School is not compulsary: Is home education better for my kids?
It is not a widely advertised fact that in the UK children who are over five do not have to attend a school to be educated. The law states that kids should be educated either in a school ‘or otherwise’.
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable -
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.
Education Act 1996, section 7 (emphasis added)
When we lived in London we considered home education for our children as we both felt that we could offer the two of them a more interesting and fulfilling education than spending 30+ hours a week in a classroom with 30+ other children sharing the teachers attention and energy.
Since moving to the countryside to downshift and lead a more family orientated life it has not been discussed between Darren and myself. I think we both presumed that now we have the option of sending the kids to the local village primary school we would do so.
Since they started the pre-school unit at the same school two weeks ago my mind has revisited the option of home schooling for a number of reasons:
- I’m missing the freedom of few time constraints we had before they were due at pre-school at 12.30 each afteroon
- I realise that we will be constrained to take our family holidays during the allocated school holidays - we are trying to save up for a motorhome and love the idea of roaming around the UK or Europe for long holidays. Holidaying during school holidays means higher prices and more crowds
- I have been watching the children play during lunchtime while I take the kids in and the smaller children seem so very small. I’m not convinced that I want to cut the ties to my apron strings so soon in their lives.
- The kids themselves tell me ‘No pre-school is boring’ and beg for me not to take them (despite the classroom always having apint to use which I have a bit of an aversion to)
- I realise that I could provide such a great range of interesting activites for them if I set my mind to it - loads more visits to interesting places and loads more exercise than their peers in school will be getting.
Now I feel in a bit of a quandry about how to make the decision to home educate or not.
I realise that it would be a radical and potentially isolated path to take. One friend pointed out that it is at school that kids begin to enjoy a bit of private independence from their parents which I thought was a very valid reason to send them to school.
Sending kids to school obviously leaves me their mother with lots of potentially productive hours each week while the children are at school.
Meeting other children seems to be other peoples main reason for my children to school but I argue back that we already have lots of friends with kids a similar age and I think also that it is nice to spend time with people who aren’t the same age.
Hmmm it’s going to be a tricky one and I will start with investigating other people’s findings.