Help for Parents Forced to Home Educate

Did you know that there is an estimated 6000 parents in Scotland who have chosen to Home Educate permanently? Did you know that there is an estimated 80,000 parents across the UK who have chosen to Home Educate their children?

A body of 80,000 who the Government could utilise to help and assist the parents of children forced from school into the home learning environment. It seems quite obvious doesnt it?

In March 2020 almost all of the children across the UK were forced into learning from home due to the Corona-Virus pandemic. Parents were either on furlough, out of work or attempting to balance working from home and teaching their children at home.

A research report from the ONS in 2020, found that the mental health and wellbeing of both parents and children was vastly reduced as they attempted to adapt to everyone working from home; 55% of parents with school aged children reported that the children were struggling to successfully continue learning from home and of those parents 77% reported a lack of motivation as being the reason learning was becoming unsuccessful.

Much has been reported about the issues parents and children are experiencing as they try to adapt to home learning. Some parents saw significant change for the better when their children entered Home Education in March 2020 and have since decided to remain in a home learning environment rather than returning their children to school. Whilst those decisions are a positive change for those families, their remains thousands of children who move in and out of schools due to the disruption of Covid-19; in school then isolating, out of school then returning; opening schools then closing schools. Disruption doesnt really reflect the experiences of these children with enough emphasis.

It occurred to me last week that children who have spent years inside the schooling system, in spaces dictated by state schooling, would literally be like ducks out of water when they were forced to try and learn from home. The structure, regularity and repetitive routines will be ingrained into the lives of millions of children.

It also occurred to me that there are many individuals and organisations that the Government could have taken advice from over the spring and summer months of 2020; organisations that could have provided some ideas and solutions to better the experiences of those children. The Home Education community, many of whom are trained teachers themselves, could have made suggestions that may have altered the figures found in that ONS research report.

Suggestions for Home Education Support:

There are hundreds more suggestions, some of which require no technology at all. YouTube has thousands of classes, lectures, explanations, videos of experiments and much of the educational content is provided by teachers, lecturers and parents.

Lapbooking Made Easy:

Notebooking for children who love to write and journal:

Maybe Mr Swinney & Mr Williamson will realise they have an enormous resource that is being wasted. If your pipes burst you call a plumber, if you have a gas leak you call a gas engineer; if you put millions into home learning, doesnt it make sense to speak to the experts?

Is it any wonder 77% of parents cited a lack of motivation as the reason behind their children struggling? These children have been conditioned by years of schooling – they need help to learn in a different environment, in a different learning space. My advice – bring in the experts to help those families adjust when they need to and learn more effectively when school spaces are not available.

You never know, the parents might learn a thing or two at the same time (36% of parents cited a lack of subject knowledge as the cause of their children struggling to succeed in the home learning environment)