Should parents have the right to home-educate their child without sending them to school or informing the state?

[Louis MacNeice]

"Checkable evidence" that most schools are places of "indoctrination into a nationalistic, authoritarian, hierarchical belief system"?
What a twatty thing to ask for. And no, you certainly shouldn't accept it just because I say it. You should think about it. Sound as though you are a long way from that, though.

In answer to your final question: I'd say it sounded like typical bullshit. In any case I've already accepted that there may be two or three schools in the world that don't fit into the above classification or that are on the edge. But I wouldn't say oh yippee that school that you mention - if it's real not hypothetical - must be one of them because its mission statement sounds really inspiring.

Well if you can't provide evidence then stop claiming omniscience. The school is real, it caters to a pupil population with much higher than average levels of deprivation and need, and has been publically attacked by no less than the Daily Mail for its practice. I am very proud of the work my partner does to make the school such a welcoming and supportive place.

The bigger issue is that if one random poster can blow such a hole in your universalising claims about 'practically all schools', then maybe you should either try a little harder to evidentially support those claims or preferably have a rethink about the huge complexity of what constitutes educational provision in the UK.

Louis MacNeice

 

[cupid_stunt]

What's your actual experience of modern day state schools and the people who work in them?

They were probably home schooled.

 

[Seventy-seven]

I did read a bit about it when I took the boy out of school and took some ideas from it.

For the first few months I pretty much left him to his own devices with no pressure to do anything academic, he was so worn down by school that he didn't see the point of trying because (in his eyes) he was useless and wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
He did a lot of tinkering in the garage - reconditioning bikes and selling them on, learning how to use various tools/bits of machinery, and gradually his self-confidence grew to the point where he was ready to do some formal learning.

Over the next year or so he got his Functional Skills L1 maths and English, got his dad to teach him how to weld and taught himself some woodwork skills.
All of which enabled him to get an apprenticeship when he was 17.

Like others incl. Red Cat have said, it wasn't something I'd have taken on if his needs had been identified and met via the school system, but for us it's turned out brilliantly.

'State' interference was minimal, his head teacher (privately) supported my decision and I would imagine she fed back to the local authority that he wasn't at risk. I filled in an education plan for them (largely a work of fiction) and they never contacted me again. He was 14 at the time though, I think there should be more LEA input/monitoring (and guidance, and support, and funding) when younger children are removed from school.

Has an LEA ever given educational funding to the parents of a child who is being electively home educated, which is to say, who is being HE solely on the decision of his parents, and by his parents? They'd rather spend money on sending officials to your house to poke their noses into your affairs and give you the impression they've got the right to, at least if they don't know that the parents are well informed as to the law.

For those who don't already know: no they don't have the right to come into your house. If you wish to meet with them, arrange an appointment on neutral territory and at mutual convenience.

What does it mean for a headteacher to support a parental decision to HE? It's none of the headteacher's fncking business after the parents have sacked him.

 

[Seventy-seven]

Well if you can't provide evidence then stop claiming omniscience. The school is real, it caters to a pupil population with much higher than average levels of deprivation and need, and has been publically attacked by no less than the Daily Mail for its practice. I am very proud of the work my partner does to make the school such a welcoming and supportive place.

The bigger issue is that if one random poster can blow such a hole in your universalising claims about 'practically all schools', then maybe you should either try a little harder to evidentially support those claims or preferably have a rethink about the huge of complexity of what constitutes educational provision in the UK.

Louis MacNeice

You don't understand what radical criticism is, and you sound in places as if you're writing an advertising blurb. And it's "publicly" not "publically". And saying "practically all" isn't universalising. Way to go.

 

[_Russ_]

Gyms are simply beerhouses in disguise!

That's actually true

 

[Louis MacNeice]

You don't understand what radical criticism is...

Enlighten me.

Louis MacNeice

 

[Louis MacNeice]

saying "practically all" isn't universalising

It is when preceded by your 'what school isn't...blah blah blah'. You have heard of the phrase the exception that proves the rule; that's exactly the attempt at universalism you were employing.

Louis MacNeice

 

[friedaweed]

They were probably home schooled.

Clearly an uninformed rant merchant. My money's on the last one he was in he was shown the door.

 

[BoatieBird]

What does it mean for a headteacher to support a parental decision to HE? It's none of the headteacher's fncking business after the parents have sacked him.

I didn't sack her
I had a decent relationship with her and appreciated her efforts to keep him in school, but it wasn't working for either side so it was time to try something different.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

What does it mean for a headteacher to support a parental decision to HE?

Being a college lecturer I read the HE acronym incorrectly and got a very different mental image.

 

[Seventy-seven]

Enlighten me.

Louis MacNeice

You're nowhere near ready for enlightenment when in response to a statement that most schools are places of "indoctrination into a nationalistic, authoritarian, hierarchical belief system" you ask for "checkable evidence". I say this with sorrow, not as a sneer.

 

[belboid]

What does it mean for a headteacher to support a parental decision to HE? It's none of the headteacher's fncking business after the parents have sacked him.

oooh, laughable politics and a nice side order of sexism thrown in, shock horror. You have thought about this very well have you SS77?

Are we taking bets on who it is? We can't have another newbie this dumb.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

You're nowhere near ready for enlightenment when in response to a statement that most schools are places of "indoctrination into a nationalistic, authoritarian, hierarchical belief system" you ask for "checkable evidence". I say this with sorrow, not as a sneer.

So you've gone from 'what school isn't' and 'practically all' to 'most'. Is that 51% of schools?

Still no sign of any evidence, merely blustering assertion; there is material to support what you say to a degree but it's a lot more nuanced and fought over/resisted by many schools/educators in practice. Why won't you back your arguments up with what's available, it would strengthen them in one way while admittedly undermining your all embracing claims?

Oh and if you don't know or can't clearly explain what radical criticism is, just say so. True it might challenge some basic underpinnings of your understanding but would that really be such a bad thing?

Louis MacNeice

 

[Elpenor]

Anyone else keen to hear seventy sevens views on LTNs?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Anyone else keen to hear seventy sevens views on LTNs?

No.

 

[Was77]

Anyone else keen to hear seventy sevens views on LTNs?

LTNs are helpy zones. Especially when large "unhygienic" neighbourhoods are thus designated in a time of do what you're told, right now, for urgent reasons of national defence against the plague, the potential overwhelming of the NHS, and president Putin. All dissenters are paedophile neo-Nazi internet misinformation-spreading trolls. Utterly poisonous. We all know their type. Scum of the earth. Very stupid too. Everyone who doesn't submit is stupid, with a low IQ, with knuckles that drag along the pavement - their parents should never have been allowed to conceive - and deserving to be ignored, beaten to a pulp, their children killed, while proper people have a big party on Teams.

LTNs are the helpiest of all possible types of helpy zones, until they get even more helpy, when of course the new even more helpy zones will be the best thing out.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Powerful acid

 

[philosophical]

I reckon the best people to ask might be Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

 

[HoratioCuthbert]

Random picture of some lovely buns we made

 

[Sasaferrato]

Yes, parents should have the right to 'home school' their children, yes, the Local Authority must be informed.

I honestly doubt that many parents have the necessary knowledge and skill to educate a child adequately at home, I would certainly never have contemplated it.

 

[BristolEcho]

Yes, parents should have the right to 'home school' their children, yes, the Local Authority must be informed.

I honestly doubt that many parents have the necessary knowledge and skill to educate a child adequately at home, I would certainly never have contemplated it.

So why do you think parents should have an outright choice in that? Should there be some sort of monitoring? I'm not sure what is in place already.

 

[Sasaferrato]

So why do you think parents should have an outright choice in that? Should there be some sort of monitoring? I'm not sure what is in place already.

Because I am in favour of only banning things if there is clear and demonstrable harm being done.

There should be an inspection mechanism, but it doesn't appear that there is.

Is homeschooling monitored in the UK?


Local authorities have no formal powers or duty to monitor the provision of home education. However, they do have duties to identify children not receiving a suitable education, and to intervene.19 Dec 2022

The answer is from the House of Commons Library.

are children who are being homeschooled subject to local authority oversight - Google Search

If the Local authority cannot monitor, how can it identify whether a child is receiving a 'suitable education'?

There are three children four doors up from us who are being 'home schooled', and I must say that the older girl, she's eight, has an excellent level of spoken English.

 

[Thora]

Most local authorities ask home educating parents for an annual report to demonstrate their child is receiving a suitable, full time education.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Most local authorities ask home educating parents for an annual report to demonstrate their child is receiving a suitable, full time education.

I suppose that's fair, but a fairer way would be to get the children to supply a report of what they've learnt as well

 

[Red Cat]

I suppose that's fair, but a fairer way would be to get the children to supply a report of what they've learnt as well

Really? How is that fair? You're suggesting that the children are encouraged to distrust their parents and to be fearful of doing something wrong for the people at the council who might get their parents into trouble?

You're also imagining that learning can be quantified in that way by a child rather than that kind of quantification being a product of a particular kind of teaching system based on 'delivering' information to the test.

 

[Serge Forward]

I suppose that's fair, but a fairer way would be to get the children to supply a report of what they've learnt as well

Yeah right.

"What did you learn at school today?"
"Nuffin. Er... can't remember... etc."

 

[kebabking]

Yeah right.

"What did you learn at school today?"
"Nuffin. Er... can't remember... etc."

Thos sounds wearily familiar...

 

[Thora]

I suppose that's fair, but a fairer way would be to get the children to supply a report of what they've learnt as well

Maybe we should get school children to vote on their school's Ofsted rating, or whether the school should be shut down?

 

[8ball]

Maybe we should get school children to vote on their school's Ofsted rating, or whether the school should be shut down?

Have you submitted this suggestion to Conservative Central Office?

 

[scifisam]

TBH it's obvious that home-schooling parents should be checked up on to an extent. Most parents do it for one of two reasons - they believe in homeschooling, and believe they can do it well (and fairly often they can), or they don't have any other choice due to lack of provision, esp for kids with extra needs. That latter group might not be able to follow anything like a full teaching schedule and shouldn't be expected to (but should be offered free help if it's available and suitable).

But a few parents do do it for more bad reasons. For example, because they know that the school would notice weird bruising patterns. It would be a major failing of society if the kids were just left there to be abused without even an attempt to do basic checks - those wouldn't, and don't. find all abusive parents, because some would be able to cover it up, (same as some do at with kids who are at school), but it'd be even worse without those checks.