A century ago home schooling was the preserve of the rich but now there are a variety of reasons why youngsters are not involved in mainstream education, ranging from illness to religious belief.

Highland Council reported last week that about 100 children were being taught at home across the region but admitted that the figure could be higher as there was no requirement for the education authority to be informed in every case.

Vice-convener Dr Michael Foxley described the figure as “scary” and claimed that in some cases parents’ reasons for keeping their sons and daughters away from school were “flaky”.

This provoked a strong response from home schooling groups which pointed out that the right to educate children at home is enshrined in law and that the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 demands only that youngsters are provided with “an efficient education suitable to the age, ability and aptitude of the child”.

Alison Preuss of the Schoolhouse Home Education Association educated her three children at home because primary schools did not offer language tuition.

She stressed that the stereotypical image of parents sitting at the kitchen table with their children was not the whole picture and that home-based education also encompassed trips to museums, woodlands, shops and even foreign holidays.

“We would do all the maths and English and that sort of thing in the morning before trotting off to the museum, cinema or sports in the afternoon,” she explained.

“I was keen that they should learn German from an early age as the eldest two were born there, but I didn’t find the school system was able to do that at all.”

The children thrived academically but Ms Preuss admitted it made their eventual introduction to formal education particularly difficult.

Her youngest son, who is now at university, was so shocked by the “totalitarian regime” — a phrase most of his classmates had never head before — when he went to school for the first time in second year of high school that he struggled to accept the authority of his teachers and his mother noticed a distinct change in his character.

“We were quite relaxed in our circle,” she explained. “We let the children take charge of their own learning and that has given them very good time management skills when they have gone on to further education.

“My youngest was very unhappy at school and left again after a year and it took us a while to ‘de-school’ him and get his old personality back.”

Nevertheless, as her children reach young adulthood, she is convinced they have benefited from home education.

“They are three very different personalities; a bit bolshy perhaps and always asking questions, but they have been brought up with good social consciences and have generally turned out as fairly well-rounded characters.”

Her experience led her to start Schoolhouse to support other families in the same position. The organisation now has between 500 and 600 members.

“It is a lot easier to get resources now with the internet holding all sorts of information but the local library has virtually everything needed to teach children.”

In some cases children are educated at home because parents believe they are particularly gifted and will not receive the support they need within the mainstream school system. Every few years reports emerge of the latest “wonderkid” to emerge from a home classroom.

Home education has enjoyed growth in the Highlands but some are sceptical as to its benefits. Northern Exposures

One frequent criticism of home schooling is that children miss out on the social benefits of mixing with others of their own age.

To counter that worry many parents who keep their children at home enrol them for activities at church groups, scouts and guides and community centres.

The private Moray Firth School at Gollanfield has several children who are taught by their parents in its extra-curricular dancing, music and sports groups.

Headteacher Anni Cole Hamilton knows almost 30 families in the area who have chosen this way to educate their children.

“We welcome them into our main curriculum on a part-time basis and they are certainly an interesting bunch,” she said. “Several come for the after-school curriculum because these are activities that not everyone can find at home.

“Schools nowadays are the norm but 100 years ago they weren’t and in some sections of society that wasn’t the case until a few decades ago. Among some it was normal to be educated at home by a governess then school for a year or two before going off to finishing school.

“It is only in recent years there has been this huge imposition of centralised control where all schools have to teach the same things in the same way. That is perhaps why some people choose not to send their children to school; they see the state system as too rigid. If they were more flexible they might find more parents prepared to send their children there.”

In 2004 the Scottish Executive published new guidance on the circumstances in which parents may choose to educate their children at home. Last year it ordered a review of how education bodies had found these new guidelines to operate. That led Highland Council’s education, culture and sport committee to discuss its response to the issue last week, prompting Dr Foxley’s controversial comment.

His underlying concern is that a parents’ right to teach their child at home appears to override the child’s right to a comprehensive education.

“The council has a real responsibility to look after the interests of the child and that could mean going against the interests of the parents,” he said. “With the numbers involved it’s very likely that, although some of them will be educated very well, you are almost guaranteed there will be cases where the reasons for withdrawal are flaky.

“We need to be in a position to ensure that the child is being properly educated and only by seeing the experience the child is receiving at home can we assess that. We must have a right to intervene.”

Donnie MacDonald, the council’s head of education services, said that when families informed the local authority of their decision to provide home schooling, help could be provided and the children’s progress monitored. It was the unknown number of youngsters who may be slipping through the net that were a cause for concern.

“We have staff with a designated responsibility to liaise with home-educating families to make sure everything is fine, but we can only do that with the families who are known to us,” he said.

“We seek a meeting with the family, ask to visit the home to see the arrangements made for the child’s education and meet the youngsters themselves. Our main concern is to work in collaboration with the family to ensure the child receives an acceptable education.”

g.burke@inverness-courier.co.uk

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