So very tired of it all

I have to confess that I have let my eye wander from the ball. I have slipped, missed..or just deliberately wandered away from the problem facing home educators in England and gone and hidden under the duvet instead. It is, after all, winter. Not just winter, but just after Christmas. And we have been fighting this Badman/Government attack on home educators for - oh - such a very long time. I forget how long now. But it seems to have overshadowed our whole year. And I feel, sadly, that it will overshadow - in one way or another - 2010 too.

So, because I feel I am out of the loop, and relatively uninformed, I am grateful for those who keep us updated on the current situation, like here:

I give a snippet:

"The Children Schools and Families Bill had its first reading on November 19, less than six weeks after the [Badman] consultation closed. It is virtually inconceivable that the DCSF could have read and analyzed these thousands of responses in such a short time period, much less have actually taken the respondants’ views into consideration. The proposed legislation makes it clear, in fact, that the government did not consider the views of home educating families at all.

To summarize these changes very briefly, if the bill were to pass as proposed parents would no longer have the power to decide how their children will be educated. If they wish to educate their children at home, they will need permission from the state. Local authorities will be able to deny this permission on virtually any grounds they choose, and if permission is once denied, then it may be denied for all time. No second chance, no appeal.

Registration will not be compulsory, but parents who do not register their children (that is, request permission from the local authorities) run the risk of having their children automatically ordered to attend school.

Worst of all, if the family complies with these demands, they will still be forced to allow local authorities to inspect their homes and interrogate children as young as five years old for up to four hours at a time with no parent or trusted adult present. Parents who object to this or who refuse to allow their children to be questioned alone by local authorities education officers know that the local authorities can use their refusal as grounds to order the children to attend school."

I know I should be following all of this and be proactively doing - well - something. But I am so very tired of it all. The duvet is calling me.

Badman is a badman indeed...Badman and Nektus

Ok, so we were under no illusions that Badman was at all independent, but some interesting revelations are revealed in the 'Freedom in education under threat' blog
here for more)

"During the review process, Home Educators have obviously been very interested in finding out what professional interests Mr Badman holds, especially given that we have been told time and again that he, and therefore his review, are *independent*. Many home educators were surprised to find that an independent review into Home Education could be carried out by a former teacher, former head of children's services, and current chair of BECTA. Whilst looking into Mr Badman's professional interests, it was discovered that he was listed as the director of an Education Management company by the name of Nektus..."

Please help us! Sign a petition against The Badman Report

The Report into Elective Home Education issued by the DCSF/Graham Badman has made many recommendations which threaten to change the lives of home educated children in England.

If the recommendations are approved there will be changes to primary law that will enable the government to intrude into the lives of ALL families in England.

Home educators are at the front line against these changes and we need your help!

A basic explanation of why we are protesting can be found here: http://www.homeschooler.org.uk/start-here

Please help us by signing the petition at

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/EHEreview/

And, even better, write to your MP at

www.writetothem.com (it's easy, honest!)

Even a simple letter to your MP saying that you are concerned about the recommendations will help.

The more letters they receive the more likely they are to pay attention.
We are a minority and need other voices to join us!

Please forward to those who might also be willing to support us.

Thanks!!!
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[Graham Badman, finally realising that the report was based on woefully inadequate statistics, is now asking Local Authorities for further evidence! If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable. Too much for me to tackle all the info on my blog, but the Dare to Know blog does a grand job with all the relevant links...see http://daretoknowblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/graham-badman-now-requesting-further.html ]
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Home Educators' Picnic (Oxfordshire)

The day started at 7.30am when a home educator and her wonderfully articulate daughter were interviewed on local radio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p004bvf9/Malcolm_Boyden_16_09_2009/

and then there was bubble blowing and leafleting in the city centre

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/headlines/4633125.Home_schoolers_protest_against_report/

And here are a few photos from our day: (will try and post some more tomorrow!)

'Marching' with the banner to our picnic

A happy fairy

Magicking up some bubbles:

Smile for the camera!

Anyway...gotta go, low battery on the laptop. Will try and post more tomorrow!

The bath water is brown and gritty - we're back from HESFES!

Wow! Back from a week's camping holiday followed by HESFES (Home Educators Summer Festival) and feeling tanned and fresh-aired (and a bit nearer the overdraft limit than I was before I left!)

After attending the week-long home educating conference at HESFES I have lots to tell, and plenty of info/advice about the Badman Report to pass on. Hopefully among the scraps of paper I've brought back I have some constructive ideas about what we can do to fight the proposals.

I'm sure I've also got lots of photos to post up about fossiling and HESFESing and all our other activities over the past few weeks. But I need to tackle the washing and the allotment first, so will post soon with more stuff. In the meantime this is just to say I'm here!

Lord Lucas requests comments on Badman Report

Ok, just emerging from that shocked and stunned state after reading the Badman Report.
It feels like I've spent the weekend running around like Chicken Licken crying out 'The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!'

Anyway, back to some positive action:

Please add your comments, and demonstrate to Lord Lucas why we reject the Badman Report at http://lordlucas.blogspot.com/


I've just added mine (yet to be posted up - there were only 6 comments when last looked). Here it is:

"Our family is still reeling from the report and the ignorance it demonstratesabout home education.Our family has made an active choice to allow our children to grow up following their interests and passions, to learn at their own pace, and without being subjected to the intrusion of testing and monitoring. As the saying goes 'thepig doesn't get any fatter by weighing it'.

I wonder if the government has plans to monitor and inspect all those parents with preschool children too? Or school children during school holidays?

I don't know anyone in social services who would agree that a yearly visit by astranger would be effective in identifying cases of child abuse, or providing an environment whereby a child might disclose abuse.

And of course there is the huge risk of false-positives caused by an inefficient system that is driven by targets. If you are searching for a needle in a haystack, then making the haystack bigger isn't the solution.

Recommendation 7 proposes a change in the law to give designated local authority officers the right of access to the home. This right is not even extended to the Police and Social Services unless there is probable cause, and defies theEuropean Convention of Human Rights article 8. Are we to be persecuted for making a minority choice in the education of our child?

We have never asked the LA for funding. We have never asked the LA for resources or facilities. We fund home education ourselves, often through outstanding resourcefulness and with considerable hardship.

And where is the money going to come from to administer this uneccessary and intrusive system?No doubt it could be better spent providing funding for grass root organisations that do a great deal of unspoken work to support families in the community. I'm not speaking here about the turgid machinery of the Sure Start Centres, but the small independent voluntary organisations where people meet and communities self-regulate; these are exactly the sorts of places where children ARE seen, where parents are supported and any concerns ARE noted and acted upon(isn't this the whole intention of this monitoring?).

If these recommendations go through then I suspect huge numbers of homeeducators will go underground. And I very much doubt that any of them will be voting for any party that supports this report."

For those who are interested, Lord Lucas (Conservative) has spoken in defence of home education prior to the release of the report:http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2009-06-02a.107.8&s=speaker%3A13301#g142\.0

The cynic in me thinks that once the Conservatives realise just how many votes they could get from Home Educators in the fallout of this report, there might be a few more of their politicians speaking out!

Will post soon about more usual home ed stuff and I have lots and lots of photos to upload. Of course what I'd really like to be doing is HOME EDUCATING. Unfortunately, thanks to the government, I'm still trying to plough through the implications of the report and make some positive moves about fighting the recommendations. Grrr..

Its a bad bad day for home education

Sorry guys, I have been so out of action for er so long. No excuses.

Anyway, I'm now reeling from the publication of the Badman report of the review into elective home education:

http://www.freedomforchildrentogrow.org/8318-DCSF-HomeEdReviewBMK.PDF

I am too sickened to comment. Too gutted. Too...can't find the words. Recommendation 7 and parts of 23 are particularly chilling.

However, at least one person has spoken up for us home educators (Mark Field, conservative)

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090609/halltext/90609h0009.htm#09060973000004

(snipped)
"...I became interested, involved and engaged in home education some months back when I met two articulate and passionate local mothers in the Pimlico area of my constituency who had decided to educate their children themselves. One made that decision as a result of her son’s unhappy and unproductive first 18 months in the state school sector. The other had seen home education work brilliantly for family friends, and made the positive decision to take on that task for her daughters. The matter is a Cinderella area, and I approached my meeting with those two mothers with some standard misconceptions that a home education might produce an unsocialised, precocious child who is unable to interact with their peers and perhaps shielded from all negative experiences. However, the more I listened to the two mothers, the
9 Jun 2009 : Column 217WHmore impressed and excited I was by their passion and enthusiasm for home education. Each was able to provide an individualised learning experience tailored to the child’s abilities and interests. Far from having an isolated and insulated existence, the children of those two mothers frequently attended classes with other home schoolers, interacted with children of different ages and abilities, and experienced a wide range of activities from practising judo and learning Japanese to visiting galleries and museums during quieter times of day.

Anne Main (St. Albans) (Con): My hon. Friend’s experience is replicated in my constituency where there are 60 home schoolers. That has come to the forefront in my constituency because some parents are deeply unhappy about the school that they have been allocated and are investigating home schooling. It is a resourceful way of proceeding with a valuable education that is tailored to their child’s needs. I echo what my hon. Friend is saying. When one looks into the matter, one sees that it is a heartening way forward and can be complementary to the state system.

Mr. Field: I thank my hon. Friend for her observations. I stress that the notion of a homogenous group of home educators with a single mind could not be further from the truth. Diversity is one of the most important aspects of the home education ideal and the education that is provided for those children who have the great benefit of it. A home-educated child will naturally have a close relationship with their parents, whose lives are often enriched by learning new skills and knowledge alongside their children.

I have discovered that in my constituency, in the heart of the biggest city in our nation, there is an active community of home educators who share classes and co-ordinate their knowledge base. A nationwide lively online community shares best practice and experience, and I have learned about that from the inundation of information to my private office during the past three or four days since it became known that I was having this debate today. I apologise that I will not be able to make all the points that were made to me by interested parents. Many home educators choose not to engage with other families, and the appeal of home education is that individual educational experience can be tailored to best suit the child and the family.

All that comes at no cost to taxpayers because the vast majority of home educators shoulder not only the teaching burden, but the financial one. Despite that, the choice for many home educators is often not the ability to afford such a route—many probably struggle to some extent—but stems from lack of faith in what the state sector provides, particularly when the basis of that provision is “take it or leave it”. That is a problem not so much in my constituency, but in other parts of London where many parents are dissatisfied when only their third, fourth or fifth choice of school is available for their children. Home educators come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and many find that home schooling is the most workable or perhaps the only alternative to expensive school fees or an unattractive local state school.

Unfortunately, both the mothers to whomI spoke at length were deeply concerned about the future of home education. There is long-standing suspicion that the Government, both local and national, are uncomfortable about parents providing education that cannot be monitored, tested or accounted for. There is a real fear that the Government, under the banner of child protection, will try to interfere with the freedom of choice of home educators. I represent a big flagship Conservative borough, but the same probably applies to the local education authority, which is equally to blame. I am not making a partisan party political point. The freedom that is so fiercely guarded by the majority of home educators and their choice to pursue that path is due to a fundamental rejection of the state’s values, and lack of faith in the state’s ability to provide a suitable education for their child.

Home education has been under constant scrutiny since the Children Act 2004, which enshrined the Government’s Every Child Matters agenda in legislation. Draft guidelines clarifying the rights and responsibilities for home educators and local authorities were drafted and debated in early 2005, shelved for two years, and finally published in autumn 2007. That consultation caused great anxiety among home educators because it was feared that the Government would try to introduce inspections and to control the curricula. Eventually, guidelines issued after the review maintained the previous position, and most families were incredibly relieved.

Meanwhile the Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduced new duties for identifying children who were missing education. Yet there was another consultation in autumn last year on children missing education, and all home educators will eventually be tracked down as a result of the ContactPoint database. Local authorities will be required to determine“as far as they are able”whether a child is receiving what a local education bureaucrat deems is a suitable education. Before that, local authorities were required only to make a note of any families whom they found home educating.

All this casts doubt on the Government’s motives with the Badman review, particularly as the consultation response time has been cut from 12 weeks to four. Why have they not given the latest guidance a chance to work through? Could it be that the consultation is a knee-jerk reaction from a Government who are fearful of any further culpability in the face of some quite deep failings in the care system?

Home educators with whom I have engaged conclude that either the Government have no faith in the previous reviews or this is a superficial exercise to try to allay public concern—a bid to make good other failures with frenetic activity—which will result in few or no changes.
Andrew George (St. Ives) (LD): The hon. Gentleman is making a very strong case. He says that there may be public concern about this sector, but having visited a group of home educators in Penzance in my constituency, it was clear to me that in many cases these people have chosen this option precisely because they want to escape abuse and bullying in schools. Some choose it for other reasons. In a letter dated 19 June 2007 that I received from the then Under-Secretary in the Department, Lord Adonis, he made it clear that under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 the powers already exist to intervene in cases in which the state believes that a child may suffer harm. I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The state already has the powers to intervene where it suspects that harm may be going on.

[edited 4 aug 2009 to correct labels for the post]