Wll the LA ask to visit if my child is not yet 5?

[threelittlerapscallions]

I have just deregistered DD from school after 1 term and begun Home ed. She is not 5 yet. Everything is going well and she is so much happier being taught at home. I wondered if the LA will want to visit me as she is not 5 until the Spring. Also what are your experiences with LA visits? Did any of you find them useful or would it be better to refuse? I am just worried I will get some jobsworth who is critical of Home Ed!!

If the LA ask to visit (which they should not), then write back and say "please contact me again in writing once my child is of compulsory school age". But she doesn't have to be in full time education till then, so the LA has nothing to check up on.
You'll get two very strong and opposite views about LA visits. Basically, if you are nice and middle class and conventional, with a house full of clearly educational product and a child who is confident, sunny, open and forthcoming with strangers, then there is nothing to be feared from an LA visit. But if you are not a curriculum/workbook family, have a child who is shy, anxious, or neuro-diverse, and don't have a nice middle class accent with clear higher level educational success yourself, you will be much more at the mercy of the prejudices of the LA staffer who comes out to see you. The people I know who the LA have given a hard time are, to a woman, people whose education ended at 18 or 16, and who have local accents, and whose partners do "blue collar" jobs.

Thanks ommmward.

It is terrible that the LA are so prejudiced against different tyes of people.

I am an ex teacher, both DH and I have degrees and 'nice' accents though not massively posh and live in a flat not a big house! DD is shy with strangers and was unhappy at school as she is better in small groups with people she knows. Maybe better to decline the visit after she is 5??

Also oh wise Mumsnetters what happens if you decline the LA visit? Do they then just leave you alone? Also what happens if we have moved house and don't get the letter?

Depends on your LA. Mine tried first to tell me a home visit was a legal requirement. When they discovered I knew otherwise, they pressed me to supply information in some other form, ideally including samples of the child's work. Most HEors are willing to stump up some info in a format of their own choosing. A few refuse on principle to provide anything at all UNLESS the LA can demonstrate it has reason to believe the child's education is inadequate.

After that it is likely they will contact you annually to request a visit if possible and a written update otherwise. Again, most HE families are willing to have the visit or send an update, but some parents object to any updates on the grounds that this constitutes "routine monitoring" for which there is no legal basis.

Some LAs are drawing back from the routine monitoring so once they have seen a family once or twice and have no concerns (which as ommmward says tends to apply more to the middle-class two-parent non-disabled families), they leave the family alone altogether.

What will happen if you move house and don't tell them where you've gone? Probably nothing. They may make some effort to find you. You certainly won't be in any trouble, as there is no obligation to register with them to say you are HE.

Thanks Saracen. Would feel weird to tell them if we move - a bit like Big Brother is watching!!!

I would be OK with a written update once a year but think will decline the visit.