A mum from Buckinghamshire has chosen to home-school her child due to her daughter 'not fitting in' the specialist school system.

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a qualitative shift in perceptions towards home schooling, with an increasing number of parents choosing to educate their children at home due to perceived shortcomings in formal education, particularly regarding special educational needs and mental health concerns.

A growing number of councils in England have reported an increase in the number of children being formally removed from school for home education, with Education Otherwise charity pointing out that the trend is particularly noticeable among children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), or those dealing with mental health issues.

Figures revealed through Freedom of Information requests demonstrated a noticeable rise in registered home-schooled children across multiple councils in 2020, compared with 2019.

Within this growing cohort of home educators is Laura from Buckinghamshire, whose decision to home-school her eight-year-old neurodivergent daughter came after the child reached a mental health crisis point in 2022 and was unable to attend school.

Laura said about her daughter's situation: "Having a child not in education when it’s not through choice has a massive impact on us as a family."

She further revealed her belief that the current educational system is unfit, especially for those children who are neurodivergent or have special educational needs.

The distressing experiences in mainstream schooling and subsequent transition to home education the mum described were reinforced by the forced school closures during pandemic where she saw lockdowns as a "blessing" for her struggling child.

Reflecting on the changes, Laura said: "She would have broken a lot sooner had it not have been for the pandemic.

"In my opinion, some of this is the reason why there is such a massive number of children who can’t go back to school after the pandemic.

"It’s because children have experienced what it’s like to not live with that level of stress."

Noting the trend, Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), called upon the Government to ensure that lack of school resources is "never the case".

Mr Barton said: "It is a real concern that there has been such an increase in home education following the pandemic.

"Major factors are the worsening mental health among young people and the growing number of children with unmet special educational needs."

Backing this call for action, Chair of the Education Policy Committee of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ASCL), Cllr Heather Sandy, iterated the necessity for a register to account for home-educated children, especially those potentially vulnerable to harm.

Further countering these stark trends, the Department for Education (DfE) is currently collaborating with Flick Drummond, Tory MP for Meon Valley, on The Children Not in School Bill, which intends to "create legal duties on local authorities to maintain such registers", according to a DfE spokeswoman.