This site is an online diary of group activities and events for Shropshire and West Midlands based families engaged in home education (or home school), families who are "Engaged" in education "OtherWise" than at school. Otherwise-Engaged is an entirely voluntary effort, all our events are organised at cost. Register and login to see event details, calendar and gallery. You are advised to check the site regularly for information and updates on events which you have booked.
Why we are doing this.
When you first tell people you home school there are usually two questions they will ask; "What about social interaction?" somehow implying that at school there are no such problems and having already decided you are condemning your child to a life of isolation, and "Are you a teacher?", implying a child can't learn without being taught.
 In our view home education is about facilitating learning, an approach that is child centred and stimulates (rather than suffocates) an individual's interests. Learning is through doing and experience. To this end we soon found ourselves arranging activities, events and projects to increase the opportunities our son had to mix and work with other home school children, and to increase the range of learning opportunities and experiences available to him. This enabled us to access some world class educational resources in the Shropshire and West Midlands region. The growing list of providers includes the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), Wolverhampton Museum and Art Gallery, The National Trust, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Telford Ice Rink, Shakespeare 4Kidz, Birmingham Hippodrome and Birmingham Rep.
Administration of all these activities has become a major pre-occupation, so this site was designed as a planning aid, to help with communicating details of events and as an online reference and general resource. We hope you'll find it useful.
Full access to the site requires registration and is restricted to actively home educating families. Please see "About" and "Terms and Conditions".
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