School? No... we learn at home
Over the past six years Matthew Jolly has travelled to Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand and will spend four weeks in Texas later this year.
The 18-year-old plays the oboe to Grade 5 standard, has taken up pottery and plays hockey for Fareham Hockey Club. He has six A-to-C grade GCSEs and is studying A-levels in English, chemistry and physics – and yet he hasn't been to school since he was 12.
Matthew is not alone. There is no official figure for the number of pupils who are taught at home in the UK, but estimates have put the figure at around 50,000.
While supporters say it's becoming increasingly popular with parents, the number of children known to be educated at home has fallen in Hampshire from 500 in 2007 to 451 now.
But a government review of home education has given the trend a high profile, recently.
Ministers fear there aren't enough safeguards to make sure children get the education they need and that they miss out on the social side of mixing with other children in school.
But local home-educating parents say they were right to take their children out of school.
Matthew's mum Liz Jolly says her son's dyslexia left him open to bullying and constant discouragement from teachers when he went to a state primary school.
The 52-year-old of Lakeside, in Funtley, Fareham, explains: 'He was always being put down by teachers for not picking up writing quickly enough.
'When he was five I asked if he had learned anything and he said he didn't want to go to school again. There was nothing positive in his day at all.'
Matthew was transferred to a private school and he did well there, winning form prizes. But the family felt he would be better off being taught at home.
Liz says: 'Matthew is an outdoors person and was getting more from studying geography when we took him to the Lake District or studying the River Meon from its source to the sea. Or, if we were doing descriptive writing, we might go to Bath for the day.
'He learns more by seeing things or handling things rather then being stuck in a classroom.
'I feel he's done more, seen more and learned more by being out of school.'
Matthew has since got six A-to-C GCSEs through online studies and looks set to do well in his A-levels at South Downs College to put him on his way to a degree in forensics or a career as a dog handler in the police.
Yvonne and David Ogle took their son, Charlie, out of school when he was 11 but for very different reasons.
From an early age their son had shown a natural flair for English, particularly creative writing. But the couple felt the school curriculum wasn't challenging or flexible enough.
Yvonne, 49, of Hampton Grove, Fareham, said: 'When Charlie was at school the teacher was off sick.
'The class fell behind and by the time the teacher came back they weren't given time to catch up because the national curriculum had a rigid timetable. He wanted to write more and he wasn't being pushed or encouraged to excel. He was frustrated with the system.'
Charlie's skills as a writer were recently recognised in The News when he won the under-16s category in the Christmas ghost story competition.
But unlike Matthew and many of his peers, Charlie, now 17, has no qualifications.
Yvonne says: 'He's doing GCSEs in English and maths at Fareham College next year. It doesn't worry me he didn't go to school and hasn't got the GCSEs yet. Charlie's got the talent and ability to get a good job using his writing skills. He now just needs the qualifications to help him get it.'
The other great fear about home education is the children will miss out on the ability to mix and socialise with other children.
But Charlie doesn't feel he missed out. He says: 'I've got friends and always have done through my hobbies like Doctor Who and Warhammer. I haven't missed out at all.'
Yvonne is not worried about Matthew's ability to mix. She says: 'Instead of socialising with just people in his school year group, Matthew has friends of all ages through things like camps for home-educated children and particularly through the hockey club where he umpires junior teams as well as playing for the seniors.
'He has been seen by an educational psychologist and they said how confident and well-rounded Matthew was.'
I believe that children are better off in school – MP
Home education is being put under the microscope as part of a government review.
While home-educating parents talk of the benefits of education away from school, ministers fear some children are not getting the education they need and in extreme cases it is being used as a cover for child abuse.
The government says there are no plans to remove the right to educate children at home.
But the review will consider how local authorities can ensure the education and well-being of children taught outside school.
Schools Minister and Portsmouth North MP Sarah McCarthy-Fry says: 'Parents have a legal right to educate children at home and there's certainly no plans to change that.
'Personally, I think children are better off in school but I don't want to change that right.'
Home educators' charity Education Otherwise said it's angry with the suggestion that home educated children are at risk purely because they are home educated.
But Mrs McCarthy-Fry says there are real concerns that need to be looked into.
She said: 'There is a very vociferous parent lobby for the right to educate children at home. But there has been a concern in some cases that home education has allegedly been used as a cover up for child trafficking and abuse.
'Local authorities don't feel they have all the tools they need in their tool boxes to ensure children can be safeguarded. That's why we're carrying out this review.
'We also want to make sure home educating parents have all the support and advice they need.'
Mrs McCarthy-Fry also believes the relative lack of social contact by being taught at home can also be an issue.
'The limited socialising that can be available to home educated children is something that would worry me but that's the parents right.
'Education is about preparing children for their life in the world. Going to school and mixing with other children does that.'
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Thursday 23 February 2012
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