Parents of children who have graduated from home schools have urged Government not to impose tighter restrictions on how they operate.

A group of parents with first-hand knowledge of alternative schooling said the programme was not broken, therefore Government should not try to fix it by insisting that they have no more than four students.

Maryanne Scott, from Paget, took her 13-year-old daughter out of private education five years ago after she claimed serious problems arose and she could get no satisfaction.

The mother-of-two said she did not have enough faith in the public system, so met with home school teacher Susan Roberts and opted for the alternative programme of the School of Tomorrow.

Ms Scott said her daughter went from being way behind her acceptable age level to out in front within a year or so.

After five years at the home school in Southampton, her daughter Melissa graduated at an international ceremony in Texas last summer, and is now considering going to university.

Ms Scott said: "When Melissa started at the home school she was two years behind in English and three years behind in math, and yet the private school had said she was on cue for her age.

"She had to work very hard to catch up, but she did, and she was more motivated and responsible for her own learning than ever before. She just seemed to go from strength to strength.

"While Melissa was at the home school there were 11 or 12 students in the class the whole time, and it was fine. Mrs. Roberts was very capable and could more than handle 12 students in her school. There was never an health and safety issue for me to worry about.

"What concerns me is if Government implements this policy of no more than four students per home school, what will happen to the extra children. Will they have to leave and where will they go?"

Teachers and parents involved in home schools are lobbying Government over its plans to implement the policy from September this year.

The Education Ministry has warned that any school with more than four students must become a licensed institute and abide by Government regulations or face closure.

Only a home school where a parent is educating their children, and no one else's, can have more than four students.

Beth Gouvernon's son also graduated from Mrs. Roberts' home school last year.

She said she was indebted to the school for ensuring that her 18-year-old son Olivier, who has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), graduated on time last summer.

She said: "I feel like Government has been looking at this for so many years, and now, all of a sudden, it is going to make rules and regulations and tell other people how to run an alternative school, when they haven't bothered with us for years.

"As public servants, we pay their wages and we need them to do what we want."

Mrs. Gouvernon, of Pembroke, said her son was falling way behind while in public school due to his ADD condition, so she decided to take him out before he transferred to middle school.

She said home school had given him the individual attention he needed to bring him back up to standard.

Olivier said: "I could move at my own pace and so never felt pressured. We all had our own hurdles to get over, but we were never compared to anyone else."

Olivier is now working towards a career in landscaping and is hoping to go to Kew Gardens in London next year to sit his diploma in gardening.

Travis Usher, 17, of Warwick, has finished the home school this year and is due to go to Texas later this month to graduate.

He said he started out totally against the idea of leaving the public system at age 13 and going to an alternative school, but is now grateful that he had the chance.

He said: "In my old school, I got distracted a lot. But the home school gave me the one on one I needed, even though there was 12 in my class. We each got a lot of individual attention. I don't think I would have done so well in normal school."

And Travis' father, Tim, said the best thing about the School of Tomorrow programme was that students were not allowed to move on before they had successfully grasped each level. If they have to study the level again, then so be it, he said.

"If Mrs. Roberts' school became an institute, it would not be a home school. I think Government wants to impose these regulations because it is all about control."