Ok I'm not sure why so many seem to be...well, militant!

[sorkycake]

We have made the decision to withdraw our daughter from school at the end of this term and to educate her ourselves. This is because we feel that we will undoubtedly to a better job than the school ever could, we don't subscribe to the educational philosophy in schools.
We have signed up to numerous groups, activity clubs, websites etc to help us in our journey and have decided to approximately follow the NC, as long as it makes sense for us to do so, rather than adopt a truly autonomous approach.
We have found a lot of good support within the HE network, however through discussions and reading literature it would appear that many HE'ers are very resistant to the LA's, and the EO websites sample letters for parents to use or adapt seem extremely formal and not friendly at all.
I understand that a degree of formality is required, but stating from the outset that you "do not have to comply..." etc seems to me to be poking a bear unecessarily.
I do understand that some LA's will be better than others, that parents may not wish to follow the NC and that obviously is up to the individual, but where is the harm in a little cooperation.
We have yet to encounter the LA in our area so I may feel differently in a couple of months, but so far we don't have a problem with the idea of the LA coming to see us to see that we are educating our kids, lets face it we couldn't possibly be as bad as school.
Just my musings really, would be genuinely interested in your thoughts on the matter.

I am home educating my DS1 (aged 10) primariive ly as we are living overseas at the moment. The LA, before we left, were supportive and constructive and pointed me in the direction of further support.

We generally follow the NC for English, Science and Maths but do everything else on an as and when basis.

I think that some of the conflict/resistance that SOME home educators have with LA's often stems from problems that have occurred prior to the removal of a child from school.... but I could be wrong .

primarily not primavvv or whatever came out !!

Some LEAs are well-known for trying to overstep the limits of their responsibilities.

Some families have had a very unhappy relationship with the LEA whilst their children were in school.

Some families have extremely positive relationships with the LEA, and accept home visits.

Some have extremely positive relationships with the LEA, and don't accept home visits.

I think it is like any community - there is a complete spectrum of people, ideas, personalities and experiences.

And the LEA contacts are obviously all different; some are dedicated and professional, and understanding and supportive of HE; others (sadly) are jumped up little jobsworths!

And, like any situation where children are involved, parents are naturally going to be protective and perhaps a little hostile, if they have witnessed their children being damaged by the school system, or experienced a lack of support from the LEA.

Good luck with HE, I'm sure you'll all love it, and I hope you have a positive relationship with your LEA contact, whether or not you decide to accept home visits.

sorkycake I also thought about doing it and have written to my LEA on the 31rst of October , still haven't heard back so may change my mind by the time i do as ds is slightly better at achool and wants to stay now. But I noticed the same thing particularly on the yahoo home ed group

But I learned a lot on that site like that it can take from 6 weeks to 3 months to hear back from the lea, I am in west lothian

I do kind of agree, sorky

I do feel that theres quite a lot of unnecesary antagonism at times.

there was one blog i read recently where the lea had offered various help and the response was "oh thats patronising...and they're trying to control us...and what do they know anyway". So what are the LEA to do?

I have absolutely no problem with the LA checking to see that we are educating our kids properly. I think it quite reasonable. And lets face it, some kids who are out of school are a welfare issue. (go to HESFES if you don't believe me ).

I do have a problem with the being rude and obstructive and oversteping the mark. I will deal with that if it happens just as I would deal with any other rude or obstructive official.

I wouldn't want to have to follow the NC.
I wouldn't want to be 'monitored' by the LA. How would they monitor? Would they use the same methods they use to monitor schools? I took my children out of school because I didn't agree with the way things were done. I would be very unhappy to have to reproduce that at home to fit in with the LAs view of education if that view was schooling. Home-education isn't school education.
I want my children to learn at their own pace suitable to their age, ability and aptitude not a generalised age-related curriculum pace which may not apply to my child.
As regards children being a welfare issue, perhaps every home should receive a welfare check regardless of whether children are educated in school or home. There are plenty of children in schools having a less than ideal home life but as far as I know no-one checks on them.
Education is the responsibility of the parents and is not a welfare issue. LAs only have a duty to intervene if it looks like education of the child is not taking place. Apart from that they don't really have any business interfering in the family.

Re Juuule's comment:

"As regards children being a welfare issue, perhaps every home should receive a welfare check regardless of whether children are educated in school or home. There are plenty of children in schools having a less than ideal home life but as far as I know no-one checks on them."

I absolutely agree; home education is not a child protection issue.

It is not the remit of the LEA to assess home educating families with regard to child welfare or child protection.

One (highly ill-informed) EWO visited the home of my home educating friend; she told her that she had to meet with her children because she "might be showing them porn or something!" She then laughed at the hilarity of her own joke.

As far as I'm aware, she stopped laughing right around the same time as the letter of complaint that my friend had written about her, landed on her manager's desk.

It is encounters such as this that sour the relationship between the LEAs and some HE families.

I can totally understand about that, that sort of comment is terrible

I object to being 'judged' by an agency (LA) that seem singularly incapable of effectively educating a vast amount of school children, but who like to insist that they have a right to visit my home and assess me.
They don't!
I will give them the information they require to satisfy themselves that I am educating my child satisfactorily, but other than that, they can butt out!
Perhaps if they offered the same financial support to home educated children that they do to schools to educate schooled children, I'd be more inclined to enter a LA/Home Ed love fest, or at least feel more obliged to provide them with the tonnes of evidence they seem to lust after.