EXCLUSIVE: Number of kids home-educated across the North and North East rises since covid
Figures have been obtained through an FOI submitted by MFR News.
Last updated 17th Oct 2022
There's been a rise in the number of school aged children being home educated across the north since the pandemic hit.
Compared with the 2019-2020 academic year, there's been a 63% rise in the amount of kids learning from home across Highland.
In Aberdeenshire, 141 children are now home educated full time, the council approved only eight applications for home education in the year before covid.
77 kids in Moray were home educated between 2021 and 2022, this is a decrease compared with 2020 to 2021, but higher than 2019/21's figure of 65.
These figures have been obtained through an FOI submitted by MFR News.
We're speaking to a Highland home educator who says she isn't surprised by the rise, and tells us what it's like to be teaching at home.
Figures across Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire
We asked Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire councils how many children (aged 4-18) were home schooled from the academic year 2017-18 to 2021-2022.
Highland Council provided the following;
From 2017 to 2021, Aberdeenshire Council provided data for how many requests for home education were approved, rather than how many children are home educated.
They said: "Aberdeenshire Council has a rolling spreadsheet of those currently home schooled and those no longer home schooled.
"We do not record the date they started or ended home schooling, we only record the date that the request was approved, therefore our response to the previous academic years are based on this.
"24 requests for home schooling were approved during the academic year 2017-18.
"32 requests for home schooling were approved during the academic year 2018-19.
"8 were approved before the Coronavirus Pandemic."
They then confirmed 141 children are in home education full time, and 22 are flexible.
Moray Council provided the following to our request;
All Councils confirmed they make annual contact with families, which is not a statutory requirement.
'We never intended to home educate'
Mum of two Margaret from the Black Isle home educates her children and felt the figures were low.
She said: "It would make sense to me if that jump was there because the pandemic could make people see that it is possible.
"I think as overarching figures, they are low."
Margaret explained how people react to finding out she home educates and gave us an insight on what it's like.
She added: "Mixed, mostly positive.
"People are quite curious about it.
"Although less curious since covid, perhaps been normalised a little bit by people’s experience during covid.
“As a family it frees up time for us to spend together and do meaningful things with them that they’re interested in
"It wasn’t ever an ethos we had, we never intended to do it.
"It was incredibly scary because it’s quite a big responsibility. I am more confident now, however it does go up and down.
"You have points where you have a bit of a crisis about it. Are you doing enough, are you doing the right thing?
"It’s not linear, it’s more of a wave."
Margaret outlined how she was unsure as to whether the home education community should receive more support from local authorities.
She said: "It’s difficult. I think we have made the choice, things like exams and venues would be helpful.
"It would be really helpful if the home educated community could access venues to sit exams a bit easier.
"But, if you’re not following the system of the curriculum then are you entitled to receive support to complete that curriculum? It’s a difficult question to answer. "