Breaking News Today are sharing a recent poll by Childcare.co.uk has revealed that 24.3% of parents are more likely to home school their children after the coronavirus pandemic is over.
Out of the 2,273 surveyed, 78% said that they liked being in control of what their children learn. Over half said that they thought home schooling reduced the chance of their child being bullied, and a whopping 91% simply stated that they enjoy spending more time with their child.
Childcare.co.uk, the UK’s largest online community of parents, childcare providers, schools and private tutors, went on to reveal that if 24.3% of parents across the UK did make the decision to home school their children after the schools reopen, it would free up over 2 million school places, making it much more likely that parents would be successful with their first choice of school for their children.
These results come as parents up and down the country are turning to virtual tutors to try and recreate the school environment and ensure that their children continue to learn during the coronavirus lockdown.
The BBC has recently unveiled its decision to expand upon its education service, BBC Bitesize, to provide regular daily lessons in English, maths and other core subjects.
BBC director general Tony Hall describes it as the “biggest education effort the BBC has ever undertaken,” with the service including more than 150 new lessons added every week to the Bitesize website and app, as well as advice for parents on home schooling and guides for pupils with special needs.
The UK government has also announced that it is backing a new national online school called Oak National Academy. This will provide 180 hours of free lessons a week, as well as providing free laptops and tablets for disadvantaged years 10s and other vulnerable pupils to help them continue to learn during the lockdown.
Yet educators in the UK appear to be conflicted about how much learning children should be carrying out, leading to confusion amongst parents.
A joint statement by the main teacher’s union said: “We cannot home school the nation’s children,” but they also acknowledged that many parents have their own complicated work patterns and that allowances need to be made at this difficult time.
Many schools have provided learning packs to help children continue to learn at home, as well as running some online learning lessons but have said: “What is more important is maintaining a degree of normality, rather than worrying about a child’s progress in English or maths.”
Helena Gillespie, professor of learning and teaching in higher education at UEA, says that the amount of home learning you should do daily depends on the age of the child.
She said: “If they can stay focused for between an hour and three hours a day, that would be fantastic. However, it’s much better to have a really successful hour where the child enjoys their work, then watches telly.”
She added: “It’s important to know when to bail out. Don’t beat yourself up – you can pick up things again tomorrow. Children won’t remember finishing that geography homework, but they will remember how it made them feel and what the vibe in the house was like.”
Patricia Warner from SchoolExams.co.uk, a teacher with over 30 years’ experience in education, says the best thing during this time is to take it easy.
She said: “It is important not to put too much pressure on yourselves and your children in terms of learning during these unprecedented times.”
The number of children being home schooled in the UK has risen by an estimated 40% over the last three years, with 48,000 being home schooled in 2016-17, up from 34,000 in 2014-15.
It is thought that there are currently around 60,000 children in England being educated at home, with this figure set to rise by about a quarter each year.
The two main reasons cited by parents for choosing to home school their children are concerns over mental health issues and avoiding exclusion. However, a lack of good schools is also a problem in certain areas of the country with the Isle of Wight, the county with the highest proportion of home-educated pupils, being criticised by Ofsted for its “inadequate schools.”
Dr. Carrie Herbert, founder of the Red Balloon charity, which helps children outside mainstream education, has said that the increase in home schooling numbers suggested “something quite tragic about the state of the education system.”
She also expressed concern that some parents might feel pressured into home schooling to avoid exclusion or prosecution over poor attendance.
She said: “I’m not sure it’s very useful anymore to put 30 children in one classroom with an adult all doing the same thing in the same way at the same time. We should really be thinking more 21st century and outside the box about this and teaching online in real time can help to do this.”
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