing qualified teachers and of paying standard national pay scales, among other things. We know this makes us commercially disadvantaged compared to other Academy chains. But then, we're not doing it for profit (we're an offshoot of a Diocesan Board of Education, and we exist only so that when church schools are forced out of the local authority control by Gove's minions, they have a friendly alternative to the commercial Academy chains).