De-registration Day

So today is the start of Evie's home education.

We decided home education was the way forward for a number of reasons, the most important of these is my complete lack of confidence in the current UK education system.

I want Evie to grow up into a well rounded, free thinking, individual and independent person, I really don't think any of these traits are encouraged in schools today.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] Evie[/caption]
 

Learning in schools seems to consist mostly of memorising facts for exams and learning to comply without question.

Aaaaarghhh it sounds horrible, I want my daughter to learn that there's more to life than this and I don't want to bring up another little robot to be ground down by which ever oppressive government we happen to have in power! (Mini rant over!).

 

Another reason we've decided to home educate is that my 12 year old sister Hermione has been educated at home since march of this year and I am very involved in her learning.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] Science[/caption]
 

I really enjoy my time teaching Hermione and I've found it a huge learning curve for both of us.



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] Hermione Hard at Work[/caption]
 

Hermione was consistently let down by the education system, she missed some school after our Dad died in 2009 and slipped behind in some of her lessons, sadly the school she was at didn't do anything at all to help her catch up, making poor Hermione feel stupid and ultimately losing all her confidence in herself and her ability to learn.

Three months down the line with her home ed and she's blossoming into the clever kid she always has been, she asks questions about what we're studying, she's genuinely interested in our lessons and most importantly she really enjoys learning! 



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] We're Currently Studying Ancient Egypt.[/caption]
 

The time I've spent with Hermione has boosted my confidence enough that I feel I'm well able to give Evie a fun and interesting education at home now.

And the final reason I'm going to home educate Evie is the amount of pressure I saw put upon her year at school recently during their year 6 SATs, from the beginning of January onwards her lessons at school consisted almost exclusively of preparation and revision for these useless exams.

Their French lessons stopped, arts and crafts, which was practically non existent beforehand stopped altogether in the run up to SATs.

I saw how worried my little girl was about doing well and getting level 5's and I wondered how fair is it to put so much pressure and expectation on 10-11 year old children? 



[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400"] Relaxed and Carefree, How Childhood Should Be![/caption]
 

So after much discussion as a family we've decided this is the way forward for us all.

We took the first step today and delivered a letter to Evie's school advising them of our decision and asking them to remove her from the school register and confirm this in writing to us.

The school also have to let the local education authority know of our decision so that Evie's progress at home can be monitored by the local assessor.

Em x 

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