What happens if people refuse to send children to school?

[Makinganewthinghappen]

We have home educated our children for many years - the eldest is now 15 and we have 5 younger children.

We love home ed and have no desire to send them to school.

I have started seeing so many people saying they are not sending their children in until it is safe (whenever that is) and although I do believe that is their right I am starting to get a little worried that if a high number of people do this the government will start restricting home ed or making school attendance law.

I am probably not explaining myself very well but does anyone else think this may be the case?

It's not really 'home ed' at the moment is it though - school are setting all the work / not al subjects being covered.

I wonder how many would actually be willing to do proper home ed? Also how many of the people are in a limbo land of furlough and actually when it comes down to it will have to go back to work.

(I don't home ed btw and never would - this last few weeks has proved I would never be cut out for it!)

I doubt it although home education really needs more regulation to ensure that children are receiving an adequate education and not being abused in the same way that schools require regulation and regular inspection. School attendance is already mandatory, at most the people who want to keep their children at home will be required to deregister their children and ‘homeschool’ them. Given that the government don’t care enough to ensure that their own schools do an adequate job, I don’t see them wanting to get involved with the homeschooling families.

From September, I read you will get fined for not sending them in. Unless you permanently home Ed them, which I think you would have to follow some kind of curriculum I think, and register to do that.

I think the opposite, the pandemic has revealed the serious pressure on our state education system and a lack of money mean that if there are more parents to opt out this will be a cheaper solution to that problem. I think track and trace and self isolation will also change the culture generally around attendance at school so the concept of children not going to school every day will become more normalised.

No, I don’t think the government will make school attendance compulsory if there is an increase in home educating families. I do think calls will return for increased monitoring though.

They are likely to call time on the current arrangements, but I can't see them making home Ed illegal. There are already checks - presumably you have been checked and are happy?

Reality will hit parents soon enough. They may be furloughed now or muddling through trying to kinda homeschool but there’s only so long that is feasible. They’ll either need to return to work as things open back up or bosses will grow increasingly annoyed at their employees not doing a full days work because of their children. Right now, most are having to be reasonable as children cannot attend school but if schools are open in September (even part time), then companies, bosses, line managers are going to be less sympathetic. They can easily performance manage you out & get in someone without kids or who has sent their kid back to school!

I also think all these parents wittering on about not doing it until it’s safe will throw their children into school after the 6 week holidays with no school work, clubs or activities to entertain their kids!

I sent my daughter back to nursery this week but two of my close friends didn’t. They have both have done a full u-turn and are sending their kids in next week! Their reason: ‘oh, everyone else’s kids have had such a good week’, ‘the kids have been unphased by the changes’ & they ‘felt jealous of other people being able to work without distraction’..

I think we’ll see more similar decisions as time rolls on.

Unless there is a second spike. I wasn’t overly worried there’d be one from schools but with all the black lives matter protests, I think there might be

Barbie - yes we get a visit once a year and then get a written report on what we have done/ are planning to do. This works fine for me as I am obsessive about planning .

The two things I would hate would be

1. having to follow the national curriculum

1. There were calls not long ago for all homeschool children to have medical checks alone each year to check for signs of abuse - this is not acceptable unless they already have suspicions of abuse.

People who don’t want to send their kids to school now, are unhappy with the current situation, they and their children are ok with going to school in general so in the long run they will go back to school anyway. DH and I are these parents, we just think that the daily cases are too high and track and trace is not working properly yet, DD was offered just 1 day per week, we are both at home so why bother. ATM we have this choice but yes, it might be removed from September. If so, I would expect that more parents will opt for homeschooling (a couple in my parents group mentioned that) but I don’t think it will be game changing figure for the whole country. And as many schools are oversubscribed anyway losing 1-2% of children will do them good.

In general I go understand your worry, the government could remove home schooling as an option, I would say it’s always possible but highly unlikely. More likely the government will put homeschooling under more formal control, with regular checks and so on.

There will come a point when schools will not be allowed to send work home unless the child in is a shielded household, and parents will be fined. They will need to decide if they wanted to withdraw from the school system or go to court. There may be an interim period where you don't have to send your child in but they can't be seen outside of the home during school hours (as it normally is with suspended kids) and the teachers will need to be happy with their schoolwork to have their absence authorised, and this will encourage the majority to go back.

I don’t think there are many checks on people who home Ed.

Problem is if more people home Ed the less money schools receive so the fewer teachers/resources schools can afford. Obviously if you have fewer children then you ultimately won’t need as many teachers but the children leaving won’t all be in the same Year group so is a financial nightmare for schools.

At the moment you get a fine if your children do not attend school and that does not apply to those who permanently home educate.

I am sure they will reintroduce fines at some point but I don't see how they will apply that to people who home educate permanently.

To be honest I do believe that there should be more stringent checks in place on home education anyway. Not necessarily to follow the national curriculum per se but to check that they are getting an adequate all rounded education.

I think they'll be a lot more people home schooling next year - some because they're afraid of the virus, and some because they've enjoyed the experience since March. I think the government will welcome that - as it takes pressures off schools a bit. I can't see therefore see them doing any more regulation than at present - and their resources for checking up on people will be spread more thinly and probably targeted at those they are most worried about (kids who they already know are from troubled homes and suspect are not being educated, just got out the habit of going to school, or very anxious kids who have become scared of school, etc)

Even schools don't have to follow the national curriculum, as long as they are not local authority maintained schools. I can't see that changing to force home schooling parents to teach it.

Our school isn't providing any work now.

If children are registered at school, the local authority has the power to issue penalty warning notice (ie attendance needs to improve or you'll get fined), holiday fines and in extreme cases court action. Obviously not at the moment, but in normal times.
Your children aren't registered at any school and are classed as 'Educated Otherwise' which means educated otherwise than at school, or in everyday English, home educated.
I think there may be a rise in home ed due to virus fears. Every so often there is a call to do more safe and well checks on home educated kids - I think it is appropriate for the local authority to check that they know where the kids are but that actual medicals is invasive - perhaps just check that the family are registered with a GP?

To be honest I do believe that there should be more stringent checks in place on home education anyway. Not necessarily to follow the national curriculum per se but to check that they are getting an adequate all rounded education.

Completely agree. Sadly there are people who use home Ed as a way to only give their child one viewpoint in their education (eg fundamentalist religion) and I worry these children slip under the radar a bit. I’ll have to look more into what checks are done, hopefully more than I’m aware of.

To be honest I do believe that there should be more stringent checks in place on home education anyway. Not necessarily to follow the national curriculum per se but to check that they are getting an adequate all rounded education.

Agree, I know lots of people that HE and 99% do it brilliantly but I know one family who took their son out of school and I know there is absolutely no schooling going on at all. It was to avoid fines for going on holiday 🙄

I think there should be more regulation too. With all the safeguarding concerns that there have been in respect of vulnerable children not being in school I wonder if things will step up once lockdown is over.

Cats and lavender - we get a teacher from the LA come once a year to look through their books and talk about plans for next year. You don’t have to have them to the house but if you don’t you are asked to send off a report and samples of work.

When it becomes a choice between home education proper - no place at school, no access to any resources and sending them back, suddenly it will be safe enough.

And don’t fret about more supervision of home education - there isn’t and will not be a budget for that to take place in any meaningful way.