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.

Anyone whose kid is playing minesweeper in 2019 needs some kind of intervention

Authorities can already force parents to send their child to school if they find that they are not giving their child a suitable education. No need for a new law.
Those of you who know people who aren't educating their home educated children, have you done anything about it? Have you reported them? Do you actually know what education those children are receiving, or are you making assumptions?

It's from FoI requests to 132 LAs in England. Referrals to SS re HE children were found to be 3.5-5 times less likely to lead to a Child Protection Plan than referrals of schooled children, despite being approx twice as likely to be referred to SS.

Assuming that’s true (usually there would be a link to a source) that doesn’t mean they are less likely to be abused. As has already been said, if a family don’t engage, or lies to SS, there isn’t anything they can do. It’s just as likely the reason school referrals lead to a Plan, is because there are so many people involved, there is more evidence, it isn’t just the word of family.

All children should be fed a healthy balanced diet. Some kids don't get fed properly, and some are even starved to death.

Poor example. Education is mandatory, feeding healthy food is not. I actually don’t understand why they insist kids go to school, pick on families who have poor attendance, and yet one can simply say they are homeschooling and no questions are asked.

'Quadratic equations is basic maths which is used a lot'
Maybe in your job but otherwise that's nonsense.
Any body with genuine concerns about how a HE child is being educated should express those concerns appropriately rather than speculating, gossiping or starting threads that the whole system needs revamping.
Put your money where your mouth is and all that.

@PianoPiano Report them to who? They are not being abused so SS would not be interested. There is no one to report them to.

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit Not sure you understand what quadratic equations are. I do not do a maths based job. I however calculate what goods should be sold at to generate a profit. To do this properly you use quadratic equations. The link explains everyday situations in which they are used.

www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/quadratic-equation-real-world.html

@yabbers I suspect a lot of those reports to SS will be for educational neglect. But SS will do nothing about this, it really is not part of their remit. So kids can be having zero education, someone concerned does a SS report, they investigate - and no action.

I know a parent who is home schooling her teenager but she is woefully unprepared for this and not providing what he needs. From photos she posts on FB he is doing workbooks and nothing else and then goes on his xbox - she took him out of school because the school were not providing an adequate education for him. He doesn't have any special needs.

YANBU at all. My friend homeschools and she does have to send evidence to someone from the council once a year to prove she’s still educating her DD but that’s because she removed her DD from school. If you never send them to school from the off, nobody ever asks. I find it bizarre quite frankly, there must be some children slipping through the net never having any kind of education which is shocking in 21st century Britain.

I’m not generalising though, most home educators are absolutely fantastic as my friend is. I just do think it’s too easy for some poor children to end up with no education at all.

@TwistyTop

All children are already registered (birth certs) and already under social services equally. If there are concerns, SS is there to get involved regardless of education method.

I think some posters are incredibly naive about the efficacy of an annual visit. It is very easy to tidy up your house and put on a front for an announced home visit (we have had numerous visits from social services and the LEA home education officer) especially given the high turnover of particularly social services staff. Not that we do attempt to hide stuff but just it would be very easy to do so. I am not sure what the answer is but just think annual visits would not really be a very effective means in identifying children at risk. I also think there is only any point of any assessment system if there is a clear strategy for what happens if a family is judged to be failing.

@howslow You are wrong. Legally social services have a statutory obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children and adults. They have no statutory role for educational outcomes. If you are HE your 5 year old and leaving them home alone all day while you work, then they have a legal duty to intervene. If you think you are unschooling and let your teenager play computer games all day every day and claim this is educational, they have no legal duty to intervene.

Jenny - how would you change things? If you had infinite power and resources, how would you solve the issue?

I dont think theres much wrong with unschooling and computer games; i think it's correct we have choice as parents.

Unschooling as an educational philosophy is fine and very parent intensive. Playing computer games all day is not unschooling.

@Yachiru I am not sure. I actually agree an annual visit is not enough. But HE communities campaign so hard against any oversight that even getting a register of all parents HE will be a major victory.

And can we not first do something about the massive numbers of children that are failed by the school system? That is a much bigger and more serious problem.

But home educators are such an easy target.

@MadamHattie it was on you as the parent to ensure he was at least learning the national curriculum. And it was on you as the parent to ensure this was assessed. It's not hard to use the internet to download past papers and answers or even assess your kids understanding. You don't need a pgce for that generally confused did you expect the council to provide assessments for you? Because you only have to contact them and you would've been given a wealth of information.

Wow, this post is so wrong, so full of misinformation and untruths. I think people need to get educated on home education. Also on the horribly failing school system. Its great if your dc fits into the box but as soon as that doesn't happen you are in trouble.

Gaming develops problem solving
Anyone taking a brief snapshot of my home at the weekend would probably believe my kid spends all of her time playing a computer game. Little do they know she's working on an emulator mwahaha.

jennymanara to your local authority. Most of them have a Elective Home Education Team and if they don't there will be someone in the Education Department to talk to.

summerofladybird how do you know what he is learning? Do you think he only learns from the workbooks your friend is posting on Facebook? Don't lots of schooled children go on their x-box when they've finished their work for the day?

Because she posts pictures daily of what he is learning and yes, it's only from the workbooks.

No filter, yes yes!
Jenny - it would be a victory depending on where you sit lol. Referring back to my original post, I don't have a problem with a register if it's used in the way it is 'sold' as. I think there are easier ways of doing it though, especially in the case of offrolling.
If you're fortunate to have never had problems with the education institute (personally and with your kids), a register/check ups/surveillance is a no-brainer. I think some people don't understand, and it's not because they're arseholes or ignorant, that a lot of parents feel they have no option in he, and have been let down time and time again by professionals that claim to care but don't. That have zero interest in try ing to understand the family as they are so blinkered they can't see past their own experience or belief. So the thought of having someone 'monitor' me when they have let m y kids down before gets my hackles up.
If it could be guaranteed that LA or whoever can view things from an unbiased perspective the n ok. A previous poster said it's 'us against them', and that's probably true in a lot of cases.
It's a hard one, no idea how it'll play out.

I have been home educating mine for 4.5 years now and I agree with you OP.

Our LEA is very positive about unschooling too (we are fairly structured ourselves)