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Sunday, January 13, 2008
Home learning expected to boom in UK
No details on how do they predict the future, but it's an interesting prediction.
Research by Durham University estimated that 150,000 UK children are taught at home, a figure expected to triple over the next decade.
There are no official statistics to show why families pull their offspring out of the system, but studies have suggested the main reason was bullying, followed by dissatisfaction with educational standards in school. Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Bullies driving thousands of pupils to study at home
More from the UK...
Thousands of children are being educated at home because they have been so seriously bullied at school.
The revelation will fuel fears over collapsing classroom discipline on the eve of Ofsted's annual report on the state of education in England. Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Homeschool Figures "Staggering"
A UK teacher openly admits to wanting to stamp out homeschooling.
Shocking figures revealed this week show that a staggering number of parents in Lancashire are now opting to educate their children at home.
Some 567 children in the county are being taught at home, an 800 per cent rise in five years, rising from 61 in 2003.
The figures released under the freedom of information act show that 38 of those were from just one Preston school.
At City of Preston High School in Ribbleton, 38 children were taken out over a period of 12 months.
Head teacher Christopher Meldrum declined to speak to The Citizen but told Channel 4 News that he did not support home schooling and wanted to stamp it out. Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
Thursday, September 27, 2007
More from UK Channel 4 on homeschooling
Our reactionary friends at UK Channel 4 actually have a whole series on homeschooling and it's various reasons. Not all of them are as slanted and negative. Here's the complete list:
- The case for home-school: bullying
- Home-schooling on the rise
- UK home-school cases soar
- Home-schooling: comments and reactions
- The case for home-school: autism
- The case for home-school: family
Labels: homeschool, UK
UK Minister denies homeschool rise
A follow-up to the previous story on the Sinister threat of Homeschooling in the UK: a UK minister takes umbrage with the story, not because it defames homeschooling, but because it reflects poorly on government schools.
Reports that home schooling is increasing across certain parts of the country have been dismissed by the minister of state for schools, Jim Knight. Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
The Sinister threat of Homeschooling in the UK
Hit tip to Mom Is Teaching. This slanted TV report from the UK subtly homeschoolers are part of a vast conspiracy or worse. They do this by simply feeding on stereotypes and misconceptions while presenting selective facts.
Channel 4 News Online reveals that the number of children being schooled at home has risen by more than 60 per cent in the past five years.
More than 80 per cent of education authorities reported hikes in the number of children being educated at home, according to the Freedom of Information (FoI) probe. Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
Saturday, July 14, 2007
UK: Homeschooling gives youngsters good start in life
NICOLA Yeo is an educated woman with a background working as a secretary in the City of London, but is the first to say she is not "the brain of Britain".
Despite that she is now educating her sons Harry (9) and Thomas (8) at home and has seen them make more progress in the last year than they ever did at school.
She has discovered a growing number of parents taking their children out of school and has now joined with some of them to form the Freedm group. Read more...
Labels: UK
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
No New Restrictions for British Homeschoolers
LONDON, May 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK’s Department for Education and Skills has issued a set of draft guidelines for homeschooling families that remind local administrative councils that parents have the legal right to educate their children at home.
The draft guidelines are to accompany a proposed consultation period and represent a shift away from the department’s rumoured position against homeschooling. Plans to implement the compulsory registration and tight monitoring of homeschooling families have been dropped. Local authorities, the document says, have “no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis”. Read more...
Labels: UK
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
New home schooling rules in UK
I'd like to hear comments from UK homeschoolers about this. what do you think?
Parents educating children at home will be subjected to tighter controls amid fears that many young people receive little or no tuition.
A record number of parents are thought to be educating their children at home because of mounting disillusionment with state schools.
The Government's own research reveals that the number of young people withdrawn from school is on the increase following concern over indiscipline and the quality of lessons. Read more...
Labels: UK
Monday, April 02, 2007
UK Homeschooling truancy scam
Another post from the UK, details how school official encourage parents of truants to homeschool to reduce rates.
Up to 150,000 children are thought to be home educated in England
Some local authorities are trying to cut their truancy rates by urging parents of persistent truants to say they will home educate, it is claimed.
Home education charity Education Otherwise says parents of truants and disruptive pupils are being urged to sign pre-typed de-registration slips.
Read more...
Labels: UK
Homeschooling attacked in UK
An editorial from a Teachers trade journal attacking homeschooling in the UK. They cite anecdotal evidence with no comparison to the abuse and lack of learning in government schools.
One in four parents who home-educate children provides little or no teaching
As many as 35,000 home-schooled children are not receiving even a basic education from their parents, according to inspectors, prompting calls for a change in the law.
Despite the stereotype of creative middle-class parents educating their children at the kitchen table, a quarter of home-schooled children are doing little or no work, officials claimed.
Read more...
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
A Life in the Day (of a homeschooler)
Marina, 9, is one of six children in the Sabisky household. She lives in west London with her parents, Ed and Kate, and her brothers and sister: Andrew, 15, Anastasia, 12, Nicholas, 11, Richard, 6, and Christopher, 3. Marina is home-schooled with three of her siblings
I drag myself out of bed at 7.30. I hear the baby singing Sing a Song of Bincess. His name is Christopher, but we call him Cherub. I go into his bedroom and take him out of his cot. I carry him downstairs. He weighs a ton. Read more...
Labels: UK
Sunday, February 25, 2007
UK Homeschooling numbers uncertain
Home-educated children do not have to follow the national curriculum
An attempt to find out how many children in England are being educated at home suggests the number might range between 7,400 and 34,400.
But the study, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, concludes there is no accurate picture of the extent of home educating.
And it says the rules governing home education are "too vague".
Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
UK Homeschooling 'triples in eight years'
Soaring numbers of parents are teaching their children at home because they are not happy with the quality of state education, according to government research.
The study said at least 16,000 children in England are now educated at home - a threefold increase since 1999.
Read more...
Labels: homeschool, UK
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Homeschooling vs. Totalitarian Regime
MANY people will know a family in which the children do not go to school and are instead taught by their parents.
A century ago home schooling was the preserve of the rich but now there are a variety of reasons why youngsters are not involved in mainstream education, ranging from illness to religious belief.
Highland Council reported last week that about 100 children were being taught at home across the region but admitted that the figure could be higher as there was no requirement for the education authority to be informed in every case.
Vice-convener Dr Michael Foxley described the figure as “scary” and claimed that in some cases parents’ reasons for keeping their sons and daughters away from school were “flaky”. Read more...
Labels: UK
Monday, November 06, 2006
Homeschooling Blasting Off in Britain
Growing disquiet about "rigid" education in schools has prompted a surge in the number of East Anglian parents opting to teach their children at home, new figures reveal.
More parents are rejecting traditional schooling because they claim the prescriptive curriculum does not allow their children to develop their creativity and general knowledge. Read more...
Labels: UK
Friday, November 03, 2006
Scots Call for change on homeschooling
CAMPAIGNERS yesterday called for a change in the law to make it easier for Scottish parents to educate their children at home.
Currently, families who want to remove their children from state education have to seek consent from their local authority. Read more...
Labels: UK
Thursday, September 07, 2006
More UK kids having lessons at home
A very short piece from a kids site across the pond.
Many of you went back to school this week, but for thousands of kids in the UK this was no big deal - because they are being taught at home. Read more...
Labels: UK
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Lessons in my lounge!
Cute kid.
Most of you go to school but thousands of you don't - you're taught at home by your parents.
Press Packer Amy gets taught at home and in her report she tells us what she enjoys about it. Read more...
Labels: UK
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
UK Councils Blocking Parents from Homeschooling
The battle for homeschooling rights is just beginning in much of Europe.
PARENTS who want to take their children out of the state school system to educate them at home are still being obstructed by local authorities, it was claimed yesterday.
According to a charity which represents home educators, officials continue to ignore guidance issued by the Scottish Executive last year, advising them to process requests 'without delay' unless legitimate concerns exist over the safety of the child. Read more...
Labels: UK
Friday, September 16, 2005
US religious right plans a home-school revolution
Did you get the memo on this "revolution" we are supposed to be planning? While it's true homeschoolers are generally trying to make an impact on their world, that's a common human aspiration.
Growing numbers of US families are being encouraged to abandon public education in favour of �home-schooling�, in order to further their ideology and to �regain America� for fundamentalist Christianity.
Activists told the BBC 2 Newsnight TV programme yesterday that the increasing �exodus� from American high schools is now in the order of 2 million people. Read more...
Labels: UK
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Scottish mom: I teach my 7 children at home
Despite the tabloid feel of this site, the story does not read so much like a freak show but similar to the many early stories of homeschooling in this country.
A Doting mum-of-seven got so brassed off by the Scottish education system she set up her own mini-classroom to teach her kids herself at home. Jayne Richardson has spent the last nine years instilling the merits of maths, languages and sciences in her brood.
The 39-year-old and her husband David, 36, decided school was not for their little ones when their oldest son Joshua was in primary two.
The couple felt the standard of learning wasn't high enough so they took the six-year-old out of school - and have never looked back. Read more...
Labels: UK
Monday, May 09, 2005
Ireland: School's out but homework is in
Uncommon in Ireland, homeschooling is explained to the uninitiated in this story.
Roy McLean (32), a dairy farmer, and his wife Naomi (29), from Straid, Co Antrim, decided when their first child Abigail was born six years ago that they would educate their family at home. Now, they have three more children: Andrew (4), Sarah (3) and Samuel (18 months) and a fifth on the way. Naomi tells Judith Cole about her unusual lifestyle
09 May 2005
Some people thought we were mad when we decided to educate our children at home. They'll turn out odd, they said, because they won't be mixing with others their own age. But we haven't regretted it one bit - the flexibility and one-to-one attention we can give each child is worth it. Read more...
Labels: UK
Friday, March 25, 2005
Scottish Parents still badly informed about home education
It sounds like this may be an intentional effort to discourage homeschooling.
Parents who want to educate their children at home are still routinely being misinformed about their rights, it was claimed yesterday.
Many local authorities have failed to improve their guidance to parents on home schooling � a year after the Scottish Executive ordered them to do so, national support charity Schoolhouse said. Read more...
Labels: UK
Saturday, February 05, 2005
What homeschooling taught me
Times Online has an excellent account of a British man's homeschool experience more than 30 years ago.
It was an erratic and eccentric experience, but being taught by my parents instilled a love of learning.
WHEN I was eight years old, my parents chose to take me out of the state education system and teach me themselves. There were several factors behind this decision, practical, personal and ideological. My father had a year�s sabbatical from university teaching and he and my mother wanted to take the family to live in a cottage in the Scottish Highlands. Since the place was miles from the nearest school, they decided that the best way to continue my education, and that of my ten-year-old sister, would be to go it alone. I think they relished the challenge of a little didactic DIY, but another reason for opting out of the system for a while was my growing aversion to school. I wasn�t being bullied and I was not falling that far below the low standard expected at my averagely dismal middle school in England; but I was bored witless, and increasingly rebellious. The school and I were failing simultaneously. Read more...
Labels: UK
Thursday, February 03, 2005
School's out forever in the UK
An article in the Guardian Unlimited claims as many as 170,000 British children are homeschooled and many use the unschooling approach.
In the orchard of their home in a village near Penrith in Cumbria, eight-year-old Bethany and seven-year-old Eliza are having a great time jumping around on some enormous straw bales. Later, they might ride their bikes or climb on the henhouse roof. This activity is not just confined to weekends - the girls can play any time they like because they don't go to school. Instead, they are educated at home by their parents, Paul and Veronika Robinson. But they don't have lessons, have never used a timetable and learn only what and when they want to learn." Read more...
Labels: UK
Friday, December 31, 2004
Homeschooled chess champ illegally truant?
World Net Daily reports on a homeschooled UK kid that, despite his success, is being threatened with truancy charges.
An 8-year-old homeschooled British boy who reportedly is the best under-10 chess player in the UK is at risk of being forced back to government school � but his parents are determined to keep educating him at home. Read more...
Labels: UK
Saturday, September 04, 2004
Mum to teach kids at home to avoid school bullies
A MOTHER-OF-THREE has vowed to educate all her children at home rather than send them to a school where she claims her daughter endured two years of agonising bullying.
Karen Cruickshank withdrew her 13-year-old daughter Elisabeth from Glan-y-Mor Comprehensive School, in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, last July, and has stopped 11-year-old son Charlie starting at the school.
Mrs Cruickshank, from nearby Trimsaran, says her daughter was regularly kicked, slapped, spat at and on three occasions had her hands slammed in doors by a group of five pupils. Read more...
Labels: UK
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
New rules in the UK for home school?
For the 170,000 of you being home-schooled rules about the work you do could be about to change.
Home-schooling means learning at home and not going to school. You don't have to have formal lessons or sit exams.
As more kids than ever before are being home-schooled teachers say there need to be better checks on what kids are learning at home.
The government is considering what sort of monitoring it needs to introduce at the moment. Read more...
Labels: UK
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Bible college "alarmingly close" links to White House
It is worth making clear from the outset that Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia is not your average American university. At Patrick Henry, the students - about 75 per cent of whom have been taught at home rather than in schools - are required to sign a statement of faith before they arrive, confirming (among other things) that they have a literal belief in the teachings of the Bible. At Patrick Henry, students must obey a curfew. They must wear their hair neatly and dress "modestly". Read more...
Labels: UK
