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.

Illegality of home education has already been challenged in the ECHR (in relation to Germany I know specifically) and upheld. It's illegal in lots of countries. There's no doubt that it's a legitimate policy that states are allowed to implement.

It is not currently the policy in the UK and not likely to become so in my opinion, but it is a policy that the UK could adopt.

Thats a very simplistic view. I live in a very deprived area where a lot of families don’t give a shit about education. Neither they or their children care or are demoralised about leaving school having failed everything. No one is crying about it on the estate I live across the road from, believe me.

Banning home education would tinker at the edges of the failing social care system. The reality is we do not want to fund social care sufficiently to protect children. 456 children died last year at the hands of their parents. How many were home educated?

The vast majority of abuse deaths occur among very young children. Should full time nursery be compulsory from age six weeks with daily visits from professionals until then?
This would be significantly more impactful than banning home education

The reality is that getting child protection right takes investment in terms of both money, training and status. It would work better centralised not council run. Too many families slip the net because they are very mobile.

Home education is not a safeguarding issue. But safeguarding issues about home educated children should be investigated appropriately and this is where the system often falls down. The high profile deaths of Dylan Seabridge and Khyra Ishaq were not due to home education but to the blurring of roles between Child protection and EHE teams. Investigations of child protection issues should be robust regardless of educational status.

Banning home education would also lead to a lot of children with significant SEND landing back into the school system. Its very expensive with little significant impact.

100 % this. ^

Home Ed is necessary. SEND is underfunded to the point that it causes damaged children whose needs are not provided for. This is the case whether you have an EHCP or not.

It would undermine the fundamental right of families to choose the right kind of education for their children.

There is no money in the system for SEND.

There doesn't seem to be enough input from educators. It seems like they just wash their hands of kids once the parent makes that decision. They should have to prove they are teaching the basics and if not then small groups or one to one tutoring offered, at a discounted rate. The state has an obligation towards all kids education below 16. But to criminalise the parents might be a step too far. Unless they are proven to be neglectful.

I would like there to be a suitable school place for every child in this country but there simply is not. What is the solution for these children?

Many aspects of Sara’s case are baffling to me, but the decision to allow her to be homeschooled after the school had already raised concerns is just extraordinary incompetence is it not? I’m not saying it would have saved her, but surely there should have been some scepticism around their motives?

As I said a few posts away I don't think HE should be illegal at all but I don't think the 'I home educate and my children get the best experience' posts really help. We know that some people home ed for the wrong reasons and those children would benefit from school or other support.

Schools clearly are not perfect and many, many children are let down. Budgets don't stretch far and it's all very reliant on individual teachers going over and above. At least there is a chance that an abused child may be spotted and helped in the school system. An abused home ed child is much more hidden.

I came on to say exactly this.

Well 30% not getting GCSE passes may be what is actually a reflection of the standard of the GCSE pass ( which should mean something ) . It shouldn't be an exam everyone passes should it ? ) ( or should it?)

What is the optimal pass rate that demonstrates that children have certain skills without becoming meaningless as a pass ? Do we know?

And what is the pass rate for home educated children ? Are they all doing exams?

There is a risk of conflating multiple issues here. Surrey county council failed Sara- they shouldn’t be able to hide behind home schooling as a reason for their total inability to keep her safe. Obviously she should have never been allowed to be home schooled but that was the last part of a catalogue of errors.

I think home schooled has a place - particularly for sen, poorly children, children who have been bullied, children excelling in elite sports etc etc but I also think there probably should be a bit more oversight.

Yes ..had to send in reports.. fill in forms.. one inspector even attended the HE group at the Yorkshire mining museum last summer.
Only one is now HE.. the ten year old.. others at college/ Uni.
The 16 year old is more intelligent than his tutor for his course and now is a NTA helping out the tutor part time. He decided he wanted to do his Maths GCSE early passes that then did his A level Maths too... passed that and still just turned 16 last month.
Obviously we pay privately to do the exams.

No, I wouldn't make it illegal. I can see that it's right for some children.

However, I would regulate it properly, with checks on the quality of education and the wellbeing of the child. The state doesn't "own" people's children, as a pp said, but it does owe them a duty of care.

I'm sure we're all in favour of a ban on being allowed to assault children aren't we? Which is what smacking is. Regardless of any news story.
If not why not? All our neighbouring countries have done it.

That's a pile of uninformed tosh.

@Viviennemary

HE is not the issue. The completely inadequate SS are the problem. Sara Sharif had SS involvement since she was born, they knew about his violent past, they had reports & did nothing. Put the blame where it belongs, not on HE. The recent wee boy isn't even school age.

@WhimsicalGubbins76 , your list of things you state (erroneously) that home educated children miss out on really goes to show how little you understand the subject.

Lessons should have been learned during covid not now. How many child murders have to happen before children at risk who are pulled out of school are just left at the mercy of people like this.
No high risk child who has a history of abuse should be home schooled without supervision.
I speak as a formerly abused child who was pulled out of school, taken abroad and basically beaten half to death.

Yeah, Sara Sharif wasn't home schooled though. That was just a ruse to keep her away from the authorities.

Who are the "educators" in this?

I don't disagree. And my post didn't say we shouldn't ban those things. But OP's post may have been written from a perspective that if HE were banned, children would be safer. And that's not the case. That's conflating two separate things.

There are far too many HE children whose HE is baking, playing video games and going to the shops. Their reports talk about the children learning weights and measurements through weighing ingredients, read through reading a recipe, arithmetic through using money at shops, writing through writing a shopping list, and socialisation through talking to shop staff and players on video games. This is more common than those outside of the HE realise.
I would be fine with it if we were talking about 5 year olds. We are not. This is not uncommon up till 12 years of age. These kids are not being HE. They are just hanging about at home with some involvement in the kind of activities we all do at the weekend with our children.

Tell me you know NOTHING about home education...

My son is home educated. He goes to forest schools, local youth council, youth shed, actvities set up by the home ed people at the council. He's on a residential next year, he goes to St John's, has done four outdoor activity sessions since November.

We don't lock our children up weirdly. They still socialise...if anything with a broader range of people, not just the thirty kids their age in their class.

Schools should have to meet the same standards as home educators:
provide a full time education suitable to a child's ability, aptitude and any special needs
Unfortunately too many schools fail to do this. The state is absolutely failing to provide this for hundreds of thousands of children.
They fail to provide suitable socialisation in schools and they fail to protect children from harassment and abuse at school.

The state needs to get it's own house in order before it comes after home educators.

It would be ludicrous to ban home ed. It would be sensible to insist on school attendance for children living in households where there have been accusations of abuse against an adult/adults living there and concerns about marks on the child. I was shocked that a child who has had SS involvement for suspected abuse can be removed from school when teachers have new concerns. Removal from school should trigger a huge red flag and have SS looking for evidence of abuse.

OP, do you actually mean that you think home education should be illegal or rather, that all children should be registered in (some sort of) education?

Because banning parents from teaching their children things at home doesn't sound like it would be in any way enforceable as a concept, even before you take into account the fact that people being prosecuted for providing their children with the basic human right to education which they're legally required to provide is completely illogical.