Rude woman!

[Mama1980]

Hi I am home edding my 4 year old son who would be starting school this September. I replied to the schools application letter saying j did not require a place as I am home ed, got a email back saying ok thanks for letting us know. Well today I got a call from a lea woman who in my opinion was pretty rude. She wanted to know why I didn't want a school place, didn't I know educating my son is a legal obligation? I explained that I'd informed people etc and she basically told me I was wrong! Then began asking all kinds of questions about how was I going to socially provide for my son etc?! She then said well I'll send someone around to talk further. Now at this point I was pretty mad so just left it as I didn't want I be rude in return, but seriously?! I don't have to accept a visit do I? And I wouldn't be unreasonable to complain?

No you don't have to have a LEA visit. Also a child does not have to start school until the term after its 5th Birthday. I am a home-ed and have been doing it for 8+ years, and I also have a four year old who would be due to start in September.

I have always had LEA visits as that is just how we have played it. They have always been fine, with positive outcomes. But you have to decided for yourself.

If they want to visit, Just say that you need time to prepare and get started.

Also people send thier children to school for education, not socialisation.

Im sorry that happened to you mama
Your op shows just how differently different LEAs behave - mine doesnt care all that much
complete opposite

You dont have to accept a visit, you dont have to show them examples of what you are doing. I would send them a letter with a few sentances about your intention to HE and your approach (literally a paragraph total). Say thanks very much for their interest but you are happy in your choice and would prefer it if they left you alone.

I hope you and your dc love home educating!

If he's never been registered at a school, there is nothing they can do about it. You don't have to tell them anything at all, ever iirc. It's children who have been at school and then deregistered that have to prove the education etc. Our LEA had a go at bullying us when we started out, with letters with really formal wording, and witterings about the national curriculum, and teaching qualifications and suchlike, but luckily I wasn't taken in intimidated by them. I keep recommending Education Otherwise today but there pages about the legal stuff are really clear and helpful.

their pages too

"It's children who have been at school and then deregistered that have to prove the education etc."

PomBear, there is no legal distinction between children who have always been HE and those who have been deregistered from school and are now HE. I think that there is a myth about this among some home educators, probably due to the fact that children who've never been to school (esp if they've never even applied for a school place) are less likely to be known to their LA as home educated, so in practice their parents may not get bothered by the LA. By contrast, the LA always know about children who've been withdrawn from state school because the headteacher is required to tell the LA.

Everybody with a school-aged child is in the same boat legally: you don't have to prove anything to the LA, but you are generally advised to provide them with some information about the child's home education. That can be in any format of your choice. (Some HE parents refuse on principle to provide any info to the LA except confirming the fact that they HE, on the grounds that they are not legally required to provide info. Depends whether they are ready to risk going to court to prove the point.) Ultimately the only time you would ever have to prove anything is if you were taken to court, and then it would be the court you must satisfy, not the LA.

But as numbertaker points out, the OP's son is not yet of compulsory school age - in England and Wales that begins in the term after his fifth birthday - so his parents don't yet have a legal obligation to educate him in any way and they will not officially be home educating him until then. So if the LA makes any enquiries I'd suggest reminding them that he is not yet of compulsory school age. That buys a good long while to find your feet educationally and think about what sort of relationship you want to play things with the LA.

For parents in England and Wales I quite agree with the recommendation of EO as a good starting point for the legalities. Schoolhouse.org.uk for Scotland.

Yes she was rude, but I think staff in Birmingham have not got over Khyra Ishaq.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8512503.stm

Birmingham?
Have you been working with Birmingham LA then, about home education policies as well sashh? Have we met there?

Interestingly Justice King, who dealt with Khyra's schooled siblings, pointed out that home educating was not the problem, but that poor practice by Birmingham' LA was. They knew full well about Khyra and her siblings and did nothing.
When a child is home educated, SW have every right to investigate and see the child and take appropriate action.
Khyra's siblings were in school and starving.
A fact well known by SWs and the LA in Birmingham.