Home Educators doubled

16 January 2007, Northampton Mercury
All rights reserved © 2007 Johnston Press
(Reproduced here by kind permission)

The number of parents shunning state school education in favour of teaching their children at home in Northamptonshire has more than doubled over the last two years.

Figures by Northamptonshire County Council reveal that in the academic year 2004-05, 126 children had been withdrawn from the county's formal education system.

To date, the number of compulsory school age children being taught at home has risen to 279, but a spokeswoman for the national charity, the Home Education Advisory Service believes there are any more which the county council are unaware of at present.

Cathy Koetsier, spoksman for HESA, said there was an increasing trend towards home teaching because of negative experiences in schools.
She said: "The primary reason for some parents is because their
child has experienced problems in school.

"There are many different reasons such as bullying but for others it maybe due to learning difficulties and the parents feel their child would benefit from alternative options.

"Some parents see it as a lifestyle choice and have chosen to home educate from the beginning rather than putting them into a school and removing them at a later date."

Mrs Koetsier said there were no official numbers for home educators but they believed the numbers were rising because of the increasing inquiries made to the organisation. She said there was a growing network of home educators across the country.

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

She said: "The Education Act 1996 states 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 a 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 parent's 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."