Home Education

Hello,

My ex wants to home educate our daughter. Our daughter is happy at school and in her latest report it stated she was a year higher than her age in most subjects.

Therefore, i cannot understand why my ex wants to home school her.

What rights do i have to stop this and what are my options?

Thank you.

Just a few points

Do you pay spousal maintenance because your ex would be expected to maximize her income

You state your chikd is very bright for there age how old are they

Have you spoken to the school to establish how well your child fits in with the educate system the local authority provides

Is your ex qualified to do thiscwgat are the rules if the local education system

Is she too lazy to get out of bed and take your child to school?

I don''t know if you can stop it, but you can make it very difficult for her by having the local Authority monitor very closely how she does things.
Sadly i guess it is a parent''s prerogative to make a mess of their child''s life before anyone intervenes. Saying that though, if your daughter is gifted, she could greatly benefit from home education, provided your ex can do it properly.

I think you should see a family solicitor about a prohibited steps order. Where two or more people share parental responsibility and one disagrees with the decision of the other, they can apply for a prohibited steps order restricting the other person’s ability to exercise their parental responsibility rights. This order could prevent the child from being home schooled if you did not believe this would be in the best interests of your child.

Whoah there...

Have you tried sitting down with your ex to talk through what she sees happening in a home school situation? Do you understand what her motives are?

Here at Wiki, we are so accustomed to the 2 parties being at relative war with each other that we tend to make the assumption that no one is able to communicate with their ex.

Now, since this is the first post, let''s not make assumptions about ex being ''too lazy'' or OP needing a PSO

I''m an ex-high school teacher so not a fan of the home school system but I wouldn''t throw it out at first base; it works for some. We see many situations where an ex is using children as pawns, but that isn''t always the case - if you were both still together and co-parenting, what would happen if one of you suggested this as a way forward?

I would definitely talk to school staff and get their take but I would also suggest trying to engage the mother. You two are (hopefully) going to attempt to co-parent for a while yet - there needs to be some common ground about what is best for your daughter. If you can find a point of agreement (even if that is only that you both want what is best for her, at this stage) and then build on that, it will get easier.

A good strategy for mediation, incidentally, is to agree on a point (however small) and then try to suggest a point beyond. If you meet disagreement, go back to the point you last agreed on, reaffirm the agreement, and try again... and again... and again....

Shezi

I agree with everything Shezi has advised and would add that you should also consider how your child will have friends and socialise if home schooled.

There can be many reasons why a parent/parents decide home schooling is best for their child and you may already be aware of why your ex is thinking of taking this step, e.g.bullying, but it certainly needs to be discussed.

In my view, as a teacher trainer, a lot depends on the age of your child and what he/she would be aiming towards when they reach the end of statutory school age (your 18th birthday if you were born on or after 1 September 1997) and whether you can provide the necessary levels and skills, e.g. for university entrance.

I would recommend you read the Government guidelines here:

www.gov.uk/home-education

www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school

This system is well tried in other countries e.g. the USA and Australia, so it may be helpful to check out some websites and see some of the resources out there for parents who home school. It''s a good idea to gen up on what exactly is involved, so when you discuss it with your ex you can speak from a position of having done a little research into what''s involved.

I wish you well with trying to come to an agreement on taking this very important step in your child''s life.

Ok I am going to put my two penny worth in

I know a lot of mums who home educate but this is due to their child having a disability which forces them not to be able to attend mainstream school, this is during the tribunal stage of arranging alternative education.

Although my best friend has a boy one year older than mine with Aspergers who hasn''t been to school for the last year and is waiting for a tribunal for him to attend a residential special school so she is currently home educating him. But her oldest son she also he educated he was dyslexic and extremely shy so much so that attending school was an ordeal for him he really couldn''t cope so for the last year of primary she took him out to home educate him and then for the next two years of secondary school she home educated him with slowly integrating him into secondary school it started at something like an hour at a time up to full day and so on but he was so shy this is how he could cope with it. This wonderful young man has just graduated oxford with a first degree honours in English literature.

My point is that in some cases home education can work but it is VERY hard, they do now have a system of Skype schooling once a week but you have to have an extremely good reason to do it and you are monitored all the time.

So I understand that your child is very gifted but I think their are other things in place for gifted children that would work rather than home education such as moving them up an extra year or extra lessons etc I would talk to the school to see what provisions they have in place for the young and gifted.

At the end of the day socialisation is an important part of schooling