UK Edition
We plan to travel and home school our son for nine years - how should we plan for this?
As parents across the country begin to think about the start of term and getting their children ready for school - in some cases, for the first time - other families will be faced with a different set of concerns.
There are around 50,000 children in the UK who are home schooled - either by parents, family members or outside tutors - and that figure is growing.
The rules on home schooling are actually pretty flexible in England and Wales; parents are responsible for ensuring that their children received a suitable education for their age, but what constitutes 'suitable' is fairly open.
So far, so easy. But what happens if you are hoping to reintergrate your child into the education system after a period of home schooling? And how do you plan to home school your child if you're intending to travel?
Today, the experts take on this big question. Get in touch with your own education query and see it featured on Telegraph Education (contact details at the end).
Question: We plan to travel and home school our son for nine years - how should we plan for this?
My wife and I aim to travel abroad in a camper van until our now 18 month old son is ready for secondary school. During this time we think home schooling should be easily doable, although we are still looking for a framework to give this approach a structure with targets. How best should we plan both the primary school phase, and his lead in to GCSEs at this early stage?
Susan Hamlyn: Find opportunities to collaborate - or compete - with other children
Nine years of travelling is a wonderfully exciting - and bold - plan. It will assuredly give you and your son enriching and broadening experiences.
Your words "framework" and "structure" are entirely appropriate and if you manage to impose discipline on his learning you will minimise the difficulties he may encounter when adjusting to formal schooling at 11.
Home schooling is legal in the UK though you are legally obliged to provide "suitable" education. However, there is no definition of this and if your child has never attended school there is no prescription or monitoring of what you provide.
Nonetheless, if your aim is that your son should be able to handle mainstream schooling at 11, it makes sense to keep an eye on four essentials: 1) his basic skills ie reading, writing, maths 2) the National Curriculum so that he encounters aspects of science, arts, language, IT and the humanities 3) physical activity - not necessarily actual sports but anything that builds his strength, coordination and physical confidence and 4) socialisation.
So - yes, revel in your freedom to roam, explore, teach from observation and experimentation but do consider - when possible - having set times for "learning".
Make these a little more formal. Have learning targets and set your son tasks to do on his own. Find opportunities to collaborate - or compete - with other children (for example, in after school, weekend or holiday classes and clubs). If he spends all his time with you rather than with children of his own age, he may not find it easy to build friendships when he does go to school.
Encourage him to develop his skills and confidence in independent learning but also teach him to understand about communities and his place in a social world.
There are several organisations which support home educators: home-education.org.uk, educationotherwise.net and heas.org.uk.
Susan Hamlyn, director of The Good Schools Guide Education Consultants
Peter Tait: Many independent schools include their curriculum online
The idea of travelling abroad for a period of nine (or possibly eleven years) presents wonderful opportunities for learning, as well as, inevitably, a number of minor challenges associated with home schooling on the hoof.
With your son starting so young there is little pressure to begin a regular programme for a couple of years or more, giving you the opportunity to assess (and develop) your son’s interests and tailor his schooling to fit in with your travel and daily routines.
When he is ready for a more structured education, you can begin a regular programme of (mobile) home schooling by following a basic curriculum, focusing initially on literacy and numeracy and by establishing a regular work routine.
Finding a framework to follow is not difficult, either by using the national curriculum or researching other curricula and subject areas on the web to find resources to supplement his learning.
The pressure may be in covering specialist subjects in the latter years, but there are various providers of remote education, such as Net School and Learn4Good that you can access.
Many independent schools also include their curriculum online and there are many, many other outstanding resources that are free to use (my old school, Sherborne Prep, for instance, has an excellent site for languages languageprep.org) while Duolingo is another excellent resource for learning languages on-line.
The other consideration is the social aspect of education and I would encourage you get your child into local schools whenever the opportunity presents itself. Keeping a diary and scrapbook, (preferably physically rather than on the cloud), and a photo diary should be mandatory as well as a regular reading programme.
When the time to return nears, it is worth contacting your preferred secondary school to get help with the process of reintegration, although in nine years time, who knows where education will be.
Travel is its own education. What is crucial is to nurture the child’s curiosity and provide an opportunity to develop a sense of purpose and a good work ethic. But what an opportunity.
Peter Tait is a writer, education adviser and former headmaster
Kate Shand: Socialisation will be as important to consider as the academics
Firstly, what an exciting and challenging adventure for you all. There are many benefits to travelling with children, discovering new cultures and countries, and it’s wise that you are already thinking about the educational framework needed for your son.
Depending on where you are travelling and how long you are planning on staying in each location, there are a number of things to think about. For the majority of children who are home schooled their learning takes place at a fixed location so this trip will present interesting challenges.
Socialisation and extra-curricular activities will be as important to consider as the academics and essential if your son is going to make a successful transition into senior school in the years to come.
Are you planning on staying in places for long periods of time? It’s worth thinking about clubs and groups that your son can be involved in ahead of arrival in each location so he is able to interact and develop friendships with children his own age.
During this formative time, your son is going to develop and his physical demands will increase greatly. Will he have access to sports and how will this need to be catered for as he grows older in terms of space and team sports?
The creative arts will also be vital to his all-round development so it's important to think about the space and facilities available to him. Structure and routine is essential if your son is going to integrate well into a mainstream secondary school and this will be even more important if you don’t have the consistency of location.
I’d recommend putting in clear ‘school hours’ and rules, to ensure that there is a change in atmosphere, even if it’s not physical. It's also useful to create a learning space in your environment so that there is a clear distinction when your son enters his school environment.
Taking on the roles of parent and teacher will mean that you will have to think carefully about how you approach the learning process over time. Do think about how you could introduce other teachers or tutors for certain subjects so he can be benefit from different teaching styles and different influences.
It is wise to keep a clear record of how your son progresses in his subjects. The UK education system is continuously evolving and it’s important that you stay up to date as new measures come into place which may affect how you teach or assess your son’s learning.
Do also keep a careful record of your son’s ability to concentrate and his aptitude with arts, maths and science to make sure he is learning at an appropriate pace and so that if there are any learning difficulties to address the appropriate supports can be put in place sooner rather than later.
There are also online learning schools which could support you with the educational structure and, as your son gets older, you could think about employing the support of an online tutor to help you manage all these areas.
In addition, it might be worth building a relationship with your chosen secondary school as early as possible so you can discuss a successful integration with them. Do remember that for the majority of state schools, you will need to ensure that you have a permanent address within their catchment areas.
This will be a unique adventure and experience to share as a family. We wish you the best of luck!
Kate Shand, founder and MD of Enjoy Education
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