The home ed. recommendations are HERE and Graham Badman and Ed Balls have royally stitched us up.
Here they are in full:
Recommendation 1
That the DCSF establishes a compulsory national registration scheme, locally administered, for all
children of statutory school age, who are, or become, electively home educated.
■■ This scheme should be common to all local authorities.
■■ Registration should be renewed annually.
■■ Those who are registering for the first time should be visited by the appropriate local
authority officer within one month of registration.
■■ Local authorities should ensure that all home educated children and young people already
known to them are registered on the new scheme within one month of its inception and
visited over the following twelve months, following the commencement of any new
legislation.
■■ Provision should be made to allow registration at a local school, children’s centre or other
public building as determined by the local authority.
■■ When parents are thinking of deregistering their child/children from school to home
educate, schools should retain such pupils on roll for a period of 20 school days so that
should there be a change in circumstances, the child could be readmitted to the school.
This period would also allow for the resolution of such difficulties that may have prompted
the decision to remove the child from school.
■■ National guidance should be issued on the requirements of registration and be made
available online and at appropriate public buildings. Such guidance must include a
clear statement of the statutory basis of elective home education and the rights and
responsibilities of parents.
■■ At the time of registration parents/carers/guardians must provide a clear statement of
their educational approach, intent and desired/planned outcomes for the child over the
following twelve months.
■■ Guidance should be issued to support parents in this task with an opportunity to meet
local authority officers to discuss the planned approach to home education and develop
the plan before it is finalised. The plan should be finalised within eight weeks of first
registration.
■■ As well as written guidance, support should encompass advice from a range of advisers
and organisations, including schools. Schools should regard this support as a part of their
commitment to extended schooling■■ Where a child is removed from a school roll to be home educated, the school must provide
to the appropriate officer of the local authority a record of the child’s achievement to date
and expected achievement, within 20 school days of the registration, together with any
other school records.
■■ Local authorities must ensure that there are mechanisms/systems in place to record and
review registrations annually.
Recommendation 2
That the DCSF review the current statutory definition of what constitutes a “suitable” and “efficient”
education in the light of the Rose review of the primary curriculum, and other changes to curriculum
assessment and definition throughout statutory school age. Such a review should take account of
the five Every Child Matters outcomes determined by the 2004 Children Act, should not be overly
prescriptive but be sufficiently defined to secure a broad, balanced, relevant and differentiated
curriculum that would allow children and young people educated at home to have sufficient
information to enable them to expand their talents and make choices about likely careers. The
outcome of this review should further inform guidance on registration.
Home educators should be engaged in this process.
Recommendation 3
That all local authorities analyse the reasons why parents or carers chose elective home education
and report those findings to the Children’s Trust Board, ensuring that this analysis contributes to the
debate that determines the Children and Young People’s Plan.
Recommendation 4
That the local authority should establish a Consultative Forum for home educating parents to secure
their views and representative opinion. Such a body could be constituted as a sub-group of the
Children’s Trust with a role in supporting the development of the Children’s Trust, and the intentions
of the local authority with regard to elective home education.
Recommendation 5
That the DCSF should bring forward proposals requiring all local authorities to report to the
Children’s Trust Board making clear how it intends to monitor and support children and young people
being educated at home, in accord with Recommendation 1
Recommendation 6
That local authorities should where appropriate commission the monitoring and support of home
education through the local Children’s Trust Board, thereby securing a multidisciplinary approach and
the likely use of expertise from other agencies and organisations including the voluntary sector.
Recommendation 7
The DCSF should bring forward proposals to change the current regulatory and statutory basis to
ensure that in monitoring the efficiency and suitability of elective home education:
■■ That designated local authority officers should:
– have the right of access to the home;
– have the right to speak with each child alone if deemed appropriate or, if a child is
particularly vulnerable or has particular communication needs, in the company of a
trusted person who is not the home educator or the parent/carer.
In so doing, officers will be able to satisfy themselves that the child is safe and well.
■■ That a requirement is placed upon local authorities to secure the monitoring of the
effectiveness of elective home education as determined in Recommendation 1.
■■ That parents be required to allow the child through exhibition or other means to
demonstrate both attainment and progress in accord with the statement of intent lodged at
the time of registration.
Recommendation 8
That reasonable warning of intended visit and invitation to exhibit should be given to home
educators, parents and carers, not less than two weeks in advance. A written report of each visit must
be filed within 21 days and copied to the home educating parent and child. A suitable process for
factual correction and challenge to the content must be in place and made known to all parties.
Recommendation 9
That all local authority officers and others engaged in the monitoring and support of elective home
education must be suitably trained. This training must include awareness of safeguarding issues
and a full understanding of the essential difference, variation and diversity in home education
practice, as compared to schools. Wherever possible and appropriate, representatives of the home
educating community should be involved in the development and/or provision of such training. It is
recommended that all officers be trained in the use of the Common Assessment Framework.
Recommendation 10
That all local authorities should offer a menu of support to home educating families in accord with
the requirements placed upon them by the power of wellbeing, extended schools and community
engagement and other legislation. To that end local authorities must provide support for home
educating children and young people to find appropriate examination centres and provide entries
free to all home educated candidates who have demonstrated sufficiently their preparedness through
routine monitoring, for aII DCSF funded qualifications.
Recommendation 11
That in addition to Recommendation 10 above, local authorities should, in collaboration with schools
and colleges:
■■ Extend and make available the opportunities of flexi-schooling.
■■ Extend access to school libraries, sports facilities, school visits, specialist facilities and key
stage assessment.
■■ Provide access to specialist music tuition on the same cost basis.
■■ Provide access to work experience.
■■ Provide access to post 14 vocational opportunities.
■■ Signpost to third sector support where they have specialist experience and knowledge, for
example, provision for bullied children.
Recommendation 12
■■ BECTA considers the needs of the home educating community in the national roll out of
the home access initiative
■■ That local authorities consider what support and access to ICT facilities could be given to
home educating children and young people through the existing school networks and the
use of school based materials
■■ That the QCA should consider the use of ICT in the testing and exam process with regard
to its impact on home educated children and young
Recommendation 13
That local authority provision in regard to elective home education is brought into the scope of
Ofsted’s assessment of children’s services within the Comprehensive Area Assessment through
information included in the National Indicator Set (Recommendation 25), the annual LSCB report
(Recommendation 21) and any other relevant information available to inspectors.
Recommendation 14
That the DCSF require all local authorities to make an annual return to the Children’s Trust Board
regarding the number of electively home educated children and young people and the number of
School Attendance Orders and Education Supervision Orders as defined in the 1996 Education Act,
issued to home educated children and young people.
Recommendation 15
That the DCSF take such action as necessary to prevent schools or local authorities advising parents
to consider home education to prevent permanent exclusion or using such a mechanism to deal with
educational or behavioural issues.
Recommendation 16
That the DCSF bring forward proposals to give local authorities power of direction with regard to
school places for children and young people returning to school from home education above planned
admission limits in circumstances where it is quite clear that the needs of the child or young person
could not be met without this direction.
Recommendation 17
That the Ofsted review of SEN provision give due consideration to home educated children with
special educational needs and make specific reference to the support of those children.
Recommendation 18
That the DCSF should reinforce in guidance to local authorities the requirement to exercise
their statutory duty to assure themselves that education is suitable and meets the child’s special
educational needs. They should regard the move to home education as a trigger to conduct a review
and satisfy themselves that the potentially changed complexity of education provided at home, stillconstitutes a suitable education. The statement should then be revised accordingly to set out that the
parent has made their own arrangements under section 7 of the Education Act 1996.
In the wake of the Ofsted review, changes to the SEN framework and legislation may be required.
Recommendation 19
That the statutory review of statements of SEN in accord with Recommendation 18 above be
considered as fulfilling the function of mandatory annual review of elective home education
recommended previously.
Recommendation 20
When a child or young person without a statement of special educational needs has been in receipt
of School Action Plus support, local authorities and other agencies should give due consideration to
whether that support should continue once the child is educated at home – irrespective of whether
or not such consideration requires a new commissioning of service.
Recommendation 21
That the Children’s Trust Board ensures that the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) reports
to them on an annual basis with regard to the safeguarding provision and actions taken in relation
to home educated children. This report shall also be sent to the National Safeguarding Delivery
Unit. Such information should be categorised thereby avoiding current speculation with regard to
the prevalence of child protection concerns amongst home educated children which may well be
exaggerated. This information should contribute to and be contained within the National Annual
Report.
Recommendation 22
That those responsible for monitoring and supporting home education, or commissioned so to
do, are suitably qualified and experienced to discharge their duties and responsibilities set out in
Working Together to Safeguard Children to refer to social care services children who they believe
to be in need of services or where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is
likely to suffer, significant harm.
Recommendation 23
That local authority adult services and other agencies be required to inform those charged with
the monitoring and support of home education of any properly evidenced concerns that they have
of parents’ or carers’ ability to provide a suitable education irrespective of whether or not they are
known to children’s social care, on such grounds as
■■ alcohol or drug abuse
■■ incidents of domestic violence
■■ previous offences against children
And in addition:
■■ anything else which may affect their ability to provide a suitable and efficient education
This requirement should be considered in the Government’s revision of Working Together to
Safeguard Children Guidance.
Recommendation 24
That the DCSF make such change as is necessary to the legislative framework to enable local
authorities to refuse registration on safeguarding grounds. In addition local authorities should have
the right to revoke registration should safeguarding concerns become apparent.
Recommendation 25
That the DCSF, in its revision of the National Indicator Set indicated in its response to the recent
Laming Review, should incorporate an appropriate target relating to the safeguarding of children in
elective home education.
Recommendation 26
DCSF should explore the potential for Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young
People’s Services (C4EO) and other organisations, to identify and disseminate good practice
regarding support for home education.
Recommendation 27
It is recommended that the Children’s Workforce Development Council and the National
Safeguarding Delivery Unit include the needs of this group of officers in their consideration of
national training needs.
Recommendation 28
That the DCSF and the Local Government Association determine within three months how to provide
to local authorities sufficient resources to secure the recommendations in this report.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Press release from Ahed
For immediate release, 22 February 2009
PERSECUTION OF MINORITY GROUP IS "ABUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS"
Outraged families and support organisations flood the DCFS with 2000+
consultation responses to the elective home education review
The government's review of elective home education (1), which was
announced in January in a blaze of scurrilous spin stating that home education could be used by parents as a cover for abuse and forced marriage, has provoked an unparalleled reaction from home educating families and support organisations, including home education action group AHEd (2) and the home educators' network Home Education Forums. (3) Both have strongly rebutted the government's allegations as "vile and unsubstantiated" in their respective robust responses to the DCSF consultation. (4) and (5)
By the close of the unusually short online consultation last Friday, over
2000 individual and organisational responses had been sent in by
'stakeholders' who have in recent weeks demonstrated their collective
outrage at the "irresponsible scaremongering" perpetrated by government
minister Delyth Morgan and Vijay Patel of the NSPCC, who was forced to
admit on national radio (6) that no evidence exists to support the suggestion that home educated children may be more likely than schooled children to suffer abuse or be coerced into marriage or domestic servitude.
AHEd supporter Clare Murton commented: "Apart from the clear incitement
to hatred of home educators that Delyth Morgan's announcement provoked,
this review by Graham Badman must represent the straw that breaks the
camel's back. Home educators are trying to get on with the important work of
bringing up their children, but over the past few years have been repeatedly
distracted from that task by unwarranted and vicious attempts to usurp their
parental rights.
"Multiple government consultations have concluded that home education is
safe, efficient and in no need of tighter legal control and that local
authorities need legal guidance. It is astounding, therefore, that they now
give credence to slander such as Morgan's. This luckily has not defeated
home educators and there will be no 'death by consultation' in our neck of
the woods. Instead it has determined the home education community to put
a stop to this unprecedented witch hunt.
"No other section of UK community has ever been so impassioned in its
response to a DCSF consultation and I am proud to be part of a network of
people who really do think that every single child matters."
While there is absolutely no evidence of any link between home education
and child abuse, domestic servitude or forced marriage, there is plenty of
evidence of the offence caused and anger unleashed within the home education community itself and among non home educating families who perceive the threat to home education as the "thin end of the wedge".
A Downing Street petition submitted by Roxane Featherstone on behalf of
AHEd (7) has attracted more than 2000 signatures in a fortnight,while the Stop the Government Stigmatising Home Educators group (8) on the social networking site Facebook has more than 1500 members whose comments demonstrate a deep sense of collective outrage. Home education blogs, including the popular Sometimes It's Peaceful (9), have highlighted what appears to be a state sponsored campaign to persecute a minority group exercising a lawful choice and have strongly criticised some members of the team led by Graham Badman (10) who are to participate in the inquiry as "partial" and "lacking in knowledge or experience of elective home "education".
Alison Preuss, spokesperson for Home Education Forums, said: "I have only once witnessed such a mass reaction by the home education community and that was when the former Scottish Executive mounted a similar attack on home educating families north of the border. Overnight, they alienated every home educator across the land - and lost! This latest assault on educational freedom by people for whom child abuse represents a 'nice little earner' has provoked nothing short of fury among law abiding citizens who have in many cases had to remove their children from an unsafe and abusive school environment.
"While the economy tanks, our elderly folk are having to choose between
eating and heating and vulnerable children are being left unprotected due to
lack of competence in social services, as demonstrated in the case of
Victoria Climbie and the children abused by Eunice Spry (who was a
Gloucestershire Council approved foster carer), we have to wonder why
public funds are being diverted from frontline services into an unnecessary
analysis by bureaucrats of 2000+ consultation responses and an equally
unnecessary investigation of a non existent issue. In our view, this whole
exercise represents an abuse of public funds."
ENDS
For more information contact AHEd ahed@ahed.org.uk or Home Education
Forums
info@home-education.biz
NOTES FOR EDITORS
(1) Elective home education review
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0013
(2) Action for Home Education http://www.ahed.org.uk/
(3) Home Education Forums http://www.home-education.biz/forum
(4) AHEd reponse
http://ahed.pbwiki.com/HomeEducation-
YourViewsReview2009AHEdResponse
(5) Home Education Forums response
http://www.home-education.biz/forum/home-education-law-policy/155-hef-response-dcsf-home-ed-review-part-1-a.html
(6) Vijay Patel on BBC Radio
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2009/01/transcript-of-radio-2-jeremy-vine-show.html
(7) Downing Street petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Homeedreview/
(8) Stop the Government Stigmatising Home Educators
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45453211491&ref=ts
(9) Sometimes It's Peaceful blog http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/
(10)Graham Badman
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/search/?asset=document&id=129480
PERSECUTION OF MINORITY GROUP IS "ABUSE OF PUBLIC FUNDS"
Outraged families and support organisations flood the DCFS with 2000+
consultation responses to the elective home education review
The government's review of elective home education (1), which was
announced in January in a blaze of scurrilous spin stating that home education could be used by parents as a cover for abuse and forced marriage, has provoked an unparalleled reaction from home educating families and support organisations, including home education action group AHEd (2) and the home educators' network Home Education Forums. (3) Both have strongly rebutted the government's allegations as "vile and unsubstantiated" in their respective robust responses to the DCSF consultation. (4) and (5)
By the close of the unusually short online consultation last Friday, over
2000 individual and organisational responses had been sent in by
'stakeholders' who have in recent weeks demonstrated their collective
outrage at the "irresponsible scaremongering" perpetrated by government
minister Delyth Morgan and Vijay Patel of the NSPCC, who was forced to
admit on national radio (6) that no evidence exists to support the suggestion that home educated children may be more likely than schooled children to suffer abuse or be coerced into marriage or domestic servitude.
AHEd supporter Clare Murton commented: "Apart from the clear incitement
to hatred of home educators that Delyth Morgan's announcement provoked,
this review by Graham Badman must represent the straw that breaks the
camel's back. Home educators are trying to get on with the important work of
bringing up their children, but over the past few years have been repeatedly
distracted from that task by unwarranted and vicious attempts to usurp their
parental rights.
"Multiple government consultations have concluded that home education is
safe, efficient and in no need of tighter legal control and that local
authorities need legal guidance. It is astounding, therefore, that they now
give credence to slander such as Morgan's. This luckily has not defeated
home educators and there will be no 'death by consultation' in our neck of
the woods. Instead it has determined the home education community to put
a stop to this unprecedented witch hunt.
"No other section of UK community has ever been so impassioned in its
response to a DCSF consultation and I am proud to be part of a network of
people who really do think that every single child matters."
While there is absolutely no evidence of any link between home education
and child abuse, domestic servitude or forced marriage, there is plenty of
evidence of the offence caused and anger unleashed within the home education community itself and among non home educating families who perceive the threat to home education as the "thin end of the wedge".
A Downing Street petition submitted by Roxane Featherstone on behalf of
AHEd (7) has attracted more than 2000 signatures in a fortnight,while the Stop the Government Stigmatising Home Educators group (8) on the social networking site Facebook has more than 1500 members whose comments demonstrate a deep sense of collective outrage. Home education blogs, including the popular Sometimes It's Peaceful (9), have highlighted what appears to be a state sponsored campaign to persecute a minority group exercising a lawful choice and have strongly criticised some members of the team led by Graham Badman (10) who are to participate in the inquiry as "partial" and "lacking in knowledge or experience of elective home "education".
Alison Preuss, spokesperson for Home Education Forums, said: "I have only once witnessed such a mass reaction by the home education community and that was when the former Scottish Executive mounted a similar attack on home educating families north of the border. Overnight, they alienated every home educator across the land - and lost! This latest assault on educational freedom by people for whom child abuse represents a 'nice little earner' has provoked nothing short of fury among law abiding citizens who have in many cases had to remove their children from an unsafe and abusive school environment.
"While the economy tanks, our elderly folk are having to choose between
eating and heating and vulnerable children are being left unprotected due to
lack of competence in social services, as demonstrated in the case of
Victoria Climbie and the children abused by Eunice Spry (who was a
Gloucestershire Council approved foster carer), we have to wonder why
public funds are being diverted from frontline services into an unnecessary
analysis by bureaucrats of 2000+ consultation responses and an equally
unnecessary investigation of a non existent issue. In our view, this whole
exercise represents an abuse of public funds."
ENDS
For more information contact AHEd ahed@ahed.org.uk or Home Education
Forums
info@home-education.biz
NOTES FOR EDITORS
(1) Elective home education review
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0013
(2) Action for Home Education http://www.ahed.org.uk/
(3) Home Education Forums http://www.home-education.biz/forum
(4) AHEd reponse
http://ahed.pbwiki.com/HomeEducation-
YourViewsReview2009AHEdResponse
(5) Home Education Forums response
http://www.home-education.biz/forum/home-education-law-policy/155-hef-response-dcsf-home-ed-review-part-1-a.html
(6) Vijay Patel on BBC Radio
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2009/01/transcript-of-radio-2-jeremy-vine-show.html
(7) Downing Street petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Homeedreview/
(8) Stop the Government Stigmatising Home Educators
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45453211491&ref=ts
(9) Sometimes It's Peaceful blog http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/
(10)Graham Badman
http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/search/?asset=document&id=129480
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Petition the Home ed. Review
Petition is HERE
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to to remind his
government that parents must remain responsible in law for ensuring
the welfare and education of their children and that the state should
not seek to appropriate these responsibilities.
We ask him to remind ministers that recent DCSF consultations have
concluded that current law, when applied correctly, is sufficient to
the task of protecting home educated children should parents fail in
their duties, and that the law represents a satisfactory balance
between protecting children and the need for privacy and autonomy in
family life.
We also ask him to call a halt to the review of home education, begun
in Jan 2009. Home educators have already taken part in four
consultations in just over three years. New guidelines for LAs
regarding Home Education resulted from one of these consultations as
recently as Nov 2007 and yet we are now faced with yet another review
which appears to seek to erode parental responsibilities. We ask him
to remind ministers that repeated consultations infringe the BRE's
Code of Practice on Consultations, Criterion 5.
We also ask him to alert the DCSF that relations between home
educators and LAs are likely to deteriorate should the state elect to
intrude further upon family life.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to to remind his
government that parents must remain responsible in law for ensuring
the welfare and education of their children and that the state should
not seek to appropriate these responsibilities.
We ask him to remind ministers that recent DCSF consultations have
concluded that current law, when applied correctly, is sufficient to
the task of protecting home educated children should parents fail in
their duties, and that the law represents a satisfactory balance
between protecting children and the need for privacy and autonomy in
family life.
We also ask him to call a halt to the review of home education, begun
in Jan 2009. Home educators have already taken part in four
consultations in just over three years. New guidelines for LAs
regarding Home Education resulted from one of these consultations as
recently as Nov 2007 and yet we are now faced with yet another review
which appears to seek to erode parental responsibilities. We ask him
to remind ministers that repeated consultations infringe the BRE's
Code of Practice on Consultations, Criterion 5.
We also ask him to alert the DCSF that relations between home
educators and LAs are likely to deteriorate should the state elect to
intrude further upon family life.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
HE PARENTS WELCOME CHILDREN'S SOCIETY REPORT
HE PARENTS WELCOME CHILDREN'S SOCIETY REPORT
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Today at 00:52
The Good Childhood Inquiry by the Children's Society will release the results of its study this week. Home educators have welcomed the review which reports that the children of Britain need more parental attention, more freedom to play, more access to the outdoors, and are harmed by junk food, peer pressure leading to consumerism and experimentation with alcohol and drugs, and the stresses of bullying, academic competition and exam anxiety.
These stresses and strains are some of the reasons why so many parents make the decision to home educate their children. Home educated children have greater familial contact and much less exposure to the negative social and academic pressures endemic in schools. They also have far more access to play and to the outdoors and are free of the rigours of constant testing and standardisation. Recent studies also show that most watch far less television than their schooled peers, and become more self-aware and community minded. [1] All of these are exactly what the Children's Society recommends for a happy, healthy childhood and by extension, a happy, healthy society.
"When I went to school I was bullied and I didn't get any help from the teachers. Now I'm doing home schooling, I get help if I need it and I don't get bullied." - H, aged 12.
"I am loved and cared for and have great fun everyday, exploring, exercising, laughing and talking!" - A, aged 11.
A 'slanderous' review
Home educators were angered on 19th January by the announcement by the Department for Children, Schools and Families of an Independent Review of Home Education [2], the fourth such consultation since 2005. The review was especially surprising as guidelines to Local Authorities on home education have only recently been issued as a result of previous consultations.[3] This review targets home educators as potential abusers, but has nothing to say about the well documented abuse of children within the schools system. Home education organisations have repeatedly asked for statistical evidence to back up these claims, but according to Vijay Patel of the NSPCC there is no such evidence [4] and requests continue to be ignored.
The DCSF is ignoring the problems with their over-worked, under-funded and under-trained social care workers [5] and instead is looking into adding to their workload with the monitoring of a home educating minority, justifying their stance with unsubstantiated rumour, hearsay and little else.
Criticism for the DCSF
The DCSF has been criticised for its methods from the start of this review. Home educating parents in their hundreds have decided to use FaceBook as a tool to organise their protests, contesting the rights of the DCSF to interfere with their freedom to educate at home unmolested by bodies who have a history of hostility towards them and little apparent understanding of them. Several conclusions have been reached:
The branding of home educators by this review as potential child abusers is discriminatory and incites prejudice which actively harms children and their families.
There are concerns that issuing press statements that home education may be a cover for abuse may violate Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. [6]
Article 17 says that the Government must not allow the mass media to publish things which harm children, but "the media, with Government backing, has inferred that many children are being abused by dint of the fact they are home educated," says Techla, a home educating mother from North Yorkshire. "My children are hurt and angry at the suggestion, and at the thought that their non-HE friends will think this is the case." Other children have also expressed their feelings that inciting suspicion against mum and dad is causing them distress.
Also, by not considering disabled children or those with Special Educational Needs the review's consultation of Local Authorities may actually be illegal. [7]
In-house Social Services and Local Authority publications have carried letters and articles criticising home education, and reports are that memos have been circulated advising on how the Local Authorities consultation should be answered. This will have undue influence over the results of that consultation.
Many children were removed from school because of bullying, abuse, neglect, or the lack of provision of a suitable education. In many cases the Local Authorities were at best apathetic, at worst openly hostile to the needs of the child. To suggest that these children and their parents should be investigated by the very agencies that failed them is insulting and dangerous.
Home education provides a good childhood
Independent research has shown home education provides many of the qualities that the Good Childhood Inquiry finds essential to a happy, healthy childhood, and therefore to a happy, healthy society. Home educators then ask why the Government is apparently intent on the regulation of HE in the face of yet another indictment of their failing schools system. The DCSF's attitude seems to be that childhood should be managed by the State at any cost. The conclusion seems to be that parents will necessarily abuse or neglect their children if they are not supervised. With their placing of the rights of Local Authorities above those of parents and children, as advocated in this Review of Home Education, it looks like the Children's Society report will fall on deaf ears.
As home educators and parents we support the findings of the Inquiry as outlined above and feel we demonstrate the positive nature of many of their recommendations. Home education should be seen as evidence of a supportive, loving and nurturing home, not as a potential cover for malefactors.
Jem
The Good Childhood Inquiry can be seen at http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/1818.html
--------------
Notes:
[1] "How Children Learn at Home" by Alan Thomas, 2007.
[2] http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ete/homeeducation/
[3] Elective Home Education: Guidelines for Local Authorities, October 2007. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/_documents/content/7373-DCSF-Elective%20Home%20Education.pdf
[4] Jeremy Vine show, Radio 2, 20th January 2009:
JEREMY VINE: "Vijay, have you got any statistical base at all?"
VIJAY PATEL (NSPCC Child Protection Policy Advisor): "We... the inf... We don’t have the evidence there statistically, no."
[5] UNISON report "Still Slipping Through The Net?" See http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=8347
[6] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
[7] The LA questionnaire asks about children who are statemented for SEN. This ignores children with other disabilities and those which have SEN but are not statemented (parents of many home educated children with SEN prefer that they not be statemented). Government has a legal duty to consider disabled/SEN children (statemented or not) in all its documentation. http://www.dotheduty.org/
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Today at 00:52
The Good Childhood Inquiry by the Children's Society will release the results of its study this week. Home educators have welcomed the review which reports that the children of Britain need more parental attention, more freedom to play, more access to the outdoors, and are harmed by junk food, peer pressure leading to consumerism and experimentation with alcohol and drugs, and the stresses of bullying, academic competition and exam anxiety.
These stresses and strains are some of the reasons why so many parents make the decision to home educate their children. Home educated children have greater familial contact and much less exposure to the negative social and academic pressures endemic in schools. They also have far more access to play and to the outdoors and are free of the rigours of constant testing and standardisation. Recent studies also show that most watch far less television than their schooled peers, and become more self-aware and community minded. [1] All of these are exactly what the Children's Society recommends for a happy, healthy childhood and by extension, a happy, healthy society.
"When I went to school I was bullied and I didn't get any help from the teachers. Now I'm doing home schooling, I get help if I need it and I don't get bullied." - H, aged 12.
"I am loved and cared for and have great fun everyday, exploring, exercising, laughing and talking!" - A, aged 11.
A 'slanderous' review
Home educators were angered on 19th January by the announcement by the Department for Children, Schools and Families of an Independent Review of Home Education [2], the fourth such consultation since 2005. The review was especially surprising as guidelines to Local Authorities on home education have only recently been issued as a result of previous consultations.[3] This review targets home educators as potential abusers, but has nothing to say about the well documented abuse of children within the schools system. Home education organisations have repeatedly asked for statistical evidence to back up these claims, but according to Vijay Patel of the NSPCC there is no such evidence [4] and requests continue to be ignored.
The DCSF is ignoring the problems with their over-worked, under-funded and under-trained social care workers [5] and instead is looking into adding to their workload with the monitoring of a home educating minority, justifying their stance with unsubstantiated rumour, hearsay and little else.
Criticism for the DCSF
The DCSF has been criticised for its methods from the start of this review. Home educating parents in their hundreds have decided to use FaceBook as a tool to organise their protests, contesting the rights of the DCSF to interfere with their freedom to educate at home unmolested by bodies who have a history of hostility towards them and little apparent understanding of them. Several conclusions have been reached:
The branding of home educators by this review as potential child abusers is discriminatory and incites prejudice which actively harms children and their families.
There are concerns that issuing press statements that home education may be a cover for abuse may violate Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. [6]
Article 17 says that the Government must not allow the mass media to publish things which harm children, but "the media, with Government backing, has inferred that many children are being abused by dint of the fact they are home educated," says Techla, a home educating mother from North Yorkshire. "My children are hurt and angry at the suggestion, and at the thought that their non-HE friends will think this is the case." Other children have also expressed their feelings that inciting suspicion against mum and dad is causing them distress.
Also, by not considering disabled children or those with Special Educational Needs the review's consultation of Local Authorities may actually be illegal. [7]
In-house Social Services and Local Authority publications have carried letters and articles criticising home education, and reports are that memos have been circulated advising on how the Local Authorities consultation should be answered. This will have undue influence over the results of that consultation.
Many children were removed from school because of bullying, abuse, neglect, or the lack of provision of a suitable education. In many cases the Local Authorities were at best apathetic, at worst openly hostile to the needs of the child. To suggest that these children and their parents should be investigated by the very agencies that failed them is insulting and dangerous.
Home education provides a good childhood
Independent research has shown home education provides many of the qualities that the Good Childhood Inquiry finds essential to a happy, healthy childhood, and therefore to a happy, healthy society. Home educators then ask why the Government is apparently intent on the regulation of HE in the face of yet another indictment of their failing schools system. The DCSF's attitude seems to be that childhood should be managed by the State at any cost. The conclusion seems to be that parents will necessarily abuse or neglect their children if they are not supervised. With their placing of the rights of Local Authorities above those of parents and children, as advocated in this Review of Home Education, it looks like the Children's Society report will fall on deaf ears.
As home educators and parents we support the findings of the Inquiry as outlined above and feel we demonstrate the positive nature of many of their recommendations. Home education should be seen as evidence of a supportive, loving and nurturing home, not as a potential cover for malefactors.
Jem
The Good Childhood Inquiry can be seen at http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/all_about_us/how_we_do_it/the_good_childhood_inquiry/1818.html
--------------
Notes:
[1] "How Children Learn at Home" by Alan Thomas, 2007.
[2] http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ete/homeeducation/
[3] Elective Home Education: Guidelines for Local Authorities, October 2007. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities/_documents/content/7373-DCSF-Elective%20Home%20Education.pdf
[4] Jeremy Vine show, Radio 2, 20th January 2009:
JEREMY VINE: "Vijay, have you got any statistical base at all?"
VIJAY PATEL (NSPCC Child Protection Policy Advisor): "We... the inf... We don’t have the evidence there statistically, no."
[5] UNISON report "Still Slipping Through The Net?" See http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=8347
[6] http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
[7] The LA questionnaire asks about children who are statemented for SEN. This ignores children with other disabilities and those which have SEN but are not statemented (parents of many home educated children with SEN prefer that they not be statemented). Government has a legal duty to consider disabled/SEN children (statemented or not) in all its documentation. http://www.dotheduty.org/
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
ANTI BULLYING WEEK
MEDIA INFORMATION FROM ACTION FOR HOME EDUCATION (AHEd)
For immediate release, Wednesday 19 November 2008
ANTI BULLYING WEEK - TIME TO REMIND CHILDREN THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO ENDURE BULLYING IN SCHOOL, says AHEd
National home education group Action for Home Education [1] today accused authorities of immorality in creating endless anti bullying projects whilst hiding from children and parents their right to walk away from bullies.
Commenting on Anti Bullying Week, AHEd Chair Barbara Stark said: "AHEd was formed to take action where needed to support and promote the right to educate one's children without using schools. If any child has a right to know that they have no legal obligation to be educated in a school, it is the child bullied in school. Our members are keen to ensure that in anti bullying week this message is shared with these children."
AHEd have previously run campaigns highlighting the tragic extent of bullying in schools. Last year members lobbied MPs and the Minister responsible for education to remind them that 450,000 children were bullied in school EACH WEEK last year [2] and at least 16 children are successful in committing suicide each year as a result of school bullying. [3] A worrying recent survey by Kidscape shows that half of bullied children in schools will contemplate or attempt suicide. [4]
AHEd member Clare Murton asks, "How many bullied children and their parents have been told by the school or the LA that it is a legal and rewarding choice to educate a child at home?"
Home educating parent and AHEd member Pete Darby, asks, "If a friend of yours was consistently bullied at work, fearful of turning up each morning, and complaints to the management did little or nothing, wouldn't you tell your friend to leave their job before it was too late? Yet children are constantly being told that they must put up with it, or make another report to the teacher. You would tell an adult to first get out of the toxic situation: why not show as much concern to children?"
"No adult," says Barbara "is expected to tolerate the behaviour that bullied children are forced to put up with without recourse to relief or justice." Yet, while AHEd members continue to hear from families whose children are bullied in schools, they are sick of having to listen to the old cliché that to take a child out of school because of bullying is over-protective and won't help a child to cope in the "real world" where bullying happens and life is tough.
In practice they find that the opposite is true; their children when taken seriously, offered a reprieve from the hatred they are being subjected to and educated in an environment of their choosing, develop strong self esteem, learn more effectively and go on to experience much better working relationships as adults.
AHEd members have one simple message to promote in Anti Bullying Week -
BULLIED AT SCHOOL? TRY HOME EDUCATION - IT IS YOUR RIGHT - AND YOUR LIFELINE.
for further information contact: Tel: xxx email: starkfamily@ntlworld.com
Notes for Editors:
[1] http://ahed.pbwiki.com/About-AHEd
(2)http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2007/mar/27/howcanschoolsreducebullyin
"Each week 450,000 children are bullied in school. Another 500,000 are taunted by their peer group in the community. And more than one in five children will turn to suicide as a way out of being severely bullied" writes Debbie Andalo. " It is an image that MPs highlight in their report into bullying in school published in March 2007. The report by the Commons Education and Skills Select Committee claims up to 20% of young people experience some kind of general bullying. But this can be as high as 50% among pupils in secondary schools who are attracted to the same sex and find themselves at the receiving end of homophobic taunts. The incidence of bullying is also substantiated by figures from the child support charity ChildLine, which said it received 37,000 calls from young people who were bullied between 2005 and 2006 - a 12% rise compared with the previous year.
(3). At least 16 children commit suicide each year as a result of school bullying: Neil Marr and Tim Field's book "Bullycide: death at playtime" reveals the hidden epidemic of suicide caused by bullying and harassment.
(4) http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=5248914
END
Barbara Stark
(Chair, AHEd.) For the committee and membership of AHEd
www.ahed.org.uk Action for Home Education Group.
http://ahed.pbwiki.com/ Action for Home Education Group wiki.
For immediate release, Wednesday 19 November 2008
ANTI BULLYING WEEK - TIME TO REMIND CHILDREN THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO ENDURE BULLYING IN SCHOOL, says AHEd
National home education group Action for Home Education [1] today accused authorities of immorality in creating endless anti bullying projects whilst hiding from children and parents their right to walk away from bullies.
Commenting on Anti Bullying Week, AHEd Chair Barbara Stark said: "AHEd was formed to take action where needed to support and promote the right to educate one's children without using schools. If any child has a right to know that they have no legal obligation to be educated in a school, it is the child bullied in school. Our members are keen to ensure that in anti bullying week this message is shared with these children."
AHEd have previously run campaigns highlighting the tragic extent of bullying in schools. Last year members lobbied MPs and the Minister responsible for education to remind them that 450,000 children were bullied in school EACH WEEK last year [2] and at least 16 children are successful in committing suicide each year as a result of school bullying. [3] A worrying recent survey by Kidscape shows that half of bullied children in schools will contemplate or attempt suicide. [4]
AHEd member Clare Murton asks, "How many bullied children and their parents have been told by the school or the LA that it is a legal and rewarding choice to educate a child at home?"
Home educating parent and AHEd member Pete Darby, asks, "If a friend of yours was consistently bullied at work, fearful of turning up each morning, and complaints to the management did little or nothing, wouldn't you tell your friend to leave their job before it was too late? Yet children are constantly being told that they must put up with it, or make another report to the teacher. You would tell an adult to first get out of the toxic situation: why not show as much concern to children?"
"No adult," says Barbara "is expected to tolerate the behaviour that bullied children are forced to put up with without recourse to relief or justice." Yet, while AHEd members continue to hear from families whose children are bullied in schools, they are sick of having to listen to the old cliché that to take a child out of school because of bullying is over-protective and won't help a child to cope in the "real world" where bullying happens and life is tough.
In practice they find that the opposite is true; their children when taken seriously, offered a reprieve from the hatred they are being subjected to and educated in an environment of their choosing, develop strong self esteem, learn more effectively and go on to experience much better working relationships as adults.
AHEd members have one simple message to promote in Anti Bullying Week -
BULLIED AT SCHOOL? TRY HOME EDUCATION - IT IS YOUR RIGHT - AND YOUR LIFELINE.
for further information contact: Tel: xxx email: starkfamily@ntlworld.com
Notes for Editors:
[1] http://ahed.pbwiki.com/About-AHEd
(2)http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2007/mar/27/howcanschoolsreducebullyin
"Each week 450,000 children are bullied in school. Another 500,000 are taunted by their peer group in the community. And more than one in five children will turn to suicide as a way out of being severely bullied" writes Debbie Andalo. " It is an image that MPs highlight in their report into bullying in school published in March 2007. The report by the Commons Education and Skills Select Committee claims up to 20% of young people experience some kind of general bullying. But this can be as high as 50% among pupils in secondary schools who are attracted to the same sex and find themselves at the receiving end of homophobic taunts. The incidence of bullying is also substantiated by figures from the child support charity ChildLine, which said it received 37,000 calls from young people who were bullied between 2005 and 2006 - a 12% rise compared with the previous year.
(3). At least 16 children commit suicide each year as a result of school bullying: Neil Marr and Tim Field's book "Bullycide: death at playtime" reveals the hidden epidemic of suicide caused by bullying and harassment.
(4) http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=5248914
END
Barbara Stark
(Chair, AHEd.) For the committee and membership of AHEd
www.ahed.org.uk Action for Home Education Group.
http://ahed.pbwiki.com/ Action for Home Education Group wiki.
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
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