This lot sound Jolly?!

Bubble99 · 2008-01-21T18:34:48+00:00

Here. Have a look at the link to the form, too.

emmaagain · 21/01/2008 18:50

This lot look seriously ultra vires, is what they look.

And Bubble, never never never think of home educating "Because your child is putting pressure on you to allow them to stay at home or they refuse to go to school. Speak to the school who will be able to work with you to resolve these problems"

Yes. A child saying "I don't want to go to school" or, if large enough not to be carried kicking and screaming "I will not go to school" is NEVER EVER a reason to take them out of school. What they clearly need is more school until they learn to like it. That'll show 'em.

got that, Bubble? (brandishes cane)

emmaagain · 21/01/2008 18:51

Oh, er... should have been somewhere on the last post, which was not entirely serious.

You aren't in Richmond are you? someone needs to send that lot a copy of the Government HE guidelines and lay down the law at them.

Julienoshoes · 21/01/2008 18:54

No different to 99% of LAs when talking about home education i am afraid.

No need to fill in any such form-and certainly no need to sign to say you "understand that the educational provision I have made will be inspected and approved by the Richmond upon Thames Inspection and Advisory Service."

All poppycock.

It simply is not up to them to approve your educational provision.
They can make informal enquiries if they have reason to believe an education is not taking place.

Case law says that once they have asked for information about the educational provsion, the parent would be wish to supply some (or words to that effect).
However, the choice of how to provide that information is the parents.
The LA cannot dictate that it must be in the form of a home visit.

emmaagain · 21/01/2008 18:56

Jaw hit ground at that final "I understand that the educational provision I have made will be inspected and approved by the Richmond upon Thames Inspection and Advisory Service." gambit. I understand that Richmond upon Thames Inspection and Advisory Service have no idea about the law of the land and are a bunch of bullies.

Original poster

Bubble99 · 21/01/2008 18:56

Yep. This is our LEA.

There is not one positive amongst all of that, is there?

Also the trying to get parents to sign agreeing to yearly 'visits' is beyond their brief, isn't it?

OP posts:

fullmoonfiend · 21/01/2008 18:58

''Speak to the school who will be able to work with you to resolve these problems.''

Yes. The school will roll their eyeballs at you and say ''well he's perfectly happy now'' neglecting to mention the fact that he is only happy because it is home time.

what, exactly, can any school do to resolve a problem which is that sometimes, just sometimes, given that all human beings are different, a child is just simply not geared up to the whole school system. One size does not fit all. And they have 30 children in a class to look after and their hands are tied when it comes to catering for one tricksy child who just hates being there.... After 7 years of ''you'll get used to it'' etc.

gibberish · 21/01/2008 19:00

It was the 'Place at which education will be provided' question that got me.

Oh dear Bubble, you must stay at home with your child every day from 9am to 3pm until he/she is 16.

Runnerbean · 21/01/2008 19:13

GOD!!

No pressure then!!!!!

I think they need a EO pamphlet shoved up their a!!!

Runnerbean · 21/01/2008 19:18

It's so awful it's laughable!!!

I had a similar letter from my LA when I started.
I politely pointed out that I knew my legal obligations as I was a member of EO and I quoted:

"155 School and local authorities should not seek to prevent parents from educating their children outside the school system. There is no requirement for parents to obtain schools and local authorities agreement to educate their children at home. "

dippydeedoo · 21/01/2008 19:23

i love you lot!! you say exactly it how it is -ever since weve been home educating i find myself totting up time i can note down to justify a days education - not that i think our schooling is lacking just that if theres not loads of topic work and numeracy sheets to show for it i kind of in my inner sense feel a bit unsuccesful.......of course i know that the time matts spends weighing up which fruit we should buy measuring weights and prices is all valid is all learning......at first DONT laugh i used to photograph most stuff we did and i still put it all neatly in binders and displays ....also i still keep a daily record just in case said education official knocks on my door amid some wild activity and says mrs deedoo what exactly did u do on september 14th .....ahhh i can say and tell him/her exactly what i did .......i did actually get told at my last inspection that the children are having very busy days as i hadnt included pc time or game time or cooking etc in my records .....am i mad? yes or no answers please

Original poster

Bubble99 · 21/01/2008 19:24

Looks like we will have to deal with some negativity....

BTW, we have now joined EO and received the info pack at the weekend. Mr Bubble has spent a lot of today reading 'School Is Not Compulsory' and we are planning to continue with some more research before de-registering DS2 at the end of the Spring term. We are planning to de-register DS1 at the end of the Summer term.

I am dreading telling the Head. She is doing the very best she can with the resources she has, but as I am a Parent Governor I know she is going to take it personally.

One thing we are really looking forward to is being able to stay with a topic/subject that interests the boys, Although the school covers Victoria/The Romans etc there is simply not enough time within the NC to go into the depth I know they'd love.

Also, as we have four children it is too expensive for us to be able to go and visit any ancient sites outside of the UK during the school holidays(actually, the UK is as expensive a lot of the time? )and we are looking forward to be able to do some travelling with the boys at 'odd' and cheaper times of the year.

I have emailed some HE families in the area from the EO contact list. I'd like to become involved in any local HE groups (if there are any.)

We are really excited about all of this. Thanks for being around to listen and help.

OP posts:

SueBaroo · 21/01/2008 19:24

Best bit of the form...

*delete as appropriate

IlanaK · 21/01/2008 19:28

Westminster has something equally ridiculous. But in practise, they are so over stretched that they don't even make first contact in most cases. My eldest is 6.5, never been to school, but was in nursey at one point (so we are "in the system" and the HV knows too). No contact from them at all and he would be in Year 2 now if he was at school.

anastaisia · 21/01/2008 20:58

www.knowsley.gov.uk/education/home_education/

In case anyone needs reassuring that at least 1% of local authorities know SOMETHING about HE before talking about it!

AMumInScotland · 21/01/2008 21:00

Ooh, I think my favourite bit is "You may find it useful to set this out in the form
of a weekly timetable".

Er, or actually you may not...

anastaisia · 21/01/2008 21:02

Didn't mean to post so soon - sadly they too go off track when you get to their policies etc. We live just next to Knowsley, might move as the Liverpool home ed page on council website went from only one or two small 'mistakes' to making wild claims about what parents must and should do!

anastaisia · 21/01/2008 21:07

never mind! read more and more and actually they are as rubbish as poor bubbles LA! there is an application to HE too with rubbish about timetables. So disappointed - thought we could run away there is we get in trouble about being too autonomous in Liverpool. Will have to stay and make a fuss instead now.

anastaisia · 21/01/2008 21:07

never mind! read more and more and actually they are as rubbish as poor bubbles LA! there is an application to HE too with rubbish about timetables. So disappointed - thought we could run away there is we get in trouble about being too autonomous in Liverpool. Will have to stay and make a fuss instead now.

StripeyMamaSpanx · 21/01/2008 21:08

I like this one too - HE is only to be considered as a 'final option'!

Julienoshoes · 21/01/2008 21:22

Now this is how it should be done!

Milton Keynes is the only one I know of to have got it right though.

terramum · 21/01/2008 22:01

I started reading & saw the words "broad and balanced" in their first point ....very quickly closed the site as I knew it wouldn't be good...don't think reading it all would do my blood pressure any good...'tis bad enough after catching up with some of my messages from when I was offline over xmas & finding a reference to my own LA & how bad they are

singingmum · 24/01/2008 16:24

Read some of these and then looked(after 10 yrs of HE) at my local authority website for their position on HE.Am glad to say it's short and sweet.
It just mentions that it is your responsibility to contact them if dc never attended school and that someone will come to see you.In fact here in the vale of glamorgan the woman who comes out is lovely and according to the website in charge of her own department.Am so glad I don't live in some of the areas mentioned above.

emmaagain · 24/01/2008 17:13

makes plans to move to Glamorgan pronto

singingmum · 24/01/2008 17:51

Is your LEA that bad?
Have heard some can be awful.