To think Home Education should be made illegal

[Viviennemary]

I would like to see a ban on HE except perhaps in a very very few cases and with good reason and under strict supervision.

As a former home ed parent I concur with this.

There should definitely be more checks for home educated children. Too many fall through the net at present to run wild or be subject to abuse. The parents themselves should need at least minimum qualifications, or how can they hope to educate their children?

At the very least they should have to pass a basic literacy and numeracy test. Do not assume all HE parents have this.

I have only ever really countered 2 home educated kids…both highly intelligent in an academic sense, spoke multiple languages very well. On the flip side utterly socially inept, no idea how to interact with people other than their own parents and had little “life experience” that their peers had. It’s such a tiny sample size it might be irrelevant but it’s just my own experience.

Disagree, but I do think school should be more flexible in attendance and allow more opportunity for independent learning experiences.

Yep, very true. We spend pushing a grand every year on work books, and curriculum approved materials. We also have to pay the italian LEA/private school to do the tests. I fully support regulation and national testing, and i'm immediately suspicious of home edders who resist this. It keeps us on track. It gives us a deadline to meet, and it provides social validation for the hard work that we do.

It's time consuming and will affect my energy levels enough that I'd struggle to get him to all his groups which wouldn't be fair on him.

If you think I'm talking nonsense you're welcome to tell me so rather than asking questions designed to catch me out.

Oooh you got me there… maybe it is all a conspiracy 😂 🤨

Did i say HE can’t be ‘faulted’?
My post was in reference to the OPs suggestion to ban HE.

There are some parents who home-ed their dc and do a great job, well-rounded individuals who attain good GCSE’s and go on to college etc.
Others are equally good with their dc with SEN and who feel the dc’s needs are best met at home.
Unfortunately I know there are some parents whose dc, nt and nd, who are removed from school because either the parents cba to get the kids to school, don’t want to interact with school esp if dc has challenging behaviour or think that can do a better job than teachers - usually not the case.
This last group are often parents of vulnerable kids, often living in poverty (schools at least can provide warmth and food) and likely to have SC involvement. Unfortunately SC are very stretched.
Schools are an important safety net for vulnerable kids and I think there should be greater monitoring of these with regard to physical and emotional welfare as well as academic achievements.

Yes, this. The ones l knew who shouted loudest that they would have no contact with the LA were the ones who did fuck all. You only have to go on a home ed Facebook group to see it.

They are the ones who make life harder for everyone else.

i was basically an outcast when it was found out that I had the man from the local authority round once a year. He was perfectly nice, just wanted to tick his boxes. My son was more than happy to show him the work he’d done and talk about projects he had on the go. They once spent practically the whole visit taking about ds starwars Lego. M

I can sort of understand why local authorities get so pissed off when people are so defensive, won’t write a report.

With Labour having just fucked a load of SEN kids in private with VAT, now is the wrong time to ban HE. As many of those SEN kids are going to need to be HE. In fact, some already are HE'd as a result of the VAT policy.

I don't agree with the principle of HE in general, but I was very nearly pushed into it myself (SEN child struggling to survive in mainstream school). So I can see it has a place in society - out of necessity.

Not sure what the answer is. Fucking the SEN kids in private was very stupid.

I understand completely. Home ed is very time and energy consuming. Plus all the running around to clubs and groups. It’s extremely difficult to do if your health isn’t the best.

Yes, they miss out on vaping, having their heads flushed down the toilet, swearing, bullying, fighting, peer pressure, mobile phone media, poor makeup applications, monstrous fashion statements, tedious bus journeys, the strangers trying to bundle them into the back of a van. They also miss out on the micro-management by little Hitlers.
What a life-changing experience.

YABU. But should it be allowed where there are already safeguarding concerns and where it has been alleged that the father tried to set a woman on fire, and tried to strangle her absolutely not.

And I also agree that anyone who home schools should have to agree to inspections at random points without notice, just as schools have. Regardless of how middle class and educated the parents are.

For balance, the only time my child experienced bullying and was shown porn was at a home ed group.

See also peer pressure when he felt he had to be a vegan for a bit as none of the other kids would speak to him as he ate meat.

Home ed kids aren’t a special breed of little darlings.

You can't remove a parents rights to choose to home school. You can't force them to choose mainstream education.

There needs to be tighter rules and checks around home schooling but just because some people use it for the wrong reasons, the majority of people are choosing it for their best reasons and are doing their best.

Just because it doesn't work for a few doesn't mean it should be banned for everyone.

IME a lot of home ed parents are spectacularly bad at correcting their childrens' behaviour.

Just find your relentless questioning odd tbh.

I don't "despise" the NC, I just don't think it's very broad.

Sara Sharif was taken out of school to conceal the murderous brutality she was enduring- and though the school had raised concerns while she was there, her withdrawal from school took he beyond any outside eye.
But....

1. She died during the summer school holidays so wouldn't have been at school anyway.
2. There had been concerns since before Sara was born. That's a long time for "outside eyes" to do something about the situation.