Guest post: "Home education is a contentious issue. I know there will be parents who may be upset by my Dispatches documentary"

[NiamhMumsnet]

Last night on Channel 4, my Dispatches documentary explored the fast-growing world of home education. It’s a contentious issue, and I know there will be parents who may be upset by it. They feel protective of their right to home school - parents, like Marcello, who appeared in my film and who educates his son at home, who make a philosophical decision to home educate and who put a lot of thought and dedication into providing their children with a high-quality education. These are the traditional home educators and I am not suggesting that they shouldn’t have a right to do so.

But this is not the experience of a large majority of the group of children without a school. I am worried about families who have ended up home educating for other reasons, and whose children are not receiving the good education in school that all children deserve. Many of these families embark on home education as a last resort or stop-gap until things settle and another school is found.

Take 12-year-old Lily, who I met while making the documentary. Lily is autistic and has been to 11 schools in eight years. Her mother, Mandy, says she was told Lily was ‘uneducatable’. As a result, Lily is now being taught at home. Lily is an amazing child - smart, ambitious and clearly capable of doing very well academically - yet she’s been told that no school can teach her.

I also met Sam, who removed her 12-year-old son Baillie after trouble at school. Their relationship with the school broke down and they were made to feel like Baillie was a ‘burden’ and ‘annoying’. Sam is clearly a loving parent, but she admitted to me that she had huge doubts about her ability to be able to educate Baillie in a way that a school could. She was receiving no support at all.

Part of the reason there is so little help is that we don’t even know how many children are home educated, why they have been taken out of school or even if they are safe. Our Dispatches film found that 92% of councils in England do not feel they have adequate powers to assure the suitability of education children who are home-schooled receive, and 93% of councils say they don’t feel confident that they are aware of everyone who is currently being home educated in their area.

Thousands could also be ending up without a school because of ‘off-rolling’. Often these children have special educational needs. In fact, our research for Dispatches suggests one in five children who are home-educated have SEN.

Sadly too, there are some families who are very aware of the lax rules around home education, which are used as a cover to stay out of sight from the authorities – something we know can have tragic consequences for children.

I think there is now an overwhelming case for all parents who are home educating their children to have to register their children with their local authority. They should also be asked why they are home educating and whether they intend for the child to re-enter mainstream education at some point.

On off-rolling, I hope Ofsted will come down hard on schools who are letting down some of the most vulnerable children. There should be financial penalties too for schools who are gaming the system. And school policies also need to acknowledge that poor behavior may be linked to additional needs, such as SEND, and make sure that all children with additional needs receive appropriate support.

Parents who are home educating have told me that they need more support, so within three days of a decision being taken for a child to be withdrawn from school to be home educated, a local authority should visit the child and family to provide advice and support on alternative options, including other schools the child could attend. There should be another visit a few weeks later to see how the family is managing.

I would also like council education officers visiting each child being home educated at least once per term to assess the suitability of their education and their welfare.

Some children have very positive experiences of home education. Others have told us they feel lonely and depressed, left alone for long periods in unstructured days. They miss their friends at school and can become isolated. These are the ‘off the grid’ children I am worried about. They have the right to a good education and childhood, and the system needs to change to make sure they do.

[AGnu]

I'm so happy to see these responses! I've had a really hard 24 hours since people started talking about the programme & especially since they watched it.

We're the "philosophical" type of HEers but a large part of that "philosophy" is that our DC wouldn't cope in a school environment. We HE in order to provide them with an education tailored to them as individuals. We'd happily make use of helpful support from the LA if we could choose what support that was & opt out if we didn't find it helpful. As it is, there isn't the funding available for any support really, & minimal funding for doing the checks to see if any support is needed!

I've genuinely felt like crying today after seeing some of the comments people have been making about HEers, except us, obviously, because they know us & know we're "more than capable". So it's just our friends, our support network & our general lifestyle that they're criticising...

That programme has encouraged & resulted in discrimination against the whole home education community & it's awful for those of us who dedicate every waking minute of every day to our children ensuring they are learning, constantly on edge & expecting someone to challenge us about why they're not at school or at the very least sitting at a desk... This is not an easy way of life, especially for an introvert like me who'd love 6 hours of time to myself every day, or the chance to pursue my own interests, or even get an actual proper job so no-one could judge me for "sponging off" DH.

So yes, Anne, your programme has upset some of us. Those of us who work damn hard every day making up for the failings of the education system in this country who are now being treated like we're potential child abusers.

Fix the schools. Leave us alone.

[TinyGirl1]

My response would support what AGnu has written.

[Crusoe]

**So yes, Anne, your programme has upset some of us. Those of us who work damn hard every day making up for the failings of the education system in this country who are now being treated like we're potential child abusers.

Fix the schools. Leave us alone.

This ^ says it perfectly. I completely agree AGnu

[MouseUtopia]

We have had to de-register our son from secondary school as he has aspergers and was chronically bullied. He goes to an online school now, which we pay for.

We'd love for him to attend a mainstream school. He's bright, wants to learn and has impeccable behaviour. The bullies ate him for breakfast. The school couldn't upset them or their parents, so it was ds who left.

Schools are only prepared to educate certain types of people. Health authorities will only help certain types of people. Employers are only prepared to employ certain types of people. Society is highly discriminatory and is allowed to be. Certain types of children are written off from the word go. What are parents supposed to do?

[FuzzyShadowChatter]

I've home educated my kids for over a decade and I'm usually one of the first eager to discuss that there are too many dismissed issues within the system and home education communities. I would merrily discuss them at length.

However, the title is typical salacious media nonsense and many of this had nothing to do with home education. Education welfare is not a social services issue and social services are not responsible for education welfare. Mixing the two doesn't help anyone. "Known by social services" should have been more clearly defined - I've had lovely conversations with social services, I assume we'd fall under 'known by them, because we've had a few professionals who tried to call social services because my kids aren't education in schools and when told we are registered and that home ed isn't a SS issue, they've made other claims against us. I now take pictures of my kids before every appointment because SS has to take all of those reports of dirty home educated kids seriously. This stat should have also been compared to those known who are in school.

Illegal/unregistered schools with unregistered kids should not be mixed up with home education either. That really deserves its own focus and time rather than to be tacked onto this. I found the use of one inclusive appearing school also a bit laughable as if this one example really meant much and really, again, inclusion in schools deserves its own focus rather than to be used as a foil to concerned home educating parents.

While I have no issues with home education registration, I don't think education welfare officers should be doing social services' jobs. They're stretched thin as it is and I don't think they're trained for that. To me, it makes more sense and better use of mine and the council's time - especially if your goal is to get our kids out more and seen - is to have the standard be for us to visit and present portfolios in public places like council office, local libraries, and so on. I think it would be great if there were public displays of local students work that encouraged home educated kids to take part and submit work. I think that would do far more to help kids be seen and feel part of the community than a stranger visiting the home now and then. I've had those visits, I've submitted reports and portfolios, at this time they don't really do anything. That page with links is pretty representative of what happens so I'm not sure why people think that would help struggling parents or are the answer to any of the problems in home education.

I agree it is easier for schools not to provide all the options to parents - but it doesn't seem the documentary looked at that either. An inclusive appearing school was found, but what about the resources for kids who have been excluded repeatedly? the resources many colleges are putting in place for home educated teens? The latter could in part explain some of the GCSE issue, I know multiple colleges that provide Y9 and GCSE programmes specifically for home educated teens, some at the traditional age and some start at 16+, and due the difficulty of cost and finding a place to take exams as a private student - something ignored in the programme - many look to them for options. There is also the recent uptick of home educated teens in England using UTCs starting from Year 10 - my local UTC has had several kids each year that fit that. My son is hopefully going to be one of them next year.

I do strongly believe that alongside all the other stats available on schools, removal rates and those who don't finish should be included publically in the tables and reports. There will always be some with families moving and transferring to better fit schools and such, but I think it would make more stark which schools are systemically pushing kids out of education so that these schools can be dealt with better and the laws that they are using be looked at. Until it is out in the open and the main Ofsted focus isn't improving grade results, but also welfare, this will go on.

I think a big issue is that this seems to fuel the school vs home ed divide - kids in registered schools will be seen vs kids not in school won't which isn't really the case, kids in schools will leave with qualifications while home ed kids not won't...well, my two closest secondary schools have recently had 10% and 19% of kids get C/4+ in English and Maths at GCSEs... what about the vast majority of those kids who don't get what is considered a basic standard qualification at the typical age? At least here, they may end up as part of the same programme and class as the home ed teens who couldn't access GCSEs before 16.

As far "parents teaching kids what they want and that could be concerning", that happens even when their kids attend school. I was school educated, I grew up in an evangelical community with tele-evangelists a mainstay in my home. I was taught pretty similar to what was in the programme, along with some other fairly nasty things. I literally only once had any teacher comment on it. When I tried to get help at school for neglect, that I spent weeks with no adult supervision and regularly ran out of food and cash, I was called a liar with an eating disorder and had my weight monitored for months. When I was being beaten and not able to go home because my mother said if I did she'd kill me, I was told that was teen drama and I had to couch surf with not the safest guy. Plenty of people saw me, but were quite happy to dismiss me for a long list of 'this doesn't happen here' shite - much like schools that say there is no bullying.

As I said, I'm usually the first to say, yes, there are problems in home education communities elective and otherwise -, but the solution isn't to send them all to school or to put us all on a register and visit annually or whatever. Those are plasters at best. It certainly does nothing for those parents who are desperate and really don't want to be in the position they're in. The solutions are far more complicated and involve systemic changes in education and general society to actually care and be willing to see. Nothing in this suggests that's going to happen anytime soon.

It feels like too many issues were smashed together into one documentary and the so-called solutions were there from the start rather than through learning what different issues each group faces. I'm not upset by the documentary, I'm just disappointed. Stuff like this just means the problems, the children being let down, will just continue on.

[itsstillgood]

The problem (one of them anyway) is by whom and how do you intend to assess the suitability of the education being provided at home? Who will be offering advice?
I trained as a teacher and ended up home educating as a result, I can tell you they are completely different roles with completely different skill sets it is like comparing a hospital consultant with a district nurse.

[TinyGirl1]

I would also like council education officers visiting each child being home educated at least once per term to assess the suitability of their education and their welfare.
This is far too frequent. Home education is very stressful for parents as it is. There are schemes of work to keep up with and many of us like to keep a structure or follow the curriculum so that they can join school easily in the future. The last thing we need is to worry about officials breathing down our necks every term.
Visit by all means, but every term is very frequent imo.

[fleshmarketclose]

Who is going to be doing all this monitoring? Our LA have just disbanded the MAT (multi agency team) whose role was to offer support to vulnerable children and their families. If they can't afford to monitor vulnerable children they are hardly going to be able to monitor the many children who are home educated.

[FuzzyShadowChatter]

The walk in the woods bit made me laugh. That's become almost a stereotype at this point - the young HE child exploring the woods. People keep trying to sell forest school experiences or similar in our home education groups. I'm not sure where this image of HE came from, other than the association with hippies. Plenty of us are structured with textbooks and everything.

I agree that just adding another task to LA who are cut to bone is really an unhelpful suggestion.

[AGnu]

To be fair, we go for a walk in the local woods most weeks... But it's with several other HE families & more focused on socialising for the DC, & a chance for the parents to chat & support each other with the unique challenges that HE throws at us that often other parents don't quite "get".

[isittheholidaysyet]

Schools are the problem - fix them please.
OFSTED demands are a problem - fix them please.
Lack of support for SEN in schools is a problem - fix it please.
A one-size-fits-all attitude in our schools is a problem - fix it please.

Home education is not a problem. Leave it alone until you've dealt with the problems.

[Whitelisbon]

I home ed my son, and haven't watched last night's program (I'm not sure my blood pressure would cope!), and I'm currently very glad we're in Scotland.

The thing is, when I was at school, kids like my son were in the "special" class. Still in the same school, but away from the hustle and bustle, smaller class size, different work, but came into the class for their age group a couple of times a week.

Nowadays, they're all kept in together, with one teacher expected to differentiate the work to include every one. My son (like many many others) is very clever, but shuts down in large groups, or noisy environments, or when he's stressed, etc etc. So, when he was at school, he was totally unable to access any education whatsoever. But, he doesn't need a special needs school. The system that was in place when I was at school would work well for my son, and countless others. Yes, it marks the kids as different, but so does having a meltdown in a classroom!

The idea that he kids are invisible is ridiculous - there are loads of stuff going on locally for he, even though we're rural, we could be doing something every day if we wanted to.

We also see many many medical professionals, generally at least once a week. That means that if my son attended school, he'd miss at least one day a week. In june, he had 13 appointments, most of which were at a hospital 90 minutes away. He would have been at school for possibly 3 days in the whole month, missing out on a lot. Which again marks him as different.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but visits from someone from the lea every term is not it.

[QuickSloe]

We keep turning to monitor parents, but the root cause of the issues for the children you are worried about is in the vast majority of cases is not in the home.

-failing local services, or poor use of existing powers. Poor Dylan Seabridge was not unknown. Nor were the others. Others like the tragic Daniel Pelka starved in plain sight. It’s not about not knowing, it’s about identifying and assessing risk then funding services properly. These are safeguarding, not educational concerns. Registers save no one. Action needs to be taken, and often in the pre-school years. Whoever knocked on Dylan’s door should have sighted him at least. Kyra was failed, she was known. Daniel and others. Cuts to services failed them. That’s the real issue. Harder to address

-schools are failing children. People aren’t making philosophical decisions in exam years, schools are failing these children. SEN places are variable and often dire. Give these parents obtainable qualifications for their children and welcome them and the issue disappears. The schools need fixing, no register will do this. Big job, a qualification system that works for all and funding adequate support- easier to hound parents I guess.

I’m not so opposed against a register as I feel my rights are infringed, I oppose it as a dangerous distraction from the real issues. Having a register and a visit from someone with limited training is not safeguarding. At worst it reassures other professionals that a child is ‘seen’ so they don’t follow concerns up. Like the Daniel Pelka case, it’s presumed someone else is on it.

These universal services help no one. We know this already from other services. Checks do not equal change. No one fatten a pig weighing it.

I am known to my borough, this offers no support or checks for my child.

[Gillway]

I was disgusted by the C4 Dispatches documentary that as far as I am concerned it breached the equality act by what was effectively the bullying of disabled children.

Why didn’t you interview one of the 16,500 parents, mainly women with SEN children, who have been prosecuted for their child’s inability to cope with school? http://covrj.uk/prosecuting-parents/

Special educational needs children are being shunted out of the system because it’s cheaper for Local authorities. Parents are being blamed, fined and even imprisoned for their Sen child’s absenteeism.

Sen kids have numerous difficulties with mainstream school and teachers who are not trained to deal with them. Sen kids therefore frequently refuse to go to school and parents are instantly at risk of fining and prosecution and there is NO appeal. It’s an instant criminal record. All the headmaster has to do is make one phone call. See the recent Coventry Law school study by Rona Epstein on parents being prosecuted for kids absenteeism. Perhaps interview her?

Our local Authority closed two of its four specialist schools last summer. Provision for highly intelligent children with specific learning difficulties like dyspraxia, dyslexia and ADHD doesn’t exist other than a handful of permanently full and highly expensive private specialist schools.

Parents have to get an EHCP even to get into one of these schools. This could take years and 10k even 50k in lawyer’s fees, by which time the child has been failed.

These ‘quirky’, ‘geeky’ kids should be the UK’s future inventors and entrepreneurs but many cannot cope with the Gove-ian Victorian school model and feeling strangled by ties and polyester blazers, bullied and taught inappropriately for their needs, become ill through stress and cannot go in. Many are not being educated and their parents are being harassed by gleeful Local authorities and school staff with their cog in the machine interpretations of SEN law.

Parents are left to cope alone if their children are severely challenged. They might be informally excluded EG ‘Can you pick up your child because he is not coping today.’

The law says schools and LAs have a duty to assess all ‘barriers to learning’ but they are even refusing to do this. Please get Rona Epstein of Coventry Law university and Eleanor Wright of SOSSEN in to expose this scandal.

[GreenThing]

@MNHQ why is this a guest thread?

No responses, fuck all care for the posters concerned, is this a MN thing now?

You'd want to give a thought to your demographic. .

[FiveRedBricks]

Sort the school failings out and you wont have so many issues or concerns with parents who can't or aren't able to handle it.

As for "They have the right to a good education and childhood" ... You feel that the current system provides that? Maybe, for example, you should address the stress the system is putting primary kids under for SATs or help to free teachers hands to teach rather than admin work and pushing them out in droves.

Home education is not a problem. People being pushed in to it unwillingly, SEN school places not being available, bloody sodding OFSTED causing the nervous breakdowns of hundreds of Head Teachers every year... To the detriment of the children's mental welfare and quality of education - is the flaming problem!

Your article and your bias belongs in the Daily Mail. Home education doesn't need tightening - The state school system needs f*cking fixing.

[FuzzyShadowChatter]

AGnu I love a good walk in the woods as much as anyone, particularly in warmer months, it just feels lately the representation of home educated kids is 'carefree child walking through woods' or 'kid who plays video games' or 'very anxious stress kid'. Some of our kids are those or a combination or all of those - and some are none. It seemed very pointed that was framed as the ideal wacky with everything else being a home ed problem.

I agree with a lot of what QuickSloe said, registration and visits is dangerous if it's thought of as a solution rather than part of the system. I mean, if those stats on HE teens who get GCSE is based on registered kids, well, being registered isn't helping them gain any access. All being registered has done for me is that some other professionals take it more seriously if I say we're registered.

Seriously, there was a recent government consultation on home education. I, like many others, took a lot of time to fill it in and discuss the actual issues facing home educated kids and families. I hope something better than another debate on registration and visits comes out of it.

[Anonymumtum]

My DS is home educated because school cannot meet his needs. Believe me I would much rather he was at school! My husband doesn’t work so he can look after him.

He is the loveliest little boy but I suspect has HFA (as do I) and was completely lost in the Victorian school system we now seem to have and was very behind when we pulled him out at 6.

With one to one support, which is now what we are providing (to our significant financial detriment) I am confident he is going to come out at 16 with good GCSE grades and a positive attitude to learning. No way could this have been achieved in the school system.

There are lots of others the same in our HE community. We are educated professionals who can take the drop in income and facilitate learning and that’s fab for DS but what about the others whose single parents have to work? What about them? Sort the schools out. That’s where the problem lies, not with parents doing their best and making significant sacrifices for their kids.

[KJaggard1]

To say that local authorities need a register to help and support home educated children is an outright lie. A register will not come with funding for more support and the local authorities do not support those home educated children they are aware of now. You know this! It will not protect anyone either as every single one of the tiny number of cases where a home educated child was at risk the child was known to social services, if a trained social worker couldn’t help those children what on earth could a register or even termly checks by a la officer achieve. Your suggestion of inspection is ridiculous, ofsted exists to inspect schools on behalf of and for the parents so that they can be sure they are performing their statutory duty to ensure their child receives an education, you can’t inspect parents on behalf of themselves and while we’re on the subject why should we register to do something we are legally required to do (ensure our child is receiving a suitable education). What you are doing is pushing the agenda that the government and not parents should decide what constitutes a decent education only it’s the parents who know what’s best for their specific child and this one sized fits all draconian approach doesn’t work as your documentary makes very clear without ever actually addressing it. You chose to site figures at the end saying HE kids are 4 times more likely to be neet than their schooled peers. One report amongs many that state the exact opposite. If you wish to address the accusations of bias I would start there! Yes you say it’s inconclusive and then pick a report that says outcomes are bad as an example when every other report says outcomes are good. That’s called bias, look it up!

[TheBigFatMermaid]

Leave us hoe educating parents alone and sort the schools out. I had to pull my DD out in year 8, age 12, as she was so badly bullied it was affecting her and my mental health. She should now be in year 9, but we are plodding along with English and maths and some science. She will do her GCSEs as she wants to join the RAF.

Had the school not let her down so badly, she would still be there. She is doing well in HE. She will be going to a 14-16 unit a few miles away in September. We are lucky that is available, but she should not have needed it.

[Asta19]

I do see what your documentary was about and what it was trying to get at. However, my DS had ASD and was spectatulary let down by the school system. However, in his adult years he did an access course, went onto do a Japanese degree and now has his dream job and dream life in Japan. My DD did all the mainstream school years and now has a life on benefits. GCSE’s are worthless. I myself did badly at school due to my home life but also got a great job via an access course, i do understand what you are trying to say, I really do. But you’re wrong.

[Melah]

Hi. I’m looking for help and advice from anyone who’s dealt with a severely anxious child. My son is 8 and is constantly talking about killing himself rather than going to school. He has had 6 week counselling sessions and an assessment with CAMHS. They’ve decided to send me and husband on a CBT course to help him but he’s not having any help at present. I have to listen to him night after night discussing his own death and how he’ll do it all because he hates school. My husband is very anti the idea of homeschool.