West Midlands home-schooled pupil numbers reach more than 11,000

Alison Clawley from Oldbury, said she was positive about her children being taught at home and was not surprised by the rise

The number of children being taught at home across the West Midlands has jumped by more than 2,000, according to the latest government figures.

At the start of the autumn term in 2022 there were 9,080 pupils being home-educated, but the number had jumped to 11,130 by last summer, the Department of Education (DofE) said.

Sandwell has seen an 81% rise in recent years, from 402 in 2019-20 to 730.

Figures were issued to BBC Radio WM in a freedom of information request.

In Birmingham, there were 2,660 children being home-schooled by summer 2023, up from 2,120 at the start of the academic year, DofE figures revealed.

It was a similar picture elsewhere, with Worcestershire seeing a 23% rise and Staffordshire a near 28% rise through the course of the academic year.

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Herefordshire, Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent also saw notable rises over the period.

Alison Clawley, from Oldbury, whose children learn at home, said she was not surprised.

She said she felt the pandemic had had an influence on more children remaining at home, with information much more accessible online to help parents.

Ms Clawley said she turned to home-education after her son started getting bullied at primary school, where she felt the management did not do enough to support him.

At the same same time, she said, her daughter had begun to feel overwhelmed with secondary school. So, she decided lessons at home should start for both of them.

"Perhaps people are feeling that maybe the role of school needs to change a little bit and it's not the only place where you can get education," she told BBC Radio WM.

"It feels like the purpose of what they do in school a lot of the time is to get them to that exam," she said.

"Home educating we get to choose whether we do that or not."

'Pushed towards exams'

She said her daughter's focus was on art, since she had ambitions to be an illustrator.

It enables her to concentrate more on this, alongside other subjects, like maths and English.

"Many kids leaving school do not have good levels of maths and English," said Ms Clawley.

"I think they can be pushed towards those exams and those exam results, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they've had a rounded education."

However, she said home-schooling was not always the right move for children, and families have to make the decision that is best for them.

She said while it was a "really good fit" for many families, others were doing it out of "necessity" because they felt their children were not getting the education they deserved at school.