LEAs

[Marjoriew]

Just looking at how different LEAs approach HErs in their areas.
For example, Salford LEA state 'You will be inspected at least annually with the child present' ??

And for ages 5-7 years old, 21 hours a week is the expected length of time HE'ing this young age group.
That seems a tad too many hours to me.

Many Local Authorities do not maintain a register of who is being Home educated.

I think my LEA might need some enlightenment about this.
Is there a link to statistics about the number of hours for HE?

21 hours. That's rubbish. I don't think schools spend that much time on formal education for that age group. I'm finding two hours formal education, one to one, a day is enough for KS3 and I'm expecting to cover three years of material in about a year as well at that pace even though I'll spread it out more by doing other stuff.

how exactly are you supposed to measure ? A huge amount of what we do is informal - often while we are eating dinner.

As long as they are doing something where they are learning (or perfecting) skills and/or knowledge for about 4 hours a day 5 days a week - that amounts to 20 hours.

Learning can come in all shapes and sizes - a walk in the woods, playing with lego, doing some painting, reading, watching documentaries (mine are hooked on Victorian Farm at present).

If you think about it you will realise they are probably doing far more than 20 hours per week. And why 21 - is there some weird logic to get to that number ?

I think a lot of these LEAs make it up as they go along as to what they think parents/carers should be doing with their child/children.

You might just fire a few quotes at them from the Elective Home Education Guidelines to Local Authorities, issued by DCSF in 2007. For example:

"2.7 Local authorities have no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis."

Therefore, "you will be inspected at least annually" is rot.

"3.13 ...There is currently no legal definition of 'full-time'. Children normally attend school for between 22 and 25 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, but this measurement of 'contact time' is not relevant to elective home education where there is often almost continuous one-to-one contact and education may take place outside normal 'school hours'."

So 21 hours is also rot. If they ask how many hours a week your child is being educated, you could just say "all waking hours."

I have'nt met the HE consultant for my area yet. I've had favourable reports so far and they appear to be aware of their rights and responsibilities are in regard to what they can and can't do.
Not sure about this new one, though. I'll have to wait and see.

In my years of being registered with an LEA I've found that there's a big difference between our rights as home educators and what the LEA will try to get away with.

In the reports my LA has done about our provision they tick boxes of full or part time provision. They also state whether your dc is above average/average/below average.
I've no idea how they've worked out the above based on our informal chats, but....

'You will be inspected at least annually with the child present' ??

That's just ridiculous, I bet they don't tell you that there is a choice not to agree to either of those.

I've been inspected annually for the last three years too.

I don't see how an inspector can tell if a child is above average/below or anything else for that matter.
The ones I've met so far are not in the teaching profession and I know the most recent one to my LEA was an EWO.
They are just not in a position to judge these things.

Two of mine were definitely ex-teachers. I'm guessing that they worked out the average/above average by the key stages I told them the dcs were studying. Two of my dc were studying key stage for their age: they got 'average' another dc was studying the key stage for the age above and they received 'above average' - very crude!
I'd have thought you could still be 'above average' and studying the key stage for your age range

That would be one of the benefits of more regulation, a national guide and uniform set of rules for all LEAs. Although I think they have similar now, oh and the HE law, but they interpret it as they please.

I had one a few years back. She was a lovely lady - did a lot of work with travellers and children who had been excluded etc. from school.
She knew what she could and couldn't do and she knew I knew it. We got on really well.

Our LA look very unpromising on paper - when I first deregged I was sent a form to fill in with all sorts of stupid categories such as "list all the places your child is educated and the names of those doing the educating". Um, the park, the supermarket, the bank, the ice rink, the dance school, the garden, their bedroom, our bedroom, my parent's house.....I told them it was a stupid form which I wouldn't be filling in and they didn't even try to disagree! They also told me they "did" yearly inspections but when they told me mine was due this year I said I was ill and wouldn't be having one, sent a letter outlining some of the things we'd covered, and they were more than happy. I wish their website was more in line with this, though.

Our LA secondary bloke is lovely and DD2 is really looking forward to chatting to him this coming academic year. She was quite upset he only looked at DD1's work last time!

Marjoriew said - "I don't see how an inspector can tell if a child is above average/below or anything else for that matter.
The ones I've met so far are not in the teaching profession and I know the most recent one to my LEA was an EWO.
They are just not in a position to judge these things."

They're actually not meant to be judging these things at all. They're meant to be judging if you are giving them a suitable education. I guess if you had pages of workbooks with crosses all the way down and the child seemed very discouraged they would know the work was too hard for the child. Likewise, if the child said they were bored stiff all day they would know the child wasn't being challenged enough. My feeling is that if a child is obviously learning something and is enthusiastic about that learning, they're getting an education that is suitable to their ability.

The LA did describe DD2 as "very bright" in their report but I'm not sure if they arrived at this conclusion by talking to her, looking at her work, or because they know why she came out of school (in other words, they were told she was!). DD1 hasn't had her academic ability commented on at all, just that her education was suitable in all areas. Which I guess is all they should say, really.

I've been thinking quite seriously about HE and although DS is still very young I rang our LA to see what they would say. I spoke to a very lovely member of the HE team. She made it extremely clear that she couldn't interfere if I didn't want her to but at the same time she offered lots of support for if I felt I needed it.

I was offered pretty much everything from hands-off general guidance to specific lesson plans if required. It was ever so encouraging. I think the most useful and reassuring part of the conversation was the offer to put me in touch with other HE families so that we could share ideas / resources / activities / leisure time.