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.

My point was that an inspected safeguarded state school HAD all the things you were suggesting and yet failed to perform. Why would it work in the HE community?

There are issues/risks with a small minority. What do you mean Loopytiles? Are ,minority groups more at risks. Or do you mean that a minority of HE children are at risk? If so, how do you know?

I think “the small minority” are the horrors that abuse children. If you are looking for them, I think there are quite a few with children in school and a fair number who work in school, so why the HE ones particularly?

Why do you assume unschooling equates to educational neglect - do you understanding unschooling? Do you have any experience of it?

Define what you see as acceptable 'education'? The education schools offer - including those failing schools, those schools that fail their SEN children, schools that damage children emotionally and mentally.

How do you know the teenager played games all day - you were there? All day everyday and witnessed this?

What experience do you have surrounding home education and the wide diverse community?

So you think HE should be monitored? How? By whom? By what standard?

Are you willing to be checked during the holidays when your children aren't at school to make sure you aren't 'educationally neglecting them'? Perhaps your children are under 5 (under CSA) - who checks those children? Perhaps social services should monitor ALL schooled children during the holidays and weekends and evenings to make sure they aren't being neglected.
Because you hve been shopping today (and maybe someone in the same aisle was shoplifting or perhaps someone on your street does) should you be subjected to random checks because hey lets face it one shoplifter that you know might make EVERYone a shoplifter

Yes you are being unreasonable

So I take it all kids in schools achieve the academic standards then? Didn’t think so... il fund it if all school attending kids pay me back my taxes for their kids education!

This all smacks of profiling...like stop and search...only targeting the group that has lower than average crime rates instead of targeting the group with higher than average crime rates....

I haven't read the whole thread but I do think there needs to be some form of check if only to protect the most vulnerable. Yes schools aren't perfect either but at least they present an opportunity.

We have had two families leave our school after they were flagged for child protection issues. They subsequently left the school and are now homeschooling. I know that one in particular gets no education at all. He is left to his own devices and plays computer games all day (my ds was friends with his dbro before they left completely).
I also know families who are doing an awesome job homeschooling their dc. I think they would welcome an "inspection" as they have nothing to hide.

I think they would welcome an "inspection" as they have nothing to hide. seriously? Do you volunteer for random inspections because you have nothing to hide???

Im confused
If the concern is about "invisible" children
Then that's not the same as a concern about home educated children.

Just like most schooled children will go to GP, dentist, optician, friends, clubs etc so will most home ed kids.

So why then would the solution be an annual visit for home educated families? How would that prevent abuse or help abuse being recognised? We all know its easy to cover up abuse.

If the concern is no professionals are seeig children then wouldn't the solution be to ensure a professional has seen the child?

We already have a list of children, through birth registry and visas etc, we can just check which of those children hasn't been seen by a GP, optician, dentist, club leader , tutor etc in the past year.
This would just involve a letter to ask what professionals the child has seen and confirmation of that visit.

Why would it involve unqualified non professionals visiting?

Thats like having a random person turn up at a school once a year to check if there's any safegaurding concerns the teachers have missed and expect to spot them in an hour.

@dontbest

Report the family then. It astounds me all these people who say ‘I know that so and so isn’t providing an education.’

‘Oh really? Have you reported them so the LA can use its existing powers to follow up?’

‘Ahhh no...I don’t want to make a fuss... and I’d just rather advocate spending tens/hundreds of thousands in council tax blanket bombing the entire HE community with flawed inspections under the premise of guilty until proven innocent thanks.’ (I know you have not said this; it’s an exaggeration)

If schooled kids are suspected of neglect and are withdrawn from school the school can still inform Social Services and the kids will be known to the LA regardless. Hell some schools as a matter of policy report all kids deregistered from them to HE to SS.

And leaving the school due to safgaurding concerns is also objective.

3 of my kids left the school after the school raised safegaurding concerns.

There was a meeting between the social worker, my husband and the school. Thankfully the social worker was on our side, and in that meeting managed to uncover things the school were misrepresenting or were saying that were a concern but werent.
For example they said my son came to school with no jacket (reception). However 4 jackets were found in lost property. In fact he was coming to school with jackets but being sent home with childminder with no jackets by the school. They said my daughters eczema wasn't being treated, and this was causing her to be bullied, where as in fact it was the school who were supposed to let her use the cream that weren't, and so on. In fact after a few weeks of home ed my daughters eczema cleared up totally. It was the stress of school that caused it.

Anyway after this meeting we took all 3 children out of school because we didn't trust the school.
The school phoned social services and the social services manager spoke to them and said that is their right to do so, we have no concerns.

One of our children wanted to go back to school so we sent her to a different local school. The other 2 we home educated for a few years. The oldest we needes to focus on her esteem, and confidence. At 8 years old while at school she was depressed. She used to say things like she hates her life and she wanted to die.
So the education we did with her wasn't academic. It was building self esteem and confidence. How would a LA bod measure this? But this is what was needed for my child.

She is now in year 7, exceeding expectations for every subject except French and in the running for student of the year and prefect.

If she wasn't left alone for that time things would be different.

"I think they would welcome an "inspection" as they have nothing to hide."

Unless of course they have a history of being poorly treated by officials. Maybe they've experienced racism by such people in the past, or been falsely profiled in some other way. For someone with that sort of experience, an inspection would be very stressful.

As others have said, would you welcome an inspection of your children every holiday? I'm sure you have nothing to hide, so why not?

This is such a tricky issue, because everyone in the discussion is polarised, depending on their own experience.

"I think they would welcome an "inspection" as they have nothing to hide."

I wouldn’t welcome an inspection, tyvm. And we’ve no poor (or otherwise) experience with schools/officialdom. I’ll submit to inspection when compelled to.

"I don't mind you coming into my home, chatting to my kids, looking through their work, my planning, and my fridge. No problems, I've got nothing to hide! Oh, just a sec, can I see you r CRB? Oh, and your medical records, just in case you have a PD with violent, unpredictable tendencies, because we wanna keep the kids safe right (laughs). Do you mind if I ask if you've had any addictions? Just to make sure, I mean, you wouldn't just let anyone in your home when you've got kids in there. You understand right? Because this is the on ly time I've met you, this check weren't arranged, and I don't know you from Adam. RIght Ms LEA representative? "

Imagine how "unacceptable" this conversation would be.

I'd actually prefer the police to be there. this could open up another safeguarding issue! How do I know these people are real LA?! They could be secret godknowswhats with devious intent! they could be planning a burglary in my home! Do they have ID? Can I chdck it against a driving license, because it could be forge d!

Sorry i think my wording may have been clumsy. I don't mean inspection in the sense of Ofsted or anything similar.
How would a LA bod measure this? But this is what was needed for my child
I don't think anyone should be measuring anything but just checking that those children who are vulnerable to slipping through the net have the potential to get noticed by someone.

I also didn't realize that you could report to the LA, this is something I'll look into as I do have real concerns about the boy who's brother was friends with my ds. Some of the things he told me were heartbreaking. I reported to the safeguarding lead at the school but they left shortly afterwards.

I am not suggesting an OFSTED type regime. Just a visit to meet the kids, check that their education has actually progressed since the last year, and ask the parent about the type of education being provided.

We have Home Ed for the last three years due to lack of SEN support. We were definitely inspected and had to provide a thorough educational report yearly.

Don't mind submitting reports, showing examples of work, have it o n hand for if, or when as may be more appropriate now, the state comes a knocking.
I'm not letting some random in my home, that wants to "check" my kids, and maybe "talk t o them in private" . Would you let Tom, Dick or Sally from the next town over do it? Bugger off, you wouldn 't.

How can you not realise* that you can report to the LA. Surely you know that the LA runs schools ? Then it wouldn't he difficult to just phone them up and ask if you can report a concern rather than just ignoring it. Have you raised your concerns with the parents?

Nobody on this thread that wants inspections is able to say how these inspector s would check up on children and what the criteria for "passing" would be. Would they check over their bodies for bruises, speak to them in private, listen to them read?

Oh, I'm not sure if y'all have seen it or heard it, but the register debate was on the victoria derbyshire show today. Its on bbc iplayer if youre interested.

I’m laughing at the thought of some one trying to do any of these Would they check over their bodies for bruises, speak to them in private, listen to them read? with my child. The first would get a flat refusal, the second require a fairly senior speech and language therapist to get any useful information and the third ... well the special school he was at for a year suggested he have as a target “sound out words” despite him having read some ten plus years earlier, but yeah it’s a stunning idea. But it’s not about his education is it? If it was about his education we’d be talking about funding for gcse entrance, or sharing of facilities, or access to resources.....it’s not about that is it?

This is purely about the idea that a parent who doesn’t send their child to school is more likely to be abusing them.

Oh yes...the wonderful idea to send some untrainered random person to interview a child on their own with no advocate, no person their to represent the childs interests...nothing. Just an untrained stranger in a room with your child asking them....well who knows....whatever pops into their head? And the main reason we are HE in the first place? Because our child has anxiety issues and still struggles to interact with strangers even when her care givers are right there supporting her....

Its this, explicitly, we would move county to avoid.

Itwouldtake - i hear you. On that victori a thin g today, the HE mom was asked what they do everyday. She said stuff like skating, forest school, parkour, some really awesome stuff. Tha s all blindsided and she was asked "yeah, but, do you do maths and English?"
I take it as an indicator of what is seen as an education. And what will be judged. Maths and English. And then it will be "oh, you do?! So Billybob is 8, hmmm lemme see where he should be at pulls out NC norms so Billybob, I assume you know wha t a suffix blah blah blah is..."