Many parents opted to home school their children permanently once the COVID-19 lockdowns ended. The practice has actually been growing in popularity for some time, Catherine Lewis reports.
The days of lockdown learning may be behind us, but those trying times translated into record numbers opting to home educate long-term. Just 5,096 NSW children were registered in 2019, soaring to 12,359 by 2022, found the Home Education Association, with a nationwide rise of 80 per cent kicking off the curve in the five years prior to 2017. COVID-19 gave parents a front row seat to what – and how – their children were learning, plus the chance to try risk-free home education, shifting the rise in homeschooling from steady to stratospheric.
Families are forgoing the classroom due to religion, values, a desire for flexibility, or ‘special learning needs’ such as anxiety or autism, said 25.8 per cent in a NSW Education and Standards Authority (NESA) survey. Throw in bullying, a mismatch with teachers, or a ‘bright but bored’ child, and homeschooling is shifting the dynamics of education. Non-mainstream education expert, Rebecca English, tells Peninsula Living Pittwater that the majority of families are doing so ‘not because they are ideologically opposed’ to school, but rather because ‘school is not working’ for their children.
“There are the ‘deliberates,’ who always intended to home school, but most are ‘accidentals,’ Rebecca explains.
Homeschooling parent Natalie Larkin and her nine-year-old son, Jack.
“They tried school, or a number of schools, before realising that home educating was their only choice.”
Northern Beaches-based mother-of-one, Natalie Larkin, tells Peninsula Living Pittwater: “I had never considered homeschooling. It was something we fell into. My nine-year old son, Jack and I had been practicing child-led learning at home since he was a toddler. It seemed a natural progression to continue with homeschooling.” While at first Natalie’s husband was ‘reluctant,’ the couple’s ‘many concerns about the limitations of mainstream schooling,’ and the desire to ‘offer something different,’ allowed the family to reap the benefits.
“My husband can see how our son is thriving and is now a raving fan of homeschooling,” she adds.
Jack is one of 353 children registered for homeschooling across the Sydney North area, NESA found. The highest proportion, 2,874, is in Western Sydney, possibly due to an underinvestment in education in the rapidly growing outer western suburbs, says Education Minister Prue Car. Children aged 13 to 14 were most likely to be homeschooled, with that number falling from 1,269 to 60 by the age of 18.
NESA’s Home Schooling Unit offers free registration for families, who must submit an education plan covering six subjects, from mathematics to creative arts, along with ongoing goals and progress plans. Approval usually is granted within 90 days. A helpline run by the Home Education Association (HEA) helps to debunk fears that children will fall behind peers. HEA support worker and homeschooling parent, Sally Farrelly, says that home education allows ‘each child to work at their own level,’ and enables a ‘relaxed learning environment’.
Far from falling behind, the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW (BOSTES) found that home educated children scored ‘significantly above’ the overall NSW average in ‘nearly every’ NAPLAN test, carried out in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. While not compulsory for homeschooled students, those that did sit scored 70 marks higher than the NSW average across reading, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.
Throw in Australia’s chronic teacher shortage, with the Department of Education warning that demand for high school teachers will outstrip graduates by over 4,000 by 2025, and one-on-one, personalised success at home seems unsurprising. “If teachers were better supported, more people would join the profession and less parents would feel disaffected and resort to home education,” agrees Rebecca English.
Question marks remain around socialisation. How can children learn those on-the-asphalt life skills – the losing, sharing, fighting, forgiveness – without Crunch n’ Sip and tip in the playground? Enter weekly home-school meet- ups, workshops and sports clubs and ‘children who are homeschooled are as socially developed as children who attend school,’ found NSW Parliament’s Inquiry into Homeschooling 2014. Mixed-age interactions, away from mainstream impacts such as bullying or peer pressure, help to make children ‘less peer dependent and more independent,’ the report added. Homeschooling parent Natalie Larkin agrees, saying: “Socialisation has never been a worry as there are so many opportunities for homeschooling families to connect and we definitely feel a part of a supportive community.”
It is not a lifestyle that appeals to all, with Scotland Island-based nurse and mother of two, Sarah, sharing the sentiments of many who ‘breathed a sigh of relief’ when schools reopened post-pandemic. “My two boys were desperate to return to their friends and I shared their enthusiasm,” says Sarah. “Despite having to take our boat to get to school, the shared playground interactions, opportunities and resources on offer in the classroom, was worth it, as was the time to focus on my own work again.”
It’s the career aspect that is the ‘biggest downside,’ to homeschooling, education expert Rebecca English agrees, with one parent – usually the mother – ‘often having to give up their job’.
“There is a time and financial impact. In the short-term, where women may work part-time or casually while home educating, and in the long-term, as it impacts the capacity to save for retirement and contribute to superannuation,” she says.
Homeschooling carries implications far beyond a child’s education, and it is a decision that needs to be made with this family-wide impact in mind. Red flags around socialisation may fly for some, but it takes time to find that balance. Natalie Larkin: “Our son loves to socialise so initially we tried to attend everything, which was exhausting! The flexibility is unbeatable. We have fallen in love with the whole experience.”
By Catherine Lewis
