Home Schooling.

[woolspinster 10]

Hi Kate,

 

I was home educated from the age of 11, my three siblings were all home educated. I wouldn't worry too much about your daughter socialising, there are home educators meetings that you can go to but you will probably find that she will socialise with people you meet in everyday life, they won't all be her own age but that isn't always a bad thing.

 

Withdrawing her from school should not be met with resistance if it is done properly, the legal information should be on the Education Otherwise website. I would also reccomend looking at the Home Eduaction Advisory Service http://www.heas.org.uk/

 

If you want any advice I'm sure my mum would be happy to help, she has home educated four children so has plenty of experience!

[waxonwaxoff 13]

Hi Kate

 

With regards to socialisation I think you will find the opposite is usually the case. It is good for her to maintain her current friendships but you will also find that as you are out and about more often then at home, she will meet people all the time. As has been said above your daughter will most likely make friends with all ages as well as her peers. There is a large number of home educating families in sheffield and they usually arrange a lot of activities and meetings. There are regular weekly meetings and they also usually get together to arrange things the children want to do aswell, like courses and events. A good site for information is educationotherwise.co.uk

 

Most of all just enjoy it.

[hennypenny 10]

Hi Kate

 

There is a very large and active home education network in Sheffield. (It tends to be called Home Education in Britain and Home Schooling in America, so you will get mostly American sites if you google home schooling).

 

We meet regularly at a local adventure playground, last week there were 73 children came along, of all ages from the youngest two both born in April 2008 to the eldest who are around 15. There is a large outdoor space, plus a smaller indoor space where we do craft activities. There is a charge of £1 per family towards the provision of craft materials etc.

 

As well as the weekly social meet, there are quite a few other regular activities such as climbing, drama, swimming, skating and various special interest groups such as computing, Japanese classes, singing etc etc.

 

There is no government funding for home educators at all, everything has to be paid for by the parents, so that is something to consider, although the cost is possibly not too much more than providing the money for a school uniform, plus the various trips and costs of a child in school. I would estimate that I spend around £15-20 per week on various activities for my daughter. There is also the cost of losing one parent's income that has to be considered.

 

The legalities of removing a child from school are very simple, if you are based in England or Wales (it is a little more difficult in Scotland and Northern Ireland), and if your child is in a mainstream school (there are different rules for withdrawing a child from a special school). In this case all you have to do is to write a letter to the proprietor of the school telling them to remove your child from the register as you are currently home educating them. The EO website given has standard letters with all the legal references you need.

 

Many parents find that trying to follow a formal school type education at home is doomed to failure, children don't tend to like it when mummy turns into teacher. Many find instead that if the children are supported in their learning, rather than having learning imposed, that they return to the curiousity driven little people that they were as toddlers, and rediscover the joy of learning for its own sake. For this reason, we recommend people to take time to settle into their own home educating style and to find what works for them, experimenting with different styles.

 

Home education does not take anything like the amount of time of full time schooling, on a one to one basis children take in so much more, research shows that in a school situation children receive an average of 15 minutes individual attention per week! It is not difficult to do more than that at home.

 

If you move into doing a full timetable and a full day immediately, the poor child can be overwhelmed, as so much school time is spent waiting for others to settle, waiting for the teacher to sort out another child, waiting for the teacher to take register etc. It is shown by video analysis that only about 3 hours per day at school is actually spent in a learning situation. Those home educators who do opt for a formal learning style, tend to only timetable half days and leave half the day for social activities, as more can result in burn out. Other home educators such as myself have dropped the timetables altogether and trust our children to learn through following their interests and through fun and exploration, with our support but not our direction. This learning style is called autonomous and it has worked very well for my family.

 

Most home educators opt for a middle ground, with the majority of learning being project based and planned around the child's interests, with formal tuition kept up in basic subjects such as Maths and English.

 

Whichever style you settle on, there are other home educators in the local area following every style and support groups available to chat and get advice.

 

You would be welcome to come along to the local group and to join the local email list where all events are posted. I will PM you with the details.

 

I doubt you would ever regret making the decision to home educate - in the 22 years I have been home educating I have not come across many people who have found problems. In my experience the ones who do find problems are the ones who find it the hardest to let go of the school model of education and try to replicate it at home, instead of embracing the idea that children given freedom will learn in a totally different style. The vast majority of home educators in my experience say it is the best decision they have ever taken

 

If you have any further questions I am always happy to answer them

[smsm 10]

I was home educated from the age of 13 1/2. I find that I missed out a bit on friends by missing the last few years of school as people often carry on those friendships better than ones made younger and I'm not used to socialising with people my age. But your daughter is a lot younger than I was and if you found it to be a problem you could always try letting her go back to school. My advice would be to do what you feel is right but try and keep your daughter socially active through activities, clubs (like guides or similar) etc. I think home education was the right thing for me at the time.

[hennypenny 10]

Hi Smsm

 

It is interesting to hear a home educated person's point of view. Did you join the local home education group at all? The HE teenage group has only really got going quite recently as more children have grown up in the HE group, so perhaps there wasn't so much happening when you were that age.

 

In Sheffield the HE teenage group has recently managed to successfully apply for funding from the Youth Opportunities Fund, and they have organised a lot of different activities such as computing sessions, PGL weekends, self defence class, bouldering, climbing and snowboarding, as well as most of the group doing the Duke of Edinburghs Award, so perhaps there is more available now.

[smsm 10]

I was brought up in Bradford and we knew most people from the small number of home educated people anyway. It sounds good that there may be things happening but you can't force home educated kids to get on together and it's very different from school.

I'm suprised she only asked for the view of parents! I think only the actual home educated children know what it feels like. It's always going to be different being home educated but it can be better.

[SheffieldGirl 10]

I took my daughter out of school in December 2006, due to bullying and being totally disillusioned with the education system. It wasn't a decision we took lightly, we considered it for about a year beforehand and discussed it at length with my daughter.

The main concern we had was socialising and this seems to be the first thing people think about, but there's really nothing to worry about! As Hennypenny says, there's a huge home ed group in Sheffield with lots going on.

Since coming out of school my daughter has grown in confidence and become very independent, she's often out with friends, both schooled and home ed ones.

[katetomtar 10]

i have been considering taking my daughter out of school for the last 18 months or so, hence myself and my daughter have discussed the idea of home schooling openly. she has always liked the idea but not for the reasons i thought as she doesnt just want to watch tv all day she has actually told me she wants to be a fashion designer and so wants to spend her time learning about designing and making clothes. she reads design books at the moment but has very limited time outside of school to follow her interests. I think i would prefer for her to follow her own interests rather than try to bring the school to our home because it is the school system that we are finding so difficult to work with and my daughter becomes frustrated.

She is very mature for her age and is much more comfortable in the company of older children which is possible due to her being brought up with an aunt and uncle that are in secondary school and whom she spends most of her time with.

My daughter does go to dancing school twice a week so will still mix with the children there and she has a lot of friends that are relatives or friends of the family.

I just wanted to say though how grateful i am to everyone who has posted a reply. i really thought i was going to go through this alone as i was total oblivious to the numbers of people home schooling.

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[ssazbabe 10]

I have recently just taken my son out of school and trying to get him in another school this is all due to bullying and the bullies are still in school the system really doesnt work right as my son is still suffering and i feel really let down by everyone including welfare workers who never return calls.My son is 13 and really shouldnt be out of school but is anyone in the system bothered no until they want to take me to court that is.My son was punched in the face a number of times and this was recorded then got sent around school then someone kindly sent it to me so just imagine how i felt watching this i was heart broke the police arrested the boy but then gave him a warning and let him go.He was out of school for 5 days then allowed back in while my son sits at home this cant be right im thinkin of taking this to the star has anyone got any advice for me thanks sarah xxxx

[smsm 10]

I think year 2 is a bit young to have decided on a career so it might be worth trying to encourage other interests and subjects as well as designing, though it's also great to be encouraging her passion. Because I was home educated I only got 3 good GCSEs and 1 bad mark, then I went to college and got 2 A levels and a AS level. I never thought I'd go to Uni but last year I decided to and because I was a mature student I was accepted despite my lack of qualifications. If you think taking your daughter out of school is whats best for her then go for it, but I would recommend you try to keep her vaguely up to date with maths, english, science etc so that she has the option to do GCSEs and A levels if she wants to broaden her prospects a little more. My friend left school in year 1 and only has an equestrian qualification, now she's given up on her childhood passion she is left working in a shop with fewer prospects than she'd like. I don't think the school system is for everyone but I feel I've missed out on some important general knowledge (like where countries are in the world) by not going to school so if it suits your daughter I'd recommend trying to give her a wide breadth of knowledge so she has the option to do whatever she wants to in the future. It's great that you have family members with various expertise, I think if you utilise them your daughter will have a great chance of being a happy well educated little girl.

One side effect of being home educated that I'm pleased about is getting to have a closer than average relationship with my Mum (we were both at home most of the day). She died when I was 17 so I was really grateful to have the extra time with her in my childhood. Home educated kids do miss out a bit on social time with peers but there are other plus sides, a close relationship with family is always good.

[pinkamazing 10]

hello.

 

My daughter was home schooled when she was taken out of school at the age of 14. She learnt so much more and passed her GCSE"s and is now working towards uni.

I would recommend it. Get in touch with the education in sheffield and they will guide you in the right direction.

Good luck.

[RozeePozee 10]

Thanks to all those who have posted - this is a really interesting thread. My little one is only 18 months old but I've yet to hear anything that inspires confidence in the education system - and my partner is currently training to be a teacher!

 

Everyone seems to worry about the lack of socialization with peers. This worries my partner more than me. He's quite sporty too so wonders if home educated children have less opportunities/facilities to get fully involved in sporting activities.

 

I spoke to one parent who was "flexi-schooling" and the headteacher at this sheffield school had agreed for her children to attend school twice a week and be educated at home the rest of the time.

 

Has anyone got any experience or thoughts on this option?