First home visit

[NK346f2849X127d8bca260]

Basically what happens on the first home visit from education welfare, have been home edding since November and not sure what i will be expected to show
work wise ( worried about being interrogated)

You don't have to have a visit. There is no obligation for you to have them in your home. You can send in a report of anything you've done so far.

Do you want to have a home visit NK346f2849X127d8bca260?

In short, the LA have the right to ask about the home education you are providing, but the choice of how to provide information is always the parents.

The Department of Education have published guidelines for LAs about home education-they are not difficult to read and worth looking at so you can stand your ground, whatever choices you make.
edyourself.org/articles/guidelines.php

Section 3.6 of those guidelines state:

"Some parents may welcome the opportunity to discuss the provision that they are making for the child?s education during a home visit but parents are not legally required to give the local authority access to their home. They may choose to meet a local authority representative at a mutually convenient and neutral location instead, with or without the child being present, or choose not to meet at all. Where a parent elects not to allow access to their home or their child, this does not of itself constitute a ground for concern about the education provision being made. Where local authorities are not able to visit homes, they should, in the vast majority of cases, be able to discuss and evaluate the parents? educational provision by alternative means. If they choose not to meet, parents may be asked to provide evidence that they are providing a suitable education. If a local authority asks parents for information they are under no duty to comply although it would be sensible for them to do so. Parents might prefer, for example, to write a report, provide samples of work, have their educational provision endorsed by a third party (such as an independent home tutor) or provide evidence in some other appropriate form."

so you don't have to have a visit at all, you can send in a written report if you'd prefer-ask for more info about this if you want it, your child does not have to be present if you do have a visit, and you don't have to show any work.

We've never had a home visit, the children didn't wish to meet the LA, nor did they wish to show any work, so we didn't. Instead we sent in a report and the LA were satisfied.

IF you choose to have a visit, remember that Section 3.13 states:

Home educating parents are not required to:

teach the National Curriculum
provide a broad and balanced education
have a timetable
have premises equipped to any particular standard
set hours during which education will take place
have any specific qualifications
make detailed plans in advance
observe school hours, days or terms
give formal lessons
mark work done by their child
formally assess progress or set development objectives
reproduce school type peer group socialisation
match school-based, age-specific standards.

so they shouldn't be asking for any of that!

hope that helps?

sorry should have made the link to the Guidelines for you

I agree - we have never had a home visit or felt we would benefit from one. Write a brief letter saying that everything is going well and that you see no need for a visit - unless you actually want one.

So i don't have to show them the work he has done? was getting anxious as we have not got alot formally written down but i think he has learnt far more in the last 3 months than he did in the whole of last school year ( school now on emergency measures)

Thanks for all the info you have given me.

Hunt about and you should easily find example letters. Get to know local 'pro' HErs and you will learn a lot from the. - any council person who visits you is unlikely to know much that is useful - since they are not doing HE themselves!!

I hope you enjoy HE!!

I am enjoying the HE and ds has settled in to it very well, working much better than i though he would. I am planning to only do this until a place comes up at another school, but i think i will miss it when he restarts school. Mind you if younger ds doesn't get a place at chosen school in September i will home ed him then.

No you don't have to show any work.
If the EWO asks for it, just remind them that it is the child's intellectual property and not theirs, so you don't have to show it-and that it is not a legal requirement.

You don't have to do anything you don't want to.

When they arrive tell them you are willing to have an informal chat about home education, but will not be showing them any formal work.

It might help you to have the Guidelines I linked to above printed out and the relevant bits highlighted.
You can point them out to the EWO if necessary, but I think you'll find it empowering in many ways to show the LA that you know the law regarding HE.

Hope the visit goes ok for you.

I didn't show the inspector any of my children's work. He did make sounds about seeing something but I said I had promised them they didn't have to have their work inspected. Which worked.

The visit started with us all sitting at table and I told the inspector that my children were a little nervous and could he explain a little about himself and why he had come to visit. I seated the inspector opposite the bookshelves in the kitchen which are heaving with books and resources, which worked as they were mentioned :)

Then it just flowed on from there. I showed him examples of work books we use, we chatted about the daily structure (which we don't necessarily follow every day but he liked an idea of structure), and he gave a couple of recommendations, and that was that. My children weren't unduly stressed and I think in the end they enjoyed their opportunity to shine, talking about their project work and also talking through the huge family tree of toys which they had made previously and was on the kitchen wall. In fact they chatted a lot!

Oh, and we had baked biscuits specifically for him that morning

We had a home visit after the LEA rang up and asked if they could pop in - it was a very positive experience. The children were keen to show him their work and he was so very encouraging to them.

We were asked questions purely for statistics eg. why do we home educate, do we use a set curriculum etc and the whole thing was very friendly, unthreatening and positive. We are reasonably structured (mornings only) so I did have things to show. I probably wouldn't have accepted if we were fully autonomous as I don't think that would go down well with the LEA!

Hi NK346f2849X127d8bca260

Are you in England?

As others have said, you don't have to agree to a home visit. I'm not clear whether a visit has already been booked but you can cancel or postpone it if you prefer.

What I found useful was to send something in writing before anyone came round to my home (I knew visits were optional but I was engaged in dispute with my son's dad at the time) which explained a bit about my views on home education and how it worked in practice. I thought it would save my getting irritated or anxious if certain questions came up.

If you get a "people person" (sigh) though, they don't read stuff and prefer to talk, so you have to deprive them of your company while you go into kitchen to put kettle on, saying brightly "here's another copy of what I sent you, just to refresh your memory while I make us a cup of tea." I'm not saying this is necessary, but it worked for us.

"If you get a "people person" (sigh) though, they don't read stuff and prefer to talk, so you have to deprive them of your company while you go into kitchen to put kettle on, saying brightly "here's another copy of what I sent you, just to refresh your memory while I make us a cup of tea." I'm not saying this is necessary, but it worked for us."

Great strategy, Fiona! I wouldn't have thought of that. I hate it when I write something up for somebody and send it to them in advance and then they don't appear to have read it.

At the end of a half-day assessment the neurodevelopmental psychology chap at the hospital was still asking my 5yo dd about school!! Every time I corrected him and mentioned the four pages I had sent him in lieu of a school report, in which I explained about autonomous education and not doing formal work, he said "Well OK, but I mean when you do schoolwork at home..." He did not seem to take in the concept that we don't do schoolwork at home and that learning is not a separate activity for dd. The high point came when he asked dd for the third time, "What's your favourite thing to learn about at school?" (silence) "When you sit down and do work, what's your favourite thing?" (pause) and my daughter finally answered decisively, "My teddy is my favourite thing." I thought that was a great answer!

Saracen, that is about the cutest thing Ive heard in a long time (and I troll thru lolcats all day some days, thats still cuter).

Grandson bored the face off our LA visitor. The look on her face was classic as she did her best to appear interested. She couldn't get out the door quick enough.

Pokemon wasn't her strong point:)

We get inspected in France every year. The inspector turns up (for about half an hour) with some tests for DS to do that are laughably easy. He is fluent in french, and the first year she expected him to do everything in french. Second and third years she let me translate which was fun. She was forced to admit how very far ahead of french school he was in all subjects. I loved it. I'm really looking forward to her coming again this year as he is now years ahead of where he would be in school. Can't wait.

DS and I look on it as a good bit of showing off that we are better than she expects us to be.