Every year or so, the Department for Education asks for our views on proposed changes to guidance on home education or legislation. This blog is now in its 20th year. Here is the current consulation. The deadline is in just a few days, on the 18th January. Here is a lot more advice about the consultation and how to respond. The following is my opinion about the draft guidance only. I home educated all five of my children, the youngest of whom, at 16, now attends college. My first three children, now in their thirties, were deregistered from school at early ages and were therefore known to our ..read more

When I was parenting several younger children of compulsory education age, I felt highly motivated to focus on the various threats (usually coming from Government) to their freedom to learn in the way that was best for them. This motivation has naturally shifted, as my youngest child is now nearly 16 and won't be personally affected by the latest threat. I remember, back in those younger days, feeling a mixture of gratitude and annoyance at the vocal presence of older, ex-home educators who seemed to want to run everything and control our responses as a community. Sometimes they had views and ..read more

There is a hierarchy of people whose livelihoods are based on our children. At the bottom are teachers, social workers and local authority officials. Further up are the businesses who run academies, tuition packages and other learning initiatives. Organisations like Ofsted contribute to the structure of this hierarchy and at its very pinnacle sits Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner, whose office produced a report last year calling for a compulsory register for home educators. Last month, she told the House of Commons Select Committee for Education, that the government had agreed. We d ..read more

Such has been my dismay about the new government guidance for local authorities - and parents! - on home education, I haven't even looked at the consultation on registration yet. Thousands of us responded to last year's consultation on that guidance and were summarily ignored which has the effect of making us feel despondent, to say the least, about bothering to even read this year's set of questions, let alone make the effort of responding to them. We are busy people. We need to be left alone to home educate our children under the current, perfectly sensible law and not to keep being badgered ..read more

The Department for Education has this morning published ..read more

There is a hierarchy of people whose livelihoods are based on our children. At the bottom are teachers, social workers and local authority officials. Further up are the businesses who run academies, tuition packages and other learning initiatives. Organisations like Ofsted contribute to the structure of this hierarchy and at its very pinnacle sits Anne Longfield, the Children's Commissioner, whose office produced a report last year calling for a compulsory register for home educators. Last month, she told the House of Commons Select Committee for Education, that the government had agreed. We d ..read more

Much of the draft guidance currently open to consultation is based on a misinterpretation of Section 436A of the Education Act. Without this misinterpretation, which runs throughout the draft, the pre-emptive checking of provision and invasive, problematic ongoing monitoring could not be encouraged. It is not encouraged in the current Guidelines for Local Authorities, as they do not misinterpret Section 436A in this way. Section 436A instructs local authorities to find children who are missing education. It is not intended to instruct local authorities to check the provision of all home educat ..read more

Such has been my dismay about the new government guidance for local authorities - and parents! - on home education, I haven't even looked at the consultation on registration yet. Thousands of us responded to last year's consultation on that guidance and were summarily ignored which has the effect of making us feel despondent, to say the least, about bothering to even read this year's set of questions, let alone make the effort of responding to them. We are busy people. We need to be left alone to home educate our children under the current, perfectly sensible law and not to keep being badgered ..read more

Section 7 of the Education Act, as we all know, tells us it is the: Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age. The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable— (a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and (b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. And if it looks like we might not be doing this, Section 437 tells local authorities: (1) If it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is no ..read more

The Department for Education has this morning published ..read more