Andrew and his wife Mary-Clare teach their 15-year-old twins at home.
Andrew: “If they were able to interview the child separately from a parent that would be completely wrong. It would not normally be the case that anybody in authority would be able to interview a child without a parent present. Police interviewing a crime wouldn’t be able to.”
Mary-Clare: “If you choose to home educate you feel you can do a better job. We wanted our children to learn things when they were ready and in their own time. It’s more natural.”
Read more...
Some comments are also worth reading, like this one:
This Bill reverses the assumption of innocence in English Law, giving the authorities powers to enter law abiding family homes. If this legislation goes ahead it will well and truly open the flood gate of yet more state interference into private family life.
Parents are responsible for their children's education, not the state. Schools are "subject to checks and inspections" because with our taxes we pay for that education service and they have an obligation to parents to prove that they are fulfilling their paid duty. Parents do not have to prove that they are raising their children correctly, in law it is just assumed that they are.
"Under the plans, parents or their children will have the power to block the child being interviewed alone."- in the bill if parent or child exercises this power, then local authorities are allowed to issue a school attendance order for non-compliance!
Schools are not the foolproof "safety net" Government would like us to believe, nor does every child leave with a good education. In the current economic climate our taxes would be better spent improving the provision for the majority, rather than policing a tiny minority of home educators, for which there is no evidence that there is cause for concern.
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Elective Home Education Day Conference
This day conference seeks to develop critical discussion on all three aspects (EHE, policy, and the academic debate). In particular, we seek to review ‘suitable’ and ‘efficient’ as educationally significant (see Section 7, Education Act 1996), which the Badman Report largely side-stepped.
The conference, stimulated by a number of papers and responses, will seek to explore the legitimacy of this conceptual framework for EHE, and possible conceptualisations which offer a practical way forward for parents and policy makers in a UK context.
Event details here.
The conference, stimulated by a number of papers and responses, will seek to explore the legitimacy of this conceptual framework for EHE, and possible conceptualisations which offer a practical way forward for parents and policy makers in a UK context.
Event details here.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
16 y.o. unschooler speaks out
Emi is 16 years old and has been an unschooler for many years. Here she is, interviewed by her sister.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Thursday, February 04, 2010
What's on the news today
Jayne, who educates her three children aged nine, 12 and 15, said: “A lot of us feel the proposed changes are not about benefiting the child but about control. As the current legislation stands we have a very free system and that is a good thing. We want to protect it for people who need to make that choice in the future.” Read more...
Plans to force home-schooling families to register their children with local authorities are “not a good use of public money”, according to a member of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board. Read more...
Rising numbers of parents are being fined for taking children out of school for cheap term-time holidays. Read it here.
Plans to force home-schooling families to register their children with local authorities are “not a good use of public money”, according to a member of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board. Read more...
Rising numbers of parents are being fined for taking children out of school for cheap term-time holidays. Read it here.
Homeschoolers excluded from laptop grants
Another petition:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow home educating families to apply for home access laptop grants.
At the moment home-educating families are purposely excluded from the Home Access free laptop scheme for families on low incomes in England. We believe this to be discriminatory against families who strive to bring a nurturing and personal education to their children and at their own cost. Ed Balls said that children without access to the Internet at home are "...at a disadvantage to their peers..." yet is utterly at home leaving a tiny section of society in that very place: at a disadvantage to everyone else.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow home educating families to apply for home access laptop grants.
At the moment home-educating families are purposely excluded from the Home Access free laptop scheme for families on low incomes in England. We believe this to be discriminatory against families who strive to bring a nurturing and personal education to their children and at their own cost. Ed Balls said that children without access to the Internet at home are "...at a disadvantage to their peers..." yet is utterly at home leaving a tiny section of society in that very place: at a disadvantage to everyone else.
Please make the laptops available to home-educated children too. The current criteria is negligent and exclusive. More here.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Our children have been nationalised
Gerald Warner reckons that the German homeschoolers' political asylum in America exposes the EU Gulag:
Why did the German homeschoolers not seek political asylum in Britain? Because our rulers subscribe to the same tyrannical statist philosophy, is the answer. Every possible obstacle is put in the way of homeschooling parents in Britain.
The mentality is that the state – not parents – is the natural controller and shaper of children’s lives and beliefs. When a schoolgirl can be given an abortion without her parents’ knowledge, we know that, while public utilities may have been privatised, children have been nationalised. Read more...
ALSO on the news: One of the growing number of children who are being taught at home, for Archie there will be no dreaded Sats exams and when the time is right he will likely bypass GCSEs and move straight to A-levels. Read it here.
AND, on EO's campaigning site, a new page -Where are we up to with the Bill? - which can be read here.
Finally, we also have the Memorandum submitted by AHEd: Children Schools and Families Bill.
Why did the German homeschoolers not seek political asylum in Britain? Because our rulers subscribe to the same tyrannical statist philosophy, is the answer. Every possible obstacle is put in the way of homeschooling parents in Britain.
The mentality is that the state – not parents – is the natural controller and shaper of children’s lives and beliefs. When a schoolgirl can be given an abortion without her parents’ knowledge, we know that, while public utilities may have been privatised, children have been nationalised. Read more...
ALSO on the news: One of the growing number of children who are being taught at home, for Archie there will be no dreaded Sats exams and when the time is right he will likely bypass GCSEs and move straight to A-levels. Read it here.
AND, on EO's campaigning site, a new page -Where are we up to with the Bill? - which can be read here.
Finally, we also have the Memorandum submitted by AHEd: Children Schools and Families Bill.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
EO questions assurances about EHE funding
"the guidance notes specifically instruct local authorities not to include home educated children in any funding applications."
Read it here.
Read it here.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Are home-educated children better off?
Parents who choose to educate their children at home are concerned about Government plans to force inspections on them. Cambridge News speaks to one local family who have shunned the school system. Read it here.
Today, 19:30 on BBC One (Cambridgeshire, East only): Dave Hough educates his son at home because he thinks schools are too regimented, offer a poor standard of education and tolerate bullying. The government is planning to introduce much stricter regulations on home schooling with inspections by Ofsted. Dave Hough and many other home educators claim this goes against their right to educate their children in the way they see fit. David Whiteley asks who really is best-placed to ensure the child's right to a good education, the state or the parent? As seen here.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
This week on the news
So, what's on the news this week?
In London, a 9 y.o. boy hanged himself after being told off at school. He wasn't the only one: in a Texas school another 9-year-old boy was found hanged. In Mumbai, a 12-year-old, ashamed of failure, hanged himself too.
In Scotland: 500 kids kicked out of school each year over drink and drugs; fears over rise in violence at schools involving weapons; PE teacher cleared of kiss and in Castletown parents want to sack the head teacher after girls one to five had their underwear checked.
In North wales a primary school teacher was suspended for ridiculing pupils; in Wiltshire, a maths teacher groomed pupil before having sex with her in school cupboard and in a top public school in London a school teacher 'fondled pupils'.
In Cheshire, the PE teacher who punched special needs pupil escapes ban but Pembrokeshire sex assault head teacher lost his appeal. A teacher in Hull has been jailed after a traumatised teenage girl he sexually abused called ChildLine for help. In Nailsea, a 12 y.o. boy is given hardcore porn at school.
In Sudbury pupils are to be given talk on knives and in Gloucestershire a school bus driver over alcohol limit crashed vehicle. I also found out that in England smacking is allowed in certain schools. Despite all this, the crackdown on school truants continues because school is were children should be!
In Germany, an elite school reports sexual abuse cases but everything is OK now that rector has apologised. In Vietnam, a wartime shell explodes at schoolyard and in Haiti 50 bodies are found in a school.
In South Africa, a pupil kills herself after a grade bungle, a pupil has died after being stabbed in the grounds of his school, and a 12 y.o. pupil is shot dead at school. In yet other school of 1 200 pupils, 100 per class, one toilet! I think I'll stop now...
In London, a 9 y.o. boy hanged himself after being told off at school. He wasn't the only one: in a Texas school another 9-year-old boy was found hanged. In Mumbai, a 12-year-old, ashamed of failure, hanged himself too.
In Scotland: 500 kids kicked out of school each year over drink and drugs; fears over rise in violence at schools involving weapons; PE teacher cleared of kiss and in Castletown parents want to sack the head teacher after girls one to five had their underwear checked.
In North wales a primary school teacher was suspended for ridiculing pupils; in Wiltshire, a maths teacher groomed pupil before having sex with her in school cupboard and in a top public school in London a school teacher 'fondled pupils'.
In Cheshire, the PE teacher who punched special needs pupil escapes ban but Pembrokeshire sex assault head teacher lost his appeal. A teacher in Hull has been jailed after a traumatised teenage girl he sexually abused called ChildLine for help. In Nailsea, a 12 y.o. boy is given hardcore porn at school.
In Sudbury pupils are to be given talk on knives and in Gloucestershire a school bus driver over alcohol limit crashed vehicle. I also found out that in England smacking is allowed in certain schools. Despite all this, the crackdown on school truants continues because school is were children should be!
In Germany, an elite school reports sexual abuse cases but everything is OK now that rector has apologised. In Vietnam, a wartime shell explodes at schoolyard and in Haiti 50 bodies are found in a school.
In South Africa, a pupil kills herself after a grade bungle, a pupil has died after being stabbed in the grounds of his school, and a 12 y.o. pupil is shot dead at school. In yet other school of 1 200 pupils, 100 per class, one toilet! I think I'll stop now...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Home educators' house swapping holidays
11-year-old Ruaridh finds the whole experience exciting:
“Well, if you think that it’s hard, its not,” he said. “You just forget what you did at home and consider it as something new and something different. Home education really does teach you that you can make your own decisions about that, you’ve just really got to think what you want to do; it gives you an opportunity to do anything you want to do.”
Read it here.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Homeschooling Family Granted Political Asylum
“This decision finally recognizes that German homeschoolers are a specific social group that is being persecuted by a Western democracy,” said Mike Donnelly, staff attorney and director of international relations for Home School Legal Defense Associaton.
“It is embarrassing for Germany, since a Western nation should uphold basic human rights, which include allowing parents to raise and educate their own children. This judge understood the case perfectly, and he called Germany out. We hope this decision will cause Germany to stop persecuting homeschoolers,” he added.
Read more here. The story also appeared on the Guardian, the Deutsche Welle, the Local, and in spanish here.
UPDATE: Commenting on this, Ed West says here that the British Government is trying to make homeschooling even harder because he suspects many of the parents are religious.
“It is embarrassing for Germany, since a Western nation should uphold basic human rights, which include allowing parents to raise and educate their own children. This judge understood the case perfectly, and he called Germany out. We hope this decision will cause Germany to stop persecuting homeschoolers,” he added.
Read more here. The story also appeared on the Guardian, the Deutsche Welle, the Local, and in spanish here.
UPDATE: Commenting on this, Ed West says here that the British Government is trying to make homeschooling even harder because he suspects many of the parents are religious.
NAS position on home education clause
Proposals in the Children, Schools and Families Bill implement the recommendations of the Badman Review to register and monitor home educators:
Research suggests that children who are home educated are nearly twice as likely to have statements of SEN, and children with autism are heavily represented within this group. A lack of understanding of autism means the school experiences of children with the condition are frequently marred by misunderstandings, inadequate support and often bullying. Some parents are, consequently, left with little alternative other than to home school in the best interests of their child's education and mental and physical well-being. In some of the worst cases we also hear that parents are placed under pressure by schools to remove their children under threat of permanent exclusion or prosecution.
Far too many parents of children with autism who home educate are simply left alone 'to get on with it' without any support at all or say their local authority has been unhelpful and even hostile to their attempts to provide an appropriate education. This is particularly where the relationship between the parents and the local authority has broken down, during parents fight to get the right support for their child.
It is vital that the proposals in the Bill take into account the needs of this group of children. We want to see local authorities who have the training and resources in autism to be able to work in partnership with parents and give them the support they need to home educate their children. It is absolutely essential that this is a two-way relationship with an emphasis on support and not monitoring alone.
Mark Lever, chief executive of The National Autistic Society, here.
Research suggests that children who are home educated are nearly twice as likely to have statements of SEN, and children with autism are heavily represented within this group. A lack of understanding of autism means the school experiences of children with the condition are frequently marred by misunderstandings, inadequate support and often bullying. Some parents are, consequently, left with little alternative other than to home school in the best interests of their child's education and mental and physical well-being. In some of the worst cases we also hear that parents are placed under pressure by schools to remove their children under threat of permanent exclusion or prosecution.
Far too many parents of children with autism who home educate are simply left alone 'to get on with it' without any support at all or say their local authority has been unhelpful and even hostile to their attempts to provide an appropriate education. This is particularly where the relationship between the parents and the local authority has broken down, during parents fight to get the right support for their child.
It is vital that the proposals in the Bill take into account the needs of this group of children. We want to see local authorities who have the training and resources in autism to be able to work in partnership with parents and give them the support they need to home educate their children. It is absolutely essential that this is a two-way relationship with an emphasis on support and not monitoring alone.
Mark Lever, chief executive of The National Autistic Society, here.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wales Environmental Home Education Camp
30th Aug – 5th Sept
This is the fifth year that the camp has been running at Pengraig. A beautiful farm set in 78 acres of countryside near Carmarthen in West Wales. The farm is home to the Majical Youth Theatre Group external link image who have more than 20 years experience in running and organising events of all sizes, for kids of all ages.
Cost: Early bird tickets are available at the cost of £150 per family. This offer is available until 1st April 2010. The price from 1st April will rise to the full tariff of £200 per family. Limited concessions are available for single parents with proof of benefits.
Find out more here.
This is the fifth year that the camp has been running at Pengraig. A beautiful farm set in 78 acres of countryside near Carmarthen in West Wales. The farm is home to the Majical Youth Theatre Group external link image who have more than 20 years experience in running and organising events of all sizes, for kids of all ages.
Cost: Early bird tickets are available at the cost of £150 per family. This offer is available until 1st April 2010. The price from 1st April will rise to the full tariff of £200 per family. Limited concessions are available for single parents with proof of benefits.
Find out more here.
Friday, January 15, 2010
CSF Bill House of Commons 2nd Reading
Michael Gove
Mark Field
You can also watch here Mark Field highlighting the concerns of home educators with regard to the recommendations of the Badman Review in a Westminster Hall debate he tabled on 9 June 2009.
Continue watching...
Mark Field
You can also watch here Mark Field highlighting the concerns of home educators with regard to the recommendations of the Badman Review in a Westminster Hall debate he tabled on 9 June 2009.
Continue watching...
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