Why Is Home-Schooling Increasing?

Do you wonder why is home-schooling increasing rapidly? Surely everyone sends their children to school? It’s the done thing! But what if schooling isn’t right for your child? Your Thurrock reported this week on the increase of home-schooling in Thurrock and unfortunately, I hardly find it surprising at all.

Why Is Home-Schooling Increasing?

When the figures are compared to the rest of the county, the number of children home-schooled in Thurrock in 2017 is equal to 43 percent of the total number of children being home-schooled across the county.

The figures released by the county council show that 750 children are currently being home-schooled in Essex, excluding the unitary authorities of Southend and Thurrock. Your Thurrock

Home-schooling is an option many parents are desperately turning to as a last resort. Parents are seeing their children struggle with the workload, the expectations, the social expectations & being bullied and the effects it has on their children’s mental health.

Mental Health

Mental health is one of the major concerns for parents when it comes to schooling. Often schools are so over-crowded many students struggle to be heard in class when they need help. Many are overlooked for simply behaving well whilst teachers focus on those that aren’t behaving and disrupting the class. This leaves many children feeling lost and unsure with little to no confidence. Often Home-schooling is introduced to help the child build confidence with one to one learning.

The stress and strain of arriving on time, every day, perfectly dressed and homework completed can be too much for some children. Children are feeling more anxious than ever over schooling. Homework is increasing from as early as Reception with Maths, English, Reading and creative homework to fit in weekly. Often children have after-school clubs to attend on top. With little or no downtime for children and so many pressures, this often leads to meltdowns at home, where the child feels comfortable enough to let it all out. Sometimes this can be too much for the family all around. Often leading to the decision that home-schooling may be the best option.

School is overwhelming for many, being cramped in a small classroom with 30 other students chatting, homework demands, keeping track of personal belongings. For some children, it is simply too much to cope with. Eva struggled with headaches when she started in the year, with so many others making noise and so many demands, it was overwhelming her. Even now she often comes home desperate to unwind, and then I have to present homework to her. She loves school and learning but there are times we have seriously considered home-schooling. Eva, like many children, works best with one on one learning and schools just can’t provide this for every child.

Bullying

Bullying is of course now much worse than it has ever been. There is often no escape for children these days thanks to social media and mobile phones. Many children are hounded and harassed at home, school and online, with no escape. Being constantly connected makes it difficult for schools to fully monitor the situation and much is missed. This obviously has an extremely severe impact on a child’s mental health and this stays with them all their life.

As a parent of a child who has been bullied, I can honestly say there was not enough done to improve the situation. Children are left mostly unattended at lunchtime when most of the bullying occurs and often children are too scared to let a teacher know what is going on.

Bullying can cause self-harm and suicidal thoughts which teachers are generally oblivious to. Schools may try to tackle bullying but often it leads to the bullied child having to move school or turn to home-schooling.

Better Education

As I mentioned further up the post, many classes are crowded with 30 or more students. When you have 30 children and maybe 2 or at maximum 3 teachers in that class that’s 10-15 children each. How many of those children get ignored because they are quiet? How many are too shy to ask or help and feel they are bothering the teachers? How many sit through a class completely confused? And how many finish up without completing the work or have a basic understanding of the topic?

Many are turning to home-schooling because they know they can provide a better education for their children. Home-schooling allows one to one support with learning styles tailored to the child, not just a ‘one size fits all’. With that extra support, many children whose education has previously suffered at school have now flourished being home-schooled.

Mr Kitney from Inside Martyns Thoughts home schools his eldest son whose education has flourished where he had previously struggled in a school environment. When you see such a huge change in a child you can genuinely see why home-schooling is increasing rapidly.

Why Is Home-schooling Increasing?

Parents want to provide a good education for their children but not at the risk of their children’s mental health. As parents, we want to know that schools are protecting our children, that they aren’t at risk of being bullied, self-harming, feeling suicidal and struggling. Unfortunately for many, schools just aren’t equipped to ensure that happens. We know the educational system is failing many of our children, this is why more parents are deciding home-schooling is a better option for their child.

What do you think about the increase of home-schooling?