Strengthening Home Education - Part 5

If you haven't already read it, please click HERE to see Part 1 of my read-through. 
And HERE is the original report. 

"100. In this chapter we consider outcomes, assessments and exams for children receiving EHE. During the inquiry, we heard about a lack of robust data on the outcomes for them as a group"

Same old refrain (and this is a clickable link, if you haven't watched it or got the message yet): RESEARCH EXISTS! 

"The difficulties faced by private exam candidates during the covid-19 pandemic shone a light on the pre-existing inequity they face in accessing public examinations." 

This was a real and impactful problem that was faced by home educators.  And as much as I cannot say research exists specifically about this, I can say that research is ongoing in this area!! And if you are, or know, a home educator who was impacted by exam cancellations due to covid, please encourage them to take part by clicking HERE.

What do we know about outcomes?

The first section is about the lack of data, especially longitudinal research, about home education.  This is to be expected, because it's not really been as popular as home education is now.  With the internet, anything can be learned anywhere - you are not restricted to learning only what your local library has in stock, nor restricted to old skool mailing lists for getting in touch with other home educators.  As such, most home education research of this type is US-based.  If you follow my FB page (and if you don't, why not?? it's HERE) you will see that I do share various research projects.  Not all of them are applicable to everyone, but if you can do a short interview, or a series of interviews, in order to create the data that the government is demanding, doing it with an impartial researcher is better than selling your soul to the LA.

"106. Little is known about the educational or other outcomes for the EHE cohort. Despite this, there was resistance to the idea of applying the kinds of standardised assessment used in schools to EHE."

Well, duh! If people are choosing to educate their children otherwise than at school, why would they want to force their child through all the same hoops as schooled children?  The beauty of home education is the freedom and flexibility.  Home education is not, and should not, be simply a recreation of school-at-home - and I think that's true even if you do decide to purchase a school-at-home style curriculum or package. 

"All EHE children should have the opportunity to take GCSEs, A-Levels and vocational exams as appropriate."

Yes as appropriate or desired!  Have access to, not that they should be compulsory.

 The next section is all about exams, specifically the massive impact that Covid has been.  A part from an erroneous "with a register in place it [would solve the world's problems]", this section is a good summary of various issues faced by home educators.

"124. The Government must place a duty on every local authority to ensure that homeeducated children and young people have fair access to centres where they can sit accredited public examinations, with the Government meeting the entry costs for those exams. The Department for Education must also work to establish the appropriate level of entitlement, to which examinations the entitlement will apply, and the additional funding the Department will commit to support this."

 

Now we are on to the final section in the main body of the document... 

Conclusions and Recommendations

• They want a more specific definition of aa 'suitable' education.
• They want a statutory register.

"8. When a pupil is excluded from school for more than five non-consecutive days in a school year, the pupil and their parents or carers should be given access to an independent advocate to help them navigate the process."

This is a school problem, not an EHE one.

 "10. Schools should publish their permanent and fixed term exclusion rates by year group every term, including providing information about pupils with SEND and looked-after children. Schools should also publish data on the number of pupils who have left the school."

This is a school problem, not an EHE one.

"13. In light of the evidence we heard on children with SEND, the Department must reconsider the potential for creating an independent, neutral role, allocated to every parent or carer with a child when a request is made for a needs assessment, which has the responsibility for co-ordinating all statutory SEND processes including the annual review, similar to the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer for looked-after children."

How is this different to the Named Person scheme that Scotland tried, and failed, to implement?

Elective Home Education: Local Authorities and support

• More specific definition of 'suitable' education
• Clearer expectations on LAs and Parents with regards to EHE.
• DfE should track and publish SAOs at a national level on an annual basis. 
• Ofsted should have a role in quality assuring Local Authorities.
• LAs must have the ability to see a child in person.
• Contact with EHE family is at least annual.
• LAs should ask to see samples of work.
• LAs should "assess" [note, how this didn't use 'monitor' here] children's progress from one year to the next.
• DfE to provide clear set of criteria against which suitability of education can be assessed.
• DfE should commission and roll out a national training package for all EHEOs.

Outcomes, assessment and exams for children receiving EHE

• There should be more research done examining the life chances and social outcomes of EHE children.
• Government should act on the issue of inequitable access to exams for EHE children.
• Removing barriers of cost and distance to exam entry would help.

And that's the end of the main document.  At this point, I'm only on p46/67 but it's all appendices and things left.  I'll give it a quick skim through....

Not much interesting of note there, other than the list of published submissions: There are only 488 listed submissions, even though the ECS stated it received over 900.  And I know plenty of people who wanted to be published, have not been included at all, including leading academics.

My personal submission is there - it is one of the anonymous "Member of the Public", yet when you click through, my name is clearly displayed at the top!
Have a nosey through the list and see if you can see any names you recognise. 😀