Does anybody here in the UK home educate their child?

Question

Does anybody here in the UK home educate their child?

Answer 1

I think that we all educate our children every day, we all send them to school, but their real education is in your hands!

Answer 2

I was home educated for 4 years and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I had the advantage that both my parents were academic so could help me even with difficult subjects. I knew a lot of other children who were being home educated and most, if not all, agree it was very beneficial.

It's not for everyone of course, and it does come with some disadvantages. If you live in a rural area your child may not get much of a chance to socialise, but these things can be offset by joining clubs and organisations (I was a scout and a guide) for young people/children. It can be expensive if you want your child to take GCSEs or A levels (although A levels can be done at sixth-form college so your child may not have to go back to school to do them.) I was home educated from when I was 10 to when I was 14, so this wasn't an issue for me as I went back to school for GCSEs.

If you're determined and do your research you can provide top quality education that is tailored to your child's individual needs and interests. So good luck if this is a road you choose to take, I hope it works well for you.

Answer 3

Yes people do

Answer 4

No

Answer 5

Yes, people do. It's believed that there are currently c. 150,000 home-educated kids in the UK. I've seen figures quoting between 0.5% and 3% (depending on the location) for the number of school-aged kids who are being educated outside of any school system.

If you're looking for information etc on home-ed in the UK, take a look @ http://www.education-otherwise.org/ and http://www.home-education.org.uk/

Incidentally, whilst some of Flanellette's information holds true, more or less**,  for home-education in England and Wales, you don't say whereabouts in the UK you are, but the procedures for going about home-educating differ in Scotland ( see http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk ) and, I think, N. Ireland.

**despite Flanelette's own experience, there is no legal obligation on any education authority to oversee, supervise, monitor or, in any way, assist with home education. And no legal obligation on you to tell them that you are home-educating your child(ren). And your child will have heaps of people in their life who can give them a reference, if they need one - my sister got into uni without any references by starting with a part-time course for which no references were needed and then the tutor approached her with an unsolicited offer of a place on the fulltime degree course. Hmm, I think those might deal with all the 'facts' Flanelette offered!

Answer 6

Me {waves}  ... and thousands of others :-)  

p.s. You do NOT have to inform your LA (LEAs don't exist any more) and if they do find out they have no right to demand home visits every 6 months or at all. There's plenty of advice available on-line so you can find out about your legal rights before some LA busy body starts telling you lies.

Answer 7

no, but i used to be an education social worker so i know a bit about it, what do you need to know?

you will need to inform the LEA that you are home tutoring, they will viist you, probably every 6 months and you need to demonstrate that you are able to meet your child's educational needs. however, you dont need to follow the national curriculum and to be honest, little will be done to 'test' that you know what you're doing. if the LEA feel that you are not meeting your child's educational needs, they can take legal action, in the same way that they would if you were not sending your child to school and had no home tutoring in place, BUT, they have to 'prove' that you are not meeting your child's needs.

im sure that having come to a decision to home tutor your child, you will be putting in the resources and time needed to give your child a rounded education.

one of the things you will need to consider from the child's needs point of view, is boredom and social isolation. ensure that you have resources and structures in place to counteract this. you may also need to consider how the child will give references to further educattion colleges and/or employers when they have been tutored at home rather than at school.

Answer 8

yeah my brother's friend's sister was home-educated.