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.

I think you might have a case if the state education system was functioning well but it isn't. The majority of new home educators I know are not doing it by first choice, they are deregistering broken children at crisis point. Many of these children are not getting any education in school because they are too anxious, not having SEN met, school refusing or having frequent suspensions.
Parents in this situation need support, ideally at the point where it is still possible to keep the child in school of that is what the parents want.

I do agree that not all HE parents do a brilliant job (basing this on home educating for the last 13 years) and having a lot of but not all schools do either and how do we judge and by what standards? The problem is we can never compare the same child if they were home ed as to what they would be like in school.
My experience is a parent who knows they lack knowledge and numeracy/literacy is usually more proactive at seeking out support and good resources (there are lots). More of an issue are the people that wouldn't normally flag a concern, the educated middle class who have become 'career mums' who see HE as some sort of extension to a parenting philosophy and find lots of their friends are doing it. Unschooling done well can be very effective (not something I do personally my kids just weren't naturally curious enough but I do have respect for those who make it work) but it needs to be well thought out and constant alertness and awareness from parents but it isn't always done well.
The growth in numbers has made people more aware of HE and there is a risk that people can jump in without totally thinking it through or even doing start doing it because it's a bit of a trend. Getting permission first though is not the answer, the potential of further damage to the mental health of those children being failed by the school system is too high a cost.
IF a HE monitoring system was to be introduced (I am not totally anti the idea) I would like to see home educators involved in the board that assesses it, judging HE by school standards is totally inappropriate. The assessment should be looking for evidence that the parent is engaged, committed and thinking about exactly how the education they provide is currently suiting their child's needs and what they can do to progress.

One positive of something like this is it would stop schools saying "oh we can't cope with your SEN child, please home educate them" when the parents don't have the aptitude and experience.

There was, at one time in the authority I worked in, a small (in number) service for monitoring children educated other than at school. I guess cuts have removed that now.

I think there are two main issues. There are parents who decide, for a multiplicity of reasons, that it is in their children’s best interests for them to be HE. It could be because the children have had poor experiences in school, have anxiety or other condition, or simply because parents feel that they are best placed to offer the broad and balanced curriculum that children need. If you are a parent who feels this,mpresumably you will have researched thoroughly, be aware of what support networks are available and how to access them. Someone who has prepared comprehensively for HE wouldn’t have a problem with light touch checks on progress surly.

There are though, circumstances where parents remove their child(ren) from school, either in anger, or because it’s too difficult to get them to school for whatever reason. Maybe they don’t see it as important, maybe they themselves are unwell, or maybe they just don’t care enough to bother. It’s this group that needs either help and support, or a kick up the bum to get them to buy into some form of formal education.

There's a good chance 2 of my 4 may be Home Ed. Both have SN. I doubt I'd meet the MN expected standards for a home educator, but if they can't cope in formal education, what choice is there? I won't continue to send them into an environment that is harmful to them. That in itself would be negligent.

I have only met one parent who home educates their KS1 child. I asked lots of questions

What? You quizzed a parent on their choice to HE? Who are you that you feel it’s your place to do that? Do you quiz all the parents you know who send their children go school?

Most of basic literacy and numeracy is done at home by parents. Certainly ‘act’ is mostly taught at home.

But more complex skills - how to think in abstract ways, how to reason, they are mostly taught outside of school.

Specialist cultural areas - sport, religion, history, drama, architecture- schools will only cover a tiny fracture of what a child learns about these topics.

And the really complex skills - how to look after your own health, know if you are ill and what to do about it, these are taught at home and require far more effort and skill than number bonds. The reason we teach number bonds to 30 kids all at once is because it is easy enough to learn that it is possible to do so with 30 others.

Being a HE child I have to say I agree with the OP, but not on what education the parents have but on why they are HE and how they plan to 'teach' things that they don't know about themselves.
I was what would be now called unschooled. It was up to me what I did all day and I mainly didn't do a lot. Luckily I was in school for my primary years so I have a basic education in Maths, English and Science.
I do know HE children who have had an amazing experience being HE and are now successful adults.
It wasn't all bad for me either, I learned to be self reliant and started my own business before most of my friends left school.
I am also going to be HE my DD but in a little more structured way than I was.

What prompted the thread, OP? I don't know if you said.

There are changes in process, or being discussed, at the moment involving compulsory registration, aren't there? Does anybody know?

This I agree with. An approval process, however, would be unworkable.

I work in a school in a safeguarding role. I believe that most parents who HE do so with their children's best interests at heart and I admire their dedication.
Sadly though, I have seen cases where parents have pulled their kids out of school to "home educate" after school staff have identified signs of abuse or neglect and Traveller families who claim to be HE when neither parent is actually able to read or write. We get reports from local Police, youth services etc. that certain kids who are allegedly being HE are actually running riot in the local community, getting up to all sorts of antisocial behaviour. We also had a situation where a boy who was particularly bright, enjoyed school and was achieving well in every subject was pulled out by his Dad who claimed he was HE but we later discovered was using him as unpaid labour for his business. The poor boy ended up sustaining a potentially life changing injury while working illegally on a building site run by his Dad.
While these HE parents are undoubtedly in the minority, one child falling through the cracks is too many and their should be systems in place to protect them.

Completely agree MaisyPops

While these HE parents are undoubtedly in the minority, one child falling through the cracks is too many and their should be systems in place to protect them.

This happens in schools too though where these systems already exist.

As a home edder of 3+ years I don’t have a problem with registration or visits but then we are lucky in our LEA as they have a positive attitude about it.

Approval, well who is to say what is good enough.

And home ed can change over the years. We have only just introduced a lot of structured “book work” etc which is great but it doesn’t mean that the previous 3 years of doing much less were bad or not enough. It was essential to the recovery of my eldest’s mental health, and both the DCs developed a huge passion for various subjects (some of which they will be working ahead of their age for) even though they weren’t really being taught anything.

There are many ways to HE so I don’t think it would be fair to control it.

IStand,

Wherever children fall through the cracks, one child who does so is too many.

Just because the abuse of some schooled children is missed by school staff does not mean that we shouldn't try to detect abuse of home educated children as well, surely?

I mean, saying 'Some children are killed in car accidents when they are in cars' does not mean 'So we we shouldn't teach them about road safety when they are pedestrians' - why should the fact that school is not 100% failsafe as a method of detecting abuse stop us from trying our very best to detect and prevent abuse in children who are not in school?

Of course we should be spotting and preventing abuse in children but why is that being connected to their parents ability to teach? Those are separate things. Assessing a parent’s method of and ability to educate before allowing them to educate their child doesn’t spot abuse.

I'm currently at the point we're exploring options for DD2. I don't WANT to have to go down the home education route, but if the problems we've had at school continue (I've got faith in the school that now I've fired a fairly robust warning shot they will get things back in control fairly quickly) it's on our list of back up plans (about Plan D or E).

What else are you meant to do when you've got a child with SEN, the local academies are openly telling parents to go away elsewhere as they don't want any more SEN kids when you go for a school viewing and issues arise with a school not on the ball in terms of bullying/social exclusion/not catering for needs/just not being the right place? Mind you since I'm already having to do so bloody much work at home to make sure DD2 stays on track as school isn't meeting her requirements at present (bad bad luck in class teachers this year) - I'm propping up the bloody curriculum enough anyway!

One child falling through the cracks is too many but any monitoring system for HE has to take account account of the stress and damage that monitoring may course to vulnerable children who are petrified of being forced back in to school. Then weigh that up against the chance that monitoring will catch the child who is at risk of harm from HE.
Personally a monitoring visit for my family would be little more than an inconvenience, disrupting our routine. However many people I know have children who have had very negative experiences in school and having to meet someone from the LEA in a monitoring capacity would be hugely traumatic.I
While schools cause so much damage any monitoring of HE needs to tread carefully not to cause further damage.

IStand,

Which is why I am not seeking any 'approval' process related to ability to teach.

I am suggesting a registration process, which identifies all home educating families and, at a very broad brush level, identifies why they home educate (from conviction; cultural norm; SEN; bad experience at school etc etc)

HOWEVER, that said, at the ultimate extremes - e.g. a parent who cannot read and write at all - I would say that if a parent has no ability whatever to deliver education of any kind that is 'appropriate to a child's interests and aptitudes', then I would say that there is a question as to whether there is ANY reason (other than to cover up abuse or neglect) that home education can possibly have been chosen?

While schools cause so much damage any monitoring of HE needs to tread carefully not to cause further damage.

Exactly. i said above that a poorly-executed registration scheme could easily do more harm than good. I think monitoring of HE should be done by those who have specific HE experience, and also significant SEN expertise.

Ok so a registration process that identifies HE families and their reasons. And then what? What happens with that information? Does someone look at it and say “okay, that’s not a good enough reason- back to school with you little boy” or is it just collated as information to be stored somewhere and not to be acted on?

cantkeepawayforever
I do see you point. Unfortunately what we have at the moment is a system where there are lots of poorly-executed (and some good) monitoring schemes. The changes being proposed under Soley's bill and the recent consultation into new draft guidelines are giving further fire and credence to these bad schemes and what you have is an unsettled home education community.
I am not opposed to registration in principle, there are benefits to a well managed scheme brought in under consultation with home educators. The likelihood of that happening the way some LEAs currently treat home education is unfortunately very unlikely.

yanbu
I agree that there needs to be more monitoring of eduation. full stop.

current system is not ideal for some families.

he can work well, but to do it well is very expensive and definitly not an easy option.
my dc are in school, but we know a few he families with dc the same age.

DS2 is HE but attends internet school. He is 2e - intellectually 'gifted' and autistic. There is no local school that can meet his needs. I had to jump through hoops (tribunal appeal and SEN solicitors) to prove that I was not electively HE (no funding) but had to do this because of no suitable alternative. I took him out after year 5, he went to internet school and thrived but had to 'try' secondary with a f/t 1:1 ECHP. He lasted one term before being signed off by his GP.

The school is outstanding and the best in the county but were entirely focused on his autism (and what he struggled with) and ignored what he could do - couldn't use IT but had to write, couldn't have a scribe in maths lessons and do simultaneous equations but had to go back to simple addition and subtraction and learn to write for himself. Because he had to learn to pass for NT. At the base of it was not wanting to deliver support in his EHCP but wanting him to scrape by with no support. Because it is cost free.

He now has a personal budget to fund internet school because we can prove failure. This represents a saving for the LA but costs me financially and emotionally. This is not my choice. I had to give up my PhD to be an unpaid LSA. On the bright side he (at 12) is in year 10 classes for 10 iGCSEs and is back to thriving.

There is huge pressure put on parents of SN DC to HE because MS schools don't want them and the LA won't fund or don't have suitable alternative provision. As a parent it is very difficult not to blink first when the health and well being, and often actual survival, of your child is being gambled with.

I would like to see funding for the child for education that can be spent at independent, state school, internet school or elective HE with the same criteria for adequate progress the same for all settings. Atm only DC at state schools are funded but not all state schools provide an education that allows adequate progress for all DC.

IStyand,

I think it should be acted on in different ways, as I mentioned above:

• Information about SEN pupils being home educated in the absence of proper provision should be used to create the public scandal needed about the lack of SEN provision, to force political action.

• Information about pupils being withdrawn from individual schools due to bullying or lack of appropriate provision should be used to target and drive Ofsted inspections.

• Informatioon about communities who are using home education to maintain and preserve cultural norms should be used to target outreach education to these communities or make appropriate provision which meets the community's needs (e.g. sngle sex education in secondary would be acceptable for some Traveller families, but is rarely available so their girls are withdrawn from education altogether)

• All the information should be used to target precise monitoring. Rather than a blanket 'all HE families musty be visited X number of times', a proper registration procedure could be used to target resources and support on those families which are genuinely not, in any way, delivering the child's legal right to 'an education suitable for their interests and aptitudes' and working out another way in which that education can be delivered, whether in 'conventional' school, through outreach or otherwise.

What? You quizzed a parent on their choice to HE? Who are you that you feel it’s your place to do that? Do you quiz all the parents you know who send their children go school?
Who are you to that you feel it’s your place to write that at me?

How about I took the opportunity to try to learn about a subject I hadn’t come across before in real life? Or I was in a social situation that threw me together with this person and they were very keen to tell me all about how and why they HE? If they had asked me just as many questions about primary school, as they have never had a child in school, I would have happily chatted about my experiences. As it happened they didn’t bother.

Next time someone introduces themselves as a HE should I just ignore the topic and talk about myself? Generally I find asking people questions about themselves, especially when they’ve brought up an obvious topic to chat about, is a good way to to get to know them.

So for the uses you describe that would only require a simple one time form filling exercise stating your reasons for HEing. And then families left alone while LEAs use the information to improve schools (which the HE families aren’t using so they don’t need to be involved further). How does that identify families where no education is being provided? It doesn’t. that requires ongoing assessments, intrusion, and parents proving themselves to an authority.