Petition Against Home Ed Register

[Isawthesigns]

Now It Is Evident The Goverment Is Committed To A Register Of Children Not In School Which Will Be Followed By Assessments And Monitoring

Please Sign And Share The Petition Help Us Defend Our Right To HE Without State Interference

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/594065?fbclid=IwAR0o70ZNS9miOu6k8l769Kcu9XJnFbkAYggnqkbHzaknueGt39nnQrbhZTo

I'm also shocked there isn't already a register in place, and most certainly won't sign this petition. Those children who could so easily slip through the net, and reach adulthood with a severe lack of any sort of basic education/social skills, is an awful thought. I'm all for home education if it is done correctly, which for the vast majority it is, and home eductor parents are dedicated, and sacrifice their careers, time, and give their all, to educate their children to a high standard. But for a very small minority of children, denying them a "standard" state education and keeping them at home can be used as a means of control, and ultimately abuse. A register would be beneficial for that small minority, and anything that could potentially protect even one child, is worth it in my eyes.

I understand that it’s about the progress of the child - I’m talking about the standard of the education delivered against which the progress can be measured.

And how can the children receiving HE be registered to show they’re in receipt of that form of education?

Perhaps monitoring could be done in a similar way to targets on an ehcp? I like the idea of progress (value added?) being the mark of a good education rather than certificates. I sincerely doubt many would home ed if school was better. I think home ed could be supplemented for far less than the cost of having children in school so it would be totally achievable to give children much better outcomes.
I don’t recognise the description of children hurting each other at HE groups. The ones we have been to (lots) can be a bit boring/cold but aren’t like that at all!
If Health visitors hand over to the school nurse, surely it would be painless for them to also provide care for local home edders? Here the LA barely copes (actually fails but quietly) the children with Sen so I’d be unwilling to give them more lives to dick around with.

I know you are all convinced that HE is dreadful but sometimes I read on here of children who read at school once CD a week for 15 mins with a TA and I can’t help thinking that school isn’t that brilliant for lots of little people.

The problem I have with discussing how monitoring and measuring should be carried out is that the government is not being clear what the proposed register is trying to achieve.

Is there data on outcomes for HE children compared to school educated children. How big is the percentage of HE children (weighted for SEN) not reaching the school expected level? Big enough to warrant a blanket register?

If not providing an education that is progressive is a form of abuse then the government is guilty of this by not making schools accessible to all.

The number of HEd children is increasing. The government would do better to focus on the education system and funding it properly rather than a money wasting exercise.

One of the quickest ways to reduce the number of children not having contact with a school would be to introduce an internet based school such as inter high.

On-line doesn’t suit everyone and is cost prohibitive to many but free access to those that want it would be great.

Home educating families use lots of resources, many online but they are educating at home not doing school at home. At home school (like inter high) is a bit of an oxymoron for a home educating family. Oak Academy is different because it's not live. I can't see how that helps with safe guarding.

Of course interhigh is home Ed. It’s no different than paying a piano teacher for lessons. Home Ed isn’t women in gingham dresses reading little women to pigtailed tots.

Well that sounds kind school on the prairie? No, I agreed that home ed kids use internet resources. That wasn't the point. If you can't see how inter high is more aligned with school at home or indeed school at school, you haven't really got what home ed has to offer.

@Lobster5 really?. That’s a weirdly blinkered attitude to HE you’ve got there. There are loads of versions of HE because there are loads of versions of children and most parents choose what suits theirs. Inter high is just another resource and if it suits your child/family is great.

inter high is more aligned with school at home or indeed school at school, you haven't really got what home ed has to offer

School at home would suit some home schooling kids perfectly. Whilst some people may home school because of pedagogical beliefs and styles, some of us are homeschooling for health reasons or because they believe a school just isnt a safe place in a pandemic (or both).

My two would have jumped at inter high. I just couldn't afford it.

We didn’t find interhigh “school at home”, it’s just classes on line in a group in the mornings. It is expensive but for us was worth it for a short while. I guess if you don’t have much experience of schools you might be fooled into thinking it was the same. I found them excellent engaging tutors for my child who is particularly academic and flexible so we could be ahead of our age group. Nothing like attending school though.
Most home edders love to yack on about education (it is after all a huge part of our lives), I find that those who aren’t doing much or don’t feel their education could stand up to scrutiny are the most likely to be competitively advocating that their way/vision is the only way. The rest are usually fascinated in what others do and happy to copy anything that looks interesting.

@Lobster5 I’m sorry my last post sounds critical, I should have reread it before posting. What is it that you feel you understand about Home Ed that isn’t understood?

I was home educated. IMHO anything that prevents kids from being in the same situation that I was is a good thing. I was only home educated because my parents couldn't be arsed to do school runs and because they were so desperate to be "progressive" and to not be "sheep". I would bet that if my parents could have afforded private school then we wouldn't have been home educated, they just didn't want us going to a state primary like everyone else. They did fuck all to actually educate us.

I'm not knocking home Ed. One thing my parents did do was take us to lots of meet ups and we knew plenty of home Ed families who were clearly doing it for all the right reasons and doing the best they could for their kids. Home Ed is a brilliant thing, and there are some children who it benefits hugely. But it NEEDS to be regulated, parents should have to prove that it is in the best interests of the child/children.

@KilmordenCastle did you manage to get on in life despite your parents not getting you the education you deserved?

Registers are already in place. We know who children are who are HE.

What needs to improve is the oversight to ensure all children are getting a fair deal educationally.

Professionally I dealt with a minority of families using HE to push particular religious values and in other cases to 'shield' their daughters through removing them from the education system.
I wanted more oversight of the education that they were being offered, but there was limited contact that we could expect through policy.

deansgate

Can you explain what expertise you have that would enable you to assess if children were receiving an efficient education? Or what skills you have that would enable you to identify and resolve safeguarding issues? In my experience, people doing your job think access is the problem but have extremely limited training and expertise in anything but perhaps truancy issues or at a stretch, education at school.

Interhigh is no different to using a tutor.
My children are younger but sometimes do a Spanish class on outschool. A lot of parents we know sometimes use outschool or other online classes. Either for fun or just because they want/ need to outsource or supplement a subject. Same with traditional in-person tutors.
There's a big thing on home ed groups that any sort of formal work is 'school at home.' Usually feeling that they must be sat at the table 9-3 crying over piles of workbooks. Pretty far from the reality of everyone I know who does formal work. Most people who I've encountered are providing a good standard of education, but don't post in groups frequently if ever and wouldn't be interested in wasting their time arguing in the echo chamber.

5zeds

There's no argument here from me. I have no problem if you want to use inter high and wouldn't judge a family who was. Of course not. I'm sure there are children it suits. However, home education can be more flexible, practical, tailored to individual interests and individual learning paces than school. It would be a pity if no one pointed out that turning up for group classes online, if this was the bulk of the education provision, is missing those benefits. That said, my children who are home educated have classes here and there throughout the week. But they're chosen according to interest and ability level not age. Home educated children are often ahead or behind peers at different times so this is perhaps not relevant if you're not trying to fill in and keep up during the pandemic, which is of course also home education, just not of a kind we have seen before.

I'm not a terribly interesting home educator. We do take up some of the educational experiences home ed offers (unexpected zoo tours, beach and forest educational experiences with professionals, access to learning packages, aquariums, museums etc during school hours at a discount) and we try to do the whole build your own weather station, take spore prints, create an ecohabitat (all things any engaged parent does if time allows) according to the children's interests, but we also broadly follow the national curriculum and learn whatever is on it as a family, at different levels of complexity. Education is a family project with help where it's needed. You do move much faster with fewer children so catching up is easy to do if there is an area where the child hasn't been ready for something earlier and would be considered 'behind'. But feedback from tutors is that children are well ahead and motivated. I have great respect for those radical unschoolers as my experience is, one minute they're making a bonfire and catching fish, the next they're sitting GCSEs at twelve. I can understand how easily they pick things up later because they're very motivated.

pigtails

Locally most parents I know do formal work but we see each other outside of that so tend not to discuss it other than share resources.

There is already a register, however a few people slip through the net, so this would just mean there is nobody slipping through the net.
We are known to the LA and provide an annual report to show progress, what we have been up too etc, which I am in favour of being compulsory for all home ed children. But I think there should be some sort of requirement to attend a group at least once a week for socialisation. It's those children who are probably falling through the net.
Mine spend a full day at farm school for home educated children once a week (I'd like to do forest school but the farm school here is ofstead registered so we get money back from with UC top up whereas forest school we'd have to 100% fund ourselves and they love farm school anyway ). We usually attend a group once a week as a family for home ed children. 2, soon to be 3 normal after school clubs. Plus meeting friends, home ed days at the zoo etc.
We follow a curriculum (though not the NC), it's relaxed as we school week and year round.
This is quite common amongst my circle of home ed friends. Just plodding along.

But from groups I can see there's people who don't go to any groups or clubs, go to shops, park or museum and that's socialising and more accurate representation of real life. They do baking, use reading eggs and maths seeds I between other gaming and job done. Main motivation for reading apps can be because they want to read what it says on other games. Whereas to me that's just normal stuff everyone does regardless of school. (Well not the games but educational games or homework).
I think those families could require more oversight.

@Lobster5

pigtails

Locally most parents I know do formal work but we see each other outside of that so tend not to discuss it other than share resources.

Exactly! We just share ideas if we're looking for something, or politely ask how they're getting on with something we're interested in using. Or mention how X is loving this group etc. It's pretty normal in our circle. The FB groups are quite different to those we know just going about their lives home educating

How old are your children @Lobster5 ? Do you see them attending any institutional education ever? Are qualifications part of your/their goals?

For us interhigh was just another resource, and I’m slightly baffled at the negative slant on that. I have had children in all sorts of educational settings though and really believe education should be lead by the child though not in the way that is often used among home edders.

No. Keeping your child at home, potentially feeding them all kinds of misinformation is not a human right. This is what American flat-earthers, climate change deniers, antivaxers and faux-Christian extreme right wingers do. And someone lazy enough to copy and paste horrendously incorrect grammar without correcting it shouldn’t be educating any child.