HED0765

Written evidence submitted by [a member of the public]

[Note: This evidence has been redacted by the Committee. Text in square brackets has been inserted where text has been redacted.]

Reasons for wanting to home educate and reasons for there being no need for a register of home educators.

I am a mother of [a number of] children, the eldest [number] of whom have been through state education.  I have decided since [date] to home educate the youngest two who are currently in [year groups].

The reasons for this are as follows:

1. During lockdown when school work was sent to us on the internet, I was glad to receive the work and some of it was interesting and stimulating.  However, I found that much of it was repetitive, very limiting in the way one could extend the study and also quite dull.  We did the work and often approached it in a different way or a more extensive way.  Some of it we didn’t do as we felt our time was better used doing something more motivating and interesting.
2. My youngest child is a real outdoors kind of child and sometimes finds the constraints of education too much.  However, she is interested in many things and has a lively inquisitive mind.  [personal information].  With this in mind, home education with the opportunity to do work (particularly maths) on a more one to one basis  I felt would be beneficial and so it has proved.
3. We are very concerned about some of the things which have been introduced into education, which indeed are not actually educational and indeed could be called detrimental to a child’s development.  They are also morally wrong and introduce ideas into children’s minds which do not need to be there.  We wanted to be in a situation where we can tell our children about things as and when we see fit and in a way which we see fit (as is our parental right).
4. I like the flexibility of home education.  For instance, if a child is immersed in a topic and wants to carry on further than the end of the “lesson time” we can do that and then incorporate the “missed” lesson at another time.  Recently they had a day trip to the science museum which was possible because we could be flexible about the timing of lessons.

My husband is committed to our children being home educated although not taking an active part on a regular basis as he works full time.

I do not think it is necessary to hold a register of home educators as the local authority already have notification of what we are doing and how we are doing it.  The lady I spoke to on the phone was very impressed with how we are going about it and even said she wished she could come to our “school”.  The two girls have named our school and designed a logo which we have printed on PE bags.  We do many other activities other than, and as well as the normal subjects which they enjoy.

November 2020