Home education/schooling

[mamaofthree]

Can I subscribe please ? I am looking into home educating at the moment. I really hope we can achieve it! It is great to read all your positive experiences and get answers to loads of questions as it is all a bit daunting still!

Welcome xxx

 

[summer rain]

Sorry only just seen this, welcome Lauki!

A quick update. The LEA agreed no more home visits but then sent another letter saying that 'all the other families in the area' agree to regular monitoring and home visits and we could come to some type of arrangement. I waited a long while and then sent a reply yesterday asking them for the legal justification for their insistence that they have a legal duty to monitor by way of regular home visits with kids present etc. I already have it in writing they won't be doing any more home visits so they can't backtrack on that now but really just want them to admit their policies are something they just made up and not law. I also wrote that I will be complaining to the ombudsman if they don't leave us alone after saying they would. Let's see what they say. They are in Education Otherwise's sight line now anyway, nothing annoys then more than a bullying LEA xx

 

[mamaofthree]

Sounds like victory to me Hun! Some LEA's do seem to back down once they've tried to bully but realise the parent knows their rights...Cardiff are very much like that. Here's hoping they leave you alone, especially with lo's arrival approaching good on you for standing your ground!

Our neighbours are a nuisance now we've moved to staffs, they keep saying things like surely home ed can't be legal, and it's got to the point where I'm worried to let them play out in case we are reported. I've heard terrible things about south staffs home ed team.

Lauki, how are you doing?

Xxx

 

[lynnikins]

Im wondering if i'll get hassle in September when Nate is 5 and legally due to be educated in some way to check up if im actually doing anything with him lol.

 

[summer rain]

Lynnikins which borough area are you in? They can vary enormously. They should not be putting pressure on to learn formally or to complete large volumes of written work and there is no requirements to follow any type of curriculum or anything like that (and this is at any age). It's not actually the LEA's duty to monitor the educational provision at all, its not in their remit. One of the things that really ticked me off is that my local authority started saying that my 5 year old was being offered a narrow and insular learning experience and not following a curriculum or a varied enough range of subjects. Oh and the volume of work he had produced in the first few months of year one was apparently, 'too low'. This is a 5 year old who knows how to draw and paint and write documents on the PC, how to save, open and delete them, has access to a wide variety of workbooks on different subjects, has loads of art materials which he knows if he is sensible he is free to use at any time (and he does) and has three different complete reading schemes as well as loads of other books (and we regularly go to the library). All of this he tried to show the lady who visited who was very disinterested! Anyway thankfully I haven't heard from them in nearly two months now, the birds are tweeting shall we say. Will be interesting to see if they do reply to my last letter to them and what with but at the end of the day I have several things in writing from them now which they cannot backtrack on, including confirmation they will not take legal action against us or get other agencies involved because they admit from our side we have provided more than enough evidence that an education is taking place. xx

 

[3boys]

hi guys i was wondering if you had room for 1 more, I am currently expecting baby no. 6 and have been homeschooling my eldest 2 boys for about 3 years now. x

 

[3boys]

I have just read a few of the previous posts and i have to say that here in ireland i only have positive things to say about the education officers who came to assess my boys, i was assessed by a different person for each of my boys and they were lovely, really interested in everything the boys were doing and both reports were so positive. I guess im really blessed to be living in Ireland.

 

[lynnikins]

im in North Northamptonshire

 

[summer rain]

im in North Northamptonshire

I have heard mixed things about Northants CC. Certainly their website contains a lot of incorrect information and the form which they make out you have to fill in within 4 weeks of starting home ed is overstepping the mark and many of the questions within it are as well such as asking what level of the national curriculum children are up to in English and Maths, which contradicts their own info about not having to follow the national curriculum and is way beyond their remit according to the government guidelines . I personally would not tell them you're home educating and stay under the radar and if they find out somehow then don't fill in their form but instead look into writing an education philosophy and send that to them instead, legally they must accept an Ed Phil as evidence of an education taking place. There does seem to be a large active home ed group in your area so perhaps get in contact with them? Xx

 

[summer rain]

I have just read a few of the previous posts and i have to say that here in ireland i only have positive things to say about the education officers who came to assess my boys, i was assessed by a different person for each of my boys and they were lovely, really interested in everything the boys were doing and both reports were so positive. I guess im really blessed to be living in Ireland.

I think it varies so much within the UK which is very unfortunate. Home ed 'interest groups' as my council calls them have repeatedly lobbied for the government to legislate so that all local authorities are forced to follow the national guidelines and make these clear to parents and while the government do say that it would be wise for local authorities to liase with local parents, such interest groups and other neighbouring local authorities they are for some reason loathe to put anything in law. My local authority is one of the worst but there are worst ones out there, such as those local authorities who have placed home education in their departments dealing with child abuse or safeguarding vulnerable children as the assumption is home ed is a cover for child abuse and neglect xx

 

[lynnikins]

The LA know we home-educate as we initally applied for school places up here for ds1 and then refused them, Ive not had anything futher since i phoned the school to refuse his place though

I know quite a few Home-ed Mums around the area now and will be seeing them this weekend so will ask them more about it

 

[summer rain]

If they know and haven't contacted you then I would just leave them be. One of the neighbouring LAs is like that; don't usually bother families they know are home educating but if you contact them and get them on your case they tend to give you a lot of hassle and its hard to get rid of them. Bear in mind that some home educating parents welcome LAs being very interfering and dictating what they do and that is completely up to them, but I have learned the hard way that if you have a different approach in any way then you will be in such an LA's bad books and because other families in the area see nothing wrong with their approach they will see nothing wrong with their approach either. Whereas in other areas where home edders know their rights the LA tend to be less pushy and overbearing and don't try anything on xx

 

[Tacey]

Thought there might be people in the know on here. My childminder is happy to keep Alice on in September when she would be going into Reception. She said yesterday that she thinks she'll get in touch with Ofsted to see if there's anything she should be doing as she has to deliver the EYFC for under 5s. My strong suspicion is that she won't, as it's my responsibility, but understandably, she's concerned about doing something that Ofsted will criticise. Is there any official line on this I can direct her to? I'm wary about getting in touch with the LA or Ofsted directly, not least because we're planning to stay under the radar.

 

[onlypink]

Hi I'm new around here. I have a friend who uses the site and when I was talking to her about my concerns she recommended I come here as she knew there was a group for home ed that may be able to help.

I'm a mother of 3 young boys, aged 7, 5 and 3, I'm also pregnant with a 4th boy.
My middle son hates school and I'm not sure at what point you start to think perhaps it isn't a normal child hood dislike, or a phase and might be something else. I always wanted to home ed but my husband wasn't keen.

My 5 year old always enjoyed pre-school and was happy there. I have never had this issue before. He was excited to join his big brother at school in September, but by the time they went back in October after half term he had decided he didn't like it. I thought it was a phase and would take time to settle. That he had perhaps realised that he wasn't going back to pre-school and missing it there.

Since then he has got worse and worse. He says every day that he doesn't want to go and simply states that he isn't going! Some days it means I have to physically dress him, keep hold of him the whole way to school and in the play ground or he will turn around and attempt to run home! Then hand his teacher his bag because he wont take it from me saying "no I don't need it, I'm not going".
It makes me so sad to do this all the time.

He has lots of friends, no bully problems, gets on well with his teachers. He doesn't mind doing the work, and we have books at home that you can buy with maths and English work in and he happily sits and does a few pages in there, or his home work or spellings at home. He is doing very well so its not like his struggling and becoming upset by that while his there.

My biggest concerns about home ed is that we wont get on well and then I'll lose his place at school and live in a small village and don't drive. No way could I get him to another school. And if he did have to return to school I wouldn't want him to have fallen behind due to an unsuccessful attempt at home ed.
Also that if I keep him home they will all want to stay home, that thought is daunting when I'm used to having those free mornings and days now.
What if I can't do a good enough job?
When his at school his really well behaved then he comes home and lets off steam. I don't know if his behaviour would improve at home if he didn't have school, or if he would just be in his 'letting off steam' mode all the day. That wouldn't make for a successful learning environment.
Plus with the new baby due in October will it be disruptive to him to have the baby there while his trying to learn. Will I not be able to give him the attention and education that he needs.
I know that its not all sitting at a desk learning like it is at school but I'd want to have a certain amount of structure and evident learning taking place for my own peace of mind.

But mostly though I worry that it will just be a phase and I'll have made the decision too quickly because it breaks my heart seeing him struggling to get away from me on the way there, pleading with me to take him home again.

 

[lynnikins]

could you approach the school about flexi-schooling for a time to see if it helps, have a chat with his teacher see if they can sugest anything to help him. But at the end of the day hes your child and you know him best. If one of my children was being like that about school then I wouldnt be pushing them to go as children learn best when they are happy, But your son might have the idea that he can just play at home all day thinking you wont put structure in place and want to stay home for that reason

 

[onlypink]

With out telling him that completely not going to school is an option I have said to him that I would get into trouble if I just stopped sending him and that if he didn't go he wouldn't be able to play, he'd still have to learn with and he says he knows and would like to learn with me. He does enjoy the work based things we do at home, his bright and sociable, he just really seems to dislike the school environment.
My husband seems to start coming round to the idea then changes his mind. After yet another morning of him trying to run home, I told my husband and he just got annoyed about how long its carrying on and that he will have looked 'like a baby' because he cried.
I wish I knew what to do for the best. I feel like if he doesn't go it would probably calm down some of his other behaviour, because its like his having a blow out from his day when he gets home.
I'm trying to tempt him with all the things that are lined up over the next few weeks. They have sports day tomorrow, a trip to the zoo at the beginning of July, a special school dinner and a disco during the last week of term. Then thats it for 6 weeks.
If it were anything other than school I wouldn't push him to go but his education is important and I worry about making the wrong decision. If I take him out and its not right for him then I have to try to get him back into school. While he is registered with a school I feel its important he goes, especially with so many people telling me its just a phase. But how long would a phase last? I mean its been going on getting worse since October.

 

[lynnikins]

You could try doing a few weeks home-ed during the summer holidays to see how he deals with learning in a home enviroment on a more full time basis and if he takes to it then de-reg in september if you think it will work out if not you have the option to put him back in school without loosing his place if that makes sense.

I was home-ed myself and never got " summer holidays " we had our school year divided into 4wk blocks , 4 wks learning 1 week off, and four weeks off around christmas/newyear

 

[Pennyb]

Subscribing to thread as really interested in this.

 

[Squiggy]

I live in the USA and I have every intention of home-schooling my children.

As someone who went from being a straight-A student in private school to a straight-F student in public schools I absolutely refuse to feed my children to the public school system. I will have to ensure they grow their social skills elsewhere because I want them to be respectful, respectable and actually educated! Those things could never be accomplished in the public schools we have available here. There is no discipline, there isn't even a controlled environment where students understand what authority is.

So, yes, my children will be home-schooled. It'll certainly make year-round vacationing easier!

 

[summer rain]

Just another update we are planning to start our home ed again tomorrow. We have had nearly a year of unschooling but now we're going back to semi-structured. If this doesn't work out we will go back to unschooling again. We have got a mix of CGP workbooks (only for ICT this time), Galore park textbooks, Carol Vorderman workbooks (just for science for my 6 year old), Schofield and Sims English workbooks for my 6 year old, Conquer Maths (it's an online interactive maths curriculum), Andrew Brodie Geography and Spelling photocopiable resource/teacher books and a photocopiable history resource book by the same publisher as Andrew Brodie for my 6 year old. So a real selection . At the moment we are not on the LA radar despite being on it before as they decided to give up and completely stop contacting us but of course it might not stay that way forever because they may change staff in the future, but for now it is so nice to be able to home educate purely on our terms let me tell you! Xx