Home schooling – what is it really like to homeschool in Britain 2024?
I have decided to write this blog Post about homeschooling as I have become aware that homeschooling is increasing throughout the UK and I was wondering why, from the perspective of an ex-teacher of 30 years teaching in secondary schools. I have read many articles from various news outlets about this subject which all gave figures and reasons why homeschooling is increasing, but I have not come across many articles from parents who made the decision to homeschool their own children and what it was like and why they did it. I was prompted to write this post after conversations with two very good friends of mine who homeschooled their daughter, so I thought I would ask them if I could interview them, to share their thoughts and experiences with homeschooling.
To keep this post as authentic as possible, I gave my friend (Natasha) the list of questions so she could mull them over and we then had a chat about her responses a few days later. I have placed the interview questions and responses below, and edited many of her words, but believe they are a true reflection of Natasha's thoughts.
Disclaimer: Can I please point out that these are Natasha's thoughts about homeschooling her daughter, they are true from Natasha's and her husband's own experience and should be taken in the spirt of sharing their experience and hopefully helping other parents, who may be considering homeschooling their own child or children.
Why did you decide to homeschool your daughter?
We didn't have much choice! We'd been muddling along for years; our daughter had severe anxiety issues, and every day was a struggle to get her into school. We were under the care of CAMHS and the Senco team at my daughter's school. My daughter would spend half of each day in the quiet zone, then come home. It required a huge amount of our time and support and the school refused to educate her when out of the classroom, so she only had access to homework but none of the lessons. During the pandemic lessons became available to her again and she not only caught up but thrived academically. Post pandemic the previous support we'd had from school simply dropped away and we were told by the head of house she had to be in school all day every day despite CAMHS advice that she should be on a much-reduced timetable. My daughter couldn't achieve this, we tried everything and were desperate for her to attend school but without dragging her kicking and screaming it was impossible. The mental health fall out of all this was too great and my daughter simply could not cope with school. she was not disruptive, (quite the opposite), she just stopped learning and caring about her GCSEs altogether. My husband and I realised that we had no choice, the school wouldn't work with us anymore, and after a challenging meeting with the head of support (SENCO) we took the difficult decision to take our daughter out of school and educate her ourselves. I might point out that the head of support was very upset at the lack of help she could offer, which was mainly due to dwindling school resources.
What were your initial thoughts when you started home schooling?
We had to do a lot of research very quickly. As we had also just been through the Covid pandemic in which our other child had to do a lot of home learning for his GCSEs, we did already have an idea of what resources were out there. My husband had taken redundancy from his job and dedicated himself to tutoring our daughter. We also paid for Maths, Science, English tutors, my mum, who is an ex-teacher and lives in France, tutored her in French. It really was a team effort. We were determined that my daughter would gain the best GCSE results possible under these challenging circumstances, because this is what she wanted more than anything, to do as well as she felt she could, despite no longer being at school.
Did you draw up a plan on what to do, and what support you might need?
Yes, we were very thorough and became very familiar with all the GCSE subject content and exam specs on the various exam board websites. We talked to a lot of people in education and were constantly in touch with a tutor agency in Bristol who also ran the exam centre where my daughter eventually took her GCSEs.
Did you get any support from the local council, authorities or professional agencies?
No one at all. It is nigh on impossible to get support. We wanted to throw our efforts and energy behind supporting her academically and mentally. We decided not to try and gain an EHCP from the local authority as this took months and was almost impossible to achieve. As we had a short amount of time to cover the teaching before exams, we decided to focus upon teaching instead. (The EHCP which is what you need in order to get basic tutoring in English, Maths and Science through online tutoring). My daughter is very academically minded and was keen to study at home, and not waste time filling out forms and having endless discussions with the local authority, which we were told rarely bore fruit.
Did anybody check on your child's progress and wellbeing?
None at all. The school wrote a brief email after we removed our daughter which said they would alert the local authority to her being homeschooled. Then we heard nothing else, from anyone. No one checked on our daughter's progress, physically, mentally or academically for the nearly 2 years she was homeschooled.
At what school stage was your child when you started homeschooling?
She was at the end of the first term of year 10.
How did you prepare your child for learning at home?
We used a tutoring agency in Bristol. They were extremely helpful, giving advice and support throughout. My daughter is now at college doing a Level 3 diploma, she is also doing an English Lit A Level outside college, through the agency. The agency explained the many different doors that are possible, and she now realises that education is more flexible than her previous school made out. She can do other A Level courses alongside college, and possibly more in the future. School is not the only option.
Did you do all the teaching yourself?
No, we had tutors (as above) in English lit and lang, Science, Maths and French. Jake, my husband taught her Classics and I taught her sociology.
If you used tutors, for which subjects and how beneficial did you find this?
We would never have attempted to tutor her ourselves for Maths or Science as we are not qualified, and they are subjects she wanted to do well in. She was in the top set for both subjects at school. The tutors we had were fantastic and she enjoyed learning with them. It was good for her to have this outside support. Learning with your parents isn't easy, however well you get along!
I understand you used Prichard guides for science revision, how did you use the guides, and do you think they were helpful?
These were brilliant for us as people who aren't scientifically minded as they were so self-explanatory and very easy to follow. The layout and subject order make great sense as you progress though the books and the diagrams make concepts so much easier to understand. The learning and then testing method was an absolute winner for us too, as it cemented in her head the knowledge once, she'd answered the questions. They worked well for all the exam boards too. It's very difficult to find comprehensive and user-friendly study support literature for the OCR Science homeschool programme- it's IGCSE as you can't do the practical's when you homeschool- and the only books available for this are hugely dense and complicated, made more for teachers, not easy for nonspecialists. Prichard Guides were incredibly helpful for us and our daughter, and she did really well in her final exams because she had worked very closely with these guides.
How did you enter your child for the GCSE exams?
We entered her for the exams through the tutoring agency in Bristol. They offer a range of exam boards and although you have to pay, you can do so over a period of time by paying monthly, which made it easier financially.
Was the process for exam entry easy, and was it expensive?
It was pretty easy because of the support from the agency. They helped with the entire process of entering our daughter for each exam, and provided the accredited exam space where the exams would be held. It is fairly expensive, over £100 for each exam and our daughter took 8. But we paid for it over the course of a year or so, which made it more manageable.
Did you or your child encounter any negative comments, feedback or opinions concerning your decision to homeschool your child?
Yes! People worried about her academically and socially. People assumed if she wasn't learning or accessing lessons at school this would be problematic for her in the future. She had been at school and ‘social' since the age of 3 during nursery, that wasn't working for her- she struggled with being thrown into the playground and with the forced socialisation at school. My daughter is now at college and absolutely thriving, so none of this has harmed her. In fact, staying at school was damaging and would probably have had a negative effect on our daughter, both mentally and socially. She just wasn't accessing the education at school because of the emotional energy used up just trying to get there each day.
If you could offer one piece of advice to a parent thinking of homeschooling, what would it be?
Do your research, there are a lot of resources online for homeschooling. Try not to feel overwhelmed, take a step at a time and first of all decide with your child what you want to achieve- be it formal exams (you don't have to do these, but it may open more doors in the future if you do) or a different route. Don't go too fast and spend every waking hour tutoring. School has a lot of down time during the day and there are often around 30 pupils in each class meaning that one to one tuition, if done well, is far more intensive. A lot more can be achieved in 45 minutes one to one rather than in a typical school lesson. Also be guided by your child, you won't achieve good results together if your child is not on board! AND do not feel constrained by school terms or even years- you CAN take an extra year to do GCSEs or A LEVELS. If it's a choice between your child feeling they are too overwhelmed to do as well as they would like and feeling like a failure or spending extra time and them feeling confident and ready, then take more time before exams. Exams can be taken several times a year. Our daughter did her IGCSE English Language in the January before the rest of the exams in May. This meant one less GCSE to do in the summer season. Be flexible and don't let others who have never experienced this situation make you feel it's the wrong choice. Make your own decisions, you know your own children.
Do you regret your decision to homeschool your child?
Not one bit! We have a happy, mentally healthy and confident daughter now, who is at the end of her first year in college, and she loves what she is doing. This is something we couldn't have dreamed of a few years ago. It was a tough decision, but thankfully it has turned out well and our daughter is thriving and happy again at college.
My conclusion:
Homeschooling should not be taken lightly, but if planned and carefully thought through it can be very positive, as can be seen from Natasha's experience. If you have any questions, please use the “contact me” button on my website and I will pass them onto Natasha, as she has indicated she would be happy to help. Please remember however, neither myself or Natasha are experts, any advice is only an opinion and would be well meaning.
Tim.
