Shocked at the amount of home ed kids below national average with reading , writing and maths
I have recently started to home ed and have noticed a large proportion of the home ed kids are way below national level .
It shocks me and makes me think they would be better off going to school since most of these kids I've witnessed are not being home ed because of past trauma in schools / SEND etc, they are home ed because the parents simply don't like the school system and the kids have never set foot into a school building .
I'm assuming these kids are unschooled or the parents are out of their depth , starting out with good intentions .
Do you think these parents have failed their kids ?
Edit: I apologise if I have hit a nerve , I'm just genuinely curious as to why this seems to be the outcome in the home ed community as this would not be an acceptable outcome for my children and hoping I don't fall into the same spiral .
To answer the common questions:
" Have I assessed each child individually "?
No, but I have had parents approach me with their children's workbooks and I can see they are miles behind . For example, I saw a child's workbook recently and they are 5 years behind , the parents regularly approach me as i'm a tutor in that subject area and have done a degree in that subject ( being intentionally vague as I know my local home ed community use this forum ).
This child is completely capable as I have taught some concepts to the child as he's part of my youth group , he just seems completely uninspired and bored, the parent seems out of their depth. That's just one example of many I have encountered
" only 60% of pupils leave primary being able to read, write etc"
That seems like a blanket statement without looking at the individual statistics . I wonder about the demographics , and areas that may have affected that statistic . I have many teacher friends in my local community based on my line of work. The common complaint is that most parents don't bother to encourage learning at home ( like read to them etc)
They just assume all responsibility to the teachers including behaviour of their children
Of course the schools are suffering due to lack of funding . Parental input is definitely something required for your child's academic success regardless of how good the school is and there's just not enough of it .