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.
Trailer
Recently Updated Shows
Married at First Sight
Married at First Sight, the extreme social experiment where four couples will meet for the very first time on their wedding day. Three top relationship experts are controlling this radical experiment involving eight Aussie singles, using a mix of neuroscience and psychology to try to create four perfect matches. Relationship psychologist John Aiken has interviewed single applicants across the nation and built a detailed personal profile for each one. Neuropsychotherapist Dr Trisha Stratford compiled the detailed neurological profiles. And psychologist Sabina Read met the applicants in their own environment to prepare to pair them with the most suitable partners. These four extremely brave and hopeful couples will face the most terrifying wedding imaginable – tying the knot with someone they have never laid eyes on.
Amandaland
Following three series of the Merman-produced, BAFTA award-winning series Motherland, a brand-new spin-off, Amandaland, is coming to the BBC, focused on Amanda.
Post her divorce, Amanda has had to downsize and up sticks to South Harlesden, or as the Estate Agent calls it SoHa (definitely not the area around Wormwood Scrubs prison).
With both Manus and Georgie now at secondary school, Amanda has to try and get her head around raising teenagers, dealing with modern motherhood horrors like teenage drinking, fake Instagram accounts and eco anxiety. Not even a woman as certain of her parenting as Amanda can deal with these nightmares alone.
Then there's Amanda's mother Felicity who is constantly around, and completely in denial that she is, in fact, lonely. Theirs is a slightly unhealthy co-dependent relationship based on backhanded compliments and veiled snipes about her new home.
After a brief spell of freedom, Anne is sucked back into being Amanda's minion to help her navigate the social scene with the other parents at the children's new school. Thank God for Anne.
Poppa's House
Poppa's House revolves around a legendary talk radio host and happily divorced "Poppa" who has his point of view challenged at work when a new female co-host is hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son, a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.