Parent Wendy Plested has turned her back on school and educated her five children at home.

She took the daunting step ten years ago when her eldest daughter Rebecca, now 19, was being bullied physically and mentally at school.

Teachers tried to deal with the problem but after a year, Mrs Plested, of Webbs Close, Wolvercote, Oxford, decided she had no option but to remove her daughter from school and educate her at home. She is one of a growing number of parents who are educating their children at home because of problems with bullying. Mrs Plested said: "I was already at home because I had younger children to look after. It was a huge undertaking but once that initial period was over your confidence grows and then you can relax and enjoy it.

Within months it was clear home education was working well and Wendy and her husband, Glyn, thought about educating the rest of their children at home as well.

Their next child, Gareth, who is 18 months younger than Rebecca, had two separate years out of school, but later returned because he preferred learning in a group environment.

David, 12, asked to go to school when he was six, tried it for a few months and then dropped out in favour of his mother's curriculum. Jack, eight, went to nursery school and then started being educated at home and five-year-old Scarlett has never been to school or nursery.

The Plested school day consists of formal lessons in the morning followed by an afternoon of arts and crafts, visits to museums and workshops.

Unlike school, the Plested household studies at weekends and during school holidays. The curriculum is much more flexible than school.

She takes most of her children's lessons herself, but David goes to a private tutor for Latin and music lessons.

Mrs Plested also gives lessons to a class of eight children, including her own, in creative writing on Mondays. The home education community in Oxfordshire is thriving, thanks in part to support groups such as Education Otherwise, of which Mrs Plested is the group's county co-ordinator.

She said the children are not cut off and lonely, and have plenty of friends.

Rebecca went to the Oxford College of Further Education when she was aged 14 to do her GCSEs, adapted quite quickly to the more structured day and enjoyed the experience.

Now the Plesteds are considering sending their other children there to do their GCSEs.

Mrs Plested said she would not feel confident teaching some subjects to GCSE level.

As for testing out an alternative to school, Mrs Plested said she has enjoyed teaching her own children tremendously.

"I have never known anyone who has regretted it. I don't know anyone who did not enjoy it. Home educators are not against school, it is just that home education is something that works for their children."

**For more information about teaching children at home, contact Mrs Plested on 01865 514973 or the national Education Otherwise helpline, 0891 518303.