PLEASE HELP US AND SPREAD THIS FAR AND WIDE;
SIGN HERE
Thank You!
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Petition to reject Badman's recommendations
If you are a British citizen or resident you can sign this PETITION
Friday, 3 July 2009
Mark Field MP tables an EDM
Early Day Motion
Please ask your MP to sign.
EDM 1785 HOME EDUCATION AND THE BADMAN REVIEW01.07.2009
Field, Mark
That this House acknowledges and celebrates the hard work of the many home educators in Britain who teach their children to an exceptionally high standard; recognises the excellent value they represent to the Government; notes with concern the conflation of welfare concerns with education issues in Government statements on home education; further notes with concern the recommendations of the Badman Review which suggest closer monitoring of home educators, including a compulsory annual registration scheme and right of access to people's homes for local authority officials; and calls on the Government to focus on its own ability to fulfil the Every Child Matters objectives rather than undermine the independence and integrity of home educators by enforcing the Badman recommendations.
Please ask your MP to sign.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Just for the record!
Remember when Baroness Morgan said this?
It was stated all over the national press and kicked off the notorious Badman review into home education.
Well, using the Freedom of Information Act home educators went and asked all the Local Authorities(LA's) about their abuse stats on home educated children.
Guess what, the evidence shows that they had no reason to target home educators in this way. They could have asked the LA's this before they went to the national press to sling mud at us, and before they set up this farce of a review and wasted £75,000 of public money.
We knew it all along but now the press will know it and hopefully the general public will know it and stop spreading this vicious lie.
Here are the real stats:
LAs with calculated abuse rate 106 (from a total of 152)
LAs with zero abuse 80 (75.5%)
LAs with abuse less than national average 14 (13.2%)
LAs with abuse more than national average 12 (10.3%)
abuse rate in HE community 0.83%
national abuse rate (all children) 1.8%
Full figures with links here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rbrk5-GEdrUdcmfi670Mihg&gid=2
or
http://tiny.cc/gdk8u
N.B. Even though there is clearly no evidence that home educated children are more at risk of abuse, Badman still recommended the most draconian measures to be taken against home educators and Baroness Morgan welcomed his recommendations in full.
"In some extreme cases, home education could be used as a cover for abuse"
It was stated all over the national press and kicked off the notorious Badman review into home education.
Well, using the Freedom of Information Act home educators went and asked all the Local Authorities(LA's) about their abuse stats on home educated children.
Guess what, the evidence shows that they had no reason to target home educators in this way. They could have asked the LA's this before they went to the national press to sling mud at us, and before they set up this farce of a review and wasted £75,000 of public money.
We knew it all along but now the press will know it and hopefully the general public will know it and stop spreading this vicious lie.
Here are the real stats:
LAs with calculated abuse rate 106 (from a total of 152)
LAs with zero abuse 80 (75.5%)
LAs with abuse less than national average 14 (13.2%)
LAs with abuse more than national average 12 (10.3%)
abuse rate in HE community 0.83%
national abuse rate (all children) 1.8%
Full figures with links here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rbrk5-GEdrUdcmfi670Mihg&gid=2
or
http://tiny.cc/gdk8u
N.B. Even though there is clearly no evidence that home educated children are more at risk of abuse, Badman still recommended the most draconian measures to be taken against home educators and Baroness Morgan welcomed his recommendations in full.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
A call to action!
Please pass this on:
Imagine a world where...
a.. All vegetarians* are required to register with their local authorities, and inform the authorities whenever they move house.
b.. Vegetarians must be visited annually by an inspector (usually a former employee of the meat industry), who will assess their dietary plans for the coming year against government standards.
c.. Inspectors have the right to interview children in vegetarian families, without their parents present, in order to find out whether the children are safe and well, and ask them if they are happy to be living on a vegetarian diet.
No need to use your imagination - this is reality.
These are measures actually being proposed by the British government, not for vegetarians but for people in England who make the lawful choice to educate their children outside the school system.
The proposed heavy-handed system of registration, monitoring and inspection will cost millions of pounds to implement. Money which will be diverted from providing services for families who actually need and want help. If you are looking for a needle in a haystack, don't make the haystack bigger!
If home educators can be treated this way, who will be next?
Would you be happy for your child to be questioned alone by a government official they do not know, when there is no reason to suppose any crime has been committed?
Do you trust the government to keep safe the personal data of thousands of families?
To bring in this system, the government is proposing to change the law. We have a short time in which to raise our voices and object.
What you can do:
a.. Respond to the DCSF consultation at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1643&external=no
b.. Write to your MP
c.. Write to local and national newspapers
d.. Tell your friends - pass this message on by email, blog it, photocopy it
*or people who don't drive/people who use homeopathy/smokers/people who don't have a television/any other group of people exercising a lawful minority choice
Imagine a world where...
a.. All vegetarians* are required to register with their local authorities, and inform the authorities whenever they move house.
b.. Vegetarians must be visited annually by an inspector (usually a former employee of the meat industry), who will assess their dietary plans for the coming year against government standards.
c.. Inspectors have the right to interview children in vegetarian families, without their parents present, in order to find out whether the children are safe and well, and ask them if they are happy to be living on a vegetarian diet.
No need to use your imagination - this is reality.
These are measures actually being proposed by the British government, not for vegetarians but for people in England who make the lawful choice to educate their children outside the school system.
The proposed heavy-handed system of registration, monitoring and inspection will cost millions of pounds to implement. Money which will be diverted from providing services for families who actually need and want help. If you are looking for a needle in a haystack, don't make the haystack bigger!
If home educators can be treated this way, who will be next?
Would you be happy for your child to be questioned alone by a government official they do not know, when there is no reason to suppose any crime has been committed?
Do you trust the government to keep safe the personal data of thousands of families?
To bring in this system, the government is proposing to change the law. We have a short time in which to raise our voices and object.
What you can do:
a.. Respond to the DCSF consultation at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1643&external=no
b.. Write to your MP
c.. Write to local and national newspapers
d.. Tell your friends - pass this message on by email, blog it, photocopy it
*or people who don't drive/people who use homeopathy/smokers/people who don't have a television/any other group of people exercising a lawful minority choice
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