home education in northamptonshire

[pinkkoala]

can you please help, we are in the process of choosing schools for our daughter to start next sept, having been to see some schools i am not keen on the overcrowding and lack of fully trained teachers. their seem to be lots of teaching assistants rather than teachers. i am v keen to start home schooling but have not had any positive feedback from family, my husband is willing to try it.

is there anyone in northants that does home schooling and how do they go about it.

thankyou

[onwardandoutward]

Hi, Pinkkoala. There are definitely people in Northhants!

Ways of getting in touch with them:

1. send a message to some of the national email lists to say where you are and find out who else might be in the area (there's a link to the THEN UK yahoo group here, other email lists are listed here (I doubt that catches all of them, but it's a starting point!)

1. Here is the county contact page from The HE Network UK (= THEN UK): here

1. If you join Education Otherwise you can get in touch with a local contact that way, and there is also a directory of members organised by area, which can be a good way of making initial contacts.

1. One local group is here Northhants]] hone educators - I suspect that if you contact them they'll be able to tell you about regular meetings and events in your area!

[julienoshoes]

Hello pinkkoala

It is very common for family and friends to be negative about home based education, when you first mention it to them.
Unfortunately some people never become positive about it-as if by making a different choice from the norm, you are challenging their choices.
They also have quite reasonable fears generated by the usual misinformation about home based education.
However others change their minds when faced with the great outcomes that home education brings.

My mum was originally very concerned but now talks about all of her grand children's achievements now apparently-both her schooled and home educated ones.
She adores having a granddaughter who enjoys classical music as much as she does and our dd2 often goes to concerts with her grandma and her grandma's friends. The two of them have been here just this morning planning which Christmas concerts they are going to and what they will get up to together next year.
It is quite amusing to see about 20 OAPs and one teenager off on a coach together!

What about getting a book or two about home education, for your family to read?
Free Range Education edited by Terri Dowty-where families talk about home education works for them

and

How Children Learn at Home by Alan Thomas and Harriet Patterson

might be helpful in answering some of their concerns-and helping you see how people go about it.

There are other suggestions for books about home education and websites here-I'll go bump the relevant threads again, for you-and all newbies considering home education

I agree totally with OWAU, in suggesting you find local home educators to talk to. We found that helped enormously.

[pinkkoala]

thanks for both of the above messages i have found them v helpful.

my family have said she won't get the right education, or know how to socialise they are all totally against me doing it.

we were going to try it for a while to see how she got on, if she became in her learning i would consider school.

we are trying to move to a different area and we know there is a good school in the village where we would send her, its much smaller and has better ofsted reports but for now we really don't want her going to the local school here.

even my own family and my in laws are against me teaching her at home, any suggestions.

is it v difficult to follow the curriculum by teaching at home.

[onwardandoutward]

"is it v difficult to follow the curriculum by teaching at home."

In a word, no!

you don't have to follow any particular curriculum if you don't want to. Some people (not many AFAIK) follow the NC, some people buy a complete curriculum in a box. Some people have more of a pick and choose attitude, concentrating on fewer subjects in more detail, and getting resources from the internet, charity shops, car boot sales etc. THose doing formal "lessons" tend to spend only a couple of hours on it a day - just because it's so efficient when you can go at the pace of the child. Some people don't do formal lessons at all, but concentrate instead on what they call "purposive conversation", where they just get on with having a happy life with their children and the learning happens through random conversations and things pursued or not pursued.

It's really worth meeting some local HEers face to face, and just getting a sense of the different approaches, the different vibes, and what would probably suit you and your daughter. You absolutely do NOT have to provide school at home if you and she don't want to. But if you do want to, that's fine too!

[hayleycobley]

I am looking to home educate my 12yr old daughter. Im really struggling getting advice and support. Can anybody help

[Saracen]

Hi hayleycobley, welcome to the board!

You've accidentally added your post onto a thread from six years ago and since this thread is about a certain area people might not notice your post here. You might like to start a new thread of your own on the home ed board.

Do you want to say more about your situation, what questions you have and what concerns you may have about home ed? I am sure there are plenty of people here who will be glad to help!

[stilllearnin]

Hi. I am in Northants. i don't home ed now and when I did it was a teen. But there are lots of little ones home ed around here. People seem friendly and easy going. Join in where you want kind of thing. There are some nice weekly groups for different things too. Here is the facebook group - you will need to ask to join: www.facebook.com/groups/northantsHE/
(hope that works rubbish at links!!)

[stilllearnin]

sorry i sound unfriendly - i'm not really! just being quick

[stilllearnin]

Oh in my speediness didn't realise this thread is way old. Sorry folks trying to be helpful

[Alfeen]

Hi Hayleycobley, I'm in the same situation as you I'm home educating my youngest as from sept I want to meet up with other parents who home educate also any groups any info etc

[Jsmum1]

I'm also looking to home school from this Sept. Also wanting to hook up with a home school network in South Northants