Homeschool advice

[Sweetiexx]

I am just looking for a bit of advice
I home educate my children, it started with my eldest 3 years, who is now due to finish this year as 16.
This year I took my 2 youngest (13,14) out of school to start home education.
I have now had a letter from the local council asking for a meeting to come to the house, with a school nurse. For see how we are getting on home schooling.
I have never had meetings with my eldest before and just sent a questionnaire off to them.

Is this standard practice now?
I know I have the right to cancel this which is something I would like to do, but if I cancelled what do you think they would do next?
I could send an email with work my children do etc.

Any advice would be grateful
Thank you

It depends really. Your children have just gone off the radar. I can see why out of principle you’d want to cancel them. But is it such a big issue for them to come and visit? It does sound like there’s a safeguarding reason there, I don’t think anyone here can really advise you on what their next actions may be if you refuse to let them see the children. Have your children still been attending dentist/doctors apps etc in the last couple of years?

I phoned the lady who is supposed to be coming, she told me she is new to the post and that the school nurse is coming with her on all her visits that she has done etc,
I understand safeguarding as I work within the industry.
I also understand the laws around homeschooling too.
i would like to know if this has happened to anyone else? And what are their views on meetings with the council etc?

You need to be able to prove that your children are receiving an education. What reaction you’ll get by refusing will depend on your local authority. You may get away with emailing them some evidence. You do have to consider why you would want to refuse any extra support etc for your children. It must feel invasive and offensive that people would like to check your children are ok if you know you’re doing a good job, there are very obvious reasons why these are carried about though. Ultimately you may get issued with a school attendance order if you refuse to co operate with the council, and satisfy them about your children’s wellbeing

No this has not happened to me but my daughter has only been out of school for 18 months and I’ve only heard from the LA once which was in November 2022.

My son has been HE the past five years. He is due to sit his A levels this year.
The LA used to email us, they never arranged a visit, but l wouldn't have had any hesitation in allowing them to do so, l see it as part of their job and rightly so.

Have you properly deregistered them?

Yes I sent an email to the school in January to deregister them. Exactly the same as I did for my eldest 3 years ago.

It's wiser to keep all communication with the LA in writing.

Join HEFA on FB. It's well worth reading their advice and getting up to date on the legalities and the guidelines.

For several reasons, it usually isn't a good idea to allow home visits from the LA. Their staff tend to be poorly trained; if you look at job ads for LA home ed staff, they rarely require any knowledge of HE, and usually little or no on-the-job training about home education is required or even available to be undertaken in working hours. If you want to verify this for yourself, you could ask the staff member who is proposing to visit, "What training courses have you had which are specifically about home education? What books have you read about home education? (If relevant) What background do you have to help you understand autism/anxiety/etc?" and of course "Could you tell me the laws on home education?" That last one produces some corkers, which it really shouldn't, because the legal situation is very straightforward and can be summarised in just a paragraph or so, but few LAs represent it accurately.

Therefore, it is good to have a paper trail so that if they misunderstand your provision, have a poor grasp of special needs, or try to demand you do school-style education, there is proof of who said what. This works better if it is all in black and white, rather than the LA having produced a report giving their (often ill-informed) opinions on what they saw the day they visited.

If your kids had a hard time at school (e.g. through bullying or unmet special needs), then it's risky to expose them to someone in a position of authority who may not know what they are talking about, and may make empty threats of sending them back to school. This could be quite distressing for your children.

Assuming the school never raised any concerns about your kids' wellbeing when they were at school, it is odd to do so now. It seems a poor use of nursing resources to send a school nurse round on unnecessary home visits, or have you asked them for help with medical issues?

What should happen if you decline the proposed visit is that the LA will ask you to provide information about your children's education in a format of your choice instead. If it appears to the LA that the children are not in receipt of a suitable education, they should tell you their specific concerns so you can address them, and then if it isn't sorted to their satisfaction they will move toward taking legal action. That is a longwinded process, with opportunities at every stage for you to provide further information/clarification or indeed to improve the education if it really is inadequate.

However, it is less stress all round if you can give them the right information early on to halt that process, so the LA can be satisfied and you can be left in peace to get on with educating your kids. The main home ed charities can help you ensure you include enough detail in a report and cover all the areas you should.

Does seem strange to have nurse with her? Never heard of that! I opt for a phone call for our yearly contact.

That’s exactly what I thought, why a school nurse? Never heard of that. When I spoke to her she said she was new to the post, and she has came with her to other home Ed parents.
it didn’t state the nurse in the letter.
Like my eldest has been home schooled for 3 years and it’s always been a questionnaire. No meetings nothing.
i will be declining the meeting and providing the questionnaire back detailing all the work we do.