next door becoming a playground for non school goers

[TryingToBeMorePositive]

I know I will be told to get my nose out of other people's business and what not but thought I will ask anyway and take the abuse.
I have some neighbours who are eastern european ( I am only pointing this out as non of them speak very good English so I have struggled to talk to them already). They originally moved in as one man, two women and young teenager boy before summer. He did not attend school. Now the new term has started he is still not attending school. Now 2 or 3 women have moved in or spend a long time round at the house and there are more younger boys in the house, I have seen a total of 3 together. There could be more. Now none of these children are going to school. They do not seem to be home educated as the majority of these people spend their time outside so we can see what they are up to, 4ft fences.
I have googled and not come up with an answer on whether I can report the children for not being in education. But I am also unsure whether I should just ignore the situation as it's non of my business. Feel free to tell me and then I can reassure myself to do so. But then do we have an obligation to report this? WWYD

karyatide Someone has already posted on this thread about taking their DD to a HE group and being shocked at how neglected some of the children were.
I think HE can be great. But it can also be bloody awful.

flirtygirl

I think you're completely misrepresenting people on this thread. By reporting her neighbour she's alerting the authorities to a possible concern. She's not determining that the parents are definitely (or even probably) guilty of neglect (either educational or otherwise) or abuse. She's raising a concern which the authorities can investigate properly.

If I thought there was even a 10% (or less) chance a child was vulnerable or in danger I'd report it and be more than happy if I was told that there was no issue.

Yes staff at schools offer food etc to neglected children, and report that neglect to SS. HE groups should also be reporting neglect. I am very doubtful that they do.

Really? I remember thread on MN a few months ago about a HE mother who did not comb her hair for a few years as her child said it hurt her. Many were appalled at this mothers own admission - child went to HE groups. Some HE were falling over themselves to support this neglect.

Some who promote HE are not willing to accept anything that protects children being abused, neglected, or educationally neglected and being HE, and simply point to failings in public schools. Personally I think there needs to be regular proper checks. Just as there are on public schools.

Can we not make this a HE/not HE debate? If anyone has a safeguarding concern about any child they should report it, regardless. A child who isn’t at school is potentially a child not receiving an education and if you are concerned and can’t easily find out why the child isn’t attending school (eg language barrier), your job isn’t to speculate on whether the reasons he/she MIGHT not be at school. Your job is to report it and let those people whose job it is to check, check.

I really despise the culture of not reporting because it might upset someone/isn’t any of your business. As a child I was severely abused and a lot of people who had concerns and could have stopped it earlier, didn’t report.

It’s better to upset an adult for a short time than it is to let a child live with neglect or abuse. That’s the end of the story regardless of your personal views on Home or School education.

Well done for reporting OP. There may be nothing wrong but if there is then you have increased the chance of it being picked up.

flirtygirl

The thing is there are people making claims like "I can teach my child in 1 hour more than 6 hours of school could" as a tutor who has experience with teaching children 1-1 and with knowledge of how productive it can be it worries me that anyone with such a poor grasp of what children do at school would be in charge of their child's education without outside help.

So I had sent the email to my local council who advised me to send to county council. I have done and managed to find this on the website which I wish I had found in the first place instead.

Im uncomfortable with aspects of HE. Im also uncomfortable about aspects of mainstream school, particularly for DC with additional needs. But the basic standard is, you have a legal obligation to report a suspicion of neglect or abuse. Not investigate it. Because you could fuck up royally.

I know 1 home ed family. The DM openly admits she hates early mornings and school rules the DC get minimal education.

HE should be checked more, That poor family of 13 in Calafornia. Some HE parents are fantastic, others take a lazy approach.

@ifyoudseenwhatihave I presume you are either home educators yourself or are connected to Home ed in some way ?

I have no idea why you make wild and unsubstantiated assumptions based on one factual post, linked to the Gov.Uk site.

That sort of jump and reading between lines, making up facts is why social workers are so mistrusted. At least, you allude to being connected to social services.

But HEers for the most part aren’t trying to provide s copy of what is done at school

They may not be trying to accomplish it in the same way but they're hopefully for the large part trying to achieve the same things as a school would. For example children need to be able to read and write, become competent in maths (both arithmetic and reasoning), learn to interact with a wide range of peers, learn about geography, religions, learn life skills (healthy eating etc), develop their fitness. A lot of these skills require practise and couldn't be condensed into an hour a day.

It may be that what HE actually mean by that is that they only have an hour of formal learning (even then I'd doubt it was sufficient for children beyond KS1 to become fluent in the skills they'd need) and they still make more time for outings in which the kids can socialise, problem solve etc in a way that might not be obviously educational to un untrained observer. However it's very obvious why the 1 hour claim would be very concerning.

I think it’s just totally different. As I said there’s a high proportion of children with additional needs. I really don’t think I’ve witnessed the sort of HE you describe.

I still think it would be concerning if a child was only being educated for an hour a day. Surely a child with special needs would need more specialised help with reading, writing, self-care etc.

I agree with frog.

Dont get involved

I understand your concerns but do the children appear to be happy? It might help if you got to know your neighbours a bit, language difficulties can be overcome. If the kids are healthy and happy I'd mind my own business. Also build a taller fence - or a wall.

Except when parents post who HE they often talk about activities that children who go to school do to - sports teams, day trips, etc. So an hour a day only would be very concerning.

So they are doing this hours work in a group?