Home schooling

[marley2580]

I was actually home educated myself, as were my brothers and sisters, therefore I have no doubt at all about the merits of home ed. I have to say, however, that the biggest thing that puts me off school is that at the age of 8 my little sister chose to go to school. I saw her change before my eyes from a little girl with loads of self confidence, who loved to read and to write her own stories; to a little girl that wouldn't set foot outside the house without makeup, who had (and still has) very little self confidence and who hated reading and writing.

I think one of the things that stands out for me is that when I was a child we were in a big museum and saw the school children going round. I turned to my mum and said "mum, why is the teacher asking all the questions? Doesn't she know?" because the way that we learned was by asking questions, not by being asked questions. This is how I want my children to learn as well.

 

[feeble]

You can apply to sit the 11 plus at a local school, they are usually fine with it.

Most colleges have gcses

 

[indy and lara]

Depending on where you are Feeble I think flexi schooling could be quite difficult to implement. I know that my teaching timetable is pretty flexible so I could not guarantee I would be doing X. Y and Z at a certain time which would make planning times in and out pretty hard.

As for star charts, I am not a fan and never use them unless they are part of the agreed support with Ed Psych for a child.

 

[sophxx]

how do you deal with exams in home schooling ? like the 11 plus? I never done one myself as I was afraid of failing (no self esteem but wasnt a stupid child just shy). These get you in to grammar schools here. And later if you are home schooling a secondary school pupil how does it work with qualifications?

11+ alot of primary's schools here don't prep children for it so it's down to parents to pay a tutor or get practices tests most children here have private choaching for it so it would be the same if you homeschool then you just phone and enter your child

Oxford open learning offer gcse distant learning and so do some schools on the net. You can also enter your own child and here we have a alternative school run by the council and your can enter through them x

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Depending on where you are Feeble I think flexi schooling could be quite difficult to implement. I know that my teaching timetable is pretty flexible so I could not guarantee I would be doing X. Y and Z at a certain time which would make planning times in and out pretty hard.

As for star charts, I am not a fan and never use them unless they are part of the agreed support with Ed Psych for a child.

I would assume something like Flexi schooling would have to be done with some form of statement not "Just because" the parent wanted too? x

 

[freckleonear]

There are lots of different options for GCSEs or other qualifications. You can study from textbooks and enter the exams as an external candidate, you can take distance learning courses or adult learner courses at a local school or college. Personally I skipped GCSEs completely and did A levels when I was 15. I chose my own subjects, decided which syllabuses to use, made the entry arrangements with the exam boards and exam centre, and studied by myself from textbooks. Being able to take responsibility for my own learning was a fantastic advantage of home education.

 

[feeble]

Yeah, the idea is that the parents keep in good touch with the school and literally have a flexible schedule that they can all work around together.

It means there is one less child in clustered classes, the child does not miss out on things like science projects and group work and the teacher can be confident that the child is receiving good one on one care

It's becoming quite popular, the school still get the same funding for a child regardless of the amount they are in school so you end up with smaller classes, happier children and parents being an active part of school life.

Everything is interchangeable, it's FLEXIble

 

[indy and lara]

Yeah, the idea is that the parents keep in good touch with the school and literally have a flexible schedule that they can all work around together.

It means there is one less child in clustered classes, the child does not miss out on things like science projects and group work and the teacher can be confident that the child is receiving good one on one care

It's becoming quite popular, the school still get the same funding for a child regardless of the amount they are in school so you end up with smaller classes, happier children and parents being an active part of school life.

Everything is interchangeable, it's FLEXIble

What I was trying to say was that as the teacher, I can see this being very difficult to implement. At my end. For example, I do not teach the same things on a set day. One week Science may be on a Tuesday at 10am but the next week it is at 2pm. Or we may come in from break and it is obvious that a certain subject is not going to work as planned at that point so I do a quick reshuffle. So while the parent of the flexibly schooled child may be expecting to come in after lunch on the Tuesday for Music, I may have changed it at very short notice. I would be very resistant to losing this kind of flexibility in the way I teach. We have moved to a new curriculum in Scotland where teaching tends to be more topic based and planning everything ahead is not as possible as it once was.

 

[feeble]

What age group do you teach out of interest?

 

[indy and lara]

Primary. Anywhere from Nursery to P7 (Y6). I like to teach across the board!

 

[summer rain]

For the ladies that do home school I have a few questions:

Where do you get your text books from and the national curriculum to follow?
If I had local authority checking what 'evidence' do I have to provide?
Will it still be easy enough to get them into a secondary school?
For a secondary I was thinking of a grammar school, will they still be able to sit there 11+?
How do I find out about the groups in my area?

Sorry for all the questions and Thanks in advance.

Most workbooks/textbooks sold in bookshops nowadays will say if they are based on the national curriculum and what 'boxes they tick' in regard to meeting x, y and z requirements of the national curriculum, so this is how we do it really.

If you inform the local authority that you are home educating it depends which local authority it is; many just want to see evidence of learning regardless of what that may be-so they would be fine with seeing what books your children are reading at the moment, artwork or creative writing; others want to see more formal written work and completed workbooks etc. Also some do like to see a timetable and some type of written evaluation of the work done. Some will even go so far as to say you have to rigidly follow the national curriculum and be qualified to teach-this is completely wrong.

There is no legal obligation to provide any evidence to them really-even if you have chosen to contact them; and you are under no legal obligation to allow them into your home either, but many parents if they have one of the more 'nosy' local authorities in their area just go along with things a bit and produce the bare minimum evidence they think is required; i.e. mocking up a timetable on the PC and producing a few pieces of written work to their expected standard just for a quiet life and to be able to enjoy home educating how they want for 99.9% of the time with no interference. To be honest I have done this a bit myself, though I have been blunt with the lady that I won't be doing a topic/art project based curriculum as it just doesn't work for us and she finally dropped that advice. My local authority is probably the only one in the UK that insists on visiting every term (most will visit once every 1-2 years), but overall they are ok, and its good in a way because the boys look forward to the lady coming and are keen to do their work to impress her.

AFAIK, and I know quite a few people who home-educated for the entire primary school period and then put their kids into secondary it is pretty easy to get them into a secondary, and if its a state school you don't usually have to provide any evidence to this end. Many local authorities while they have to allow home-ed really want all kids in school so will jump through hoops and make places suddenly available should you decide you want your child to go to school at any point really.

If you google 'education otherwise', they are an organisation that have a paid membership where they will send you details of all the groups in your area as well as of those home-edding families who have chosen to make their details public. There are quite a few other home-edding organisations of various religions and Christian denominations who also have their own websites and groups in various places. xx

 

[summer rain]

There are lots of different options for GCSEs or other qualifications. You can study from textbooks and enter the exams as an external candidate, you can take distance learning courses or adult learner courses at a local school or college. Personally I skipped GCSEs completely and did A levels when I was 15. I chose my own subjects, decided which syllabuses to use, made the entry arrangements with the exam boards and exam centre, and studied by myself from textbooks. Being able to take responsibility for my own learning was a fantastic advantage of home education.

Agreed. Many further education colleges and even universities will accept home-educated kids without formal exams, if they see plenty of evidence of work and capability. I know of quite a few home-educated kids where this has been the case xx

 

[Dragonfly]

Power to you if you can do it then do it.

 

[feeble]

Primary. Anywhere from Nursery to P7 (Y6). I like to teach across the board!

I would say that a child under senior school age (12) spending time with its parents in an attached, one on one environment, is more important that missing a particular lesson...

I think it's important to get a broad range of subjects of course, but I think that attachment is much more important.

It's when secondary school kicks in with rigid timetables that real flexibility would kick in, at junior school level, I would just have them out of school for x amount of days a week and ask to be informed of school trips.

 

[indy and lara]

Primary. Anywhere from Nursery to P7 (Y6). I like to teach across the board!

I would say that a child under senior school age (12) spending time with its parents in an attached, one on one environment, is more important that missing a particular lesson...

I think it's important to get a broad range of subjects of course, but I think that attachment is much more important.

It's when secondary school kicks in with rigid timetables that real flexibility would kick in, at junior school level, I would just have them out of school for x amount of days a week and ask to be informed of school trips.

In which case it would be a lot harder to say that they were just attending school for x, y and z as these subjects may not always happen as planned. How would you plan then for Maths/ Language teaching at home? If in school I introduced rounding to 100 on Monday but your child didn't do Mondays, how would you see them managing the next day they are in school if the lesson continues on? Same with writing a story one day and redrafting it the next lesson?

Just curious as to how you see the 2 meshing together. Obviously there will be the odd child off a day here and there and needing to catch up but this would be a regular situation.

 

[feeble]

I'm confused, do you mean at secondary level or junior level?

 

[sophxx]

I know the Steiner school mr us offers flexi schooling you pay for how many days you want your child to attend until age 8 they only do mornings so the child isn't away from parents to long and has the chance to do other things. X

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

But you cant have them attend a school and then just take them out willy nilly. I doubt many schools would accept a pupil that would not be attending full time.

 

[indy and lara]

I'm confused, do you mean at secondary level or junior level?

In Primary.I explained how I work and I can't see a good way to manage this. If you are saying you would just do a few days a week, how would you manage the situations above?

 

[sophxx]

But you cant have them attend a school and then just take them out willy nilly. I doubt many schools would accept a pupil that would not be attending full time.

I know a few ladies whos children are at state school and take there children out two set days a week one to attend a Steiner kindergarden and the other to attend a forset school they haven had many problems and tge kindergarden has over 20 children so it must be happening alot they catch up with work at home in the afternoon x