Charlotte Church has defended her decision to homeschool her children, calling it a 'more progressive way of educating' during an appearance on Good Morning Britain. The singer, 40, who runs her own spiritual retreat in the Welsh countryside, discussed her right to homeschool with hosts Ranvir Singh and Paul Brand on Friday's episode of the ITV show.
Progressive Education Philosophy
'I really believe in a different more progressive way of educating,' she said. 'I've been working with Intrepid Travel, who have done some research in looking at parents, lots of parents now are thinking about alternative types of education, worldschooling, homeschooling, flexischooling.' She added: 'A lot of people feel like the current education system is a lot of round pegs, square holes, sort of stuff.'
Church further explained: 'Obviously there is a lot more neurodivergence as well, I think that it's very different for the juggernaut, which is the mainstream education to be able to be more sort of granular of its help in every individual young person. But also I think it's about the philosophy behind it, why do we educate the way that we do, why is it so homogeneous. Why is it so one size fits all?'
Family and Homeschooling Journey
Charlotte shares daughter Ruby, 18, and son Dexter, 17, with ex Gavin Henson. The pair were together between 2005 and 2010. She is also proud mum of daughter Frida, six, who she shares with her current partner Jonathan Powell. They started dating in 2010.
The singer first revealed she was homeschooling her children in 2016, when her eldest were eight and seven. She explained that partner Jonathan gives them singing lessons and 'reads to them every night'. Speaking to Robin Ince on his online programme Book Shambles, Charlotte said: 'It's not just me who does it. There's a lady called Leanne who helps us, and my partner Johnny, and we've got a teacher, an actual teacher, called Dawn, because we wanted to try and get some other kids involved. Some of the other homeschoolers, just to take some of the pressure off the parents a little bit and try to make it more social and a little bit more of a community thing.'
The Awen Project
In September 2019, it was revealed that Charlotte wanted to turn her home into a non-fee paying private school for 20 children where she would be the music teacher. She lodged plans to transform a granny annexe into a classroom for 20 pupils after homeschooling her own two children. The idea was part of Charlotte's The Awen Project, a democratic education community, which is still up and running to this day.
It was shared that the first year of the school would be held in a temporary two-story annex of Charlotte's home before a permanent site is found. Pupils would be given a say over the rules, how they want lessons to be delivered, what food they eat and how they travel to school. She said at the time: 'Since I've had kids I have become much more interested in education and child development. We started looking at schools and different mainstream options available to us. It started to become apparent that mainstream is struggling with underfunding and overcrowding - teachers are incredibly tested.'
Then in November, it was revealed that Charlotte won a battle to turn her £2.5m home into a 20-pupil private school so she can 'liberate' children. The Awen Tribe is the first Awen Learning Community, which now operates in 'a number of temporary structures in an ancient woodland in South Wales'.
