About Home Education
Elective Home Education (EHE) is the term used when parents choose to provide education for their children at home instead of sending them to school full-time. You may also hear the term “home-schooling” used. This is different from education provided by a local authority (LA) other than at a school – for example, hospital and home tuition for children who are too ill to attend school.
A variety of people from all walks of life choose home education for their children. Home educators and their children are a very diverse group. The practice of most home educating families tends to fall somewhere between being quite structured and formal, perhaps almost creating a sense of school-at-home, and being very informal, learning as opportunities arise and a young person’s interests change (often known as autonomous learning). A more formal approach may be chosen if a young person is quite likely to return to school in the foreseeable future, for example to take exams. This can give a family a useful sense of stability and structure, allowing them to build their confidence and know where they are going. Other families take advantage of the flexibility that home education allows.
Young people can continue right through their school age years being home educated, often taking the same kind of exams as their peers in schools. Some continue to home educate up to age 18 but many go on into higher education, and some spend periods in different forms of education. Some young people don’t take any exams but may move straight into work or training. A few, unfortunately, do not seem able to engage with any learning opportunities offered despite everyone’s best efforts. There are just as many possible outcomes for home educated young people as for those in schools.
There is a perception that home educated children are missing out on “normal socialisation”, that they are somehow disadvantaged socially and developmentally. There is little evidence to support this view. There are many possibilities for social contact with other home educating families as well as the out-of-school activities that are available to all young people.