Petition regarding home education on Downing Street website

[waxonwaxoff 13]

when home educating, at present, don't you have to complete these forms anyway? I haven't read the new proposals fully so I may be getting the wrong end of the stick. As far as I am aware OFSTED can also visit you at home as it stands now. Saying this though it is very difficult for them as they need your agreement to do so which means being registered with them, which means cost to you. So a bit of a no go! Maybe the new proposals are more to do with OFSTED and them being able to check you? Either way, it's all to do with money in the end and probable not much to do with the welfare of children.

 

Guidance notes for Parents/CarersThe intention of these notes is to help you understand what may be involved if you are thinking about, or have decided, to educate your child away from the school system. We do not mean to be prescriptive, we recognise that there is a variety of ways in which education can be provided. We wish to help you think through the issues.

 

Proposed curriculum for Education at home by Parents

Use this to give the CSA an indication of the curriculum you intend to follow in educating your child.

 

Curriculum guidelines

These curriculum guidelines have been written to help parents prepare a curriculum outline for children being educated at home.

 

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/education/information-for-parentscarers/attendance/home-education

 

Hi Titan. No you dont have to fill in these forms. They have the right to ensure that your child is recieving an education if they believe otherwise. By education This must be to their age, apptitude and ability. You can provide evidence of education in various ways and this is your choice. Some people chose to allow them into their homes or meet at an alternative place. Some send in work done by the children and some people chose to send in an education philosiphy. They are allowed to request evidence that would satisfy a reasonable man that education is taking place. By law you do not have to see them.

 

What do you mean by " which means cost to you"?

[Titian 10]

Hi Titan. No you dont have to fill in these forms. They have the right to ensure that your child is recieving an education if they believe otherwise. By education This must be to their age, apptitude and ability. You can provide evidence of education in various ways and this is your choice. Some people chose to allow them into their homes or meet at an alternative place. Some send in work done by the children and some people chose to send in an education philosiphy. They are allowed to request evidence that would satisfy a reasonable man that education is taking place. By law you do not have to see them.

 

What do you mean by " which means cost to you"?

 

If this is to go ahead it seems to me to be a way of enforcing OFSTED visits. What that will mean for home educators (I assume, with my cynical view of government and education) is that if this does happen all parents will need to be registered with OFSTED. To register with OFSTED requires an annual fee plus a registration fee. Basically each child of compulsory school age (and below actually) represents a sum of money for local government. If they have a way of increasing that sum.............well who knows?

[waxonwaxoff 13]

If this is to go ahead it seems to me to be a way of enforcing OFSTED visits. What that will mean for home educators (I assume, with my cynical view of government and education) is that if this does happen all parents will need to be registered with OFSTED. To register with OFSTED requires an annual fee plus a registration fee. Basically each child of compulsory school age (and below actually) represents a sum of money for local government. If they have a way of increasing that sum.............well who knows?

 

Thanks

[Mr Goose 10]

Well, as home schooling is selfish and indulgent on behalf of the parent I think it should be properly regulated.

[Bonny 10]

Well, as home schooling is selfish and indulgent on behalf of the parent I think it should be properly regulated.

 

Why do you say that? Surely home schooling is the very opposite IMHO - proof of a very caring and unselfish parent.

 

It's all to easy to hand a child over to a school each day and abdicate responsibility for them for several hours. It's quite another thing to take on the huge responsibility to educate them yourself which may also mean giving up paid employment and/or other social activities. As far as I have experienced, home educators are the LEAST selfish and indulgent parents I know.

[waxonwaxoff 13]

Well, as home schooling is selfish and indulgent on behalf of the parent I think it should be properly regulated.

 

Hahaha what an informed decision you show there. You really have no idea.

[woolspinster 10]

Well, as home schooling is selfish and indulgent on behalf of the parent I think it should be properly regulated.

 

Would you like to explain this comment?

 

In my experience parents choose to home educate because they wish to provide a more suitable education for their children than is provided by the state. After all, who knows their children better than the parents.

 

In what way is this selfish or indulgent?

[Mr Goose 10]

My comments are based on the fact that homeschoolers generally have an "agenda".

 

Notwithstanding the obvious issue over building social relationships; remember when kids leave the home school environment and go to work or uni they will enter that big world. No choice there over who you work or learn with there.

 

I think homeschooling is a reaction against modernity, social obligation and is desire to control what kids learn (or dont learn). Parents need to accept that at some point in their children’s lives, they must learn to react to the world on their own

 

I'm sure there are some good homeschoolers, but US research has shown time and time again that homeschoolers are often those who believe that their children should not be exposed to ideas they diagree with - like science, secularism or "lower orders"

 

If you have a problem over what is taught don't you think the best approach is for parents to get involved in their schools?

 

Also - kids are only at school for a minority of the time. You have more than enough hours outside to school time to teach them what I assume you actually do during homeschool AS WELL

 

Honk

[waxonwaxoff 13]

My comments are based on the fact that homeschoolers generally have an "agenda".

 

Notwithstanding the obvious issue over building social relationships; remember when kids leave the home school environment and go to work or uni they will enter that big world. No choice there over who you work or learn with there.

So these social relationships are only made in school? Not at all possible to meet people in day to day life? Actually when you do go to a work environment you are not forced to make friends and shake hands with someone who is rude and aggressive to you. It is a sackable offence. Why do people think a child should put up with this and it is the norm

I think homeschooling is a reaction against modernity, social obligation and is desire to control what kids learn (or dont learn). Parents need to accept that at some point in their children’s lives, they must learn to react to the world on their own .

I have no desire to control what my kids learn. I do want my kids to have a love of learning though and not to be told their question is innappropriate to the lesson plan. I want them to be encouraged in their own abilities and be confident that they can acheive their goals. Independence isnt learnt by pushing a child away it is learnt by having the love and support behined them wether they are succesfull or **** it up on the way.

I'm sure there are some good homeschoolers, but US research has shown time and time again that homeschoolers are often those who believe that their children should not be exposed to ideas they diagree with - like science, secularism or "lower orders" .

[

maybe you should look at some of the uk research? I recomend the research done by Paula Rothermel

If you have a problem over what is taught don't you think the best approach is for parents to get involved in their schools? .

Why? so they can spend all day at school being failed by a system that is failing so many children it is beyond belief when they could be with their parents who want nothing more then to help them grow into happy healthy confident adults and to help them acheive there hearts desires.

Also - kids are only at school for a minority of the time. You have more than enough hours outside to school time to teach them what I assume you actually do during homeschool AS WELL Honk

A minority of the time? children from the age of 4 years old doing not much less then a working day? Quite frankly my kids deserve a dam site better then that.

[Liose 10]

My comments are based on the fact that homeschoolers generally have an "agenda".

 

Notwithstanding the obvious issue over building social relationships; remember when kids leave the home school environment and go to work or uni they will enter that big world. No choice there over who you work or learn with there.

 

I think homeschooling is a reaction against modernity, social obligation and is desire to control what kids learn (or dont learn). Parents need to accept that at some point in their children’s lives, they must learn to react to the world on their own

 

I'm sure there are some good homeschoolers, but US research has shown time and time again that homeschoolers are often those who believe that their children should not be exposed to ideas they diagree with - like science, secularism or "lower orders"

 

If you have a problem over what is taught don't you think the best approach is for parents to get involved in their schools?

 

Also - kids are only at school for a minority of the time. You have more than enough hours outside to school time to teach them what I assume you actually do during homeschool AS WELL

 

Honk

 

 

Clearly you have little experience of state schools...I am not saying they are all bad, but many of them are tightly restricted and bound by governmental rules and regulations and the ongoing issue of protecting the "criminals" rather than looking after the good children...what I mean by that is there are too many disruptive pupils - who are not supported by their parents (so it isn't a case of becoming involved in school management because those sorts of parents are too busy in the pub...) and who teachers/management can't do anything about - labour's "inclusion" concept. This spoils the hard work and efforts of the remaining teachers who still have faith in state education and are there to make a difference...many people home educate because of this - not because they are scared their children will see and experience new ideas/social interaction.

[hennypenny 10]

Well Mr Goose! I must be very selfish and indulgent then, as I have given up my career and my income in order to home educate my two children for the last 21 years!

 

I have no regrets however, I know I have raised two wonderful children, and as home education is now acknowledged to have the best outcomes of any form of education (including private schools) I do not feel I have done anything wrong. Home educators do not receive any form of funding, not even a refund of the tax they pay towards other people's children's education. We do not get access to colleges, or access to exam centres. Sheffield college has recently quoted £30 per day for a home educated child to do a GCSE!! In spite of this, people still feel they have a right to inspect and monitor the education which I provide for my child as is my duty in law.

 

As the law stands, the only duty of a LA is a negative one. They have a right to make enquiries of a parent if they have reason to believe NO education is taking place. If they have such reason they can make informal enquiries, which do not have to be answered, but most home education organisations would advise parents to answer these. These enquiries may be answered in any form of the parent's choosing, and only need to be sufficient to convince a reasonable man on the balance of probablilities that an education is being provided. This is the criteria that a court would be looking at. If the LEA is not satisfied they can ask to see more evidence and ultimately they have the power to issue a School Attendance Order. Currently in Sheffield the majority of home educators are visited at home by an LA advisor once per year, this works reasonably well for the majority of people, although some prefer to submit a written report. Sheffield LA is not amongst the worse in their relations with home educators, we have a large group and meet regularly with them.

 

However over the last 10 years or so, most LAs have been getting more and more intrusive, not informing people of their right to home educate (which is exactly equal in law with their right to delegate their child's education to school), demanding home visits, telling parents they have to have permission to remove their child from a school roll, illegally delaying deregistration, putting misleading information on their websites (see post above) demanding to see curriculum and lesson plans, requiring monthly home visits, testing children in their own homes, even wanting to ensure that parents have pencils, pens, desks and blackboards at home! This is the mentality which home educators are protesting about. I personally would not mind being visited, if it was supportive visit, from someone with a knowledge of different learning styles, who had something to offer in return. LAs only seem to be aware of conductive educational styles, where children are taught. Home educators use many different styles of education. Some do school at home, some do a certain amount of enforced subject matter, and some do autonomous or child led education.

 

My preference has been for autonomous education, my children have learned through fun and play, through deep study of the things that interest them, and by being helped and facilitated to follow any interest as far as they wish.

 

For my eldest child, (now 21) who was interested in all things natural, this meant we spent a lot of time in the woods searching out fungi and identifying them, doing experiments with bluebells on anthills (they change colour when the wood ants attck them with formic acid), going on nature walks with the Sorby natural history society, loads of visits to museums, behind the scenes talks from museum staff who showed him how to stuff animals, hours and hours of conversation (this is known as purposive conversation and is a recognised educational method). My son did not wish to be writing down his experiences, and I agreed with him that it would totally be deadly to have to sit down after a visit to a farm and write an account of his day there. So he didn't get around to writing until he was 11 (except for long lists of dinosaurs, minerals or whatever his current obsession was). He went on to be interested in fossils, then dinosaurs, then every living creature. He collected rocks and minerals, fossils and small animal bones to mount on cards. He tumbled stones and made jewellery, we visited mining museums and learned about the conditions of the miners lives all around the world.

 

If we had had a visitor who wanted to make sure he was following a curriculum, they would have worried themselves sick about his failure to write, they would have felt his learning was very unbalanced, and yet I trusted him to choose his own education, and I believe he has turned out a very balanced person. He didn't show interest in some subjects until quite late, but once he found a reason to do them he learned very quickly, thus, in a brief flirtation with school at age 11, he went from barely handwriting to a cursive hand in 8 days. When he needed to do it, he did. This is what home education is about for me, trusting the child natural desire to learn, which they are born with, they teach themselves to walk and talk, they are similarly capable of learning anything they want to, when they are ready. (In similar fashion he decided he wanted to learn to play an instrument when he was 15 and 4 years later took his grade 8 which he passed with distinction. He also wanted to learn to use his body at 15 going on to work as an assistant tutor in ju-jitsu and gaining medals in national competitions). Research has shown that reading readiness can come at any age between 2 and 12 years. I know a lot of home educated children who have not been ready to read until they are 9 or 10, even 12 or 13 (often dyslexic children). I have not known one child who has not been reading at an age appropriate level at 16. Although they may start later they catch up very quickly.

 

I have had several dozen comments from supervisors at museums, nature park wardens, educational facilitators - all have remarked on how nice it is to have a group of children come who are actually interested and willing to learn. One compared them to the school children who he said seemed to be somehow switched off. At the National Portrait gallery last week, the leader said how pleasant it was to be asked questions about the painting styles, the times the people lived in, the clothes they were wearing etc, as the most common question from the school groups was "how much is it worth?"

 

I am now raising my daughter in the same way, and she is doing really well, bright, happy, confident and interested in learning. Socialisation is the most common objection people have to home education - this does make me laugh wryly as I taxi her about to the home ed drama group, music group, adventure playground session, skating and swimming sessions each week, and as I feed the numerous friends (home educated and schooled) who come to play each week. Not to mention all the visits to museums, farms, nature reserves, summer camps, seaside, historical houses, etc etc, usually one every couple of weeks.

 

The law says a parent must provide a full time education suitable to the childs age, aptitude and ability and any special needs the child may have. The DfES wants to make it that our children have a defined number of hours tuition each week, in spite of the fact that in a school research has shown that each child can expect to have 15 minutes PER WEEK one to one with an interested adult at school, and the fact that many hours are spent simply waiting in line at school. Our children have that 1-1 time 24/7, learning can take place at 10 at night, in the bath, in the car etc. Some of our most exciting conversations took place in the car. We have found they can do the same amount of learning in a much shorter time, for instance when my son decided to do a GCSE Maths(higher) at 13, he worked his way through the course in a few months, and went on to get a B. The DfES want to introduce a prescribed curriculum - this is in spite of national calls by the QCA for schools to be allowed to ignore the national curriculum and draw up their own, as they argue the NC is too restrictive. Individualised education is now the buzz word in schools, with calls to follow the childs interests - it makes home educators laugh a little as it is what we have been doing all along, but this is exactly what they are trying to wipe out!

 

It isn't monitoring itself that we object to, it is them telling us we have to follow their system of education, when ours has been shown to work much much better! Most home educators are currently monitored by home visits. For people who worry that our children may be abused, I would like to ask whether school attendance is a guarantee against abuse? I have heard of many cases where abuse has not been suspected. Victoria Climbie is often cited, but she was known to several different agencies, and nothing was done to prevent her abuse. Our children are not hidden away, they are out there in society, mixing with others and meeting professionals (health visitors, doctors, park wardens, museum staff, playworkers, guide leaders, etc etc) who have the same chance as a teacher of detecting any possible abuse.

 

For many children who have been failed by school, home education is a lifeline - quite literally, I have spoken to parents who feel their child would have killed themselves if they had stayed at school, and sadly, to some whose child did. Many children on the autistic spectrum simply cannot cope in the hustle and bustle of school, many other children are bullied and lose confidence and self esteem totally. Many LA officers are advising parents of children with SEN to home educate! It is a way of getting them off their books. For these children, they need a different approach, formal education does not work for everyone, at least 7 different learning styles have been identified, and yet schools still only use one or two. My son learned best hanging upside down from a chair, or whilst running around the garden! He used to quite often run around a play park, and then come and tell me about some advanced mathematical idea which had formulated itself in his brain as he was running around. Maybe it was the blood rushing to his brain, but it would not have been possible for him at school. Thankfully he has learned to sit upright and still now!

 

I have no regrets about giving my children the best education possible, 1-1 is always going to be better than 30-1. Many teachers home educate - around a third of the membership of the largest home education support group are teachers. If the DfEs win their call to prescribe, monitor and test home educated children, I beleive that I will not be able to give my child as good a quality education as she is getting now.

 

There are already laws in place which are quite sufficient. Monitoring does take place already, and school attendance orders are available to be used if the LA is not satisfied that an education is provided. Under the Every Child Matters act 2004 databases are being set up, so that every child will be on a database, no children are going missing from education. What annoys home educators is that home educated children are classed as Children Missing from Education, and that is very far from the truth!

[Liose 10]

WOW - that's a truly inspiring and well written point of view. Well done!