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← Home Education Wales

2025-04-05-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT 2024~ 2025 Home Education Wales Livin9 Outsidc TRRiLBLAZiMG HDME ED POCH51 EQX MY OHM PATH

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Why do families home educate:

This is probably the most asked question year in and year out, the answers are different for every family and cover a vast spectrum. Some families feel they can provide a better

education than schools, some disagree with the topics taught in school, many families have children with additional needs that they feel will thrive in an environment with smaller

groups. The number of reasons is endless and all of them are valid.

How do families educate their children at home:

Well some families sit children down and teach their children in similar way to the school system, this differs from school in the numbers of course 1 parent to 1/2/3/4 children even is far more efficient than 1 teacher to 30 children in a classroom.

Other families may directly teach some subjects and follow the interests of their children to integrate other subjects.

Educators have known for a long time that children don’t need to be sat at desks to learn science and math for example but will learn them from gardening, cooking and shopping.

Some families only follow their children’s interests which can include work books, visits out and all the activities already mentioned. This kind of family learning model has been

shown to be very effective.

All of the styles mentioned work very well and encourages children to grow into adults who are capable of becoming critical and creative thinkers.

So what about socialisation :

There is a common misconception that children who are home educated don’t get to socialise and that children need to play with children the same age. In reality children vary in so many ways and like to socialize in many different ways. Some like to play with children their own age, those with additional needs may prefer older or younger children, more mature children may want older children to interact with, and affectionate children may prefer younger children or babies. All children benefit from having interactions with people of all ages after all only school children are limited to interacting with others based on their date of birth.

So what do we do:

Well we provide lots of opportunities for activities at the Grange Pavilion that encourage play and interaction for both children and their families. We committed to do this with the

absolutely minimum cost to families so everyone can afford to come and join in and we always provide soup or similar to help with the cost of living crisis.

Who are our trustees

Donna Heyler Rapely took SHEW (Spirit of Home Education Wales primarily aimed at normalising home education) to another level organizing trips, running ‘everyones garden’ in Barry, and running a youth club. She also

organized the annual prom for the teens who cooked the food themselves with lots of help and training from Craig and Rhian.

Rhian Cox joined us in 2024 running a group in Bridgend supporting Cardiff group and supporting Donna with SHEW

Ianna Melody Numen organized many activities in Cardiff and trips away she sadly left us at the beginning of 2025 to follow her musical dreams and focus on her family. We hope she gets everything she wants in life and will always have the door open for her.

Rhi Logue has worked endlessly running forest schools in Cardiff, Barry and Caerphilly as well as working hard to support various activities in all 3 areas.

Activities

Over the course of the year we ran more than 200 session over Cardiff Caerphilly Barry and Bridgend including

Many of these session have been organized by volunteers to whom we are eternally grateful.

Rose Rowson Cardiff

Amy Burrage Bridgend

Aimee Conway Caerphilly

Ellie Holland Cardiff

Cat Gent Caerphilly

Katie Cronly Cardiff

Chardonnay Palmer Cardiff

Eleanor Bowers Cardiff

Dawn Bowden Caerphilly

Charlotte Hutchings Barry Craig Cox Bridgend

Finances

Vale Everyone’s Garden Grants/Donations £1262 Expenditure £1194 SHEW Grants/Donations £8161 Expenditure £4122 SHEW Prom Grants/Donations £4236 Expenditure £4236 Caerphilly Grants/Donations £1520 Expenditure £1488 HEW Grants/donations £10076 expenditure £22050