Children missing from education

In February 2007, for reasons which need not concern us, the 1996 Education Act was amended. Section 436A was added, which laid upon local authorities a duty to seek out and identify children in their area who were not receiving an education. Part of the new legislation says that local authorities should:make inquiries with parents educating children at home about the educational provision being made for them. Rather confusingly, Section 437 goes on to say local authorities should only make these enquiries:if it appears that a child is not receiving...

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A robust form of education

As I have probably mentioned , I home educated my daughter not because she was bullied or because I was anxious about the pressures of school, but because I wished to give her a good education. It is after all upon the quality of education, which this pedagogical technique must ultimately be judged; not its other supposed advantages. When we are weighing up the merits of an educational setting, looking at a school for example, then it is the education being provided which should really concern us. Of course the sports facilities and pastoral care...

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A good idea...

Now here is something which our masters could consider:http://www.wndu.com/hometop/headlines/120814434.h...

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Greenwich Council and home education

As solid evidence of my contention that some home educating parents could start a fight in an empty room, I offer the following. It is Greenwich Council's advice to parents who wish to educate their own children:http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/Learning/SchoolsAndColleges/EducatingChildAtHome.htmGreenwich are currently being accused of misinterpreting the law, persecuting certain home educators and generally behaving in a way which would disgrace the Gestapo. Specifically, their website is supposedly suggesting that annual visits are compulsory....

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Local authorities telling lies

Regular readers will be aware that I have something of a bee in my bonnet about parents' 'rights' as opposed to children's rights. Although it is not always explicitly stated in such terms, much of the debate about British home education hinges around a supposed 'right' of parents to educate their own children. This becomes clear when we examine the sort of problems which parents bring to the attention of the lists and forums which support home educators. Typically, a parent will complain that her local authority is exceeding its legal duties in...

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The salami approach to home education legislation

Several things are becoming clear since the business about delaying the removal of a child's name from the register for twenty days after the parents announce their intention to home educate. First, as will be seen from Nick Gibb's letter below, this change will be coming in September, regardless of what protests are made. It is such a minor point and nobody except for a handful of the more militant home educating parents can see what all the fuss is about. Secondly, Graham Stuart has somehow been squared by the leadership of the Conservative party...

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Duties and rights

Once again, there seems to be a little confusion between duties and rights. Since they are connected, although remaining quite different things, it is worth looking at this question and seeing how it relates to home education.A right is something which the law guarantees somebody. I am going to leave aside the question of abstract moral rights, because unless one is a theist, such rights are an irrelevance. In British law, children have a right to an efficient education, suitable to their age and ability and also having regard to any special needs...

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A 'parental right'

You just know that I am at a loose end when I start browsing through the Home Education UK site for want of anything better to do! I did not actually get very far, because on the very first page there was an enormous, glaring and fundamental mistake. No wonder people get muddled up about home education if they take their information from sites like this. It is claimed that;Even though the law expresses the right to home educate as a parental rightAs my daughter would say, WTF? Where does the law in this country even mention a 'right to home educate',...

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Supposed reasons which prevent people from educating their own children

In the last few days, people commenting here have put forward several possible ideas as to what might be stopping other parents from home educating. One of these was that very few people do it and that it involves going against the trend. Another is that some people might not be aware that home education is a legal option. Both seem pretty feeble explanations of anything!When we embark upon a new enterprise, whether it is buying a car, doing electrical work around the home or arranging for our children's education; the onus is firmly upon us to...

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Nick Gibb's response to complaints about the changes in pupil registration

Dear XXXXX,Thank you for your letter of 30 March addressed to the Secretary ofState, on behalf of a number of your constituents, about the proposedchanges to the Pupil Registration Regulations regarding parents choosingto remove their children from school to home educate. I am replying asthe Minister of State for Schools.I would like to reassure you that it is absolutely not our intentionthat this change should affect the rights of parents to home educatetheir children with immediate effect if they wish to do so. Similarly,it is not our intention...

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Government and local authorities misleading home educators

One of the perennial complaints on some of the home educating lists and forums is the extent to which many people are uninformed as to the correct legal position surrounding home education. I am absolutely baffled by all this. Recently, people commenting here made the same point; that some parents might send their kids to school simply because they thought that they were legally obliged to do so. This is all such a lot of nonsense.Of course government, both local and national, try to bluff people into thinking that the law is different from what...

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Predicting the outcome from a taught curriculum

I wrote a couple of days ago about my dislike of and reluctance to use the National Curriculum. One of my problems with it is that it attempts to predict what the effect will be of its content upon the children being taught. This seems to me an almost impossible task. I certainly could, and did, plan a year in advance what I would be teaching my daughter. As to what the outcomes of that teaching would be upon her developing mind; I did not even try and guess this! She might have closed her ears entirely to my wise and good educational provision,...

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Taking away parental responsibility for education

I have been following closely the arguments on various forums and lists against the new pupil registration regulations. These would allow schools to keep on roll for twenty days a child whom the parents had deregistered in order to home educate. There is of course no suggestion that the child will be compelled to attend school during this time; just that he will be listed on the register as Code Z, on roll but not attending. This code is currently used for children whose parents have registered their children at the school but whose kids have not...

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Doing 'school at home'

I talked yesterday a little about the National Curriculum and how any structured home educator was liable to be viewed as following it slavishly. Another popular misconception about those of us who work systematically with our children towards certain educational ends is that we are doing 'school at home'. I have never really understood what 'school at home' means. It conjures up, for me at least, an image of me sitting on a raised dais at the back of our kitchen. In files my daughter and I say impatiently, 'Come on, come on, settle down now. Take...

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Home educators and the National Curriculum

The National Curriculum is an almost mythical object of detestation to many home educating parents. It symbolises all that they hate about formal education and schools. Anybody who suggests that home educators should plan a little and be more structured in their approach is routinely accused of trying to 'impose' the National Curriculum'. (For some strange reason, such people are always apparently trying to do this 'by the back door') During Graham Badman's review of elective home education in England, the rumour was rife on the Internet lists...

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The ambulance chasers of home education

One of the accusations often thrown around in the world of British home education is that many of those active in doing things connected with home education are motivate purely by money. We saw this with the so-called 'secret group', who were apparently drawing up new versions of the 2007 guidelines for local authorities. A popular term of abuse thrown at such people is 'rent seekers'; as in my personal favourite; 'rent seeking vulture queen'. Why, the accusation has even been levelled against me, the suggestion being made that my book was an attempt...

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The motives of civil servants

One again, I find myself baffled at the interpretation which some home educators are putting upon current events. As most readers know by now, plans are being made for a change in the law allowing schools to keep a pupil on roll for twenty days after deregistering for home education. Over on the HE-UK list, this is being blamed upon civil servants at the Department for Education who are determined to push through the recommendations of the Badman report. The only question which I find myself unable to answer is, why would they want to do that?...

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The politics of home education

Education Otherwise is retrenching. It has since 2007 been getting into the habit of spending more than it should and not generally on its core work of advising and supporting home educating parents. Individual members would of course offer help, but the central organisation became a little too involved in campaigning and politics. This is now changing and EO is in a sense returning to its roots; withdrawing from arguing with the government and devoting more time to supporting its members. Some see this is a good thing, others as a bad move. It...

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Interesting news item

This is a recent news item which might indicate which way the wind is blowing as regards home education;http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13052...

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The hours I spend on this blog...

Several people have mentioned that I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on this blog lately. There are two reasons for it appearing so. One is of course my innate courtesy. It only takes me twenty minutes or so to write a post each day. Having done this, I feel that it is polite to answer any points which people raise about what I have said. I do so even if those commenting are complete bloody fools. I may also observe that when I am out for the day and unable to respond at once, people tend to get a little ratty and accuse me of...

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Local authorities already have all the powers they need...

I am always delighted, as I have remarked before, to see particularly flagrant examples of hypocrisy and double-dealing. We saw one such yesterday, when it was suggested that local authorities who do not believe that children are being provided with a suitable and efficient education should issue a School Attendance Order. Why, they have all the powers they need already, you know. I have not the slightest doubt that the people who write this sort of thing know perfectly well that it is not true. Similarly, the person who commented that educational...

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On medieval peasants

I suggested a couple of days ago that a child who did not receive a broad and balanced curriculum might end up like a medieval peasant, with a stunted and restricted outlook on life. Predictably, a number of people were quick to assure me that medieval peasants were a lot sharper than I seemed to think and that they were real whizzes at growing their own organic vegetables. I should have expected this. These types are rather like the pre-Raphaelites, harking back to a simpler and less complicated lifestyle in which children were unencumbered by...

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Should home educating parents face tests?

Commenting here yesterday, somebody suggested, perhaps not entirely seriously, that parents who wish to home educate should first be tested on their literacy and English. This was prompted by an exchange with Peter Williams, whose semi-literate ravings are not perhaps the best advertisement in the world for unregulated home education. It is an interesting idea, whether meant jokingly or not. After all, the child is entitled to an efficient education; what if a parent is incapable of providing such an education? There can be no doubt at all that...

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The little edge of darkness in British home education

It is very easy to laugh when people come on here and post things like; 'WHO THE HELL WANT TO LEAR ABOUT SHAKESPEARE?' 'who the hell wants to learn about the tudors? what use is that webb?' 'no broad exposure to culture for me lol' Yes, the style is inimitable; it is of course Mr Peter Williams of Alton! We sometimes dismiss this as the ravings of a lone crank, but it is less amusing and far more disturbing when prominent figures on the home education scene in this country start complaining that the Department for Education are advising home educating...

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My personal position on home education

I educated my own daughter from the summer of 1998, when she turned five, until June 2009. My experience of home education before then stretches back to 1972 and I am still involved with helping parents deregister their children from school. The idea that I am opposed in any way to home education is too absurd for words. I thought it worth reminding any new readers of this; I have been associated one way and another with home education for many years and am devoted to the idea. I have also written one of the few academic books on the subject to...

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Mangling the English language; using plain words when writing about home education

Readers were probably as amazed as I was to read S. L.'s comment here a few days ago, when she rebuked me for wreaking 'havoc and ill-repute upon the goodly cause of HE'. Why on earth, they might have been justified in asking, was this person writing English in a style which would not have looked out of place in The Duchess of Malfi? The answer is simple. For some reason, many home educators habitually write in a very strange way. Admittedly, not all sound as astonishingly weird as S.L., but many still manage to sound pretty peculiar when commenting...

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A broad and balanced curriculum

I have remarked before that talking to some home educators is rather like passing through the looking-glass with Alice and entering a world where everybody thinks and acts in the opposite way that they would in the real world. Take the expression 'a broad and balanced curriculum' in connection with the education of children. Over the last few days I have been asking people whom I meet in the course of my everyday life whether or not they think this is good thing and something which all parents should hope that their children receive. I have asked...

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On assessing individuals and not being taken in by how they define themselves

Yesterday morning I noticed on one of the lists to which I belong that a journalist from the Sunday Express was trying to get in touch with women who had been home educated, with a particular view to seeing if they would consider home educating their own children. I immediately thought of C who comes on here pretty regularly and so simply posted the request here so that she could read it for herself. She, after all, was home educated and also chose as a mother herself to home educate. I thought no more about this, it was an innocuous enough post,...

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Journalist looking for home educated women

I am writing a feature for S magazine, the supplement that comes with the Sunday Express newspaper, on home schooling and I'm looking to speak to three women who were all educated at home. The idea came about due to the apparent rise in numbers of parents home schooling their children, and the feature would ask the women about their own experiences, what they liked and didn't like and, if they are now parents, if they too would want to home school their own children. It would be great to speak to three women of different ages and backgrounds, to...

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Guidelines on home education for local authorities

As readers are probably aware, there was at the end of last year some controversy about the drafting of new guidelines for local authorities, explaining the legal position of home education and advising how to handle home education in their area. It is worth reminding ourselves that this new, supposed consultation was restricted in membership to a tiny group of individuals, only one of whom would admit to being involved at all. I thought it might be a good idea to see how open the process was for the existing guidelines, so that we may contrast...

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A new conspiracy theory

The world of British home education is often swept by conspiracy theories, in which the simple and obvious explanations for things are thought to conceal deeper and more sinister motives. I have written of such ideas on here several times. I quite often receive emails from home educators which offer me information or advice; much of it about my personal character and disposition. A number of readers have contacted me, for example, to point out that I am a complete fuckwit. This assessment of my mental abilities, although doubtless meant kindly,...

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Some proposals for satisfying both local authorities and home educating parents

1. The local authority will provide the same facilities for GCSEs that school pupils have. Parents will not have to pay for them, nor spend ages searching for a place where their children can take them. 2. Every year or so, parents and children will meet with local authority staff in a neutral setting such as a private room in a library or other friendly place. They will all have a chat and talk about how home education is going and if there are any problems. particularly, there will be a discussion about what the local authority could do to help....

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