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.

[agnurse]

A point I wanted to make about children having the right to the best education possible. I attended a public school from Kindergarten (Reception) to the end of Grade 3. My Grade 2 teacher told my mother that I was wasting my time being in her class, simply because I was so far ahead compared to everyone else that she literally could not design a curriculum for me - it wouldn't be appropriate for anyone else in the class. If your child's teacher said this, would you think your child was getting the best education possible?

[Redskyandrainbows67]

Schools are the problem not parents who are just trying to do the right thing for their child.

I felt your documentary has the wrong focus.

Stop blaming the parents.

[Doobydoo]

Blimmin well put Snugglepumpkin

[Saracen]

"I’m irritated by the idea that just because HE isn’t what you would choose, you must be dreadful at it." Very true, zzzzz.

Shall we have a register of all parents whose children were not conceived deliberately? Since they did not make a choice to become pregnant, they aren't going to be any good at bringing up their children, right?

[AGnu]

I'm so loving all these responses but now I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Anne... She probably thought she'd get away with making out like HE was the issue, I can't imagine she expected this much backlash. Bless her little scapegoating cotton socks.

I now have "Do you hear the people sing" stuck in my head... If I weren't so busy, y'know, educating my children, I'd alter the lyrics in an amusingly relevant way.

Congratulations, Anne, you've turned at least one fairly unpolitical HEer into an angry revolutionist. I doubt I'm the only one!

[TomHardysBackpack]

If you've not already, then have a look at both the Dispatches and the Children's Commissioner Facebook pages. One can only hope that the programme creating all these responses is a positive thing and that someone somewhere will take note.

[Cantankerouscat]

I think you should put some energy into making local authorities obey the law regarding educating children with special needs.
There should not be the situation where a school is trying to off roll a 7 year old because the child needs a special school and there are "no places."

[TomHardysBackpack]

Yes or you ask what your child did at school and they say they just cried all day

[TomHardysBackpack]

I mean who in their right mind is going to not consider HE when that is the alternative

[StarlightMcKenzee]

Why does the title start with ‘Home Education is a contentious issue’ too!? Who says? It really isn’t.

[Noqont]

The schools need to be sorted out before you start coming down on home Ed families. Both my children attended different schools, one let down because of horrific bullying, one off rolled because the school couldn't cope with dyslexia. I've absolutely had enough of the schools inability to keep my children safe and educate them. I can and will be doing a better job myself thanks very much.

[RegularShowRules]

I'm really angry that the program was definitely hinting that the mum with dyslexia was not clever or bright enough to home educate because she struggled with reading.
Does this mean the children's commissioner is writing off all children with dyslexia as being 'stupid or thick' like they tried to portray the mum on the program?

[Noqont]

Yeah that is pretty crap as well. I'm dyslexic. I'm also well educated with a masters degree. With the attitude that dyslexics are thick, our children stand no chance of actually being educated in our schools. I'm not leaving my children's education in the hands of people who have little knowledge, understanding or time to deal with these issues.

[TomHardysBackpack]

And that mum was obviously struggling due to the fact that traditional school failed her too

[Daisiesinavase]

School wasn't meeting the needs of the children in the programme. Schools weren't educating those children according to the requirements of the Education Act. So their patents acted responsibly and removed their children from school in order to comply with the Education Act that clearly states that PARENTS have a DUTY to ensure that their children are educated according to "age, ability amd aptitude".

It's not a "right" to make sure your child receives an education it's a duty, completely different. Home ed is not a "contentious issue".

[MaybeDoctor]

Anne Longfield is the individual currently holding the role of Children's Commissioner. You might not have agreed with the film, or Anne Longfield's guest post above, but the official role of Children's Commissioner is very well placed to advocate for children around issues like SEN provision and off-rolling. Therefore, engaging with the Office of the Children's Commissioner has the potential to be helpful in these wider issues - even if you disagree with Anne Longfield.

[MaybeDoctor]

I understand what you are saying, but it is precisely because her role carries this weight that there is a chance that it may influence change at a governmental level. It is her role, not her, that matters.

The Office of the Children's Commissioner is an organisation, not just a single person. There are numerous other people working there (involved in research, policy making etc) and it may be worthwhile trying to gain traction on these issues, while the spotlight is there. It is a window of opportunity, that's all.

[Mishappening]

The Children's Commissioner should be engaging with education chiefs at the highest level of government to get a grip on the test-ridden data-driven mess that education has become. She has the ear of ministers - let her use it to release children from this debacle, thus reducing the need for home education and the rise in mental health problems for children.

Will she grasp the nettle and use her position to effect change? Will she advocate for all the children and all the teachers who have to receive or deliver "education" under this impossible system?

I admire parents who put their own lives on hold in order to say that it is not "education as any price" but quality and humanity in education that really matter.

[DrZed]

As somebody with a background in Education I must say that I am more embarrassed than annoyed with your recent propaganda segment. The program had almost nothing to do with home education, but seemed more to be focussed on the failings of Social services and the education system at large. I chose to home educate my children after spending a tidy sum on independent schools as i wasn't happy with the current crumbling system. I might add that I no longer work in Education as I genuinely feel that I was just part of a system that really doesn't care for the future of our children. My eldest daughter has just (just!) turned 14 and has completed her higher maths GCSE (whilst aged 13) and is sitting Chemistry and Biology in May. Given that she seems to be an average achiever amongst her peers, perhaps you could interview them instead of essentially setting up struggling parents failed by YOUR system to appear stupid. What an absolute shambles.

[HopeClearwater]

I'm really angry that the program was definitely hinting that the mum with dyslexia was not clever or bright enough to home educate because she struggled with reading

The programme was right!

There was no way that child was going to be educated properly!

[StarlightMcKenzee]

What HopeClearWater ? Properly like the mum was? Or was she home educated too.

Home education isn't something DONE by parents exactly, it is something facilitated by parents that isn't school.

[PooFlower]

@HopeClearwater that boy couldn't even tell the time and his mum managed to teach him that whilst home educating.

It isn't fair to compare him with an average N.T child.
Many children leave schools with no or very low grade G.C.S.Es.

His mum admitted herself that she found it hard and was doing it out of necessity rather than choice. With support she could probably help him study functional English and Maths or similar.

The way that Ann Longfield was talking in the programme you would think every child left school with armfulls of good G.C.S.Es. Far too many children don't.
We need something else for these children. Functional skills and vocational courses. Yet there is hardly any provision for this sort of thing.

Then we have Lily at the other end of the spectrum, highly intelligent but unable to cope with school.

Online schooling could be provided in these cases from centres like Red Balloon of the Air or inter-high.

We could have a happy medium for children who cannot cope in school
The state could pay for an online school package in return parents must except visits and support from education officers.

Then philosophical home edders could be left as they are and just continue to send an annual report.

The government cannot expect home ed parents to pay all costs for their childs education then force them to have intrusive termly visits. I would imagine they would then be forced to follow the national curriculum and have timetables. Where would it end. Ofsted inspections for parents? The government would need to provide an education budget for each child if they start making demands.