to think home ed families are going to have to accept more oversight?

[DrZaraCarmichael]

To try to prevent more cases like Sara Sharif. Taken out of school - where teachers were raising concerns - and then apparently fell off the radar.

Yes children's services have to look long and hard at themselves but taking a child out of school, especially when there has been previous SS involvement, has to raise a whole field of red flags surely??

I can see how families who are home educating for the right reasons and who have nothing to hide will see this as intrusive and unnecessary. But something has to change, right?

Exactly this. It is an unbelievable situation where children can be taken out of education and that parents, who may not have the best intentions, qualifications, state of mind, time or even best judgement csn then affect so much of a child's life and outcomes. Oversight, investigation and accountability is needed. Likewise, some parents homeschool well and shoukd receive support and care. It really is crazy that a child can, effectively, disappear from education.

And there are already powers the government can and presumably does use to shut down such illegal schools. Setting up a school involves industrial quantities of red tape so these 'schools' will be breaking all kinds of law.

But I also take your point.

I'm not denying that some forms of HE are indoctrination, and a tiny fraction of HE situations do put children in harm's way - but the vast majority of parents are doing a good job. In many cases a much better job than some schools.

Rates of illiteracy and basic exam fails (1/3 of all children) show that our current education system doesn't work well for many YP. Not to mention chronic and growing SEND failings, massive underfunding, serious behavioural issues and a huge mental health crisis.

Yes they do. The girl who told me she was being sexually abused by her father saw my home education visit as the only opportunity she had to speak with someone outside the family. She could see her dad was starting to think about moving onto her little sister, her mum was so cowed by his abuse that she couldn't protect her daughters, and he was arrogant enough to think that they wouldn't say anything. She saw my visit as the one opportunity she had to protect her sister and took it.

Tell me you know nothing about home education without telling me you know nothing about home education.

The biggest laugh for me in this opinion piece was ‘separate children from society and their peers’ 😂
Clearly you have no idea how social we home ed families are. And how home educated children are living IN the real world every day with people of all ages, from all backgrounds, in a variety of real-life settings not sat in a classroom all day, told “you are not here to socialize” by their teachers, with a group of people of exactly the same age 😂
Please educate yourself on what HE is. And for the record my kids ARE being exposed to a ‘full education’ it just doesn’t look like the traditional norm which is actually failing appropriately 30-35% of kids in 2024.

This is batshit!!! You think schools care more about children than their parents do? What a bizarre attitude!

Thank you for being that person.

I was in school but abused as a teenager by my grandfather. I didn't tell a soul. I did act to keep my little sister and myself safe (I was 13) by making sure neither of us was alone with him. I told my mum and she told me 'that never happened', I was also told that I led him on and encouraged him. She knew, she had seen it happen in front of her.

Sadly, abuse can happen whilst children are at school. Abuser's rely on children keeping silent, and all too often they do. Not one school adult appeared safe enough to me, I was all too aware of throwing a hand grenade into our family life by disclosing the abuse.

@Userdfgh

It's brilliant she was able to speak to you. Did your report actually have her removed from the father?

I was an abused child. I told school, I told brownies, I told youth club. My parents denied everything, I suffered for speaking up every time. No one helped me. It messed me up enough I then (as many abused people do) married an abusive man. Left him and reported him, fought him through family court and lost. My dd told school some of what he did to her nothing came if it because I'm recorded as making malicious refferals. My ds school saw the changes in his behaviour when he'd seen his dad to the point they asked me not to send him to school the Monday after he's been with his dad. Still not enough to keep him safe. My ex has moved on and his 2 year old seems to have an alarming number of 'accidents' including a broken femur. I've anonymously reported my concerns for that child and said there is a long history of accusations against the dad from multiple women. Nothing has happened.

I've lived a difficult life and in it have crossed paths and know many people with horrible stories. It's the system that's not protecting them it's never that no one knew

He was removed/arrested.

How are safety ensured for children in school. Sara was in school and getting abused too so school doesn't equal safety e

That wasn't my question.

Most parents will care abd do a good job. But sadly, as the news has shown, there are those who 'home school' to hide very worrying problems. It's batshit not to have a rigorous system to check on, support, and intervene where needed for home schooled children.

Checks by social services if concerns have been raised is fine and should be expected.
Checks by LA's who have no training in child safety or even education are not.
LA's have lost the trust of the home ed community by being dishonest and repeatedly overstepping their remit so now nobody trusts them in their homes.
Perhaps dealing with that issue would be a start.

When parents of children in school start allowing the authorities to regularly carry out spot checks in their homes for no reason, perhaps your argument may have some merit.
There are many more children in school who are in abusive homes, please do your homework before making statements like this.
There are also way too many teachers being found with indecent images of children for me to trust my children to their care! Again, look it up!

And 'where it's needed' they do have the authority to intervene!

Well it's logical that if schools safeguarding process and Social services can't actually protect a child who is known to be at risk with much recorded evidence I don't know why you think we need more protection for home educating children.

Surely school children should be protected too?

While I recognise there is a place for HE, I do wonder whether HE kids learn to socialise / deal with people who they don't rub along with the way kids do in school.

Pop along to a park on a school day and you'll see just how well home ed children socialise with children of all ages and even adults!
They're still human, believe it or not - they deal with people much the same way as any other person.

We also have absolutely no idea what a "tiny minority" looks like. For all we know, it could be a much higher percentage living with a form if neglect or abuse. That's the point isn't it, when children are removed from schools, noone knows what's going on.

As you say concerns had already been raised. The issue is why she was allowed to 'fall off the radar'.

The vast majority of abused DC attend school/nursery. The issue is different services not talking to each other. Home education has not been shown as a child protection risk.

The ignorance here is laughable! You really have no idea what home ed is.
We don't lock our children in cupboards, believe it or not!
They go to so many different groups and get input from loads of people!
The irony is, your children in school have to all follow the same curriculum as the rest of the country, whether they are interested in it or not.
And if they don't understand it, the teacher has such limited time that the child falls behind.
It's not arrogance to want your children to be happy and learn in a way that works for them, it's called being a good parent.
It's arrogant to think you know more about something than the people who are actually doing it.

HE kids learn to socialise and rub along with a much more diverse group than those at school who spend most of their time with the same 30 DC all from the same local area and of the same age. It's not a good preparation for real life in comparison.

Only within a fairly controlled environment and for a short time though. Not saying it's a bad thing, it's clearly necessary for lots of kids.

It's not an attack on home schooling parents. Obviously most are good but it is unjust that children can just be removed and not checked on. Surely noone supports this. Yes, sadly there will be awful adults in all walks of life and jobs. I guess this very emotive thread does have a uniting theme: that we all want children to be safe abd well educated, just Different views about how that happens.

Can you explain how spending several hours in a park is more of a controlled environment than a classroom?

Not sure quite what you mean?