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School is one big game for the Pybus kids, who spend seven hours a day at home playing on consoles instead of sitting in a classroom.

And their 44-year-old mum, Katie, thinks they will be better educated ­entertaining themselves in cyberspace than if she taught them to read, write and count like other home schooling parents.

She said: “I don’t think the alphabet has got much to do with learning to read.

“Games are the bedrock of what we do in our home education . Schools are far too focused on testing and exams and I prefer my children to learn through play.”

Sapphire, 12, and her two brothers Etienne, 10, and Orin, seven, get up when they feel like it and power up their Playstations to “start learning” each morning.

The day begins for Etienne at 5am, Orin at 8am and Sapphire surfaces around 10.

(Image: Sunday Mirror) (Image: Sunday Mirror)

Katie’s unorthodox approach will astound most parents, especially those who face fines for simply taking their children on holiday during term time.

And parenting expert Tanith Carey said: “This sounds unhealthy – screens are like crack to children. It might sound radical and free thinking but computers are highly addictive to children.”

But full-time mum Katie insisted: “My children will look back and realise they’ve had a lovely, free childhood.

“I’m led by what they want to do and I don’t restrict screen time. I haven’t formally taught them English and Maths but they’ve learned lots about spelling and number manipulation through games.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

We may never know how effective Katie’s home school method is because her children won’t have to take a single test – never mind sit their GCSEs and A Levels – unless they really want to.

Instead, their time is spent on Minecraft, Clash of Clans, Sims and Pokemon Go on the family’s two Playstation 4 consoles, four PCs, five tablets and one Wii.

Katie and husband Roger, also 44, who works for an engineering firm, have had to upgrade to a super strength broadband server to cope with the kids’ “workload”.

They decided to home educate the children 12 years ago, shortly after Sapphire was born in November 2004.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

She and Roger toyed with the idea of sending her to private school but Katie didn’t want to “just be a school run mum” .

The children’s education started with Sapphire learning to read aged four, using Ladybird books, while her brothers played with Lego and wooden toys.

But that all changed when the family bought a Nintendo Wii console six years ago and the children began to play Mario Kart. And when they discovered Minecraft – which allows users to build their own computer-generated world with bricks – their haul of computers grew.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Katie added: “I joke that you can always tell a child who plays Minecraft because the bricks are arranged in multiples of eight, so they can do their 64 times table.

“They are not phased by big numbers because they haven’t had the negative maths experiences others have had at school.

“Etienne, who is dyslexic, didn’t want to read books but when I started playing Clash of Clans with him he wanted to help me type messages to his friends.”

While other children their age are chasing pals around the playground, most of the Pybus kids’ “friends” are gamers they’ve met online.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Sapphire is so wrapped up in her virtual world that her parents call her by her screen name, Cat. Etienne and Orin are known as Golden Gremlin and Dobot Bowser and they all play with other children from as far afield as Thailand, the Philippines and the USA.

Katie said: “If they’d gone to school, they’d have probably only made friends with people from similar backgrounds. The definition of friendship has changed thanks to things like Facebook.”

And the former city economist doesn’t worry about the pitfalls of allowing her children to chat to internet strangers.

“I worry more about my parents falling victim to email fraud than I do about my kids’ safety online,” she said. “I do talk to them about safety but I don’t worry any more than I would do if they crossed the road to go to a shop.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

When we visited the family home, each of the children showed us their own personal “zones”, where they spend most of the day. Etienne said he gets up so early each day to allow him 12 hours of gaming a day – but Katie insists he actually spends around seven hours online, when meal breaks are included.

He said: “Most people have to get up for school around 8am and get their uniform on but I can just keep playing.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Orin added: “I play a few different games every day and I enjoy it.” And Sapphire said: “Loads of people think being home educated means you have special needs, you can’t cope with school or that you don’t learn very well. That’s not actually true. I’ve learned a lot through video games.”

Sapphire has started weekly English and maths lessons with other home-educated children – at her own insistence. The boys don’t want to take classes and Katie isn’t sure they could even recite the alphabet.

She said: “Orin has been able to read for a long time but if you asked him to put something into alphabetical order, he’d struggle.”

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

The children play football every Tuesday with other home educated families – there are seven in their village of Pulborough, West Sussex – and they have a weekly swimming trip.

Katie’s one rule is that the kids must be offline at 8pm, ready for bed. They read aloud together before lights out.

Katie’s quirky method of education is viewed as legitimate by authorities.

All children must receive an education from the age of five upwards, but only those attending state-funded schools must follow the national curriculum.

Home educators and private schools are free to teach children however they see fit and students not in state education don’t have to take formal exams.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Around 36,000 of the 9.5 million school age children in the UK are home educated. Local councils have the power to issue a school attendance order if they feel a child is not receiving appropriate tuition for their age – but Katie says officials who visit annually have always been happy with her family’s progress.

She and Roger have the option to put their children through GCSEs, at £150 per exam – but they don’t plan to.

“They can do their GCSEs if they want, but I’ll never force them,” said Katie.

But Tanith Carey added: “If learning through computer games was so effective, we’d have the most brilliant generation in history. Children do learn through play – but play which is tactile and involves real life people.”

A West Sussex County Council spokesperson said: “Our elective home education team follows the Department for Education’s guidance on the monitoring of elective home provision."