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Original poster

Just curious - How many of us are known to the LA?

28 replies

pinkdolly · 10/10/2008 19:46

I was having a chat with a lady the other day and happened to mention that I home-schooled my girls. To which she replied "Have you met Lou, the lady in charge of montitering home-educators for the LA"?

Now I have always taken the view that I would not call up the social services and ask them to come around to check on my parenting abilities. So why would I call the LA and ask them to check on my teaching abilities. After all I have done fine for the first 5 years of my girls lives, why the need for it now?

Anyway - With all the whoo-haa over the proposed new legislation it just got me thinking. Am I the only one currently living under the radar? Or are there more of us out there. And if your're not known is it for similer reasons to my own or other?

No agenda behind this thread other then to satisfy my own curiosity.

Thanx

Pink

OP posts:
needmorecoffee · 10/10/2008 19:52

I wasn't till the Disability social worker for dd2 blurted out 'over coffee' (apparently) that I was home edding my older 3.

needmorecoffee · 10/10/2008 19:52

to the LEA HE bod that is.

Original poster
pinkdolly · 10/10/2008 19:59

Have just proof-read my post. My spelling is awful lately, please accept my apologies. and coming from a past A'level Eng Lit student I should know better. Never mind.

Needmorecoffee- How long ago was that? Do they come and check up on you now. Or have you managed to escape the house visits?

OP posts:
ShrinkingViolet · 10/10/2008 20:09

we're not known (at least I've had no contact in over two years), and this is despite me having a long lasting email conversation with the admissions department and telling them we were HEing. Our LA seems to switch from ignoring people to harrassing them. I had no interest in meeting them, there's nothing they can tell me about the HE scene round here that I don't already know, I can assess DD3's education much better than they can, and if I have to spend time sorting out "work" to show them, then I'm not doing stuff with DD3, which defeats the object really.

soon2be3 · 10/10/2008 20:18

Unfortunately, I am very well known!

Worst still, only 1 of my children are at school full time. Another is nursery age and fortunately, under 2s are not yet expected to attend school - I should really namechange from soon2be3 to weR3!

Winetimeisfinetime · 10/10/2008 20:26

Never heard from them in 9 years of HE. We deregistered from school, stating our intention to HE and have had phone calls from the school nurses office so they know we exist but have never contacted us. I'm not complaining though !

SugarBird · 10/10/2008 20:48

They know about us because DS2 was school educated until the end of year 4. We've had one visit (before I realised I could decline) but haven't heard much from them for the past five years.

Got a letter from the 'Pupil Tracking Officer' (didn't know these existed) recently, saying we would be contacted by the LEA's home ed consultant (didn't know we had one of these either). I emailed her and gave a very brief synopsis of what we're doing and she replied that she was happy to hear he's happy and doing well. That was it.

So we are known but the LEA hasn't been particularly in our faces. Long may it last!

AMumInScotland · 10/10/2008 20:49

No, despite us phoning them several times to make sure that we didn't have to ask for consent (up here you have to request consent if withdrawing from state school). Councils up here tend to think they don't have the same responsibility if you haven't had to request consent, so they promptly forgot all about us

onwardandupward · 10/10/2008 20:52

Under the radar

juuule · 10/10/2008 21:21

We are known. Deregistered 3 of our children so that's how they became aware of us. Youngest has never been to school but they knew about her anyway, somehow.
Never had a visit but respond to their annual enquiry.

jollydo · 10/10/2008 21:44

We registered ds1 at local primary school and then declined the place, having decided to HE, so we must be known to the LEA. I will wait to see if they get in touch after his 5th birthday...

julienoshoes · 10/10/2008 21:49

known
Deregistered the three of them when they were 13,11 and 8.
When the LA asked for a visit I said 'thanks but no thanks'.
Sent in the same ed phil each year along with a brief updated report,
They have never met the children nor seen any work-as the children said 'no thanks' to that too.

Am free of them now as dd2 was 16 last week

I'd say that about a third of the home educators I know of are unknown.

rooftop · 11/10/2008 21:58

Dont know how (cos ds did go to school for 4 yrs) but I havent heard from LA. He's been out for nearly 2yrs.

terramum · 11/10/2008 22:56

Unknown so far. DS is only 4 so they have no business asking about him until next year anyway . Would like to keep it that way as I've heard stories of our LA and SS being very heavy handed. But we are Happy to tell anyone who asks about DSs education/school about HE simply to raise it's profile. I doubt we will stay under the radar for long as most of the teachers in the village know he is HEd as does my GP (who has been suprisingly supportive and interested about HE so far)

Runnerbean · 12/10/2008 09:52

Known as dd was in school up to end of yr2.
About half the families I know are known to their LA's.

Runnerbean · 12/10/2008 09:52

Known as dd was in school up to end of yr2.
About half the families I know are known to their LA's.

soon2be3 · 12/10/2008 10:46

This is a little off the point, but having read back my post, I feel I should place it into context.

I should say that we are known to the LA thanks to the health visitor and dd ex-nursery teacher from primary school, who is still convinced that dd is home educated despite evidence proving otherwise.

The other thing I feel I have to say, is that to be fair, the individuals within the LA who deal with us have been professional and understanding and supportive. So I cannot complain about the LA team at the momemnt.

In my experience, it is those employed outside the LA (because of this "multi-agency working" involvement business of 'Every Child Matters') and those outside the speciality that seem to have taken up an additional vocation. Our previous health visitor fancied herself as a social worker, our previous GP (strangely enough, had the most "anti" home education views) fancied himself as a teacher.

If it was purely left to the EWO and education department of our LA, I do not think I would have had as many problems as I have had in the past 3 years. Just thought I ought to clarify things.

milou2 · 12/10/2008 12:38

Known because I deregistered my son. LA are supportive.

Saturn74 · 12/10/2008 17:33

we're known to LEA.
had initial EWO visit.
then had follow-up visit from LEA curriculum assessor.
that was 3.5 years ago.
sent ed phil via email the next year, as didn't see point of another visit.
haven't heard from them since.

forevercleaning · 13/10/2008 15:58

out of school for almost 2 years, have avoided a meet so far, but they have written again a couple of weeks ago for me to make arrangements to meet. I have ignored the letter, not sure what to say, as I really don't want them here.

Feel they wer unable to keep my child educated in a place of safety so loathe to have them interfere now that he is happy again.

Original poster
pinkdolly · 13/10/2008 19:00

Thanx for all your replies.

I too usually tell everyone I meet that I home-ed the girls. To which I have had varying replies. People generally find it quite interesting.

TBH I dont even know what our local LA are like with regards to home-ed. But feel as there is no real help they can provide then they dont need to know about us.

Now, if they were to give me all the money back that the state would have paid out for my girls education (and therefore us, being tax payers). It might be a different story

OP posts:
SummatAnNowt · 13/10/2008 19:06

Yes, I suppose. I initially applied for school for ds (he would've started last month), but when the allocation letter came I declined it and ticked the home educating box. If I hadn't done that I certainly wouldn't have gone out of my way to let them know.

onwardandupward · 13/10/2008 20:04

Forevercleaning - don't ignore them! Important to send off one of those terrifically polite and efficient letters which says "as per the 2007 guidelines for LAs, I would prefer to provide evidence in the form of X,Y,Z rather than to set up a meeting between you and my child".

And an educational philosophy should be sufficient to get them to leave you alone for a while.

At least, I think don't ignore them is the advice that gets expressed pretty much all the time on the HE mailing lists - because they take being completely ignored as a signal that they should be concerned and start wading in.

forevercleaning · 14/10/2008 02:36

thanks onward, I will respond. It's just that they wrote in June, and I wrote back explaining exactly what I was doing and saying I didn't feel it necessary for a visit.

They wrote back saying it all sounded very positive and that they would write again in the Autumn, and no sooner had everyone gone back to school, they have written in September.

On the one hand I dont want to get into an argument with them but on the other I feel that they are going to keep hassling me once they have a foot in the door.

It is so difficult to know what is the best thing to do. If I knew they would leave me alone for a year, I would let them in tommo, but they may want to keep writing and asking for further visits!!

FreeCodwitheverypacketofchips · 14/10/2008 05:29

We're known, but only thanks to ds's school who buggered up the flexi schooling and lied about it and had to cover themselves

We have a very nice bloke who liaises and ius supportive, have seen him once.

We are trying another school after half term but might come back to this if ds hates it.