Getting an education in the home

16 January 2007, Kettering Evening Telegraph and Northampton Chronicle & Echo (Term Time special report);
All rights reserved © 2007 Johnston Press
(Reproduced here by kind permission)

Lei Chan dispels the myths about teaching your child at home and reveals why many parents are taking this misunderstood option

SCHOOL is not compulsory, education is.

This is the legal situation in the UK regarding home education and, in Northamptonshire, the numbers shunning state education system are increasing, whether it's due to bullying, disillusioned parents or following a particular faith.

Over the past two years, the number of children being educated outside school and registered with Northamptonshire County Council, the local education authority (LEA), has doubled to 279.

The statistics are based on the numbers of ex-schoolchildren registered with the LEA, and it is believed there are many more who are not known to the council.
Despite its growing popularity, home education is still a little-known area for parents and is frequently misunderstood.

For Helen Wraight, aged 36, the idea of becoming a mother and teacher started after she visited a number of primary schools and was dissatisfied with what they offered, even though one of them received a very good Ofsted report.

Mrs Wraight, of Irthlingborough, who has a nine-year-old daughter and a six-year-old son, said: "When my daughter turned two, I started to think about education but didn't set out purposely with home education in mind but simply drifted into it.

"I read a magazine about holistic family living, which featured an article about alternatives to mainstream education. My husband Ryan and I were taught in mainstream schools and my mother wasn't quite sure about it at first, but she fully supports us now.

"It made so much sense because the whole ethos behind home education is you are learning all the time. Children don't stop learning once they step out of school at 3pm, they learn through life experiences.

"Besides, learning isn't about sitting in front of a table with a pile of text books. It isn't broken down into individual subjects either because activities incorporate more than one topic."

The part-time nurse said many parents wrongly thought they would end up in court if they took their children out of school because their child would be deemed to be truanting.

"The reality is parents have a choice about how their child is educated. You are not legally required to take your children to school, however parents have a responsibility for ensuring their child receives a suitable education in keeping with the child's age, ability and aptitude."

Parents do not need to inform the LEA they are – or intending to – home educate, if their child has not yet joined a school.

If the child is already in school and the parents wish to start home education they do, however, need to write a letter to the child's headteacher, informing them they wish to remove their child from school, to deregister a child.

It is then the school's legal obligation to inform the LEA of the parents' decision. In turn, the LEA will then contact the family to ensure they are providing a suitable education.

It is not uncommon to find parents choosing to home educate for the first few years of their child's life and enter them into a school at a later date.

Parents are not legally obliged to follow the National Curriculum and there is not a requirement to spend five hours a day, Monday to Friday, teaching your children.

Mrs Wraight said: "It is up to you how you help your child learn. There are many different approaches to home education and curriculums to choose from if you so wish.

"It becomes more of a way of life than just a form of education because quite often the whole family is involved.

"There are no two families that follow the exact same style of home education. For example, a family could choose an article from a newspaper and let the child steer the questions."

Mrs Wraight said that, in most cases, learning will involve incorporating more than one area and not focus on a sole subject.

One of the biggest misconceptions between school and home education was the social consequences for children.

"If you ask parents why children go to school, they will say the main priority is to receive an education. Socialising is a by-product of school. We're very lucky to have many home-educated friends who we meet with on a regular basis.

"You find the older kids and teenagers playing with, and talking to, the younger children just as happily and on an equal level. Most of the children talk to the adults just as easily as talking to their peers with confidence."

In fact, advocates for home education believe children develop better social skills because they are mixing with children and adults of all ages, encountering many life experiences on a daily basis, instead of being with their own year group in a classroom setting.

Learning does not have to be home bound either. In terms of activities, individual families, or those in local home education groups, set up day trips and outings such as walks round recreational areas with park rangers and art gallery visits.

For older children, to get round more practical subjects such as science and art where there is a need to use specific facilities, there is an arrangement called flexi-schooling, where heads agree to youngsters attending their school.

This means children are registered as pupils at the school and attend part-time, but spend other parts of the week being educated off site by their parents.

The parents would negotiate this arrangement with the headteacher, of their chosen school/college, rather than with the local education authority.

The onset of the internet has made learning a lot easier by becoming a handy resource along with the library bringing down the costs of home education.

Mrs Wraight added: "Our children have always been our priority so it was never a question whether to go part time or not. I'm very fortunate to have a supportive family and a profession that is flexible.

"My children may wish to go to school when they are older but it would be their choice. At the moment my children are too young and do not want to go to school but they have never been, so they don't have any experience of what it's like.

"Home education is a very personal choice and doesn't necessarily suit every family."

Cathy Koetsier, a media contact for the national charity Home Education Advisory Service, said there was an increasing trend towards this form of teaching because of negative experiences in schools.

She said: "There are no official statistics of home educators but we are pretty sure the numbers are increasing, just by the number of inquiries to our organisation.

"There are many different reasons and for some it can be related to a child's experience in school such as being bullied or having learning difficulties. For others it is very much a lifestyle choice."

A county council spokeswoman said parents who decide to home educate were agreeing to take sole responsibility for their child's education and will need to provide all resources and schemes of work.

She said: "The Education Act 1996 states that it is the duty of parents to secure an appropriate education for their children.

"This can be done either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

"For most children, this means that they will attend the school which serves their local community but, for a wide variety of reasons, a small minority of parents decide to take on the duty to educate their children themselves.

She added: "The local authority's role is to support parents with advice and information.

"The local authority recognises and respects parents' rights to educate their children through elective home education and neither encourages or dissuades parents in making a choice in this regard.

"They will however, provide appropriate information and advice to assist parents in making an informed choice."

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