I think that external inspections would shed light on delayed skills development and help HE parents understand where their children were behind. It matters when children don't learn to read. Reading is the basic skill that gives access to learning.
And children need to learn to prove what they know to strangers - that is also a very basic life skill.
Indeed juuule is correct about my daughter.
She left schoo, aged nearly nine completely unable to read or spell even her own name.
She had very severe dyslexia and the school and the LA were unable/unwilling to address it.
She had no word attack skills at all, none.
She couldn't recognise word shapes or the phonetics at all.
She was also dyspraxic/dysgraphic and had ADHD
She would run screaming hysterically at any attempt to teach/encourage literacy.
Fortunately for us othermore experienced home educators were on hand to show us that their is a different way, which is remarkably efficient-it's called autonomous home education in the UK.
We were able to use so many other ways of educating our child, facilitating and following her interests. Her education ran ahead, she regained a love of learning and life itself. Reading and spelling were allowed to catch up in their own good time.
She finally began to read aged 13. She reads for pleasure now, you hardly see her without her head in a book.
She spells well too.
She started her first OU starter course aged 15 and 'achieved all of the outcomes', which puts her at degree entry level apparently.
MY daughter would never have been able to show any strangers what she knew for most of the way through her education, not when she was in school or outside of it-UNTIL SHE WAS READY TO.
She is incredibly independant now, she travels all over the country, by herself, as she has been playing live gigs with a band (who all live about 90 miles away)since she was 14. She'll happily perform on stages the size of Glastonburys main stage and in front of humongous crowds.
She will start college in Septemeber doing a National BTEC in Music, equivelant to three A levels apparently.
Right now she is taking part in a National Musical Youth Theatre summer production, which means being away from home with a bunch of complete strangers, working with leading directors and choreographers, for a fortnight in Belfast. That of course entailed auditions to win a place and then a role.
She has been accepted to be part of the Children and Youth Board,
'The two year Board will take on the role of advising Ministers and policy officials on the development of policy and practice that affects children and young people in England'
She was interviewed for this by professionals she had never seen before-and will obviously be working with all sorts of people she has never met before.
She was insistant on meeting Graham Badman (the author of the review response) face to face twice and carried on talking to him in the company of another autonomously home ed teen all the way back to his train, after he had come out to meet with our HE group.
She has met Lord Lucas, and officials in the DCSF, when we met there to talk about the review on home education.
But all of this is in her own good time.
Further I'd say i don't consider my daughter to be unusual amongst autonomously home educated young people. We know hunderds of such teenagers and young people-everyone of whom is doing well in employement, college or education.
The same cannot be said of the young people with SEN that my daughter left behind in the remedial classes in school!
If you are interested in knowing more about how efficient autonomous home education can be, there is an article about it by Alan Thomas Dr Thomas is not a home educator but has become facinated by what an efficient method autonomus HE is and has continued to do further research in this area
Forgive any spelling mistakes, spell checker is not working and I am having problems with my pc.