Homeschooling Advice for Parents

The information in this article relates to England. In Wales, the education law is very similar to England, although education is devolved in Wales. In Scotland, you must get permission to home educate. However, this permission cannot be withheld unreasonably.

Elective home education (EHE) describes a choice by parents to provide education for their children instead of sending them to school. The Elective Home Education Survey, published in November 2018 by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), sought to identify the numbers of children and young people known to be homeschooled. The ADCS issued a survey to all 152 local authorities (LAs) in England. A total of 106 LAs responded, recording a total of 40,359 children and young people known to be homeschooled. Estimates therefore suggested that around 57,873 children and young people were being homeschooled across the 152 LAs in England. This represented an increase of 27% from when the survey was carried out a year earlier in October 2017. In the five years previous to this, the numbers had been increasing by an average of 20% per year. The survey found that over 80% of children and young people now being homeschooled had previously attended school, with general dissatisfaction with the school being the most common reason for parents deciding on homeschooling.

As parents, you, and not the state are responsible for ensuring your child of compulsory school age is properly educated. Parents encompass all those with parental responsibility, including guardians and foster carers. Education is compulsory, but does not have to be undertaken by attending a school. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 places the onus on parents to provide an efficient and full-time education to their children suitable to their age, ability and aptitude, by regular attendance at school or otherwise. Elective home education or homeschooling is a form of ‘education otherwise than at school’.

What constitutes efficient and full-time education?

The law provides no definition for efficient or full-time education. Local authorities could however interpret efficient to mean an education which ‘achieves what it is intended to achieve’. Full time education for children attending school is about five hours tuition a day across 190 school days. Home education does not have to replicate this. Home educators are not required to prepare a timetable, set hours during which education will take place, nor observe school hours. As parents though, you should be able to quantify and demonstrate the amount of time your child spends being educated at home.

What is suitable education?

As stated in the Education Act 1996, the education provided must be age-appropriate and take into account the specific aptitudes of the learner (for example a child may be particularly able in a certain subject). There is no specific requirement to follow the National Curriculum, but the education provided should enable the child, when grown up, to function as an independent citizen of the UK. Education at home should not directly conflict with Fundamental British Values, though there is no specific requirement to teach these. Education may be deemed unsuitable if it leads to excessive isolation from the child’s peers, thereby impeding social development.

As a parent educating a child at home, there are no legal requirements to do any of the following:

· Acquire specific qualifications

· Have premises equipped for particular standards

· Aim for the child to acquire any specific qualifications

· Teach the National Curriculum

· Provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum

· Make detailed lesson plans

· Give formal lessons

· Mark work done by the child

· Match school-based age-specific standards

Many home educating families though do some of these through choice. It would also be easier for you to show that the education being provided is suitable by following some of the above.

What should I think about before deciding on Home Education?

There are many reasons why parents choose to homeschool their children. These could be due to promoting ideological, philosophical, cultural or religious beliefs that parents feel would be better promoted through education at home. Other reasons could be about dissatisfaction with the school system, a child’s health, bullying or distance to the local school. Parents may also want to personalise the learning of their child around their interests, reinforce family values, or want to get more involved in their child’s learning.

Educating a child at home means a major commitment of your time and as parents you will have to assume full financial responsibility for the child’s education.

Ask yourself the following questions:

· Why am I thinking of homeschooling?

· What does my child think about this idea?

· Will I be able to spare the time and resources needed?

· What support do I have from others?

· Can I provide social, cultural and physical experiences to help my child develop?

· What are my long term goals?

What do you need to do before starting education at home?

If your child has never enrolled at school, there is no legal obligation to inform the local authority that you are homeschooling. It is recommended though that the local authority are informed so that you can gain access any potential advice and support available.

If your child is enrolled with a school, you are not obliged to inform the school or get consent for withdrawal. It is however advisable to let the school know. The school has to let the local authority know of any children removed from its admission register. If your child attends a special school that was arranged through the local authority, then permission must be gained from the local authority before the child’s name can be removed from the admission register. Another circumstance in which local authority consent is required before withdrawal, is if the child is attending school as a result of a school attendance order.

What are the responsibilities of the local authority?

Your local authority has no formal powers to monitor the provision of education at home, however it does have a statutory duty under the Education Act 1996 to establish which children in its area are not receiving suitable education. This means that local authorities are entitled to make informal enquiries of parents to establish what education is being provided. As a parent, you are under no obligation to respond, but a lack of response could lead the local authority to conclude that your child is not receiving suitable education.

Local authorities may ask to see the child at home as well as seeing examples of the child’s work. As parents you are under no obligation to agree to such meetings, but again you should be aware the local authority may conclude that your child is not receiving an education that meets the requirements of the Education Act.

If your local authority feels that they do not have sufficient information about the home education being provided, or it appears to them that your child is not receiving a suitable education, it must serve notice requiring the parent to satisfy the authority as to the suitability of the home education provision being provided.

If you fail to satisfy the local authority that your child is receiving a suitable education, then the local authority has a legal obligation to serve a School Attendance Order (SAO). If issued an SAO must be complied with, and failure to comply with it is a criminal offence.

Safeguarding at home

Through the course of home educating your child, you may engage others to help. You are responsible for ensuring they are suitable to have access to children. You may wish to satisfy this requirement by ensuring tutors in contact with your child have had a recent Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate.

Children in faith communities

Faith considerations should not stop a child from receiving a suitable full-time education at home. Local authorities should have an understanding of the needs in a specific faith community and take into account the impact faith has on the home education priorities of parents. It would be helpful though as a parent if you are able to explain how faith considerations have affected the content of the home education provision. There is no legal requirement for home education to include any elements of faith or religion.

Homeschooling Advice for Beginners

· You won’t know and don’t need to know how to do things straight away. Most parents starting out learn as they go along. Let your children guide your teaching.

· Don’t decide on your methods straight away. Take some time to try things out and investigate your options. Learn how your child learns best. Are they a visual learner, do they learn by doing or by listening?

· Don’t immediately spend a lot of money. Take your time to search for free resources. It is tempting to think that buying the ‘right curriculum’ or resource will make it all come together.

· Don’t let anyone tell you the ‘best’ to homeschool. There is no right way. There are as many ways to do this as there are homeschooled children. Take time to find your best way.

· Find your comfort level. Are there things you feel you must cover with your child? Which subjects are you least confident about? For homeschooling to feel good you need to find a balance between what YOU need from it — and what your child needs.

· Take time to de-school. Teaching your children isn’t about replicating school in your home. Immerse yourself in new ideas about education — you may reject them all later, but at least you will be better informed.

· Don’t go overboard. Take things slowly — it isn’t a race. Children learn things over a period of time — you don’t have to teach them everything today. Learning needs revisiting often, to get it hardwired.

· Decide if you need a schedule. Begin to plan how you are going to use your time. It is OK to deviate from a normal school day. Make use of the flexibility to work out a plan that suits your family.

· Think of it as educating yourself as much as educating your child. You can’t know everything so it is OK to learn alongside each other. If your children see you learning something that interests you, and enjoying it, then you are sending them a very strong message. It’s all about parental involvement.

· Enjoy it. It is as simple as that. A happy child cannot help but learn from their environment.

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.” ― Ann Landers

Advantages and Disadvantages of Homeschooling

Disadvantages

1. Socialisation — some children can be isolated.
2. Reduced income — generally one parent has to give up work.
3. Exams can be harder to organise.
4. With your child all the time.
5. Child could be indoctrinated.
6. Full responsibility for child’s education — it is totally up to the parents to make it work.
7. Team sports may be more difficult.
8. Constantly required to justify your decision.
9. May need to juggle different age groups.
10. Have to still cope with the child’s education during emergencies.

Advantages

1. Socialisation — children can choose friends that suit them.
2. Freedom from peer pressure.
3. Education matched to child.
4. Flexible scheduling.
5. Able to instil family values.
6. Testing to suit family philosophy.
7. More time spent together as a family.
8. More relaxed — no queuing outside classrooms or school runs.
9. 1 on 1 attention to child.
10. Curriculum can be extended over standard one.

“There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.” ― Gandhi