Home Educating 11+

The deadline for registering Callum in Secondary School comes up in December. This is something that Stuart and I have constantly on our minds. We have been happily carrying on with our home education and this deadline is creaping up on us.

Home Educating friends think we are mad even considering sending him to school, but I feel that it deserves really careful consideration. I know eloquent, literate and well educated teenagers who are home educated. Their parents seem to manage to organise language lessons, science lessons, maths lessons etc. I have a good education but it was a long time ago and A level maths looks a bit scary. Mind you we have been doing long division this week and it is a whole lot less difficult than I remember it. I suppose we had the freedom to take our time over it and follow the steps until we understood (Callum got it faster than me!!).

I always seem to manage to sit next to teachers at social occasions. They constantly tell me that secondary education takes real skill and commitment - the implication is that we couldn't do it. I am certain that dealing with 30 kids in a classroom and teaching them all science whilst stopping them from doing some real damage with the chemicals is a skill I don't have. What I do have is a commitment to my child and a real desire to have him succeed in life. I am prepared to do what I need to do to make that happen.

I am not sure what I remember from my secondary education and as the years go on I remember less and less. It provided me with a great stepping stone to what I wanted to do. I was average in my exams and received the qualifications I needed to get to degree level and then on to do my professional exams. Certainly I instantly forgot the Physics that I was not interested in and remember more of the History that I was interested in.

Here comes the question. Is secondary school about education or about passing exams? I am sure I can do the education bit. We are constantly learning. We are building up knowledge and teaching ourselves to learn. What we are also doing is training the children to be independant learners. I think it is the exams that I worry about!

I am not sure this makes a lot of sense but I would love to hear from people who are "doing" 11+ education and how they do it!!

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