‘Home schooling didn’t feel like a choice, but a necessity’
Parents home-educating in Wales say they do so because school is wrong for their children, not because they are opposed to the system.
They say mainstream education is too focused on a “one size fits all” system which doesn’t account for individual learning needs, although they accept it works for others.
One group set up to bring homeeducating families together says nine of its 10 children have additional learning needs.
The parents’ comments come as figures show numbers of home-schooled children in Wales have risen slightly from 1,682 in 2015-16 to 1,724 in 201617, according to Welsh Government figures.
Figures have risen every year since 2011, when 986 home-schooled children were recorded in Wales.
Among those who home-school is singer Charlotte Church, who described last year how she loves teaching daughter Ruby, nine, and son Dexter, eight, at home in Dinas Powys. She said they have joined up with other families of home educators to make it a community.
Latest figures show the Vale of Glamorgan, where the singer lives, has the lowest rate of home-educated children of any LEA in Wales at 1.9 per 1,000 compared with 18.4 per 1,000 in Ceredigion, which has the highest rate.
Cardiff’s own figures show a record 192 children are now home-schooled, up 22 on 2016 and with a slight but continuing rise every year since 2013. A Cardiff council spokesman said home-schooled children account for just 0.36% of pupils in the city.
That, combined with the fact there is no legal obligation on parents to tell councils they are home-educating, unless they remove their children from school, means meaningful yearon-year comparisons are hard to make, the spokesman added.
Katharine Saunders, a single mother from Ceredigion, began home-educating son James when he was 13 because he was so unhappy at school. Now 16, he got five GCSEs grades A* to D with her and is studying media at FE college.
She believes James, who was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia (a learning disorder impairing maths learning), would have no qualifications if he’d stayed at school in the county, where she says he was bullied and his learning needs not met.
“Home education didn’t feel like a choice, but a necessity if my son was to ever realise his potential,” said Katharine, who has a degree but no teaching qualification.
“I thought, ‘I do not have a clue what I am doing but it has to be better than what they are doing.’ James would never have been put forward for GCSEs at school. I don’t think many local education authorities really have aspirations for all our children. They are let down by a system which puts everyone in the same box.”
Katharine’s two older children were happy at school and achieved GCSE and A-levels. One went on to get a first-class degree at Cardiff University and the other is a working trained chef. Katharine said school worked for them but not James.
“If school is right for you, I’d say stick with it. I am not against school per se but it was not right for him. There is a lack of understanding of children’s learning differences.”
Mother-of-three Erika Lye from Neath set up Mountain Movers earlier this year, a group for families homeschooling in the area. Every week up to 98 children attend sessions with the group at Rhos Community Hall in Pontardawe.
Erika – whose three sons Ethan, 18, Logan, 12, and Jack, eight, have autism – says around 90% of children in the Mountain Moves group have additional learning needs.
She and husband Dean began home-educating all their sons when Ethan became very unhappy in mainstream school aged 12.
“We were also going through getting Jack a statement of special educational need which said he needed to learn one-to-one in a quiet environment, which no school could provide – so I began researching home education.
“School was horrifically stressful and we are much better as a family for home-educating. Schools are focused on attendance and performance. They lose sight of individuals but you can’t blame them if they have to work to these goals.”
Mountain Moves organises teacherled classes for children doing GCSEs and experts come in to give talks.
“I did not expect the group to explode so much but the need is there. We have picked up a lot of children with learning difficulties. There is also a rise in people with mental health issues due to bullying. A very small number are home schooling for lifestyle or philosophical reasons.”