Record number of kids being taught at home

The number of Lincolnshire children being educated at home has more than quadrupled since 2002, new figures have revealed.

Read more...

Many autism cases 'undiagnosed'

A significant number of children with autism and related disorders could be undiagnosed, a study has suggested.

Read more...

Big rise in home schooling

MORE Sheffield children are being taken out of school and taught at home than ever before – with numbers having tripled over the last 12 years. Over 170 youngsters in 118 families are currently being home educated in the city, compared with just 50 in 1996, according to a report to councillors.

Read more...

Home education on the news

A DOZEN friends and family of a young autistic boy took to the skies to raise £3,500 for his continuing home education.

Read more...

Alison was shocked when her five-year-old daughter Lily did not get a place at the nearest school, and education bosses offered her a place at a school two miles away, instead. She decided that she did not want Lily to have to travel unsupervised in a taxi, and began to give her home tuition.

A council spokesman said: “We have provided guidance and information regarding home education grants."

Read more...

Truancy Sweeps

You can also watch it here.

Homeedreview - epetition response

Here's the government reply:

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister 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.”

Details of Petition:

“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.”

· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage

Read the Government’s response

Thank you for your e-petition.

One of the key principles underpinning The Children’s Plan published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families is that the government does not bring up children – parents do. The review of home education does not threaten a parent’s right to educate their child at home.

However, there is always a balance to be struck between respecting the rights of parents, and ensuring that local authorities (LAs) and other agencies have the right systems in place to intervene where it is necessary for them to do so. LAs tell us that they have particular concerns about being able to fulfil their responsibilities in the case of home educated children. We must find out what is behind those concerns and make sure that the arrangements are fit for purpose.

The welfare and protection of all children, both those who attend school and those who are educated at home, are of paramount concern. The independent review of home education is part of our ongoing commitment to strengthen the safeguarding arrangements for all children, whatever their background or circumstances.

Pupils brainwashed to support the MMR vaccine

"The Government has been accused of using a school exam paper to indoctrinate children about the controversial MMR vaccine.

Teenagers sitting a GCSE science exam were awarded marks only if they agreed that the study that first raised fears over the safety of MMR was bad science and biased because money changed hands."

Read more...

Mum in court for child's absences from school

"A woman has been made the subject of a 12-month conditional discharge after failing to ensure her child attended school regularly.

Ms Nicholson said that when the welfare officer began working with MacDonald last year, she was considering home schooling her child. The court heard a home education officer visited them on October 8. But Ms Nicholson said, after realising what would be involved, MacDonald started making arrangements for her child to return to school.

Ed Cunnah, mitigating, said the problems started with the pupil being bullied at school which led to a loss in confidence and caused the non-attendance. Mr Cunnah said that the most recent problems were medical. "

Read more...

Home educated teen accused of terrorism

Below is a disturbing video interview of a North Carolina woman whose 16 year old home educated son was grabbed up in the middle of the night at gun-point by a dozen FBI agents (assisted by the state Highway Patrol), accused of being a terrorist, under the USA PATRIOT Act, and whisked away to Indiana where he is being held:



Read more...

Family appeals for right to home educate

"German family has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights after losing a court battle to home educate their children. "

The attorney that has taken up the family' cause said:

"It's pretty clear that states are not allowed to indoctrinate their children, and that parents have the ultimate right in raising their child according to their own religious and philosophical convictions."

Read more...

Mother stopped from homeschooling

"Grace Robertson removed her daughter Elysha, seven, who has an illness so rare it has no name, from Newman Special School in Rotherham because she did not think she was making progress.

Rotherham Council's social services department, backed by the school, say that Elysha could be suffering isolation and missing the company of children by being kept at home."

Read more...