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AIBU?

To ask what is the purpose of the Home School Agreement

57 replies

storytellinganimal · 12/10/2013 20:30

And do I have to sign the bloody thing? What will happen if I don't?

OP posts:

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MrsDeVere · 12/10/2013 21:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PervCat · 12/10/2013 21:38

lol - i have legal training too

still wouldnt sign it

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storytellinganimal · 12/10/2013 21:42

Oh sod off accusing me of being childish! Just want to know why - when eldest DC is now in year 5 - they all of a sudden want us to sign this agreement. And the children of feckless parents have the right to be cared for and educated even if their mum/dad choose not to support the school. Correct?

OP posts:

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PandaNot · 12/10/2013 21:42

I'm a teacher and haven't signed them for my two. The only agreement needs to be that I agree to get my children to school if you agree to teach them.

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morethanpotatoprints · 12/10/2013 21:45

I totally agree, I too objected to meaningless pieces of paper.

I also objected to homework as I feel if dc are in the school system they should be taught at school, by teachers, not the parents being expected to take up the slack.

Now my dd is H.ed, I don't set her homework and expect a school to teach her alongside the education she receives at home

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finallydelurking · 12/10/2013 21:46

They're unenforceable and the schools are well aware of this. However ofsted would take a dim view of any school not having home/school agreements. It's part of the schools demonstrating to ofsted that they are 'engaging with parents'.

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sarascompact · 12/10/2013 21:50

"The point is. If you sign and follow through, you are in a [stronger] position when you need to pull them up on things they have failed to do. It gives you the upper hand."

I don't know what gives you that idea. These agreements are unenforceable, meaningless. They're of no use whatsoever in placing the parent in a stronger position when a school fails their child.

The son of friends declined to sign a h-s agreement when their son entered secondary school. The boy was bullied at the school, quite severely. The school did next to nothing about it and their own promises, laid out in their prospectus and bullying policy, weren't adhered to but they suddenly became very anxious to get my friends to sign a home-school agreement when their boy eventually lost it with being bullied and lashed out at one of his tormentors.

It appeared to the parents and me even then that the agreement was going to be used as a way to place the blame and responsibility for the bullying upon the boy and his mum and dad. Subsequent events seemed to prove we were right.

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BrokenSunglasses · 12/10/2013 21:54

Unfortunate there are some parents out there that need it to be spelled out to them that they should get their children to school on time and enable them to do homework.

I wouldn't blame schools for needing to state the bloody obvious, I blame the people who don't do these things automatically.

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Pixel · 12/10/2013 22:00

MrsLouisTheroux I know, scary isn't it.

Does anyone actually ever think about the home-school agreement ever again once they've signed it and sent it back? I know I never have.

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SatinSandals · 12/10/2013 22:19

I can't see why you wouldn't because they are all things a reasonable parent would do anyway so I can't see any harm in putting it clearly for the unreasonable parent. Sadly there are unreasonable parents.

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Vivacia · 12/10/2013 22:24

Well I'd be more inclined to sign it if they agreed not to strike

Yes, how dare they exercise this legal right?

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Vivacia · 12/10/2013 22:25

Which bits of the agreement do you disagree with?

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SuburbanRhonda · 12/10/2013 22:31

Most of the time I love MN.

Then a thread like this comes along

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bluefeeling · 12/10/2013 22:33

I didn't sign it for my ds due to his disabilities. 2 of the things I was supposed to agree to he couldn't physically comply with because of his disabilities. Didn't stop them permanently excluding him though for 'not complying' with their rules .
If schools only abide by ethical and moral rules and duties when it suits them they can hardly be annoyed if parents don't want to sign their 'agreements'.

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NoComet · 12/10/2013 22:34

Our secondary one contains some twaddle about bed time and healthy eating.

I'd like to know just how I'm meant to force, night owl DD1 and veg refusing DD2 to do things they have stead fastly refused to do since they were toddlers.

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TrueStory · 12/10/2013 22:47

I found the homeschool agreement rather patronising, the underlying assumption being that without reading and signing this bit of paper I would be too thick to work out what my child was doing at school.

Second, the documents suggests the school is the final authority in all matters. There is an implication in signing that you cannot dissent from the school's policy, either now or in the future.

Thirdly, its not a good habit/practice in life to sign papers and documents you don't want to or don't agree with.

Reason 4, it appeals to the lowest common denominator and makes the majority of parents appear infantile subjects.

If a school wants to set out their standards, expectations and practice that is fine. But to my mind trying to get parents to sign such a document actually symbolises a schools impotence, and surely encourages rebellion in the most independent-minded parents!

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storytellinganimal · 12/10/2013 22:49

Pass the smelling salts to SurburbanRhonda.

It's because I'm a reasonable parent that I don't need to sign this piffle.

OP posts:

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nennypops · 12/10/2013 23:20

I'm uncomfortable with these agreements, because I think some schools in effect con parents into thinking they carry more weight than they do. Although I'm a school governor, I have never signed these for my children.

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valiumredhead · 13/10/2013 00:03

I sign it and the form sits in ds's bag for the whole year as he forgets to hand it in

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NoComet · 13/10/2013 00:06

I send notes with DD1 as DD2 tends to just leave them to get more and more crumpled.

Probably a fitting end for HSAs

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Topseyt · 13/10/2013 00:17

I have had several of these over the last 13 years of having children in school. They seem to be some sort of an attempt to put into writing the loco-parentis agreement entered into when enrolling a child at a school. This was always a sort of unwritten agreement when I was a child. Now I think it is fairly standard for all schools to write it out. After all, it gives someone somewhere something to do.

The last one I had was for my eldest daughter when she joined the sixth form. It still preached that I was responsible for ensuring she got to school on time every day, just as it did when she was in the infants (she was, of course, 16 by then).

They are meaningless crap. The loco-parentis arrangement is in place regardless. I have never seen my home-school agreements again in all the years of having been asked to sign them. They were simply never referred to afterwards).

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123caughtaflea · 13/10/2013 00:28

Well, I signed because I knew I could commit to what I was signing to and I know my son's school is trying to climb out of the pit Ofsted has dumped them in. This seemed a harmless enough way of supporting them.

But I refused to get DS to sign it, because I knew because of his SN he could not possibly commit to his bit, even if he understood it.

Dear Miss HT, I will not be asking DS to sign this at present, as it would be damaging to his mental health. Following our many conversations re DS' s additional needs, I am sure you will understand my reasoning. However, should you need to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact me. Kind regards, 123

Has she been in touch? No, of course not.

Possibly not quite so helpful there then. Oh well.

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propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS · 13/10/2013 02:01

I don't sign them. Neither do my friends. Intelligent, critical thinkers tend not to follow the herd, in my experience. There are no repercussions to refusing to engage in a pointless exercise.

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NoComet · 13/10/2013 02:20

Since our HSA were in the welcome stuff we handed in at the last parents meeting some DCs would have been asked to sign them before their 11th birthdays.

I honestly don't think you can legally hold a 10/11y to anything they have signed.

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CouthyMow · 13/10/2013 03:02

In the past, at my DC's Secondary school, nothing has happened when I haven't signed it. This year, it came home emblazoned with the phrase "If you do not sign this Home-School agreement then your child will no longer have a place at this school, or any within the XXXX Consortium".

Which is every damn Secondary in our town, bar one. Which has one of the worst GCSE pass levels in the Country, and has been in and (just) out of SM for the last 10 years.

Guess it's obvious that the local Secondary became an Academy in April?!