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

Of course it's not all home schooling families and the nice middle class committed home schoolers think they must all be like them, but they're not.

Unbelievable.

So the people who support this register are in favour of a system where your home educated children are more likely to be scrutinised if they can't afford to go to beach school.

No. Words.

14:055zeds

You're strangely antagonistic. Yes, I do have ideas as I'm sure you do for your own children. I'm not sure why you're interested in my children? I'm confident yours are doing fine with whatever they're planning to do but I don't need the details?

Oh I've just realised. Do you think mine won't get qualifications because they're not at inter high? Or because they learn at their own pace and follow their interests? Don't worry, they can still manage the sats and they're interests luckily with accumulating knowledge generally, probably because they have no other access to screens so aren't addicted to gaming. Yes I am biased about that, can't imagine being keen to learn if there's an ongoing opportunity to game and think most school and home ed fails are probably due to this in the absence of abysmal support and Sen issues.

LEAs are going after the wrong thing. They're spending money to get kids back in failing schools. Improve the education and pastoral provision and many children would stop being home ed tomorrow.

their interests luckily align

It’s not really your children I was interested in (though I’m sure they’re lovely) it’s more I wondered if they were secondary or primary age (ie above or below 11) and how you balanced not wanting to choose for them and trying to make sure their options weren’t limited. Your aversion to screens/interhigh is distracting as is your insistence that some things are “school at home” and some “home education” with the latter I think being “better”.

My experience is that HE is very different as children get older and parents seem to change too. I wondered if you disliked interhigh based on trying it and it not suiting you/the children or if it was more your perception of it.

I think you're assumed things that aren't the case. I have an aversion to gaming. We have every learning app going. I haven't found a conflict between my children's interests and their ambitions. I'm not sure why there should be one. That seems a bit defeatist. I'm not remotely hardcore.

I don’t think you sound hardcore at all @Lobster5. I know hundreds of parents who aren’t keen on gaming both in and out of school. It’s almost as prevalent as not liking junk food or being pro daily exercise.

The age of the children and what they hope to achieve (ie are they going into school at some point, or college or Uni or are they heading for work) does impact the provision.

@Trymonnia

I also feel like a lot of people forget how much bullying and trauma can result from actually attending school.

Home educating parents are consistently questioned (by themselves as much as anyone else!) as to whether they're doing the right thing by their child in not sending them to school. I very much doubt that parents of schooled children question whether they're doing the right thing in sending their child to school.

This. All too often the question when a child or young person starts refusing to go to school is 'how do we make them go back?' All kinds of punishment, coercion (and sometimes even physical force) get suggested, and if school makes them utterly miserable they're told that they have to get used to it because everyone has to go.

If a child was desperately unhappy, constantly anxious or self-harming because they hated being homeschooled, the homeschooling parents would almost certainly be blamed for it. But if it's at school? The child gets the blame, for not fitting in with everyone else.

if school makes them utterly miserable they're told that they have to get used to it because everyone has to go.

I often see that one touted WRT why kids "should" go to school. "Don't you want to teach them that they have to do unpleasant things sometimes - it's just part of life!"

No I don't want to teach them that, thanks.

If a child was desperately unhappy, constantly anxious or self-harming because they hated being homeschooled, the homeschooling parents would almost certainly be blamed for it. But if it's at school? The child gets the blame, for not fitting in with everyone else.

This. But a biased regulator would not see that or care. They'd pack the child off to school and the referrals/provision that never comes would be someone else's problem. Meanwhile if the child doesn't toe the line they're sent home and the parent is blamed for their behaviour and blamed if they try to offer alternative provision.

@Trymonnia

if school makes them utterly miserable they're told that they have to get used to it because everyone has to go.

I often see that one touted WRT why kids "should" go to school. "Don't you want to teach them that they have to do unpleasant things sometimes - it's just part of life!"

No I don't want to teach them that, thanks.

Yes! Along with the idea that if they don't go to school they'll never be able to cope with a job, so you should make them go. Actually I wouldn't want to teach a child that a job where workplace bullying and/or draconian policies are wrecking their mental health is something they should stick at.

Naturally certain things in life that are unpleasant are things we all have to do whether we want to or not. Cleaning the toilet for example.

All I know is the things I hated at school at 5 are the things I still hate now, at 34. I don't see why I would put my son through that for 13 years if I have another perfectly viable option.

There are so many problematic things about school it's unreal. The whole emphasis on pleasing adults, for one.

School does many, many good things. There are many individual teachers who are wonderful. But the system itself is all kinds of fucked and efforts should be focused on fixing that, not coming after home ed parents.

Here in Australia all homeschooled kids are on a register its to make sure the kids are being taken care of

I support your petition

I am in 2 minds really. We home edded ds1(now 22) then he chose to go to secondary and we home ed ds2 who is 14.Both known to LA. I would hope that the Educational Welfare Officers have a broad mind when it comes to home ed. We have been fortunate in oyr dealings. One approach does not work. If it becomes rigidly target(test) driven etc I think that would defeat the object for many home edders.

@Trymonnia..agree!

@MrsHookey

I would prefer a register. I worry about some kids dropping off the radar and being vulnerable to abuse, like that boy in Wales who was neglected by his parents and died of scurvy.

I am sure there are many parents out there doing sterling work, while there are other people neglecting their children and claiming they home educate. Someone surely needs to check that children are actually being home educated.

They already do/should. The local authority know about all children in the area and ask them to apply for school. When I refused my daughter's school place the local authority were informed I was going to home educate.

These children are already known about. Therefore the list is for something different, i.e. state interference.

@SamosaSammy

There should absolutely be a register for HE.

Imo, along with more stringent controls and capability tests for the parents before their request to HE is approved.

The fact that anyone could potentially be illiterate/uneducated themselves and still be able to pull their child out of school is awful, regardless of the safeguarding/abuse aspect.

Children leave school illiterate. It's a huge issue. There are teachers who can't use basic English or punctuation.

@Caramellatteplease

I home ed. I'm all for a register

Why don't your LA know you are home educating?

Why don't your LA know you are home educating?

They wouldn't automatically know. If you never register your child for school you won't be on their radar.

There are teachers who can't use basic English or punctuation

My son's reception teachers!

If a child was desperately unhappy, constantly anxious or self-harming because they hated being homeschooled, the homeschooling parents would almost certainly be blamed for it. But if it's at school? The child gets the blame, for not fitting in with everyone else.

This is insultingly false.

I Am Not Sure This Has Gone The Way You Intended OP

This is insultingly false.

Except it isn't, it's the lived experience of many of us.

The best interests of the children must be the forefront. Home education is a hugely diverse area and the majority of home edders put alot of effort into providing a broad education outside school.

However there are those that really are not able or prepared to put in the effort leaving children to suffer from a poor education.

At worst, a very very small minority use home Ed as way of removing the child from outside interference in order to cover up abuse or neglect. I have participated in a number of child death overview panels involving children deliberately kept away from any form of scrutiny or intervention, leading to very tragic outcomes.

I am not anti home Ed. But I am pro children being protected. A register can only help, even if only a little bit. This is not about what parents want, this is about protecting and supporting children.

At worst, a very very small minority use home Ed as way of removing the child from outside interference in order to cover up abuse or neglect. I have participated in a number of child death overview panels involving children deliberately kept away from any form of scrutiny or intervention, leading to very tragic outcomes*

Are these cases where no concern was ever raised by anybody and nobody had seen the child?