I’m Anita and I have four granddaughters of school age. Only one goes to a school establishment, while the other three are home educated. Being a lady of a certain age, the news that my eldest daughter wanted to home school her children at first horrified me. I knew of no one whose children did not go to school. School is part of life, isn’t it? That first day when you leave your mother at the school door and enter the world of ‘standing on your own two feet’. It is where you discover how to be independent for a few hours a day while learning the basics of the three R’s. It is where you make friends for life. Or is it?
I went to school in the 1960s and 70s when corporal punishment was rife, although I was never a victim of it. There wasn’t a national curriculum, but our teachers, who were almost exclusively unmarried ladies and had been to teacher-training college, taught us what we needed to know. That is, skills for life as well as the basics of history, geography, science and other subjects. We went out on nature walks and could identify the plants; we learned how to play the recorder and cook simply, as well as how to sew and knit. We sang hymns as the teacher played the piano. We learned about religion and we played rounders.
I had previously spent 25 years as a school governor in both primary and secondary schools, and even written books on the history of education. I had great faith in education as a way to succeed – but I had never even imagined that a parent could teach a child at home. I should have realised. Education for all children has only been compulsory for around 150 years. It was introduced in the reign of Queen Victoria, who was certainly not amused at the idea of educating girls! She clearly did not see the irony of that opinion.
It was Covid that set the ball rolling on our home-education journey. My daughter and her family returned from London to the north-east, leaving their old life behind and, like everyone else, were subject to the rigid lockdowns of the period. The children began to learn at home, slowly to begin with, but youngsters naturally have a thirst for knowledge, and they found they enjoyed learning when there wasn’t the pressure to be taught. Children are naturally curious, and the two eldest were able to learn a lot simply from family members.
They were soon cooking three-course meals, making their own clothes, using tools, painting pictures, taking photographs and learning the basics of gardening – all from the adults around them. They were signed up to online lessons in many subjects, including playing the ukulele. There was time to just stand and stare, and we all began to notice the simple things that our busy lives had not previously allowed us to – like the birds, for instance. We soon became ornithological experts, with the help of a pair of binoculars.
Bit by bit, every day – including weekends – became a school day. After all, there are new experiences everywhere if you care to look. That old adage that you learn something new every day is very true, even for me.
Now, four years later, all three children have a myriad of interests and gain information from everyone around them. The youngest went to a pioneering pre-school beach school for two days a week and has now graduated to a primary forest school.
Her two older sisters have had their art and photography accepted into displays around the north-east. The oldest sister, at 13, is studying for GCSE maths and she may or may not take the exam; she hasn’t decided yet. Both girls can read and write Latin. They have their own vegetable garden, can identify many flowers and plants, especially those that are edible, and they enjoy foraging.
The girls continue to dressmake and experiment with a host of other crafts such as macramé, felting and making proddy mats (a northern tradition), and they can cook anything and everything independently.
I teach them history, my specialist subject, and we have a huge family on which to draw for absolutely any subject. Their other grandmother has taught them to speak Portuguese. One uncle enjoys woodwork, a great-uncle is a musician, and both parents work in the film industry, which has led the girls to make their own films, including animations.
The eldest has a special interest in the ancient world and is a member of a junior archaeology club, and last year she read over 100 books! They attend swimming and gymnastics classes too, and learn about natural medicines on a junior herbalist course.
As we live on a farm, they spend a lot of time learning animal husbandry and the value of agriculture. They experience new life in the spring with baby lambs, calves, goats and foals. They help with haymaking and the eldest can drive a tractor.
But what about friends? The home education movement is huge, with parents taking their children out of a system that is no longer fit for purpose – or so they believe. I tend to agree. My grandchildren have many friends – mostly without mobile phones. These children have recognised that there is a whole world out there to explore and enjoy and they are doing just that, safely and without the pressure of SATs, CATs, GCSEs and A-levels.
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Published in issue 91. Accurate at the time this issue went to print. Photo not of author.
