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’m shocked that this isn’t already done actually.

Children learn every single day. Mostly children who are educated at home have opportunities to really push their minds and explore the world, they can develop their own talents instead of being stifled by a school system that wishes to produce robot workers.

The problem is where is the line drawn? There are bad schools, appalling teachers and terrible social workers. I'd love for someone to work out the percentages actually between how many bad "professionals" there are versus how many bad home educators there are.

Education should provide the child with all skills they need to live in the community in which they live, I'm not talking commune on a Scottish island but community meaning, for example, English farming families. Do I believe schools do that? Absolutely not.

Assuming that good professionals can come and assess children, how would you attempt to regulate the assessment? Will it become like the PIP assessment process where if the exact keywords aren't use the obtuse assessors go "computer says no"? How will someone assess more holistic skills that don't have a progression for learning?

The home education community is certainly growing but is still a tiny minority of people from among the population. How much will these assessments cost? £1 million? £10 million? Wouldn't that be better spent on schools themselves that have an impact on average of 1,000 students? Those same skills that have just dropped the requirement of maths and English testing for new teacher training because too many were failing basic tasks and having to quit the course.

Those same skills that have just dropped the requirement of maths and English testing for new teacher training because too many were failing basic tasks and having to quit the course.

Is that the reason? I thought it was to try and get more people into teaching, since there's a teacher shortage.

Children at school are already assessed. You may not agree with the form of those assessments or what they are assessing, but they are certainly assessed. Schools are already assessed. HE children and their parents have no legally mandated oversight. They don't even have to register with the local authority so they know they exist and are HE.

@Annie Education in communities is the parents responsibility. It is not up to the state to educate me about what it means to be brought up with my complex heritage and background.
You mention farming communities specifically. Most people move out of their geographical communities as they get older. Part of my family are farmers and their children learnt all about farming on a daily basis. Not the responsibility of the school to do that, although the local primary school did do project based work that was based on farming.
Children need to be equipped to make their own choices in life. Hundreds of years ago children were raised to do the job their mum or dad did. Now days that is no longer good enough. Children need to be able to choose their own path.

YABU but mainly because how are you going to evaluate the of the homeschooling?
Some children with SEN won’t progress at the same rate. Parents might not follow the ‘program’ and let the children guide them according to their interests.

Is it to the interest of the child to learn according to the curriculum or the way Ofsted says it’s better (remembering often the reasons parents chose homeschooling is because school didn’t work)?

I can see WHY you would think it’s a good idea. I just can’t see. HOW you would do it wo imposing standards homeschoolers want to get out of, with good reasons.

This is a really tricky question as I'm both for and against it.
Firstly, one poster said that the LA should have a notification of every HE child; this is already the case. Whether you've always been HE or not, the LA are informed.

I absolutely agree that there are a lot of children that are being 'home educated' (term used lightly), for purposes other than HE. Their kids may or may not be better off in school, but either way, something should be set in place to make sure the kiddos are safe, and learning.

I think if a register could be set in place where a yearly check is done in cooperation with the family, then great. If personal prejudices are put aside, and the LA can look past the 'alternative' type of 'schooling' then great. However, there is the fear that a register could be come intrusive, and slowly HE kids and their families could be pushed/encouraged into a system they really don't want to be in, ie following a strict curriculum or put back into school.

HE isn t the easy option. It's not chosen lightly or because its 'cool'. Most parent's are passionate about HE, and their kids ' happiness and their future s. just like all parents right?having a governing body come round to check your kids are being taught is a bit like social services coming round to make sure you're not abusing your children. Kinda insulting?

I m a former teacher. I left the profession because i LOATHED it. the curriculum is garbage, teacher's have no support, no funding, it's a failing system. I lost count of the amount of times I saw colleagues sitting in their cars/toilet cubicles crying at break times. And this was in primary schools.

I took my kids out of school to protect my kids from school as they were simply not safe. On top of being in an environment that was incredibly dangerous, unsurprisingly, my kids weren't learning. Both went from the most vivacious, fun, inquisitive, life-loving kids to nervous wrecks who were scared of their own shadows.
they're now the definition of thriving.

I get how a register is important for vulnerable kiddos, and yet intrusive for those of us who are nailing it. But please, please, don't tar all HE with the same brush.

I hear you, but the problem is, who would do the inspecting? Local council officials simply aren’t up to the job and have a tendency to get power trippy and over officious, for example they turn up without an appointment and demand instant entrance to the home and access to the child is a very intrusive and intimidating fashion. They say things like “why don’t you have a blackboard?” (actual quote). In the 1980s councils used to try to inspect home educating families and did an appalling job, often dragging children into court - yes court - and eg testing on the stand if they could spell, which was obviously traumatic for the kids, the councils always seemed to lose the cases but kept insisting on bringing them. Yes there are some families who do a poor job of home education, but there are also some terrible schools. As home education takes a very different approach to school education, and varies widely in approach, the only competent way to inspect it would be to have inspectors who are experts in all forms of home education, and the government would never fund that many new specialists. (Imagine the training, they’d have to shadow dozens of home educating families just to learn about it, and where they find families who are prepared to accept that level of intrusion?) Ifyou don’t do that and eg have Ofsted trying to assess home education then it is like having Spanish teachers inspect a French lesson, they’re not qualified to assess what’s happening.

YANBU - however inspection should not be under the same umbrella as early years or social services.
I homeschooled my twins from 4 to 14. They are now 17, and at college.
We were subject to an annual inspection from the LEA home education team. They would expect to see where your child worked, evidence of work done and marked, photos or practical evidence of cooking, science, gardening etc. Evidence of social interaction i.e. sports / dance lass, brownies / cubs, if it was a music based thing they might ask for a demonstration. They also liked to see evidence of planning, resources used, how you structured your days etc.

You did have the right to refuse them access to the house and submit evidence but generally that would be seen as you hiding something and action would be taken.

However you are right, some people homeschool without a clue and are neglecting their child's education. I quite enjoyed the visits - the inspectors always had a book of new resources you could apply for and were generally positive

@yachiri There is no register of all HE children. The Government has a proposal to make this a legal requirement and some in the HE community are fighting this tooth and nail. If you withdraw your child from school to HE them, then you need to inform the local authority, otherwise your child is legally truant. But plenty of parents move from one local authority to another at some time, there is no legal responsibility to inform the new local authority that they are HE.

Given that statistically home educated children are at lower risk of abuse than schooled children, despite being disproportionately scrutinised (they are approx twice as likely to be referred to SS but many times less likely to actually have action needed by SS), it's illogical to focus on them when trying to safeguard children, the resources should be better targeted.

Academically, although there haven't been many studies done recently, those that have been show home educated children achieve at least as well as schooled children, and grow into well rounded and successful adults. It's wasteful to target a group that is doing perfectly well when there are so many schools out there struggling from lack of funding - you'd have a greater effect on a school of thousands than on lots of individual home ed children. Or improve support for SN in schools - many children are HE because schools are often dire at properly adapting for SN, or even at a basic level keeping them safe.

If you monitor something, you affect it. You would find HE parents teaching to the requirements of the inspectors rather than to the needs and aptitudes of their children, and for many children having officials come into their home to inspect (and with the threat that they may send them back to school, which for many children was a place of torture) would be very distressing.

The law as it stands it fine - if a LA has reason to believe that a child isn't receiving an education suitable to their age, ability, aptitude, and any SN, they investigate. The same as if SS hear someone isn't feeding their child they investigate - they don't do 6 monthly fridge and meal plan checks on all families, they assume a parent is innocent of neglect unless they have reason to believe otherwise. Same for education - the government must assume a parent is meeting their legal responsibilities unless they have reason to believe otherwise.

@Mycatwontstopstaring well said

I am saying that HE can be done well or done spectacularly badly

State education can be done well or done spectacularly badly.

Schools aren’t inspected every year.

gah
this is a safeguarding matter
yes schools fail many kids and there are good reasons to HE and many families do an excellent job
but a child who is HE is extremely vulnerable and should be seen at least annualy, otherwise anything could happen to them and they would have nowhere to go for help
it pisses me off that some parents think because they are so lovely, child centred creative or whatever they can exempt themselves or undermine a system which should be in place to protect ALL children. It's like the people who want to volunteer at Brownies/Sunday School but feel insulted by needing a DBS check.

I think SS should spot check people’s fridges to combat the obesity crisis and find children subjected to poor diets throughout their childhood.

You ok with that? Or is a home visit for your child suddenly intrusive. Kids are sadly neglected for a range of reasons and school as proved time and time again not to protect children in many case studies. Years on for example I still feel choked up to think of ooor Daniel Pelka and the life he had. We need to just use effectively the services we have, find them to follow up known cases and train a wide range of people who interact with children.

Anecdotally I see more low level neglect outside the home education families, who are largely highly invested in their children’s lives and often make the choices they are able to do as they are not living in poverty. Being serious their are children locally that spot checks on would lead to some very very sad stories being found among children in school. I’ve been to my son’s friends houses and been shocked at some of the living conditions I’ve seen.

@jennymanara i could be wrong, I often am.

If you deregister a child from school, you can leave it up to the school to inform them. Whhether they do or not is down to the school, and the parent's cannot be held responsible providing they have proof they've sent a letter of dereg'. I believe that if your child is to be HE straight away, you 're supposed to inform LA at school age of your intentions.

Many agencies involved in child protection now want there to be more powers to inspect home educators. This is because 'home education' can be used as a cover for serious abuse or neglect. This is not an attack on genuine home edders. It's trying to protect very vulnerable children who may have no contact with anyone outside their home.

Given that statistically home educated children are at lower risk of abuse than schooled children, despite being disproportionately scrutinised (they are approx twice as likely to be referred to SS but many times less likely to actually have action needed by SS)

That is fascinating- where is that data from?

I also don't understand how a child educated at home is more vulnerable. Dooes that mean that in the six week summer holidays, when kids at predominantly at home, they are more 'at risk'?

I DID play minesweeper for hours back in the day...

I also don't understand how a child educated at home is more vulnerable. Dooes that mean that in the six week summer holidays, when kids at predominantly at home, they are more 'at risk'

Yep - there is inevitably an absolute tide of safeguarding referrals in the last 2 weeks of term 6, then in the first term a massive mop up of all the stuff that happened over the hols - happens either side of all holidays but summer is the biggie.

Damn, I guess year-round boarding schools it is then!

You are not being unreasonable, and I speak as someone who has two children who are home educating their children. I believe that the children are benefitting from home education, and anyone having a short conversation with these children, who are engaged, sociable, and intelligent, would soon realise that while their parents do not sit them down for formal lessons, their holistic approach to education is working well.

They are potentially more vulnerable because they aren't regularly being seen by outside agencies.

Schools are part of the system to notice if there is child neglect / physical harm. ie They notice the dirty child, the child with no coat, the child with unexplained bruises etc.

For children the LA doesn't know about because they never even start in a school setting, and maybe also don't visit a doctor etc, there is no visibility.

So they aren't more vulnerable because they are HE, but people who don't care / wilfully mistreat could go under the radar easily by HE.

what has it got to do with anything that she was a single mum

How would inspectors assess that education is occurring?