Why do people fear Home Educators so much?

[sebumfillaments]

Not a TAAT but inspired by the other thread, I was stunned by the level of vitriol aimed at home education. Is it all borne from fear and ignorance?

Home Ed isn't about replicating school. And education isn't (in our case) about gaining qualifications from an institution to increase their value in the workforce!

So why so much animosity?

The risk of indoctrination worries me. Out neighbour homeschools and the little boy talks to me and lovely as he is all he talks about is God and Jesus. He told me he thought a lightning storm was Jesus coming back. He's 6.

No, because legally you don't have to to. You tell them thanks very much and you'll contact the LA at your own convenience if you decide to. I'm not sure how often their tactic is successful but it must be sometimes I imagine. I suppose people are too polite or nervous to tell them where to go. Honestly if it happened to me I would probably say "oh ok then" because I would be caught off guard, not care that much and I am engaged with them anyway when really I should firmly tell them to leave and that I legally don't have to engage with them.

zzzzz ds didn't meet out home ed rep for three years in a row as he refused to leave his room and she was lovely enough not to force her presence onto him. She read my annual report and educational philosophy, looked at my hundreds of photos of everything we had done and said it looked like I was doing a great job. He finally met her last year and after he'd said hello she told me was so pleased that he finally felt comfortable enough to meet her and I was obviously doing something right.

My children are at school. Their ability to read and write English is tested in some detail at regular intervals without anyone asking me permission.

zzzzz honestly, I wouldn't find that odd. I might worry about how clean and tidy the house was , but apart from that, really it wouldn't bother me.

My expectation would be that, as with most things when it comes to child protection, they will have such a massive workload that they wouldn't be interested in me unless I am teaching DS zip and nada, and he looks unkempt, illfed, and/or bruised. I don't think they would expect a child to even reach national standards because how would they be able to test that? It would literally be to ensure we weren't emotionally or physically abusing them, or that we weren't Karen Matthews or something.

I dunno. I mean, I can see our kids are fine and well cared for, and I imagine most HE kids get a better education than the worst state schools. But there will be some kids who don't get any education, or who are abused or radicalised, I imagine. And while that can happen in state schools as well, that's why they are subject to inspection.

But if they want to inspect us, they need to make LEA funded services available to us, too. I'd really appreciate access to the fab Advisory Teaching Service team in our county. The lead for autism is a rock star, but she could only keep us in her file for a couple of months after we deregistered DS (and that was a favour). If the exchange for inspection was access to her, and the ed psych, and the specialist support, I'd jump at it. We'd still be saving the state an absolute fortune (the school we're waiting for, who are great with autism, are really hoping we can jointly argue for a Mon/Wed/Fri week without their losing funding or having a hit to attendance records, because he freely admitted that would mean I could manage almost all DS's SEN provision for them, and save thousands a year for the school - all they'd need to fund would be his ed psych and Fizzy sessions, over and above standard provision, because I'd be doing two days a week one to one care, plus he would have two hours a week extension work with his current tutor).

Personally I'm very sad flexi-schooling is so restricted now that it would need a medical sign off to even try to make it work for DS. It is so clearly best for kids with major sensory processing challenges. It would square the circle for us and make it the best of both worlds. I just hope we can pull it off, because if we can't, I don't see full time in the state sector working - we'll have to wait another year until DH is promoted and we can afford a local private school with 10 child classes, instead.

Winter you gave your permission when you sent them to school, hardly the same thing. 😂

MsGameandWatching your lovely attendance person sounds like my bloke. He made me feel a lot more confident in what we were doing, not less! Funny for the Attendance and Inclusion Team's usual image, hey.

That was my answer to the question of would I be OK with unannounced inspections of the way I was having my kids educated. And yes, obviously I've signed up to that.

We home educated for a year. I totally think home educated kids are at risk of slipping through the system.
We informed the local authority we were living in that we were home educating. Declined any visits they offered and then moved counties. We told the original county we were leaving the area but didn't inform the new one. In our case this was because my DS was going to be attending an independent school there but effectively he could have totally slipped off anyone's radar. That's just not right.
Home ed and the freedom it offers can be fab but it needs to go hand in hand with improved regulation.

Testing isn't an unannounced inspection though, is it? OFSTED inspect, too. But they don't do it without notice unless something terribly awry is suspected.

I'd be perfectly happy for anyone to test my son. Wouldn't bother me in the least. But it might if he were smaller, because all the peer-reviewed evidence is that our early years ed is fucked up, and at that age they should be playing, not sitting at desks doing phonics. He taught himself to read in preschool, as it goes (in Reception: "I had my phonics screening today." "Oh?" "Yeah. I got them all right." "You can't know that, DS." "Yes I can." "How?" "I can read upside down."). But DD isn't at all interested in letters at 3, far less able to to read, and if I were willing to home ed her, which I am not, I'd no way be starting on phonics until she showed signs of interest and readiness, as in the Scandi countries. A child who isn't interested in her own name at 3 is not, in my view, likely to be ready for phonics in a single year's time... though of course they all learn in fits and starts, and whether I like it or not, she's going to have to try. They all are.

It's the testing regime that is forcing teachers to train unready 4 year olds like performing seals. How is that a good thing?

You should be able to get edpsych and salt (and probably OT) while HEing. We did.

No, sadly I was told it's in or out. The Attendance guy told me to ensure we got DS into a state primary for a single term at least if we planned to educate in a state secondary, so we could get all the reports done at their expense ready for his EHCP battle. He was very, very sympathetic and helpful, as is the Advisory Teaching service lead here - but there is no support at all unless you are in a school. I checked with more than one source, and they were all great and sympathetic but there simply is an in or out system in this county. Don't know if it's funding, or what, but you can't access it without a school registration.

Sorry to derail but zzzzz I am pleased to see you got access to an ed psych out of school. I have just been talking today to one of the EHE team about this very issue (as DD's paediatrician said she seems to have LDs but it's not something she can assess herself) and they said the best way is to apply for an EHCP, is that how you went about it? I'm really not sure either DC would be eligible - they are in that grey area of too disabled for mainstream but also functioning at a reasonable enough level that I'm still debating whether DLA is worth applying for, IYSWIM.

I think it is only natural for people to be afraid of something that isn't the norm.

I'd love to teach a child - give them a real classical education.

However I also like working and having my own life.

Interaction and Communication team can't, no. They already kept me on longer than they officially should have done. They would be involved again the second we started somewhere new though. And the head blocked access to ed psych as she knew as soon as that came in she'd have to provide the designated support when a child doing so well academically could be quietly left to Mum to sort other than a tiny bit of TA time (that may be cynical, but I'd bet the house on being right).

DS's paed is in Brum, and amazing and I don't want to move that at all, and we had to wait 2 years for his OT assessment as there is such a shortfall in provision in the West Midlands - 2 specialist ASD OTs covering the whole area. Consequently you get nothing but some advice sheets after the initial assessment, even when, as with us, it finds major issues. GP now is in this county though so maybe I could try to wangle that? I'm delighted to find that we can now get art therapy or play therapy, which wasn't possible with a Brum referral. Just no funding for mental health with autistic kids there unless they are actively a threat to themselves, or a non-family member (the non-family part was an especial eye opener - it made the paed angry as well). We got the referral, but it was knocked back, as we'd been warned it would. So we're hoping this county will offer more medically, as it is a lot less stretched in NHS budget terms.

Mainly, I'm just hoping and praying a space opens up in our preferred school - he's next on the waiting list now - and that we can swing the medically signed off, 3 day school week for him, so we can combine the best of home ed with the benefits of a school. It was so amazing to walk into a school and talk to a head who just got it - the SENDCO has an ASD child herself, which of course explains it. But there's no guarantee a child will leave any time soon.

MrsGame

Am I correct in thinking the area you live in also auto refers to safeguarding if you decline the random stranger who doorsteps you?

Are you alright with unannounced inspections of your homes/parenting/educating, or is that just for those that HE?

Well, admittedly it was wasn't no notice and it was at our behest, but when we were going through the training and approval process to adopt DD we had a series of lengthy home visits. As we already had a birth child, part of the assessment process wasn't just about how we could cope with a hypothetical adopted child, but how we were parenting our actual child (along with whether our home was suitable). Even though our SW was fab, it wasn't exactly a fun process, and of course it can be intrusive having your parenting picked over (though it wasn't as bad as the discussions about our sex lives....). But we accepted it as part and parcel of the process that we had chosen.

Similarly, I have been held at the border of a foreign country for additional questioning once before - intrusive and unpleasant, but part of the system I have opted to use when travelling abroad.

We also had an unannounced visit from the RSPCA once because a neighbour had flagged a concern. Although it was pretty galling to have them turn up on the doorstep and ask to come in right there and then (and IIRC the RSPCA do have powers of entry if they need to use them), as we were doing nothing wrong at all, we had no reason to refuse. If the system helps identify animals who genuinely are being abused and gets them to safety, I can cope with the indignity of having an inspector pop round to confirm that our animals were indeed all in tip top condition.

zzzzz - I think it's possible to construct a framework that doesn't feel like the Gestapo could come knocking at any time, whilst providing help and support to HEers and providing a level of CP scrutiny that isn't currently in place for vulnerable children who are not in mainstream education.

For example, the norm could be annual meetings, arranged by mutual consent and convenience. Unannounced visits would be only where there were specific reasons for concern, ideally based on a published risk assessment framework - eg families with a girl at high risk of FGM or forced marriage, or where the annual meeting had thrown up something of concern.

Officers should always have to identify themselves (photo ID) and provide details of who they are and how to verify them (eg calling the LA team manager). A clear feedback and complaints system should be set up for when the visits do not go well.

This is all pretty much off the top of my head - the right people giving it some real thought would be able to come up with something proportionate and workable, I would have thought.