What do you think about the upcoming homeschooling proposed bill?
Posted by ZydrateAnatomic@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 90 comments
[removed]
Posted by ZydrateAnatomic@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 90 comments
[removed]
Prana_ceramics@reddit
I agree with it. I only know one person who homeschools her two children and is pregnant with a third. They go travelling to learn about conservation and animals and walk on the beach and count pennies in the shop. It’s a lovely life for the kids but they have no friends and can’t write.
Yorkshire_Roast@reddit
I don't have children but I think this debate is very narrow and one sided. There is so much emphasis on home education and comparatively little criticism of mainstream education. As someone who was forced to spend five years at a school where I was left to struggle both academically and socially, was mercilessly bullied and came out of it with horrendous mental health, I'm all for parents being able to take their children out if they want/ need to. Should there be checks and balances? Absolutely. But let's not pretend that schools and teachers are the ideal situation for everyone. Schools can be extremely harmful for a lot of children.
OnTurtlesAndThings@reddit
I know people who home school for this reason, but they all do it properly and aren't nut cases so I can't see that this bill will negatively effect them. One was speaking in support of it at Christmas because it drives him mad that parents abusing the ability to take their kids out of school and claim to be home schooling them while doing anything but gives the rest of homeschooling parents a bad name.
They have three kids, one in mainstream school, two at home - because they don't actually believe one model is always better than the other, just that different children thrive in different environments and it's a choice that should be made at an individual level.
glasgowgeg@reddit
If you're not qualified to be hired as a teacher by your local authority, you're not qualified to homeschool a child.
bluepizzabooks@reddit
I’m a secondary school teacher working in quite a deprived area and unfortunately ‘home schooling’ has become a way for a growing number of parents to not send their children to school while avoiding fines. Many of them aren’t learning anything. I live in the area that I teach in and know (through the grape vine) that some ‘home schooled’ children are literally just being left to their own devices and are sitting at home playing games all day. I’m all for home schooling where children are actually learn, but we need something to stop vulnerable kids falling through the cracks.
lucybaell@reddit
Your unique perspective is very insightful on this ❤️
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
"Falling through the cracks" ... you do reliase that your teaching job along with most jobs in the next 5 years are going to be replaced by AI.
Don't worry about cracks.... there is a chasm coming.
bluepizzabooks@reddit
Until they invent AI robots that can physically be in the classroom with students, I think I’m pretty safe.
Spottyjamie@reddit
Spell checking jobs still needed though ;-p
zendayaismeechee@reddit
There’s been a huge rise in homeschooling in the UK and while I’m not against it as a concept done correctly, education is a human right and some parents are just not able to do it. I don’t know the bill inside out but from what I’ve read its main aim is to ensure kids aren’t being neglected or abused under the guise of ‘homeschooling’. Can’t see how that’s a bad thing tbh. Look at Sara Sharif. Look at the way homeschooling is done in the US with some states having no rules whatsoever; scroll through TikTok and you’ll see parents proudly showing off their ‘homeschool day’ and it’s basically doing nothing, some of these kids can’t even write their own names or read at 10/11. I don’t want that for the kids of this country.
WeeklyPermission239@reddit
Honestly, many parents are not able to do it. I say that not to be insulting - I am including perfectly nice, caring, intelligent people in that number - but teaching is a skilled profession and people train for years to learn how to do it.
In the same way that I can't fly a plane, many parents can't teach - and that includes primary. Knowing things is very different to building and delivering a coherent curriculum.
jordsta95@reddit
Exactly this.
When we have a child, I will have no hesitation around homeschooling if the kid is being bullied or is suffering academically in school for one reason or another (e.g. they are not able to keep up with the classes or they want to learn but the classes go too slow due to disruptive classrooms).
But even though both myself and my spouse are quite well versed in our own specialisms, we still both agree a private tutor coming in at least two or three times a week is a must.
Sure, we can help our child when it comes to researching a topic, we can read over their work and point out grammatical/mathematical/etc. errors. But we wouldn't be able to adequately teach a subject.
We could teach music or art, as the outcome of such lessons are subjective. But teaching maths or English is a different ball game. Even if we can teach such subjects, it doesn't mean we should. Teaching is a profession for a reason. It's not just about reciting knowledge or covering a syllabus. It's about imparting the knowledge, and ensuring it's done so in a way the child actually learns and understands it.
OdBlow@reddit
I’m a qualified engineer, do a lot of voluntary work with children as well as studied non-stem subjects at A-level and did a module in a foreign language at uni.
I come from a family of teachers and absolutely couldn’t give my child(ren) the same level of education as I received without at least giving up my full-time job. I’d also need a full thought out curriculum designed by people who know what to teach and at what level. Kind of sounds like they’re better off coming to me for help with homework and I should leave the teaching to the group of professionals who specialise in that!
-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit
Always wanted to homeschool my children but wasn’t financially in a position to. My oldest child has a lot of health problems as she has a rare autoimmune blood disease and misses a lot of school die to illness/hospital stays, so homeschooling had always seemed appealing. Then Covid happened and homeschooling it was. It was horrible, I’m a smart person but frankly pretty rubbish at teaching, I kind of thought I’d be ok at it as I’d taught her to read. and write and do basic maths before starting school but never factored in as the children got older just how much of what I learned in school I’d forget myself. I’m so very glad I never got to actually homeschool properly.
Fun-Marionberry9907@reddit
I’m a teacher. I can’t teach primary. Can’t teach most of secondary adequately either. We have specialisms for a reason!
FamilyTechCreator@reddit
I actually agree with you on the core point, not everyone is suited to home educating. It takes a lot of time, patience and intention, and when it’s done poorly, it absolutely can disadvantage children.
I completely understand why safeguarding is part of the conversation. Cases like that are horrific, and no one wants children slipping through the cracks. My concern is more around how some of the powers might be used in practice. For example, the idea that the LA could require access to the home based on suspicion, where that suspicion could potentially be triggered simply by a parent not consenting to a visit, doesn’t sit entirely comfortably with me.
I’m not against oversight, but I think it needs to be proportionate and clearly defined, so families who are doing things properly don’t feel like they’re being treated as suspect by default.
zendayaismeechee@reddit
Yeah and like I say I only know the basics of the bill and I wasn’t homeschooled nor do I ever particularly want to homeschool my kids. So I’m more than happy to listen to people who it’s going to affect and hear their genuine criticisms and worries. Most of what I’ve seen so far has been quite polarising and definitely tinged with that ‘the government want to take our freedoms etc’ kind of conspiracy. But I absolutely take your point, hopefully it does safeguard those who need it and doesn’t impact those who are doing everything right
Spottyjamie@reddit
Theres a rise that imo correlates with the anti vax, anti trans, pro dogs can do what they like, chemtrail, anti climate change brigade
It scares me how many folk in my area have deregistered their kids from schools for seemingly no valid reasons except they want their child’s to be free
bluepizzabooks@reddit
Some parents think that going to the shop and counting the money to pay counts as an education!
WeeklyPermission239@reddit
Yep. "Life skills my child couldn't learn in the classroom!" and it's just skills most parents teach as well as school, rather than instead of it.
zendayaismeechee@reddit
I think that’s such a good point. A lot of parents expect the school to do everything - like yes life skills are important but you need to do that outside of school hours too 😂
PootMcGroot@reddit
The two core changes I'm aware of is a child has to be properly registered as being homeschooled, and in some circumstances, a family must be given permission to be allowed to homeschool, with the child's interest being the core deciding factor.
These seem like common sense changes.
Yorkshire_Roast@reddit
School is not in a lot of children's interests. A lot of teachers are extremely abusive. Furthermore, how much is a child likely to learn if they are shoved into a class with 35 other children, many of whom can't or won't behave. State schools can be absolutely vile places. My secondary school education damaged my mental health.
AussieManc@reddit
Yorkshire_Roast@reddit
I said a lot of them are. I didn't say they were all like that. I experienced a lot of mental abuse at the hands of some of my teachers.
PootMcGroot@reddit
The replacement for that isn't someone completely unqualified who likely did badly in school themselves.
You seem to be projecting your experience as "typical".
It absolutely isn't.
Yorkshire_Roast@reddit
I never said my experiences were typical. Mainstream school obviously works for some people and I'm not saying we need to abolish the education system and have everyone be home educated. I just get a little bit tired of this idea that mainstream school is always the best option when it absolutely isn't for a lot of people. Those of us who were damaged by our experiences are just as entitled to our opinions as everyone else and my opinion is that children shouldn't be forced into a system that damages them.
Ok-Dependent-637@reddit
And yet for some bizarre reason every country in the world seems to carry on with this ridiculous system of education, socialisation and life skills... Baffling isn't it?
Early_Enthusiasm_787@reddit
You have no idea about schools do you.
dan_g97@reddit
I think you'll find the vast majority teachers are in the career because they genuinely care about the children. Generalising the profession based on a few bad apples is absolutely not fair.
cup-of-tea-76@reddit
Proper quality home schooling takes some serious dedication planning and attention, forgive me for being cynical but I’d wager a bet and say that the majority that are taking their kids out of the system in order to educate themselves are not able to dedicate, plan nor give it the attention it needs
I’m not against it at all but gotta know what you are fucking doing and there needs to be some serious measurements of a parents ability and commitment to do so
bluepizzabooks@reddit
I agree with this. You don’t know what you don’t know. I’ve got a pretty good education including an undergrad and an MA. Did well in my GCSEs, got an A in maths. Tried helping my son with his maths homework. We were doing indices. I didn’t have a Scooby-Doo
Dimac99@reddit
I don't know what they've done to long division since I was in primary school, and for that reason, I'm out.
(Seriously, wtf?)
One_Complex6429@reddit
They should address why so many parents feel the need to home school.
ActionBirbie@reddit
In 99%+ cases, home-schooling is a net negative for the child;
Hopefully it does mean that it's far too onerous to take a child out of mainstream society like that (let's face it, that's the consequence of home-schooling).
Ambitious_Damage_214@reddit
Where is your evidence that home educating (not the same as home schooling, but what I think you mean) is a net negative for 99% of children?
My home educated children have several extra-curricular lessons a week with school-educated peers. They know maybe 40 of our neighbours and well over 100 people in our town. About 30 other children come to our house reasonably regularly for play dates (not all at once!), only a third of whom are educated at home. They are involved in community projects as well as getting to do ordinary things like just spend an hour in the playground.
Adults they know include teachers, doctors, their local councillor, a postman, nurses, a health visitor, financiers, coders, retired people, disabled people, carers, Christians, atheists, Muslims, leftwingers, right wingers, professors, people with learning disabilities, straight people, gay people, muti-millionaires, people in social housing... they are in less of a "bubble" than many adults.
They are more a part of mainstream society than I was at primary school. And a lot more than I was at a fairly elite senior school.
UnlikelyPie8241@reddit
With the shortage of teachers in school It won’t be too lolling before remote education becomes a thing.
Ambitious_Damage_214@reddit
It's a terrible bill, and not just for home educators.
It introduces digital IDs by stealth. Every child in England and Wales will have a digital ID.
It changes the balance of power between government and parents for every child in England and Wales. Until now parents have been legally responsible for their children's education. The state provides free schools which most parents choose to make use of. But the parents decide unless/ until they mess up seriously enough that the state steps in - the same balance of power that we have with social services. This bill puts the government in charge of every child's education. The government gets to decide as the default.
This bill also allows these untrained and unqualified workers to enter the homes of EHE children. They can't force their way in, but effectively if you don't let them in when they ask, that is sufficient reason for them to legally force you to send your child to a school of their choice. No other organization has such power. The police need a warrant or urgent and specific reasons to enter. Social services likewise. Until now the assumption is that we can choose who enters our home unless there's good reason to suspect a serious problem. This bill changes that.
Respectfully, if you don't know the difference between Home Schooling and Home Educating / EHE then you probably don't know enough about the legal framework of home educating or about this bill to assess whether it's a good bill or a terrible one!
Obviously that doesn't mean you might not have very valid ideas about good or bad home education that you've seen, or good or bad schools. I can see a case for more checks on home education (and certainly, better training of the LA workers who assess it is desperately needed), but this bill is government overreach.
Furthermore, the staff and the budget to enforce it are not in place nor likely to be any time soon, meaning enforcement will be patchy at best, and highly unfair and arbitrary or subject to LA workers' whims or prejudices at worst.
tubeupthenose@reddit
Very concerning. Also, how do you know the workers will be untrained and unqualified?
Ambitious_Damage_214@reddit
I should have put that as things stand, they will be untrained and unqualified.
There are currently no formal training or qualifications available. LA teams are overwhelmed with work so the on-the-job training is cursory.
Their letters often show that they don't understand the current laws about EHE, and understanding that fairly brief bit of legislation (10 pages for the key parts, I'd estimate) is surely the most basic bit of training.
Some are former teachers (as am I). But EHE is very, very different. Appropriate assessment and planning for EHE bear little resemblance to what is required for a class of 25 pupils.
There's no need (as the law stands) to follow the national curriculum website to keep level with school pupils of the same age. Most educational research shows it's better for children to learn to read a little later than the UK demands, so it's perfectly valid to teach a child to read at 7 rather than 4, and may well be of long term benefit. I didn't teach my daughter to read until she was 6. Within a few months she was reading classic children's literature such as Heidi and Wind in the Willows. Fortunately I didn't have to submit a report between the one just after her fifth birthday and her learning to read fluently! She's well ahead of age in reading, but some LA workers would have deemed my approach an inadequate education.
Many LAs are now so overwhelmed that they are using AI to reply to parents' reports. The last letter I received from the LA included an AI generated summary of my report sandwiched between fulsome praise written with the worst grammar and spelling I have ever seen in a formal letter. It gave the impression of being written by someone who was rather poorly educated.
If the LA ensured their staff had a good understanding of the fairly simple current EHE law it would be an enormous improvement. Training beyond that - even just a week's course in EHE assessment and a day on how to write a decent response - sounds so minimal but would make a significant difference.
Refrigernator@reddit
YES. This is what disturbs me most. The bill is mostly common sense and I’m not against the broad idea, but the fact that they can pretty much enforce entrance to a home whether you like it or not is highly concerning. Government overreach if you ask me.
RaymondBumcheese@reddit
All for it. My SIL has taken both of her kids out of school under the flimsiest pretexts and, honestly, the last place on earth they should be is trapped in a house with her 24/7 with no real oversight.
And I imagine that is by no means the worst scenario happening around the country.
PootMcGroot@reddit
I don't know what happened in your family's case, but the scenario of "at home mum wishes to remain at home mum, and will sabotage their children's future to achieve it" should be a specific underlined issue investigated and banned as a reason for home schooling.
It's very common, and is absolutely not in the child's interest.
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
Actually she is preserving and protecting their future by not sending them into a mentally abusive and dysfunctional society. Y
PootMcGroot@reddit
You sound like the classic sort of person who hopefully now won't be allowed to homeschool...
RaymondBumcheese@reddit
Basically that plus being an absolute control freak.
Willing_Coconut4364@reddit
Absolutely. My kid has been kidnapped by his narcissistic mother and is being trained to be autistic so she can get more benefits for him. He's at home 24/7 with her now.
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
Sounds like your SIL has more sense than you do.
RaymondBumcheese@reddit
This will confuse you then: She’s had her kids vaccinated.
heroics-delta8s@reddit
The teaching establishment hate homeschooling, they can’t comprehend that someone could get an education that doesn’t need them. All kinds of fig leafs will be used to justify ending this right of parents, something something forced marriages, something something children disappearing, something something. But the brutal reality is that the cases they’ll use to justify it, are the ones that will have close to no impact on.
Apprehensive_Oil_808@reddit
If it was coming from a place of concern for the children I would be in full support. But it's not, it's just their way of driving up school attendance which has dramatically fallen due to how underfunded the schooling system is.
Early_Enthusiasm_787@reddit
It’s not dropping out due to funding but ignorant parents.
FamilyTechCreator@reddit
There’s a lot of negativity around home education in this thread, so I thought I’d share a different perspective. We’ve been home educating for over 5 years now and plan to continue. Our kids genuinely love it. They attend a range of social activities outside the home and have plenty of friends, including children who are in school.
One of the biggest benefits for us is the flexibility. It’s allowed us to go beyond the standard curriculum and introduce things like business, coding, investing, and property, topics that aren’t typically covered in school but are really valuable life skills.
In terms of the proposed bill, it doesn’t really worry us. Our children are already registered and we’ve always had annual contact with the local authority, so practically speaking not much will change for us.
What does stand out reading these comments is how often home education is associated with negative cases. Of course safeguarding matters, and there absolutely are situations where children fall through the cracks, but those tend to be the stories that get attention. There are also many home educated children who are thriving, but those stories rarely get discussed.
And just to address a common misconception, home education doesn’t mean children being isolated at home doing nothing. That’s not home education, that’s neglect. Families who choose this path seriously tend to be very intentional about both education and socialisation.
I think it’s reasonable to want safeguards in place, but it’s also important not to assume that all home education is inherently problematic.
AdministrativeLaugh2@reddit
I saw a comment on a Facebook post about this earlier that was like “I wish I’d taken mine out of school, they’re just indoctrination factories now.”
Aye pal, being at a school surrounded by a diverse group of people and being educated by professionals is “indoctrination” compared to you teaching them stuff you don’t understand and throwing in conspiracy theories.
Spottyjamie@reddit
This needs to be upvoted more
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
Have you seen all the people on the street? Do you honestly think they care about anyone falling through the cracks ?
Dapper_Otters@reddit
There's always one...
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
Also. I'd rather be in the minority because from the looks of things in here there are a lot of "educated" npcs.
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
That can be taken many ways. I'll take it as a compliment since you are too cowardly to be direct.
WeeklyPermission239@reddit
People become far less vulnerable to being controlled when they have access to education.
Dangly-Lingham@reddit
Correct education yes. What the system provides as public is indoctrination.
stilllurking2021@reddit
My step son was removed from his school roll due to being at risk of being expelled. Mum wanted to remove him, home educate him to let the dust settle, and find him a alternative provision. My husband was sent a detailed plan of tutors, learning, shadowing tradesmen. 2 weeks later it comes to light he’s banished to his bedroom 9-3 to study worksheets with no intervention whilst she continued her stay at home life duties. Council and social didn’t care until mum kicked him out citing behaviour issues. My personal experience is that it needs to be more regulated.
MerrKatt007@reddit
As someone whose about to do their A levels so whilst basically done with the education system its still fresh in my mind. 100% good idea, probably should go further.
It really doesn't make sense to homeschool your children in a vacuum at all. Ofc there are edge cases of SEND or being in a really bad school with a poor learning environment or bullying, but for the most case homeschooling sounds terrible.
Its two things mainly, one your ruining the kids social life in their formative years and two most parents are not good enough to teach. My parents stopped keeping up with my homework by age 13, sure maybe in younger years it might be doable, but you are kicking the can down the road where they will eventually need schooling and you are going to make their live so much harder when they have to join the system.
Heck I sat GCSEs two years ago, and for some of my old subjects (even ones I got 9s in) I struggle to remember most things at all.
And as a last point, how many parents are knowledgable on UCAS? or writing Personal Statements? If someone homeschools all their lives, they WILL be behind entering as an adult.
smellyfeet25@reddit
some abused kids could be home schooled so it maybe a good thing to try and stop it.
spaceshipcommander@reddit
I consider myself an intelligent person with a successful career. I wouldn't know where to start schooling a child. I obviously could do it, but why would I when people are dedicated to the profession and study how to do it properly? I probably could perform surgery if I wanted to, but I'd rather let a doctor do it so my first attempt wasn't on the thing I love and care for more than anything in the world.
PapaJrer@reddit
I know hundreds of home educating families, yet I don't know a single one that educates in the way you suggest. It's more a preference for edcucation à la carte over a prix fixe at school.
spaceshipcommander@reddit
You know hundreds of home educating families? So you're linked to them then. How do you know so many?
PapaJrer@reddit
Because I home educate my children. Every day of the week we spend with other families who do the same at various lessons, groups, activities, meetups.
My children see more qualified teachers in a week than are contained in most UK schools (around 40% of HE families in my area have at least one former teacher as a parent).
spaceshipcommander@reddit
So you're biased towards homeschooling. Why not say that in the first instance?
You're talking anecdotes and a dealing with confirmation bias.
By your own anecdote, you believe that 2/3 of home schooled children are not taught by trained teachers. That is from your incredibly unrepresentative sample of parents who are trying to do home schooling in what we can probably agree is "the best way".
Do you know how many homeschooled children receive a proper education? Me neither. Nobody does. We don't know how many of them make it to university, what their incomes are compared to the general population or even if any of them actually receive any kind of education at all.
That's the problem. If you can account for 200 kids being educated well at home, I want to know what's going on with the other 180,000.
DameKumquat@reddit
I don't know how representative that poster is either, but it certainly chimes with my experience of finding myself homeschooling, looking about for resources, finding various HE groups and going to them and asking for help.
The vast majority I've met are secondary age kids who weren't coping in school, almost all neurodiverse, and I'd lay money 95% have a neurodiverse parent too. A few Christian evangelists who very politely don't evangelise at meetups, a few hippies, a few others who travel a lot, but mostly parents desperate to get their kids educated somehow.
So there's a lot of group classes in person and online that get set up, use of local tutoring agencies that have spare capacity during the school day...
I've been a private tutor - had no qualifications other than a degree,.got dumped into hour long sessions with mardy kids, didn't want to go back to it. But I know what the equally unqualified tutors from the council are going through.
Teaching one kid isn't that difficult. The crowd control for teaching 30 of them at different levels is a huge step beyond that (I've been a youth worker. No idea how anyone managed to teach them anything).
The big question is how many kids are out there without anyone knowing they exist and without any efforts being made. And also how many kids are being forced into locked taxis to go to inappropriate special schools every day, despite screaming and panic, because their parents are scared of the attendance services. Both are bad, as are kids allegedly going to school but spending their whole time in seclusion or other excuses for not attempting to educate them. All these problems need to be addressed.
PapaJrer@reddit
'By your own anecdote, you believe that 2/3 of home schooled children are not taught by trained teachers' - see you don't have the most basic understanding of how EHE tends to work... 2/3 may not be parented by a trained teacher, but, presumably, neither are most children who attend school. That's why parents (Including most EHE ones) outsource a lot of that part to qualified professionals.
Learn some basics, then get back to me mate.
spaceshipcommander@reddit
Tell me where the other 180,000 kids are, then get back to me. We don't work with anecdotes at a population level.
25% of parents who take children out of school cite special education needs. How many of those children get the support they need?
14% cite religion. What kind of education will a child receive from a parent who believes that their religion doesn't permit them to mix with their peers or the general public in the country where they live?
PapaJrer@reddit
The vast majority of those children and already known to and monitored by local authorities. The majority of councils have released figures on how many children they monitor and how many they have judged as being delivered an inadequate education. That data has been compiled and published, and guess what... very few EHE children are judged as having an inadequate education.
The LAs also have the power to force these children back in to school if improvements aren't made, and that happens in less than 0.1% of cases.
I'm an atheist, and, I know a lot of families who EHE for religious reasons - do they count in your 14% who isolate their children from peers too?
DameKumquat@reddit
I'd love to see who is going to enforce it. I'm currently homeschooling two children with special needs because no school will take them (they can't cope in mainstream, there are no special schools for their ages for academic kids though there would be if they were 3-5 years younger). I know at least 50 other families in a similar position in my area.
There is one staff member for the council who is responsible for sorting and monitoring placements for over 500 secondary age kids who don't have a suitable placement currently. So funnily enough, there is no monitoring, if there's evidence your kid is alive and vaguely well.
Had a check from the absence monitoring ladies once a few years ago when the kids were still on school rolls. They had a nice cup of tea with me, ticked a box to say my screaming kid was definitely alive, as was the other one, no signs of abuse, and went away again to worry about the kids they know they need to worry about.
Unless there's a pile of council funding attached to this Bill, it'll make sod all difference on the ground.
bluejackmovedagain@reddit
Slightly off topic. But, if they have an EHCP and there's no prospect of a suitable school being identified, it might be worth trying to push for an EOTAS package.
Although, I suspect you know much more about this than I do.
DameKumquat@reddit
To cut a really long story short, I do have such a package for one kid. Other has had council-provided tutors on and off.
But it took an incredibly long time to get the idea of the funding agreed, then exactly how much funding would be provided and what for, then another five months for the money to actually make its way into my new bank account...
ZydrateAnatomic@reddit (OP)
But aren’t homeschooling parents supposed to give an annual portfolio to the council showing education progress etc.?
fvalconbridge@reddit
This is area dependent. On my area there are no formal regular checks, but you need to be able to provide evidence of their education if you are asked for some reason. Lots of parents are never asked.
Unsoftened_Reality@reddit
SEND considerations are my biggest concern about it. Many children and families with SEND needs have already been failed by the education system and are more likely to need homeschooling. This just adds an extra layer of bureaucracy, more pressure and oversight on parents but with no matching requirements on local authorities or mandated help.
C0nnectionTerminat3d@reddit
As an ex home educated person;
These aren’t new, and i don’t really know why the government are proposing it as a new idea. My mum had to formally de-register me from public school and register me for homeschool, as well as provide reasons and we had a home check before it was approved. This already existed way beyond a decade ago.
moanybastard@reddit
I had the misfortune of living next door to a piece of shit and his piece of shit wife, who were "unable to work.
This didn't stop them having 4 kids, youngest being alot 2 and the eldest about 15.
They "home schooled" them. What this looked like was....
The local authority told me that if they'd ever sent the kids to school, they'd have cause to intervene. But because they hadn't ever done so, there's little they can do.
Matchaparrot@reddit
I'm in favour. I believe the biggest reforms are councils having a record of which kids are being homeschooled, so that if a parent who is abusive withdraws their kid from school they can be stopped from doing that for safeguarding.
There are many stories of kids harmed by improper or even abusive homeschooling on r/homeschoolrecovery
PapaJrer@reddit
The LA are already notified by the school if a child is withdrawn to EHE.
BoopingBurrito@reddit
I think homeschooling is broadly a bad thing and should be much more tightly regulated. Those people who are doing it for good reasons and who are putting in the effort to do it properly and effectively, shouldn't have any issues (either practical or ideological) meeting the new rules.
LostLoch@reddit
I think there’s a balance to made here. I agree with the home schooling register, it’s important to know where children are. I also think there’s a balance should be some accountability for reporting what children are learning.
I do think education for some children, perhaps with behavioural issues, mental health, or disabilities, needs to take a different form. They simply can’t cope with traditional schooling, it’s better for them to be learning life and practical skills that can perhaps get them a job, rather than sitting in a classroom learning academic material that’s no use to them. The alternative is trying to keep them in the classroom and disrupting everyone else’s education. For these cases, I would hope there isn’t unnecessary control or invasion that would put parents off trying to home educate.
flangeflangeflanges@reddit
I know a lot about it. Far too many parents do it for the wrong reasons. There are lots who do it well. But to save the children of the parents who don’t do it well, or even do it at all, the system needs to be tightened up. I can’t understand why some parents are against it. For some children, school is the only place they can escape awful situations at home.
LiliWenFach@reddit
And for some children, school is the only place they can learn the skills necessary to break out of a cycle of poverty.
I've moved house now, but I still think of our former neighbour's children. Dad ran away to start a new family, single mum (who was a teenager when she had them) gave up part-time work, took her kids out of school due to 'anxiety' and refused to engage with services. Presumably, she is 'home educating'. Kids are feral, filthy, and at 11 years old the eldest cannot read. At all. No regular meals, no clean clothes. Their ambition in life is to 'make it as a YouTuber' or 'live off the money you get from the government, like mum'. What future have they got, if they can't even read?
kitknit81@reddit
I don’t know all the ins and outs of it but I think it’s a good thing to have more oversight of home schooling. It’s a big responsibility to take that on and to properly educate your child so they have the best chance at life, and this will hopefully stop kids falling through the cracks when parents ‘homeschool’ but don’t actually educate.
Yeanes@reddit
I don't know many details about the bill, apart from how it seems it's going to make home schooling much more regulated. This seems entirely fair to me. The amount of parents who have the means to properly homeschool their kids (with private tutoring and so on) is almost risible.
If we think about how statistics show that child abuse is done by someone the child knows, I would be very wary of creating an environment where children are restricted to only their family, without the means to access responsible adults (like teachers, school psychologists etc) who can raise the alarm if something goes wrong.
I see very little benefit to homeschooling in terms of getting a child proper education. Even rich people send their children to school - only it's private schools. The spread of home schooling seems more of yet another American trend reaching Europe and Britain.
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