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Schools are mostly fine for some children and for some parents.
But for some, schools may not be so fine and may involve real problems.
If you have a real issue with a school, then maybe you should consider carefully the alternatives
of either perhaps finding a better school somewhere or of maybe schooling at home.

Education in schools

For many the chief benefit of schools lies in their ability to usually teach children more and better. Schools will have trained specialist teachers who can provide children with good teaching and relate it to the exams they will need to pass. But that alone does not guarantee that every child will learn well at a school. Many schools may be poor at motivating kids to learn, and school children can develop anti-learning gang cultures. Though many parents might find it difficult to teach their children well, they can often be better than some schools at motivating their own children to learn and may also be able to get some help to homeschool - perhaps also being able to use a suitable tutor for some teaching.

The social values of schools

Schools in any society will have their own social values, generally the mainstream values of that society - though schools may vary. Some parents may not find any local school having social values that suit them. And some children can have problems handling a school that has very different values to those at home. Home schooling can allow parents more control over their children's values - though care may be needed as this can often maybe lead to teaching too narrow or inappropriate values for the society that the children live in.

The social life of schools

One thing that schools certainly do is have kids in classes or gangs, where they may learn to socialise well. Socially this can be good for children to make friends, but it does involve children chiefly relating to other children and maybe making bad friends as parents may have little control over school-friend making. And children limited to only child friends may not learn how to relate to adults properly and so be slower to develop social maturity, while some children may also be more subject to severe bullying at a school. They may have less socialising problems in a small school with small classes, but no such school may be available. Home schooling can mean a child having a more balanced age-range of friends than schools give, but may mean having too few friends.

Schools as babysitters

The law requires some form of child education and almost forces kids to attend schools. And many parents see schools as basically being necessary babysitters, while some parents also may not want their children to be more successful than themselves. Schools do allow parents to work without having to worry greatly about their children, and some parents do see this as their main usefulness - and as a perhaps poor reason to not homeschool.

Bullying in schools

Bullying between children in schools can be a real problem that can very badly affect some children. This may especially be the case for an overweight child, minority ethnic child or otherwise 'different' child. Bullying between parents of schoolchildren in schools can also be a real problem for an anyhow 'different' parent. And though bullying at schools can be very harmful, often it will not be reported to the school, and if reported will too often result in little or no action by the school.

You may like to read an interesting article on homeschooling tips.

If you consider the issue of public schooling vs. homeschooling, then you might possibly decide that schools are not for your children, or your child might be finding school impossible or has been excluded from school. In either case you may want to consider some form of home schooling as is your legal right. It may not be easy and you will need some information and help for it. Homeschooling is bigger in the USA than in the UK, but we have gathered some good UK info below.

For UK homeschooling information and curriculum etc resources these are good ; 1, and 2.

Or to find a local UK homeschooling group ; Education Otherwise.

Exams for the homeschooled

In England, entering a private candidate for exams can be very difficult !! They must be done through an exam centre, but English examination boards do not have their own exam centres and government does not encourage schools or colleges to accept private candidates for exams.

It seems that statistics for private candidates cannot be separated from statistics for other candidates so schools worry that private candidates could reduce their exam marks average that decides their government funding. So only a very few private schools or colleges accept private candidates for some exams, and it can be difficult to discover where will be suitable.

The best help in this at present seems to be the AQA website, though their information is limited, see - AQA. The EDEXCEL website may also have something - see - EDEXCEL. (If you choose to use one of the somewhat expensive Distance Learning companies then they should be able to offer limited help)
IF you have any bit of real info on how a home schooled child in England can enter privately for exams, then please email us and we will add it to this website.
(the Education Otherwise link above includes good Printable Fact Sheets on this and most other homeschooling issues.)

Any homeschooling parent or teacher might benefit from reading this good brief article on Class Management.

otherwise, if you have any view or suggestion on the content of this site, please (e-mail vincent@wilmots.me.uk)
or write - Vincent Wilmot, 166 Freeman Street, Grimsby, N.E.Lincs, DN32 7AT.

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