We Are England S2022E67 - Education Our Big Home Education Family

During the Covid-19 pandemic, schools closed for prolonged periods across the country, leaving parents to home educate their children. For some parents this proved difficult, with 47% of employed parents reporting their job being negatively affected by home educating.

But not all parents felt that home educating was a bad thing. The latest figures estimate that as of October 2021, there were 81,196 children being home educated across England, an increase of 5,528 (7.3%) from the previous year.

With home educating on the rise, this film pulls back the curtain on the home education community, following the stories of two families who chose to home educate their children years before the Covid-19 pandemic began. The Roberts family who live in Birmingham have five children all under the age of 10, and another on the way. Their children have never been to school. Parents Simone and Mark say they live a ‘lifestyle of learning', where national curriculum subjects such as maths and English are brought out in things that they do day-to-day, such as writing a birthday card or measuring materials for sewing.

Alice and Kaushil Khimasia who live in Coventry, have already been through the home educating journey with two of their children. They met at Warwick University where they both trained as teachers. They have four boys and have been home educating over a decade.
Like the Roberts, the Khimasia's home education method is referred to as ‘unschooling' - they don't follow a set curriculum or structure.