Anyone HS in England? Need advice!

[celebratedmama]

Hello all,
I am hoping to connect with anyone living in England who is currently homeschooling. My husband has been offered a transfer from the states. He would be working out of Gerrard's Cross mostly and some days Cambourne. I am having a hard time finding out what the HS culture looks like there and what types of social/coop options exsist. I am not very encouraged by what I have found online so far.
Anyone, anyone ... would love your thoughts!
Thank you!!!

[Sunnylea]

You could start by joining this list http://www.home-education.org.uk/forum-he-uk.htm

Lots of us are also on facebook and quite well networked :-)

[Laura Corin]

Most areas have some kind of group. The meet-ups tend to be social and lightly-organised. A large proportion of home educators (this is the preferred phrase in the UK) are unschoolers, so you won't find academic co-ops much. I can't give you specifics about that area of the country, I'm afraid.

FWIW, we used to go to a monthly book group with other HE children, but otherwise my boys found most of their friends through non-HE contacts: scouts, Karate, Taekwondo, neighbours....

Laura

[Sunnylea]

Yup, the preferred term is home-education, rather than schooling. Not sure that I'd agree that the majority are unschoolers though, my experience is that there is a pretty broad spectrum in England :001_smile:

[Xander]

There is a broad spectrum, but the large networking groups seem to be dominated by unschoolers, so people who prefer a more structured/formal approach are less visible.

There's lots about this on Simon Webb's blog - here's a link to one entry:
http://homeeducationheretic.blogspot.com/2011/03/ruthless-action-on-he-uk-list-again.html