"Home schooling" is under

discussion again. 

I was talking with some parents yesterday. Their eldest  started school this year and she keeps telling her parents it is "boring" and that she does not want to be there. They are worried.

It is S...'s grandparents I know and they are worried too. S... can already read independently. The school was informed of this when she was enrolled but her teacher has not been able to provide her with any appropriate materials apart from "some books intended for the next level". I am not quite sure what they mean by that but I do know S..., at five, is reading books more often read by eight  and nine year old children. 

Is she brilliant? Is she Mensa standard? No, I don't think so. Her family does not think that either. Most of the time she comes across as a five year old who just happens to be good at reading and "likes to know things". Yes, she is above average but not that far above it marks her out as someone unusual. 

The adults in S...'s life are worried that she will lose interest in learning if she is not given more to do at school. They are concerned that she might start to say she does not want to go to school. They wanted to know more about "home-schooling" and what it involves. I gave them the contact details for an organisation concerned with home-schooling. 

We discussed the commitment required for home-schooling. It is a big commitment for parents. Here a child must be enrolled in a school by law. Home-schooling can only occur if the authorities are satisfied a child is getting a proper education away from school. The right to withdraw a child from school is only given on a twelve month basis which needs to be renewed. 

I have no idea how many children go from home-school to regular schools or how well they do there. The children I have known have, for the most part, had special needs or illnesses which have not allowed them to attend school. For the most part they have done well but it has required commitment and discipline from them and their parents. I only know one person, an adult my own age, who was home-schooled. She would be considered "brilliant" but will tell parents it was not as easy as they often seem to think.

It is clear to me that S...needs to be given more challenging activities at school. It is also clear to me that her teacher already has the challenge of trying to meet the needs of twenty-two other children, some of whom still struggle to recognise all the letters of the alphabet. 

I wonder what will happen to S...  Thankfully she will still be going to the library on a regular basis.