To think there should be an approval process to allow parents to HE?

[abacucat]

Children's education matters, it is incredibly important and affects the rest of their life. I think it is fine for parents to Home Educate, but I think there should be an approval process before parents can HE. This will check the parents are actually capable of doing this.

[Thesearmsofmine]

How would you decide if a parent is capable?

[Thesearmsofmine]

Also who would be in charge of this? Where would the money come from?

[abacucat]

Have enough of an education themselves, be able to plan how their child will learn, have an understanding of how to support their child, have realistic plans on how to provide socialisation, not have substance abuse or mental health issues that makes them incapable of HE.

[TeenTimesTwo]

I disagree.
But I think parents should register for HE. At the moment, if I understand correctly, provided you never register for school at all you can fly under the radar.

[LoniceraJaponica]

Why Teentimes?

[papayasareyum]

I agree. Of the two HE families I know (which I agree, isn’t a large sample!) they’re both doing it primarily because they don’t trust school and struggle to get their kids there on time daily. And neither of them have any formal qualifications either. I think people who HE should be vetted a bit and also registered. And regular checks. It might be more convenient for the HE parent, but not always in the best interest of the HE child.

[ProfessorMoody]

I actually agree with this. I don't think it's do-able, because how would you do it, but I agree.

As a teacher, I can completely understand the desire to HE. I wish I'd done it myself with my DS, through primary age, especially after seeing how classrooms are these days.

There are some absolutely bloody amazing HEs out there. Really engaging educators whose children are having access to fantastic opportunities and experiential learning. Just brilliant. Then there are the other ones and it's these that are a problem. Education is important and I feel for the children in HE who aren't getting a good experience.

It's also very easy to lie. I do worry about those children "in HE" who are now hidden from the system and subject to abuse. It's very frightening.

[abacucat]

Yes you can totally fly under the radar. And some parents who so called HE are in reality guilty of educational neglect. These children matter.

[RavenWings]

Agree. I've met kids who are doing fabulously through he, and others whose parents have done them a total disservice through it.

[PiperPublickOccurrences]

I partially agree.

I'm sure a lot of HE parents are doing it for the right reasons. I don't think their own educational background is necessarily an issue - my 15 year old is way ahead of anything I ever did in Chemistry and I certainly wouldn't be able to teach him anything. BUT I am switched on enough to have ideas of where I could go for help, websites to look at and so on.

I'd agree with it more as a welfare check - are these children safe, happy and healthy? Are they being protected from harm? Are we sure they're not being radicalised?

So no, I don't think HE parents should be sticking to a set curriculum or submitting lesson plans, but I do think there should be some sort of register and spot checks on the welfare of the child.

[abacucat]

This isn't about a set curriculum. But if say the parents are functionally illiterate, then unless they have realistic plans of someone else helping their kids, then HE is not going to meet their kids needs.

[TittyGolightly]

be able to plan how their child will learn,

Children are learning all the time. I didn’t plan how to teach my child to cook an omelette - she watched me do it and then joined in. She can do it herself now. She often asks questions about things other than the topics she’s learning at school. I don’t - and wouldn’t - consider that before answering.

Children don’t just learn at school or because someone plans what their learning should be. HE can be a brilliant approach for children to learn about the world in a much freer and enersive way.

[TittyGolightly]

But if say the parents are functionally illiterate, then unless they have realistic plans of someone else helping their kids, then HE is not going to meet their kids needs.

I know people with first class honours degrees who say “should of” and don’t know the difference between their, there and they’re.

[HundredsAndThousandsOfThem]

I'm not sure how it could be implemented but I do agree. There are wonderful home educators who provide a rich and varied education (often to children who were struggling to thrive in the school environment) and there are also people who are doing it for all the wrong reasons (can't get to school on time, don't want interference from social services, don't want children to associate outside of their religion or don't want their kids to become educated).

[Jamieandwordswo]

If you have substance abuse or mental health issues severe enough to impair your ability to take care of a child, that would already be a social services issue, regardless of whether or not you were home educating. What more would a specialist home educator investigator achieve?

[abacucat]

Yes children learn all the time whether HE or at school, just as adults do. But they don't learn quadratic equations, or physics from just asking questions. They need access to teaching materials and someone who can help them.

[Thesearmsofmine]

As a home educator myself I think it would be totally unrealistic. My father is one of the most intelligent people I know and taught me many things but he has no formal qualifications. The school system lets many people down and often they want better for their own children.

I don’t particularly have an issue with registration but I do think that the local authority needs to work with home educators on how it would be managed. Many people dont trust the LEA because they regularly overstep their remit, that needs to be addressed.

[InertPotato]

I sympathise with your view, but I think ultimately an actual certification process would constitute a state overreach and that people's right to raise their children as they see fit must prevail.

There are some basic guidelines, as I understand it.

[abacucat]

Jamie There are lots of people with mental health and substance abuse issues, few have SS involvement. The threshold is high. You may be able to feed, clothe and keep your kids fairly clean and safe, so SS will not be interested. But that requires for school age children a fairly basic level of coping. Very different from HE.

[InertPotato]

People who are keeping their children home out of basic neglect should be on SS's radar for other reasons.

[Thesearmsofmine]

And as above substance abuse would be the remit of social services just as it would be for any other child.

[abacucat]

Potato There is nothing. Any parent can HE. There is no registration or monitoring legal process at all. A LA can request a meeting or visit, parents can refuse, and the LA can do nothing.

[abacucat]

Yeah you really don't understand at what level SS get involved at. They rarely intervene except with the most severe neglect.

[Jamieandwordswo]

Only a few people with substance misuse or mental health problems have SS involvement because most of these people are perfectly capable of being parents, home educators and professional teachers.

[spreadingchestnuttree]

Yes I do think there should be some kind of approval / monitoring. Every child has the right to an education so if the parent is not providing an adequate one someone needs to stand up for child's rights in my opinion.

Presumably HE saves the local authority money so some of that money saved could be used for occasional progress checks.