THIS month, home-educating families in North Wales are walking 140 miles across Anglesey for 15 days to protect their freedom to continue to do so.

Jennifer Richardson is a home-educating mother who will be walking the full 140 miles with her oldest children to bring awareness to home-educating and will be joined at different sections of the walk by other such families in North Wales.

“Lockdown saw many of us, teachers and parents, admirably trying to facilitate school-at-home, but we know that home means so much more to a child,” she said.

“It is where our children feel safest. It’s where their happiness and wellbeing will always take priority, above even an education.

“Education can happen naturally, when we’re living a life engaged with the upbringing of our children.

“Our role as parents is to nurture and facilitate that innate drive to learn. That’s what home educators do, we carry on doing what we did before they reached the age of five.

“We carry on supporting our children as they encounter the wonderful experiences life has to offer. Yet we are met with suspicion and criticism due to a lack of understanding of this.”

"The Welsh Government is also currently trying to create an official definition of what a ‘suitable education’ looks like, and for me this question is tantamount with ‘what does a ‘suitable life look like?’.

“I feel passionately that the people best-equipped to answer this question on behalf of children are those that have witnessed the child learn and grow from infancy, and know first-hand where the child’s strengths and weaknesses lie.

“Fundamentally, it’ll be those that love and care for them the most.”

READ MORE:

Common sense urged when visiting popular locations in Gwynedd

The North Wales home-educating community are inviting anyone that shares that common goal of wanting to protect the needs and wellbeing of children, to join them between April 11 and 26.

They can join either online or on foot as they walk the whole of the Anglesey Coastal Path in order to discuss these important issues together.

To join in with the event, visit: www.facebook.com/We-Love-Home-Ed-112484204694631.

To learn more about the future of home education in Wales, see: familiesfirst.wales.

More about the walk can also be found on its GoFundMe page: www.gofundme.com/f/home-ed-summer-fair-support.