To think that Home Educated children should be inspected every year?

[jennymanara]

I think home education can work. I know a fair number of parents who are home educating from some who teach their kids to those who are unschoolers.
But I also think there are parents who home educate who are not up to the job and claim to be unschooling, but are in fact just educationally neglecting their children.
There should be an annual inspection of all kids being home schooled. This should check that children are actually getting some form of education, and not just left for example to play minesweeper all day, as one single mother I knew did with her teenage son.

I HE my DD and have done for nearly two years (pulled her out in the third week of year 8, she is now heading into year 10).

I did allow the LEA to visit, but when asking the lady what qualifications she had, I found she had none!

She did one useful thing though and that was to point me in the direction of a college that has a 14-16 unit that is not too far away (an hour and a half by bus), that DD will be starting at in September. Since that one visit, I have not had any further contact. We have had no help or support.

I have largely stuck to curriculum based English and maths, with some biology thrown in. DD has made herself a dress, and a rabbit, so sewing too. She can now cook a range of meals and the family washing. She was behind when I pulled her out, but in the assessments for college they found her to be 'where she should be', so I feel we've done well.

No need for inspection here.
Also, she goes to Air Cadets and karate at least twice each a week, as well as a home ed meet up in a local indoor skate park. I don't honestly think we could decide to lock her in the attic and have nobody question it!

LOL to the idea that shutting kids behind school gates with 30 same age peers and a teacher is 'opening their eyes to the world'. I wonder how we became so brainwashed?

What is "under the radar"? Which "radar"?

Home education is the legal default. Parents are responsible to make sure their child receives an education. They can do it themselves, or let a school do it FOR THEM. Schools educate children ON BEHALF of the parents, not the other way round! Schools provide a service for those who want it.

About abuse.... yes of course it would be easier to hide and abuse a home educated child than a child that goes to school. But I don't know of any such cases in this country. All the cases I've heard of involve children were already "on the radar" and where concerns had been raised but not acted upon. The vast majority of school aged abused children do go to school.

The way you think LAs work is baffling and antagonistic. Really, they aren't having meetings planning how they're going to come and get you. They aren't ignoring other areas so they can attack home educators. We're generally a tickbox exercise at most.

I've home educated for 10 years, including kids with SEN. I can literally count the times I've experienced stigma on one hand - and I'm a disabled immigrant who fails the paper bag test and live with two other disabled adults so not exactly conventional. Pretty much everyone I talk to about it goes on about how great the idea is and someone they know that has done it. I have literally only had trouble from a few medical professionals who, not surprisingly, had a very status quo mindset.

I home educate because I think it's best for us, particularly for primary ages with the system as it is, and I fully 100% support registration. It would be great to go through the system like any other parent and just tick it off when my kids hit primary and secondary age & we could get relevant information. I support parents providing better evidence than a paper with 'philosophy of education' as has been the recommendation by HE group for years. It works in so many other countries around the world without destroying unschooling or other interest-led educations and it prevents the shock that I see all the time of parents having a kid hit their teens and realizing, fuck, there are massive gaps, where do we do now? Yeah, some do it great, but I've been around the block enough times to know that it ain't all sunshine and roses and if you think there is little to no evidence of it failing, you're either wearing blinders or not talking to enough people involved - families and those that pick up the pieces when things don't work.

We now have colleges plastering our broken system by providing home ed courses as early as Y9 to try to get them up to speed. Colleges don't expect home ed kids who go in for GCSEs or other Level 2 qualifications to get them the first time around either due to dropping out or low scores in ones that have to be re-sit or redone to move forward even when doing significantly fewer at an older age. I've been working with colleges on this, because I think home educated kids deserve access at the same age as their peers regardless of their parents ability to pay for exams, and while some go in as the expected level, many don't and I've been told directly that many colleges set it up expecting HE kids to need to resit because that is their experience even with kids only doing 2-5 courses. In my local schools where it's expected that most kids will need to resit to progress - we call that shite and the system being broken. Same is true when it's home educated kids. They don't deserve less or to have that brushed under the carpet as not evidence of something going wrong.

Much like with golden schools being held up when we all know there are shite ones, for every home educated child the community holds up, we have far too many being let down. The system is not working, the system is lazy 'I'm alright Jack' until it's not and then there is panic. I've seen it frequently, the very people who go on and on about how great things are are most often the ones loudest when reality doesn't end up matching. If we followed the model of other countries that manage to have a large unschooling community like the UK does and regular evidence being required - testing, portfolio review, reports - we may have fewer parents and teens caught out and have smaller holes to dig out of when needing to transition out of HE. I'm not saying everyone should educate as I do with kids doing quadratic equations and binary maths which my oldest loves, but the system is not working - for schools or home educated kids - if colleges end up with teens who don't remember to capitalize sentences.

Smile

All the cases that have come to light in the past have never been stopped by a teacher taking action.
One little boy attended school all day and wasn't identified as starving, irrespective of eating sand and looking emaciated.
Teachers aren't employed or experienced enough, they aren't social workers.
i don't think it's the job of a teacher, obviously report if suspicious, but it doesn't happen.

All the cases that have come to light in the past have never been stopped by a teacher taking action

Um. Ok.

I’m the safeguarding lead at a large inner city school and I can confidently say that many, many children have been safeguarded because of school staff taking action.

I don’t know what you mean by “all the cases”?

@BiBabbles I remember someone on MN commenting who runs courses in colleges saying that frequently they get HE teenagers with parents applying for courses, the college does an assessment of the teenagers abilities, and the teenagers and parents are usually shocked at the results of the assessment and recommendations for suitable courses.

Smile

Of course, I don't dispute this. I've had my own experience of ss referrals from school and the safeguard made the right call, even though there was nothing for us to worry about.

However, it can't be argued that school is essential to guard against abuse because so many kids aren't picked up at school.

However, it can't be argued that school is essential to guard against abuse because so many kids aren't picked up at school

But many, many are - so for those children school is an essential part of the safeguarding system. It’s by no means perfect, and there is good and bad practice as with anything (including home schooling) - but I think you are wrong to say schools aren’t an essential first line safeguarding defence. I make dozens of referrals. I have escalated many, many children through to CP plans. I’ve been part of legal proceedings in two very, very tragic cases where children had to be removed. Schools absolutely are essential- we see children every day and are therefore in a unique position in terms of keeping them safe.

So for those of you supporting registration and monitoring of law abiding families based on no grounds for suspicion let’s flip things around.

You as parents are legally responsible for your children’s education. Say your kids don’t do well at the SATs; or your oldest child doesn’t do well at GCSE; or one of your children gets a poor school report one year. Maybe your child attends a school in special measures or is rated inadequate.

Would you support the Education Welfare Team having the right (and being expected to) to show up at your house unannounced multiple times per year. Maybe with the police or Social Services. They have the right to inspect your home and interview your kids preferably in private. They have the right to deregister your child from your chosen school and re-register them at a different school without your consent that you cannot reverse. They have the right to demand to see your own educational qualifications and test your reading, writing, maths or anything else that springs to mind on the spot. They demand access to your medical records and that of your children to see if you are looking after them correctly. You have no right to appeal any of these decisions or demands except to defy their instructions and face criminal prosecution.

That is what you support being imposed on the Home Ed community except slightly worse in that in my above example at least the LA would have some kind of grounds to investigate you. If you have nothing to hide them you have nothing to fear after all...

If you were going to do mandatory check for he. Then wouldn't you want to do mandatory checks for 0-5 year olds as well?

Everyone up for that? Um no.

Smile

As I say, I was grateful to the safeguarding body at one of my dc school, I'll even go as far as to say some of the issues we hadn't picked up ourselves as happened at school.
However, it's wrong to assume there is a need for monitoring in the H.ed community anymore than kids on summer holiday, there's no safeguarding of schooled children then, so they too should be inspected if H.ed parents are to be, surely.

However, it's wrong to assume there is a need for monitoring in the H.ed community anymore than kids on summer holiday, there's no safeguarding of schooled children then, so they too should be inspected if H.ed parents are to be, surely

Except children who are on holiday do eventually go back to school and then they are monitored - I said upthread that there is a spike in CP referrals either side of the holiday.

For the most vulnerable, it is very often part of a CP plan that other agencies are engaged with over the summer break specifically because children won’t have the regular check ins at school.

You’re just wrong about this. My only issue with HE is that I have seen children be withdrawn from school specifically because parents wanted to avoid an escalation of concerns. I’ve also been involved as a tutor with highly successful HE programs.

This thread is just sad.
@Minky3 it's falling on deaf ears.

@Yachiru

Yeah I can see many people have their blinkers on here. I guess we will just have to embrace our role as a persecuted minority and behave appropriately.

I think most people are blindly trusting of authority until they attempt anything legal but out of the ordinary and are then surprised at how badly they get treated.

I actually read your post s out to dh (he HATES mumsnet, so he was sceptical) but he thinks what you said is great.
Also mentioned that people will take it very personally as they perceive it as an attack on their own way of living. Anything out of the box makes them feel very insecure.

Minky

Your passion and commitment is admirable.

You’re probably in a better position to answer than me (haven’t worked with HE families for 15 years or so) - how would you mitigate the risk of parents/carers choosing HE as a way of preventing the escalation of safeguarding concerns? If monitoring of HE generally isn’t the answer, what would be appropriate?

I’m a home educator, and I have a couple of problems with this.

Firstly around the idea of registration; currently the only other group asked to register in this way are convicted sex offenders. It’s not really a pleasant comparison is it? And historically, asking minority groups to register with the government has never ended well, however benignly it started.

Secondly, who will be doing the inspections? What will their qualifications and experience be? If parents are home educating because school and the LEA failed them, how can they be the same ones providing a fair, unbiased assessment? My ds2 was horribly bullied at school, and his dyslexia and other needs were missed. He was ‘behind’ when I withdrew him, and is maybe ‘behind’ still in some subjects, albeit less so. So who would the inspector blame his problems on? (Also if you’re comparing to the ‘average’ child, then there will always be some above and some below, it’s how averages work!)

I’m not saying all home edders do a great job, but there is provision in the current law to deal with that, we don’t need new ones.

@Yachiru yes parents do take it very personally if they perceive criticism of their HE. Which is why the post about HE parents being critical friends to each other is totally inaccurate.

you may be right.

I HE and attend lots of groups with other HE children, I have NEVER met a HEer who wasn’t concerned about child abuse and neglect. We do talk about this stuff. Like other Mums/Dads at the school gates we see each other and possibly see each other more in whole family groups. Do you not think if I saw a child and was concerned I wouldn’t act? Just as a teacher or parent might? We’re not unusual parents/people we’ve just made unusual choices. Most of the HE children I know have additional needs. Of those ASD and/or anxiety are the majority. I really question how monitoring is going to help.

Do you not think if I saw a child and was concerned I wouldn’t act?

Of course. But what about the children that very few, if any people see? The ones that don't go to school, but also don't go to clubs or HE groups.

“The ones that don't go to school, but also don't go to clubs or HE groups.”
So aren’t being Home Educated?

So aren’t being Home Educated?

Of course they're being home educated, you don't need to attend clubs or groups when home educating.

@SmileEachDay

I would certainly lay off formalising data sharing across government bodies. Much like the hostile environment for immigrants if GP’s and Hospitals become known as blanket data sharers with the LA to flush out all HE children then abusive HE’ers would simply not take their kids to such professionals in order to stay under the radar.

GP’s and hospitals have their own independent safeguarding procedures that stand a better chance of catching physical abuse if LA’s don’t turn them into a giant net to detect Home Education.

Meanwhile what LAs and the anti Home Ed lobby tend to completely ignore is using carrots instead of/as well as sticks. Many LA’s have such a terrible relationship with some HE communities because they want a one way street relationship where HE’ers do as they are told and the LA gets what it wants.

LA’s can help their HE communities so much if they wanted to. Support with securing exam centres; discounts for various museums or services such as those provided to schools; funding towards exams for families on low incomes; access to LA premesis for Home Ed clubs/groups.

There are any number of such ways that actually give a positive reason for HE families to make themselves known to the LA and to even if subtly put HE kids in the LA’s sight for a light touch safeguarding check. Say for example the LA EHE co-ordinator arranges a free tour of a normally fee paying museum on behalf of local registered HE kids. The officer is there at the start of the day to confirm attendance and welcome the families to the event, provide an opportunity to ask questions of them and share other useful info.

The officer gets to have seen and perhaps interacted with a number of HE kids, they have more people on a voluntary register as there are positive reasons to engage and the relationship in general in the community is likely less acrimonious.

The exclusive focus of LA’s and register proponents on mandatory registers and the use of punishment and enforcement shows that money is a significant part of their thinking. If they were willing to spend some they could achieve more of their goals whilst actually helping HE kids to receive more educational opportunities.