LEA home visits yes or no???

[logi]

At the moment i have visits to my HE 5 year old but to be honest at first they said they could help out with advice ect. but although the lady is ok she hasnt really been a help and i feel i cant enjoy what we had as im now under pressure to get my son to produce a certain amount of WORK they want it dated and so on i feel like im back at school.I want to tell LEA i no longer agree to these visits ,has anyone been in this position? My son has had a few problems and is being assessed for aspergers/asd(when LEA lady first came to my house she said my son didnt have this after seeing him for 20 minutes),so far in reports after visits they said my son may be under achieving,metioned his sisters who are grown up and even said where we sit in my kitchen is small i dont know how this is relevant.By the way as for under achieving my son reads years above his age,his math is above average as is his spelling.

The thing is with an home educated child progress comparison is uncalled for,your dc isnt working alongside peers with expected targets to reach and therefore works at his own pace absorbing as he goes.

I myself H.E and for a long time agreed to home visits purely bcos I thought it was the 'right' thing to do ,increasingly these visits seemed to cause pressure not because we didnt produce the work and not because the quality wasnt visible indeed our ds has a very 'school like' curriculum we stopped because these visits seemed very empty and we felt we were continually having to 'explain' our reasons to H.E.

Basically the visits seemed to be done by a different person every time each visit seemed to exude diiferent beliefs about H.E some supportive some not and we felt they were of no benefit to us and so the next time we were due a visit after receiving advice from julienoshoes I declined the visit sent in a report and guess what?.......no-ones shown any interest in us for over a year and a half.

Hi nickschick,we are due another visit in september although she said his work was fine she only came 3 months ago and to be honest i dont want to date everything and file it we were quite happy sticking our bits and pieces up around the house,On the 3 times shes has been she has said she would bring information for me and hasnt and has asked me a few times if im going to continue to H.E. It was also suggested to make his math more difficult because i didnt need to worry about his English but my son has got a very poor attention span and i want him to enjoy learning at his pace if he gets pushed he goes on strike or at worse haves a massive tantrum,none of this was happening before it was more relaxed...one day he was fasinated with his ruler and decided to measure eveything and write it down which was great because it was just a game to him.

It doesn't sound as though the visits are helping or supporting you in your educational choices.

Have another look at the Elective Home Education :Guidelines for LAs
Unlike many official documents they are not hard to understand.

Section 2.7 says that LAs have no statutory duty to monitor home education on a routine basis.

Section 3.6 says that parents may choose not to meet the LA at all.

The choice of how you home educate is yours
Section 3.13

Parents are NOT obliged to:
*teach the National Curriculum
*provide a broad and balanced education
*have a timetable
*have premises equipped to any particular standard
*set hours in which education will take place
*make detailed plans in advance
*have any specific qualifications
*make detailed plans in advance
*observe school hours days or terms
*give formal lessons
*mark work done by the child
*formally assess progress or set developmental objectives
*reproduce school type peer group socialisation
*match school based age specific standards
give formal lessons

This may change in the future, but as the lawa stands at the moment these are the guidelines to follow.

You can choose whether to have the visit in September at all.
You can choose whether to have a visit in a neutral location instead of your home.
You can choose whether to have your child present.
You can choose whether to present any work.

Or you could choose to write and thank them for the offer of a visit in September, but say your home based education is becoming more autonomous and informal and you are following your childs interests and facilitating the education around that.
You can go on to say that you now do not wish to have a home visit at present and would choose instead to send in an 'educational philospohy' and written report and will do so by...........you choose the date.

(I'd suggest the end of the autumn term, which would give you time to consider it and write it)

Your home based education. Your choice.

We have just had our second yearly visit for DS who is almost 7. I have no problem with it at all. But, then again, we follow th NC for core subject (albeit to a slightly higher level as we tend to get through it all faster) and we do set subjects ie history, geography, science etc. I have never had any problems with the LEA.

We have a lovely LEA man in this county, my son was really looking forward to his visit and couldn't wait to show him all the work he had done. His first visit 16 months ago was just after my son was removed from school and he was so pleased to see the change in him from a very unhappy little boy who would not even pick up a pencil and would tear up any book you showed him, to one briming with confidence and proud to show off his accademic work and reading skills after a year of HE. He couldn't have been more supportive.

Oh, and we have never been asked by the LEA why we chose to HE. I know some people have to defend themselves to theirs, but we were never asked.

THe LA woman has no business trying to force you to date work and present the kind of work she wants to see. Not her education.

I'd have as little to do with her as possible.

I'd write the letter Julie suggests. I'd try really hard NOT to write the letter which adds on the bottom "I am refusing visits for now because I feel Ms X is putting unreasonable pressure on me and my family to provide an education of a style and with dated educational products which match her idea of what an education looks like rather than being an education which is efficient and suitable to my child's age, ability and aptitude. I will send a written report and educational philosophy as evidence that I am providing an education according to the law by DATE in accordance with the 2007 Guidelines for LAs. If the LA personnel alters so that the EHE person is more sympathetic to informal learning in its various forms, please do get in touch with me and we will be willing to consider a home visit once more."

Like I say, I'd try really hard NOT to send that letter

HI julienoshoes i was suprise at what parents are not obliged to do ,im also being asked what his social activities are.Hi lolapoppins it is good that you get support from your LEA.Hi ommmward it sounds a good idea NOT to write that letter lol.I really annoyed because we have had problems with our ds for years and had no help it was only when we pulled him out of school that we were offered any testsfor ASD.My LEA lady is pleasant but has even commented on my house being too busy (i have 2 older dd ,3 granddaughters, teenage son and his girlfriend )and we are all close i see them most days.