Sorry Dawn, I didn’t mean to offend anyone. The remarks from that teacher (school is harder and blaming the older children for switching off etc) really don’t sit well with me. Before getting involved in the home ed community, reading lots of books (John Taylor Gatto, John Holt, etc), seeing films based on real life (Coach Carter, Marva Collins Story, etc), I didn’t realise the problem was bigger and more spread than I imagined. I know there are some good schools out there, and well done to them for sticking to their principles. And I’m glad your children are thriving in school. I do apologise again if I caused any offence; it wasn’t my intention; I might have reacted too quick at those remarks I mentioned above. Mea culpa, Bianca

Hi there eden, if i have caused any offence then i am deeply sorry, i do only refer to my own experience with schools we have come into contact with. I do agree that not all schools are the same as we do have members of the family that go to really good schools but unfortunately i am not possible to use these schools as job commitments and relocating restrict it so the best option for us and our belief’s is to home educate. we have a few primary schools around here but to be honest they all run in a pretty similar way as i get to discuss this with a majority of mums in and around the area through various activities and clubs and get very similar reactions on there views on schooling. for me and my views on what i want for my children are not ment to cause offence but just to gather information from others who have gone down the home education route. My experience as a child in primary school was a good one, when there wasn’t much testing and more play and creativity was in volved. times have changed and deadlines need to be kept but like you said not all schools are the same and it’s lovely that you and a number of other parents have a school that you feel enlightens and is right for your children and involves creativity and enables the children to be individual and enthusiastic. unfortunately i have not yet found that in a school near us so my option for my family is to home educate. as i said i do not want to offend anyone about the school system but this is only about me and my family needs and i’m(hopefully) not coming across as critisising other families, but thank you for your views and points you’ve made and i will keep them in mind the next time i write x
so to all who read this if any offence is taken then my apologies and i will try to think of people that are happy with there schools before i comment
also reading through this it sounds a bit sarcastic but this is not my intention (sorry for going on too lol)

Thank you both for taking the time to read and reply. I do just find it annoying when school is slated “wholesale” as they have been before on the forum, we need to respect different choices - I would never be rude about HE which has it’s many styles and ways of going about it. I know they aren’t all the same and there are some schools that are not great out there (my dd’s “catchment” school for one, hence she was enrolled in a different one).
Thanks anyway x

well, went to my local H.E gym group today and met some wonderful people and found out that there’s loads of home edders in my area which i was amazed at. i swapped e-mail addresses and hope to see them soon. I think they won’t be going back to school after Christmas but like I’ve been told it’s not a one way street and if H.E isn’t for us then back to school, although i have been told of a Steiner school near by which i thought they were all down south so there are other options. I did have a teacher come up to me today who i really get on with and she suggested that i try the local catholic school which is a smaller school but i said it wasn’t so much the school but how the curriculum is changing for our local education, too much testing and too much competition for my liking (in our area) so lets see how it all goes xx

well, had a bit of a surprise this week.my 2nd and 3rd daughter have had a change of heart about HE and want to stay at school but my eldest wants to leave still. what do i do because i want this to be as much there decision as mine. my husband has completely converted to HE and says they are only 5 and 7 and will change there minds as quick as the wind and i should just do HE. At the moment it sounds like it’s just going to be my eldest as i don’t want them to do anything they don’t feel 100% about. as the time grew closer to ending there state schooling the two that now want to stay got cold feet. I feel really confused, so do i just home ed my eldest and take the other two term by term and see if they want to try it later. It looks as though as they get older attitudes change and maybe school becomes a bit more difficult to deal with as I’m witnessing with my eldest. I still feel our schools near us are more geared to what grades they get rather than the actual students feelings but i can’t take the others out if they want to stay now,can i? i feel very confused…...has anyone had this situation before and what did you do

Hi Casper. Not sure I could be of much help, but maybe if you start another thread to ask your new questions, then more lovely GP people might be able to offer you some advice in case someone has experienced something similar with their children. The only thing I can say, it’s that no matter what decision you’re going to take, don’t forget, it’s reversable; so, you aren’t stuck with that one decision. Hope that helps a bit. Good luck, Bianca