Woodhill’s Jessica Johnson is among a growing post-Covid trend to pull children from the mainstream education system in favour of home schooling.
Home Education Association statistics confirm a statewide trend, numbers up about 25% year on year since 2019.
Ms Johnson has two children who started home-schooling this year – Harper, 8, and Izaac, 13, who’ve both improved in confidence and all areas of education.
“The decision to home-school was a giant leap and although it had been on our mind for a few years, Covid played a small part in making us more confident in the decision,” she said.
She said the school system didn’t suit all children – it shouldn’t be a one size fits all.
“We have two children in mainstream private education, and they do very well and enjoy the structure, we have two children who home-school and it’s the best thing I have ever done for them,” she said.
“We made changes to the school-supplied work to accommodate our children’s learning styles and we saw the rewards that came from tailored learning in an individualised way.
“I think teachers are overloaded with what is now a pushed-to-the-limits curriculum which is affecting student, teacher, and environment. Children are not even grasping concepts before moving on to the next. Many children are slipping through the cracks.”
Ms Johnson said her home-schooled children were “all-round happier in so many different areas”.
Home Education team leader Samanthan Bryan said: “Parents were frustrated with the uncertainty and lack of stability for their child due to lockdowns and home education provided greater stability.”
She said some families chose not to send their child back to school because the child or a member of the family or extended family had health challenges, and needed to minimise the chance of catching Covid.
Some did not like the mask mandates for younger children. And others simply saw better results when schooling their child at home.
Ms Bryan said some children settled better in a home school environment, and were able to learn better.
“This is often the case for neurodiverse children, such as those with sensory issues, ASD, special needs as well as children with anxiety,” she said.
A Logan high school teacher confirmed the trend, seeing more children pulled from her classes in the past year.
“I have seen quite a few students leave for home-schooling and move over to distance education. Learning from your laptop at home is a major thing now,” the teacher, who didn’t want to be named, said.
The education system was failing students because teachers were burning out, she said.
“The assumption is we get too many holidays, when in actual fact we need those holidays so we can keep going. Our teaching portfolios are overflowing and classes are over-sized, 28 kids per classroom with one teacher, it’s ridiculous.”
She said schools needed to look at better models of education and better ways of delivering content – flexible classrooms where children work from home and come in for tutorials being one option.
Ms Johnson said home schooling was flexible.
Both her children attend “co-ops” twice a week with like-minded children. That’s followed by hands-on learning facilitated by qualified teachers.
The other three days cover maths, english and a couple of other unit-based subjects.
“The kids also have some amazing experiences from horse riding, small in-person fitness classes, online classes, trips to places of interest and we learn based around this,” Ms Johnson said.
She said the most challenging part about home-schooling was adjusting their adult lives to accommodate their new lifestyle.
“Home-schooling is a really beautiful thing to witness the incredible growth of your children firsthand and play a massive part in their learning,” she said.
