By The Green Parent
24th October 2022
It is September again and I have a new cohort of children to inspire, teach and connect with. I am feeling full of new school year energy and enthusiasm as I imagine being the ‘Miss Honey’ of these children’s lives, getting to know each of their individual needs, ideas and personalities, enamoured with the idea of being a nurturing and inspiring teacher. Then the first set of assignments begin, the children in my mind begin to get grouped into low, middle and high achievers and I sit down in the pupil progress meetings where a few children are selected to be my ‘focus’ children because they are not where they ‘need’ to be and we ‘need’ to hit a certain percentage as a school to keep the school afloat. And so it begins…the yearly cycle, of pressure, stress and throwing every possible resource and intervention at focused children who just become data and numbers. Sigh. I am in the system, and that’s exactly why I don’t want my children to be in the system.
Being the change within the system
I have always felt this way about our education system since I started my degree in Early Childhood in 2013. I listened to inspiring lectures and wrote numerous essays on the ways in which children naturally learn, devouring research and literature on the most inspiring pedagogies from around the world. But the message was always loud and clear, “This is how children learn, BUT, this is our Early Year’s Policy in the UK’. It felt wrong to be pushing phonics on three year olds, when Finland and other countries - with incredible reading scores - weren’t introducing reading and writing until the age of seven (because they were not developmentally ready until this point). As my peers (including my partner) signed up to do their PGCE teacher training, I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t face that irony and dissociation in my every day working life. However, after two years of jumping from job to job, and not really finding my passion, I decided to do my PGCE because as my husband said, “You could be that teacher who knows what children need and work with the UK’s curriculum to provide the learning opportunities you think that they need”. And I try to hold onto this thought throughout the year.
A different experience to mainstream school
I had always imagined myself home-educating my children when the time came, but since having my two boys, I have never felt so sure that this is what I want for my children. My husband needed little persuasion to be on board with it too as he grappled daily with pre-teen Year 6 children who were no longer able to be children and childish, or those were being exposed to inappropriate online content from their peers and social media. We love our jobs and we love to inspire and teach children, but we want our children to have a different experience. We want to preserve our children’s childhood’s, letting them be young, free and playful for as long as possible. For me in particular, I had children because I want to be a mother and I want to spend time with my babies. They grow up so fast and I didn’t become a mum just to spend evenings and weekends with them. I want to savour every moment that I can with them. Both our boys love the outdoors, so we want them to climb, run, move and play as much as they need to rather than be forced to sit still and write before they are developmentally able to or wanting to. We want them to follow their passions, their interests and creativity in the way that suits them and let them lead their education. Our vision is to create a balance between formal learning, self-directed projects and PLAY. We walk past schools on our daily walk and as we hear the bells ring for the end of break time, my heart sinks knowing that children are being told when they can and can’t play. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.
Starting the home education journey
Although my boys are only 2 years old and 3 months old, we have already begun our home-school journey in my eyes. We attend groups with other home-school families, or intending home-school families and have built up a lovely network of like-minded parents to do this journey together. We already plan activities for our children to do together on play dates and talk about the skills we can each share with the children such as cooking, woodwork, phonics and sewing. I already plan activities for my 2-year-old based on his interests or current schemas. We are building up our daily routine to include plenty of free-flow play, creative and imaginary play, a culture of enjoying books and reading together (which includes weekly trips to the library with Nanny, a retired school librarian, so her passion for children’s books is magical for the boys) and plenty of all-weather outdoor play. Every day my son’s creativity and imagination in his play leaves me in awe and wonder and I am so excited that I will continue to be able to watch his unique and individual learning and development, as well as his brother’s, over the years. I feel so blessed. Drawing on my Early Years degree, I am so excited to take snippets from all my favourite pedagogies such as Reggio Emilia, Steiner Waldorf and Montessori and create our own unique curriculum based on our individual family and our needs, wants and family culture.
“Although my boys are only 2 years old and 3 months old, we have already begun our home-school journey in my eyes.”
However, I don’t wish to be condescending to anyone who sends their children to school. I know first-hand that every school is full of teachers working extremely hard, putting in long hours and work to do the best for your children. For us, we are fortunate enough to be able to make the financial sacrifices to give me the time at home to home-school. Yet if this was not the case, or if our sons decide that they want to try school, then we would just be incredibly picky over which school based on the learning culture and curriculum they use. But for now, I can’t imagine them being anywhere but at home.
Sian is an Early Years turned KS2 teacher who shares a class with her husband. They live in Norfolk with their two boys Finley and Oliver. Sian considers herself an almost-stay-at-home-mum and loves to spend time in nature, foraging and growing veg as well as making herbal remedies. You can find her on Instagram @diaryofmrsk or her blog https://siankirwan19.wixsite.com/website
