Home Education is when the full educational responsibility for a child, is placed on the parent rather than a formal school setting. (
The misconception which people seem to have, is that school is compulsory. However, it is education that is compulsory not school. (Mountnry, 2009)
Neath County Council offers information about Elective Home Education.
By law, a home educator does not need to have any educational qualifications to teach the child. It has been proven by research that the children with parents who do not have qualifications, and those children with parents who do, gain similar qualification grades to each other. (FW, 2000) Sometimes, parents who educate at home can get in external tutors to help. (BBC, 2012)
As they are in the role of the 'teacher', parents do not have to follow the national curriculum. However, it is a requirement that from the age of 5, a child receives full time education. (Welsh Government, 2014)
Why?
Professional adults giving children the opportunity to gain
knowledge in a safe environment is one definition of school. This overview of school sounds
great. Unfortunately, not all schools meet the standards, and not all
children fit the school approach to learning. (Mountnry, 2009)
It is dependent on the parent and child as to why they may use home schooling as their learning method. Examples include: child is unwell or unhappy, unsatisfactory relationships in school, set curriculum is restrictive, and of course sometimes there is nothing wrong, it is simply a lifestyle choice.
Case Study
This case study refers to a personal friend of mine, for confidentiality I will call him Scott. Scott was home schooled from year 6 as a result of medical issues, and falling behind in school. Home education was chosen as a way of getting him back on track with the rest of his peers.
On a typical day Scott and his parents would complete 2 hours written work. Although they were under no obligation to follow the National Curriculum, they felt it was important to continue his studies in Maths and English. To complete these lessons they used resources from a New Zealand correspondence course, because home education is popular in New Zealand.
The rest of the day, Scott would meet with 5 others Each parent of the children would take on a subject which they had knowledge of and used this to construct a number of activities. (The word 'activity' has been chosen here, instead of 'lesson' to show that it was less formal)
It is interesting to note that this learning environment was always based on a small group, instead of a big class with only one teacher.
Unlike pupils who are taught in school classrooms where they only get one school trip per term. Scott and his peers took regular visits, potentially every day to have hands on experience of whatever their particular learning focus was.
Scott's parents did maintain contact with the LEA, but felt that for the majority of Scott's education they were self-sufficient.
In many ways, it seems that the methods in which Scott was taught relates to the experiential philosophy of the Foundation Phase.
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