A mum has taken her son out of mainstream education to 'de-school' them after training to be a teacher and wanting to spend more time with her children.
Bethany Bishop took her oldest son, six, out of education in May 2023 and is now transitioning from learning at school to being educated at home. The 29-year-old applied to train to be a teacher but decided against joining the profession because she wanted to spend more time with her two sons.
Bethany said her son struggled when he first started school and didn't enjoy certain aspects including writing and the homework he was given. Now, she lets her son choose whatever he wants to do - even if that's a lie-in, playing with Lego and an afternoon at the park.
Read More: Northumberland couple running cake shop from their home forced to look for new premises
And she plans to continue home educating him for as long as he wants. She admits he misses his school friends, but said they meet up with them outside of school hours and he joins other home-educated kids to play.
Bethany also hopes to home-school her four-year-old child when he is old enough. Bethany, from Hexham, Northumberland, said: "My eldest son was in year one and we decided to take him out of mainstream school after researching about homeschooling.
"Through that transitional period, we did some research and came across the term 'de-schooling' which we never heard of. It's the idea that every year the child is in mainstream school you give them a month to de-school.
