Is homeschool the way forward?

I have never thought about homeschooling before today and did not realise how easy it was to say 'I'm going to homeschool my child' and actually be able to do it seemingly without anyone batting an eyelid... 

Turns out Alicia (above) is not reading her own advice (though it is doubtful she can actually read) as she admitted in the paper today that she is homeschooling her youngest child Papaya. 

It's a wonder she can even spell her own child's name as she recently revealed that she has only just learnt the alphabet and her 3 year old (Papaya) taught her, her A B C's. 

Homeschooling will seemingly not be a problem for Alicia as "there's always Google."

Alicia has admitted she is dyslexic, which is another reason why I am struggling to understand why she would want to homeschool her child instead of giving her a "Good education."

I typed into Google (there is always Google) 'Homeschooling in the U.K' and discovered it is surprisingly and worryingly easy to take your child out of school and homeschool your child. 

All you have to do is tell the school your child is in that you will be taking them out, inform your local council, then you can burn your child's uniform and say bye bye to state education and hello to...well, whatever you want to teach. 

Home educating parents are not required to: 

• Teach the national curriculum 

• Provide a broad and balanced education

• Have a timetable

• Have a premises equipped to any particular standard 

• Set hours during which education will take place

• Have any specific qualifications 

• Make detailed plans in advance 

• Observe school hours, days or terms 

• Give formal lessons 

• Mark work done by their child

For the full list of what you don't need to do to homeschool check out:

www.education-otherwise.org 

The only guidelines to ensure that a child is seemingly being educated well is in Section 437 to 433 of the Education Act 1996:

"If it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise, they shall serve a notice in writing on the parent requiring him to satisfy them within the period specifies in the notice that the child is receiving such education. (s 437 (1))

Though it seems unclear exactly how the local authority check up on homeschooled children as there is no curriculum to adhere to. 

I hope that after making an admission that you only recently learnt your A B C's in a national newspaper, the local authority will be keeping an eye on Alicia's educating skills for her daughters sake. 

Hopefully she will reconsider homeschooling and get her child into an actual school pronto. 

I am not afraid to admit that I am more confident in a trained teacher than my own teaching skills and while having holidays out of term time and teaching my child about whatever I want may seem like fun in the short term, in the long term I know my child will have a much better education in school than with me, so in school she will stay.