Home education practitioner

[Mrsmagpie80]

Hello everyone i have been reading through the posts and they are so informative. I have recently been employed by my local authority as a elective home education practitioner after teaching for 20 years. I have always had an interest in home schooling myself and had I been braver I probably would’ve left school and home schooled my own children which is why my interest in this role was sparked. My question to you guys is what will be my barriers to engaging with families? What kind of support would parents appreciate? I’m keen to be helpful rather than seen as nosy!
Thanks in advance.

Historically, there has been a certain amount of mutual distrust between the home ed community and LA elective home education departments. I think this is partly due to the amateurish approach which LAs often take to the job. Few LAs provide proper staff training. LAs tend to create their policies for dealing with EHE families either by copying the (sometimes unlawful) policies of other LAs, or simply by concocting whatever takes their fancy. As a result, staff end up in the position of implementing policies which are at odds with the law.

Home educators have audited LA policies and discovered that the vast majority of LAs do not represent home ed law accurately in all respects. But we have no power to enforce changes, as the DfE refuses to get involved, and the LGO upholds complaints only if the LA doesn't stick to its own published policy - but not if that policy is actually unlawful! People get quite angry about all this.

So if you look through your policies and compare them to the law and to DfE guidance on home education, it's highly likely you'll find that you are being asked to act in ways which home ed parents may find objectionable. You won't be popular with your bosses if you walk in to the job and tell them they are doing it all wrong.

If yours is one of the rare LAs which is fully compliant with the law, you may still be viewed with suspicion because home educators in other, worse areas will have warned people not to trust the LA. We do swap horror stories.

And then LAs often distrust parents. Their policies have been designed around the idea that parents may be harming or neglecting their children, or that parents are likely to lie about how they educate. If you are being asked to check up on parents and catch them out, it can be difficult not to feel distrustful toward parents yourself.

Saracen that is so helpful thank you. It’s really helpful to hear your experiences. I really hope I can make a difference and I will ask questions if it’s clear government guidance and the local authority policy do not match. From what I know so far the team are very keen on building strong relationships with parents so I’m hoping I can break down barriers.

Follow the law

understand that home education encompasses a wide range of educational philiosophies from school at home to radical unschooling and do some reading around all of them especially the ones that are less familiar to you

Respect different families will want different levels of involvement with you. Many will simply want to do the minimum which is a report on what they are doing at most once a year. Do not ask for work samples ( remember many children won’t produce conventional ‘work’,) photos, copies of resources. This is overstepping and inappropriate

Point families to local existing groups

Families are more likely to be engaged by carrots than sticks so discounts for local educational outings etc may be appreciated and build trust

Do some reading around SEND and different needs. A high percentage of home educated children have SEN. Mental health issues and ASD are common. Understanding the needs of children will help you understand their parents’ educational provision.

Remember home education in itself is not a safeguarding issue. Treating parents as if they present a danger to their children does not build trusting relationships.

Remember it’s home education not home schooling because we are not trying to imitate school. Many families will have had negative experiences of teachers and schools, most others chose home education because they wanted something very different to conventional schooling.

Incredibly helpful thank you so much 😊

Home Ed families are generally distrustful of local authorities. Many have pulled they're kids after LA refusal to accommodate additional needs.

The barriers you want to remove will be different for people at different stages of the HE life and of course people will all have different views.

For me your statement that you want to build strong relationships with parents is a massive red flag. That implies you think you have a right to a role in our and our children's lives. But relationships work both ways. Why would people who have been happily HE for many years and where there are absolutely no concerns welcome a complete stranger who has absolutely nothing to offer them being in contact with them.

There will be parents who want or need your involvement and many newer families who almost expect it but there are many - like us - who see no point in it.

Our LA has historically been hands off, no contact for years and so now suddenly we are going to be expected to build a strong relationship with them - for what purpose? Why would we bother? Its not about trust or the lack of it - its there is absolutely nothing to be gained by it, its totally pointless. LA's do not have anything to offer us of any benefit and the annual reports are utterly meaningless when you have no knowledge of the children involved, so are tick box exercises at best. Most people grudgingly supply the report if requested but put minimal effort into it and see no value to the interaction and would happily sever all contact with you. No one I have ever met wants more from their relationship with the LA - far from it - they all want less.

Luckily our LA is not even insisting on annual reports but are happy with a nothings changed email - but even that sticks in my throat after 30 years of no contact at all. I am sorry to say it but amongst most HE families i know your departments are a laughing stock, not respected at all - at least all of them surrounding us are.

Sorry this is not a very constructive reply - but its the reality you will face. Unless your LA has allocated a substantial amount of money to your department to spend on SEN support or access to exams then I'm afraid your role is going to be Policing the HE community and judging them against current and any new requirements that may come in. This is always going to be a distrusted position.

I think maybe think really hard about what you have to offer home educating families, beyond what we gain from our existing networks.

I'm not really sure what someone without HE experience has to offer to HEers. I know what you can offer the LA in terms of monitoring etc but that's not to our family's benefit is it? (Assuming we're doing a decent job!)

Maybe it's more accurate (on the part of the LA I mean) to say "we want to keep an eye on you guys and we can't force you but we will offer inducements" - I know the toxicity of it all is not your fault and it sounds like you're doing your best but I'm really not going to get involved with my LA if there's nothing in it for my son.

Anyway, support. The only thing people I know are likely to want is faster NHS SEN referrals. Everyone I know has gone private.

The only thing that I can think of that would benefit our family would be to ensure that our children have access to a local exam centre. Currently there isn’t one in our (vast) council area which seems pretty unfair.

I would second support with finding an exam centre. Approach schools on behalf of home educators and try to draw up a list. It isn't about funding it's access. Home educators desperately need local exam centres. Many travel several hours, and have to stay overnight. In particular centres that can accommodate access arrangements are desperately required.

Sincerely appreciate your responses thank you so much.

Can l just say to the ones struggling to find exam centres, my HE son is sitting his Igcses at a local independent college in November, and the fees are much chesort than the exam centres. It is a small private college that is mostly used by international students. I just emailed.them on the off chance as the exam centres were quite a distance, and they were happy to accommodate him. So worth checking the same in your local area.

Sorry, but as a prospective HE parent, I don't really want any relationship with the LA at all. I know where to go for support and for me that would never be the LA. I view the LA entirely as a nuisance who may cause me some extra paperwork.

I'm sorry that's so brutal, particularly as you actually sound lovely, but it's true.

Piccadilly it is brutal 😂 but thank you so much for your honesty. I really appreciate everyone’s views.

I've been thinking some more about this, because although what I said was honest, it's probably not very helpful to you.

So, I thought, if I were working in your job and so had to do something, what would I do?

Here's some suggestions. With the caveat that these need to be offered, not pushed, and if any family chooses not to take advantage, that is in no way a cause for concern. I would suggest the most appropriate way of making HE families aware of these things would be a website where they are listed.

Are there ways for HE children to be able to join in with intra-school activities, e.g. music service/ county children's orchestra (if there is one)? If not, why not, and can you make arrangements?

Can under 16s join in with any adult education courses offered in your area? For safeguarding reasons, they might need to be accompanied by a parent, but otherwise there should be no reason why not.

Do the LA ever run competitions for school children (e.g. "design a recycling poster" - you've probably seen the sort of thing)? If so, what are the arrangements for HE children to be able to enter? What happens if they win (particularly if some/ all of the prize is resources for the school)?

I reiterate that not all families will want to use these services, but some may.

I meant inter-school, not intra-school, obviously! That will teach me to try and type while feeding the baby.

I'm on a roll now - I have another suggestion. How about preparing an info sheet to be used internally within the LA for those who may come into contact with HE families, to make it clear what the rights of HE families are? This might be a useful starting point to gather info: www.educationotherwise.org/starting-out/. HE families often have poor relationships with the LA because of people they have met within the LA who do not understand HE. If you can deal with some of the misconceptions within the LA, you stand a better chance of building good relationships with families.

Agreed - access to exam centres is the one thing people say over and over that they want from their LA. We anticipate that access will be worse than ever in the next few years. During Covid, Centre-assessed grades created a lot of extra work for exam centres who took on private candidates. Given that they are not obliged to take private candidates, it will be no surprise if they decide we are too much trouble, and choose to wash their hands of us.

Piccadilly I really appreciate your ideas thank you so much! ♥️

The vast majority of home educators are great and they will engage with you as required but I've met a few who seem to think they know best but are really wrecking their child's education because it's all about passing exams ridiculously young and not allowed to see other kids, then there's a small minority who don't bother educating much at all, it's more because they don't want the authorities engaging with their family - they need your help most but they are not going to voluntarily talk to you. One family I know openly admitted to not educating the girls past 12, terrible

I appreciate your enthusiasm and willingness to come to home educators and ask like this.

First, you no doubt already know about many of the “concerns” about home education and home educators. It’s important to realise that home education has been politicised just as the home education system has. As a teacher, you probably already recognise this. Home educators represent the whole range of learning philosophies just as private and state schools do but home educators are an easy target for lobbyists pursuing their own agendas. There are some people who object to religious people so they attack home education; there are some people who object to autonomous education so they attack home education. Every lobby group interested in education can find something in home education which they can object to & use to pursue their own agenda - and that’s at a national level. Every time one of these groups starts using our lives for their own purposes our collective blood pressure rises.

Then we have local authorities who generally employ lesser qualified people (ours is required to have A levels and so may be less academically qualified than us as parents) who have little or no knowledge of HE, but are surrounded by suspicious safeguarding teams who don’t normally deal with average families at all. If you are placed with social workers in children’s services rather than in education then that’s immediately a red flag for us. It means the LA has a default negative outlook towards HE and there’s not really a lot you’ll be able to do about that in the short term. Make a long term plan perhaps.

Finally, imagine you had made a lifestyle decision in the best interests of your family because that is what home education is - a life choice. Imagine you made a choice to, say, make your family vegetarian. Now imagine that various groups of people in national and local politics who disliked vegetarians (and what they stand for) sought to link your choice to an increasingly bizarre list of negative outcomes; told massive untruths; misrepresented statistics and demanded access to your family home to ensure you were feeding your children correctly. Would you want any kind of relationship with those people?

The reaction you receive won’t be personal even though it is noted that you are clearly friendly and keen.

Other people often say offer incentives but, to be honest, what an individual officer could offer is fairly small. It won’t be of interest to many of us.

Our family does wish you all the best in your new role and hopes you have smooth days.

Honestly, if you would like to understand why home educating parents may refuse to interact with you, then this probably a great example that shows how individuals are abusing the powers the state gives them to essentially force their personal preferences upon some families.

“ Cllr Barnes said: "As a former teacher I do not agree with elective home education. I think there are very few occasions when it is appropriate."

“ "We still as a council have a responsibility, and although we don't agree with it particularly, we are encouraging home-educated families to keep in touch with us and we are offering them services to help deliver their education.”

“We are hoping that by showing we are concerned about their children and their welfare that in fact we can encourage them to come back into the regular education system."

www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/teaching-kids-home-rarely-appropriate-21544992.amp

I'm so glad the LA is going to be more hands on. My younger sibling was home educated from 3 onwards and there were about two home visits in all that time. She wasnt really educated and now as a young adult has exactly 3 GCSEs to her name, one is a D grade. No SEN. Controlling conspiracy theorist parents. Contrast with myself. State school educated, uni educated to post grad level, and now independent of the mad family

I'm sure there are good home educating families whose children have good educational and social outcomes. However for the sake of all home educated children there need to be safeguarding and educational checks to support children's right to an education.

Yes but those of us that aren't conspiracy theorists and who do actually make sure our kids learn have enough to do without seeking out LA bods to satisfy. I'll cooperate with them to the extent the law specifies but I wouldn't deliberately give myself more admin to do 🥱

My dc was home edded, 8 GCSEs and just got AAB at A level. We are not all conspiracy theorists.
We had very limited contact with the LA and when I did require assistance which if I recall correctly was something to do with exam centres, I received an automated e-mail that the HE officer was only available in term time.
Oh how I laughed
I think you have your work cut out OP.