Strange question I know but do you make sure your DC are seen more

[Heswall]

often than you would normally if they are home educated ?

We have nosey neighbours and it occurred to me that I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get a knock on the door when they realise my DC haven't gone back to school to find out what's going on or report me to SS for not sending them. Should I be making a point of taking them to the dentist, optician etc one had to go to the GP tomorrow for example should I take them all or am I worrying over nothing ? Just wondered what other people had experienced ?

You don't have to make sure your DC are seen more and you shouldn't pander to your neighbours or anyone else's notion that just because your children aren't seen, that you have something to hide.
I also have nosey neighbours on the estate where I live and my next door neighbour actually remarked to me one day that ''it's good that your grandson is ''seen''. She was sharply told to piss off and mind her own business.

My children were out and about and seen much more in the wide world, than their schooled peers, who were stuck in a room with 30 other people from 9-3 Mon-Fri, in term time.

I believe you, I just wondered if you'd encountered any issues with the "professionals"

We had our 1st LEA inspection last month and the 3 things she was most concerned with were - standards of maths and literacy and did the children go out/were they seen in public. I don't know what area you're in or whether you're known to the LEA so this may not affect you at all...and to be honest I just smiled sweetly and noddded at her comments/concerns while thinking to myself "Whatever...." (much as I used to when the girls were at school and we had parents evening ) but she commented on the fact they went to Brownies...took the dog out for a walk every day etc. (does that prove you don't abuse tou're children then?)

Why not just tell your neighbours you HEd when you next see them?

I've had issues with A professional. Just one though, the rest (and with 4 kids, one with severe medical issues and another in a medical study, we see quite a few!) are have been mostly lovely with no issues with it.

The only bad apple has been a Paediatric GP, that I had to see to get my eldest DS seem by an NHS speech and language therapist. She has major issues with anything outside the mainstream and taking any advice, medical or otherwise, as superior to hers (even the hospital's skin specialists' advice on how to care for my kids' skin and how often to bathe, she's taken us following those guidelines over hers as a real insult and writes about it in all her "reports" and at the last appointment even had a go at my 5 year old about it until DD1 was upset ). My DH has been going along with it as he worries about not going causing trouble, even though we have a lovely GP that the kids already see when needed, I'm trying to find a way to get out from under her care (my DS isn't even under SALTs anymore, I don't know why any of my other DCs are even considered under her care). I think the next time they try to make an appointment, I'm just going to call and say I refuse to work with her any more due to her attitude. I could go on for hours about the problems we've had with her, she's really a piece of work, but you get them in all professions.

I wouldn't take my kids out more or have them see professionals any more than needed just because we home education. I don't think services would get involved just due to that.

Mine haven't any health issues at all (touch wood) or any additional educational needs (again touch wood) so it should be really straight forward.

I just thought I'd get them to the dentist whilst they are at home because we struggle to get an appointment outside school times.
They hated brownies and cubs so that's a no go, do go to dance, gymnastics, drama and music lessons though so they aren't locked in the basement.
I doubt the LEA will even know about us tbh unless somebody alerts them as they were in private education and when I took them out of state nobody bothered to check we had actually put them into the other school which I think is shocking.

No, I've never bothered as such. We just get on and do life. We do have skating and singing lessons in the day (among other stuff) so there are people who see them on a regular basis in school time who could back us up if ever it was needed. I can't see why it ever would be, though.

We've had a few nosey questions from bitchy neighbour who occasionally drops veiled hints about reporting children who are neglected/ doing nothing all day. This makes me delight in letting them play in the garden in PJs at 2pm Go ahead, I say, and see just how far you get!!

We are out and about a lot anyway but if we weren't yes I would make an effort to make it happen. We had an encounter with SS a while back and in that sort of scenario it does matter. The reasoning is that an abused school child would be spotted by schoolteachers (like it always is, right?!), but if no-one regularly sees a home-ed child....well!

I think a regular trip to the library is a good way to deal with this. Another big thing for SS is that parents are 'involved' in their children's health. Occasional contact with gp's, dentists etc, is an easy way to assuage any doubts on that front. God forbid you would ever have any dealings with SS, of course, but having been there already myself I am conscious of the things we do that would look 'good' and those that would not. I haven't changed much, but I was grateful when they descended that we ticked most boxes anyway.

I think that was at the back of my mind Bugaloo
We go to the dentist every 6 months for a check up, I might make a point of having an unnecessary eye test and of course if they are ill they'll go to the GP but I'm hoping being away from masses of kids sent to school when they are unwell because the school requires 100% will mean mine will be healthier as a result

Mmmm, suspect I might not tick some of those boxes! DD1 maybe as she has some health issues and sees two hospitals on a fairly regular basis. DD2 not so much. She's seen the doctor once in her entire life when she was a year old and has never had any vaccinations. She hasn't been to the dentist for ages since she got a bit of a phobia and I didn't want to push it. We may well look like service avoiders, but DD2 just doesn't do ill! Heswall as you say, being out of school helps!

But we are seen a lot at the ice rink, dance school and various other places. Plus the LA bloke (I know not everyone wants LA involvement but ours is great) would back us to the hilt. He's seen them enough (and been kept for 4 hours by DD2's endless chatting more than once) to know they're doing fine.

Mine are much older now, so these things are less of a worry anyway. I'm willing to bet that if I actually did need help with a 16 and 12 year old, SS would be reluctant to do much, judging from the posts in teens.....

It's an interesting topic, something I've never really thought about before.

I think if you have LA visits then that is absolutely enough! I think SS would only worry about a child who appeared to be being 'hidden from sight'. The thing with the GPs etc, I should have mentioned that came up in our situation because we are also non-vaxing - SS want to make sure that's because the parent is 'involved' in their children's health and has made an active decision, rather than simply 'couldn't be bothered'!

It was quite exceptional that SS were involved in our life, and nothing to do with home-ed, and they went away happy in the end - but it did leave me with this fear that it could happen again, totally out of the blue as it did then, and it also left me very clear about what their tick boxes are, as we had to tick them all!!