FAQ
Home Education Frequently Asked Questions
What is Home education?
Home education is a legal, valid and excellent educational choice, available in New Zealand to parents or caregivers who wish to assume the primary responsibility for the education of one or more of their children, who have an exemption under section 21 of the Education Act 1989, or who are not attending school in anticipation of receiving an exemption i.e. a child under six.
Why choose to educate your child at home?
Based on an excerpt from ‘Homeschooling for Excellence – by David and Micki Colfax
Whatever their motives or orientations, most home educators agree that their approach to education is superior to other alternatives in at least four areas:
1.Home education allows parents and children to exercise control over:
Content – What your child is taught.
Home educators in New Zealand are not required to follow the National Curriculum. Parents may choose to buy pre-packaged curriculum, or to create their own. There is an enormous range of resources available, both within New Zealand and overseas.
Method – How your child is taught.
Home educators are able to choose the teaching methods that best suit their child’s individual personality, interests and learning style.
Timing – When your child is taught.
Children learn best when they are intellectually, emotionally and socially ready to learn. Home education allows parents to regulate the flow of information, and the timing of what is taught and when.
Personnel – Who teaches your child.
Home educators are able to choose their child’s tutors, be it themselves or other paid professionals within their community.
2. Home education is more efficient than most forms of formal education.
Due to the one to one ratio of parent to child, i.e. the traditional ‘tutorial style’ of education, formal education at home is usually easily completed with a few focused hours each day, leaving ample time for individual pursuits, socialising with friends or accessing educational opportunities available within the wider community.
3. Home education encourages autonomy.
The home educating child can become educationally autonomous, by being allowed to learn in their own way, at their own pace, to pursue their own interests and goals, thereby taking much of the responsibility for their own education.
4. Home education promotes creativity.
The home educating child has the freedom and autonomy to explore their own creativity, by being allowed to invest large blocks of uninterrupted time to devise their own projects, and follow through to completion. Can I educate a child with special needs at home?
Notes prepared by a home educating mum of children with autism – Dec 2002
Home education is an option for families with children with ‘special needs’.
I use this term here in the context of referring to children with a disability.
Disability is such a wide-ranging term, from children who just need a different type of teaching style, to children with major learning and life issues.
Sometimes school just does not suit our children. Parents choose to home educate their children for such a myriad of reasons and having a disability can be one of those reasons.
A book that I would really recommend reading is ‘Home Schooling Children with Special Needs’-Sharon C. Hensley ISBN 1-55857-010-4.
It is a very realistic and supportive view of the challenges faced.
Funding available
The funding available in teacher aide support that your child would be entitled to within the school system is also available to you if you school your child at home.
Under the current Government funding scheme available to special needs children the ORS (On-going Resourcing Scheme) funds can be used to pay for teacher-aide support to help to educate your child.
To access your ORS funding you need to enrol your child with the Correspondence School under either an Educational or Medical exemption-this may require you getting supporting documentation from a ‘professional’ to qualify. The services of the Correspondence school will be free if you qualify.
The Correspondence school will pay your teacher-aide. This can be someone that you already know of and use to help support you or they will help you to find a suitable teacher-aide.
I have found the Correspondence school to be very supportive and empowering. They recognise that parents are the real ‘experts’ on their children in the way that they learn and their learning needs. Having access to their teaching materials is useful as resources can be very costly.
If you choose to home-school without enrolling with the Correspondence School the Government will not give you access to your ORS funding.
Obstacles
You may find that people may not be supportive of your choice to educate a child with special needs at home. This is particularly true in the ‘social’ area. The flaw in this theory is that just because children are with a large group of other children does not mean that they will socialise together. The home education community provides an opportunity for you to get to know other families on a more intimate basis and for your child to have access to peers who may not be the same chronological age and therefore you can ‘socialise’ your child with peers of a similar developmental level.
‘It is important to remember that we have to make decisions based on our own children and family situations. There will always be people who oppose whatever we do. We must make our decisions based on our needs and the needs of our children and not the opinions of others.’ -from ‘Homeschooling a child with Special’ needs: Sharon.C Hensley.
Alternative options
It is also possible for you to educate your child at home part-time, whether they attend a special school or a mainstream school for the other part of their schooling week. You can negotiate this with the school under the Education Act.
If you feel that you need an advocate IHC in Auckland has a specialist in this area -Sue McKinnon.
Realistic expectations
‘Our society is obsessed with normal and even above normal. We must let go of the feelings that our children are less as people if they don’t measure up academically’ – Sharon C.Hensley
Homeschooling a child with a disability is a challenging task. It is not always easy and having help to deliver the teaching is I feel imperative.
Families with children who don’t fit into the ‘mainstream of life’ are already struggling to cope with extra daily demands and sometimes extreme challenges and we need to be realistic about their abilities. This does not mean however that they won’t constantly surprise us with what they achieve.
Homeschooling is NOT a magic cure for our children’s learning or behaviour issues but they will be learning in an environment where all the people involved have their needs very much at heart and this has got to be a desirable thing!
Useful links from ‘The Donald Beasley Institute’ site.
‘Group Special Education (GSE) is a new group in the Ministry of Education focused on providing services – directly and indirectly – to children and young people with special education needs.’
www.ses.org.nz
Enrolment with the Correspondence School
Can I educate a gifted child at home?
Home education provides parents with the flexibility to tailor their child’s education to suit his/her unique interests and learning style.
Many home educating families in Auckland supplement their child’s education at home by using the services of the following organisations:
Auckland Explorers club gives parent support and organises regular activities for gifted children.
One Day School at The Gifted Education Centre (formerly The George Parkyn Centre)
Holiday seminars, run by Jean Hendy-Harris, ex home educating parent.
What about socialisation?
Most home educators regard ‘socialisation’ as a non issue.
In the Auckland region, from Warkworth to Pukekohe, there are1362 (as of 8/02) home educating families (1923 children of all ages) and over 20 different home educators’ support groups, each with their own unique flavour.
Home educated children are not isolated in the home but fully integrated into their community; attending after school classes such as swimming, art, music and dance, and their local sports clubs, girl guides, explorers etc.
Is it expensive?
The commitment to home educate usually means that families are only able to have one parent in the full time workforce, the other needing to be at home to supervise the children. However, many parents have managed to work or study part time and continue to home educate successfully. The Ministry of Education provides a small amount of assistance in the form of an annual ‘supervisory allowance’ of $743 for the first child, $632 for the second, $521 for the third, and $372 for each one after that. This is paid retrospectively, in two installments each year, January and July.
What about secondary education?
Education at secondary level can be augmented by accessing the skills of other parents, using paid tutors from private coaching colleges, or buying pre-packaged curriculum from a variety of sources in New Zealand and overseas, such as the New Zealand Correspondence School (conditions apply) and ‘A.C.E. School of Tomorrow’ (Christian curriculum from the U.S.A, available locally).
What about qualifications
The National Council of Home Educators New Zealand (NCHENZ) has up-to-date information.
You may also like to read about the philosophy of Home Education.