Where has the time gone???

I can't believe it's nearly a month since I last posted anything on this blog!  I've got lots to say, but want to post it all separately, so I'll give a quick overview now, and hopefully will find some time in the not-to-distant future to actually write properly.

This past month, it was my 16th wedding anniversary, (did I tell you in July that my hair is no longer purple?  It's red now), I went to Back To the 80s & 90s Festival by myself and had a fab time, I finished reading all the books on my A-Z Challenge list, plus the rest of the Ugly Girl series, I went to London twice with the family to see 2 different shows, I've started going out with friends again in an evening, DD2 had her 11th birthday yesterday, and today was her first day of Summer School (transition week) before starting secondary in September.  I am officially not home educating any more!  I have some new tutees and some old ones lined up for me to start tutoring again.  I am still involved in HE politics, despite it being the summer holidays.  And I'm still seeing my PT.  I know I didn't update you guys with my last set of progress photos (even I can see a difference now compared to how I looked when I started!), but I'm due to take my next set this coming weekend.  I'll also be taking new measurements, and will have a look to see if I am finally starting to lose weight.  Since I started with her in April, I have only put on weight, so it will be good to see if that finally starts to change!  And, as I finished my A-Z of fiction titles I need to set myself a new challenge (based on the books I already have on my kindle that I haven't read yet).  As, on my kindle, I can only sort by Recent, Title or Author, I suppose I'm going to go back to Fiction Authors.  Unlike last time, however, I will not be buying any books to fill-in the letters I'm missing.

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. 😀

Strengthening Home Education - Part 4

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

Section 3 is entitled "Elective Home Education: Local Authorities and Support".

Local Authority Powers

"64. We note that the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel plans to carry out some work on EHE, focussing specifically on children who are vulnerable to safeguarding risks if they are not at school, and analysing “the extent to which elective home education has been a factor in the serious harm or death of a child.”103 We hope that this work will serve to better inform policymakers, and inject some light into a heated debate."

Conveniently forgetting that EHE has NEVER been a contributory factor in any SCR, and not only that, EHE was wrongly quoted in over 10 SCRs when the child had no connection to home education at all!  Most worryingly about this, there was no process for getting the SCRs reviewed and corrected!

Don't forget: RESEARCH EXISTS! 

"The Local Government Association told us there was “no mechanism” for a council to insist on speaking to a home-educated child without a specific safeguarding concern."

And, in the absence of any concern, why should a random from the council insist on speaking with a specific child?  Why is the assumption that an adult should have the right to speak to someone just because they want to? And if that is a right that adults should have - please can someone get my David Beckham's address so I can invite myself round and demand to speak to him, even "without a specific safeguarding concern"?

I wanted to include a gratuitous picture here of Mr Beckham topless.
However, I couldn't find one due to copyright, so this is the best I could do - 
a photo of a window sticker from pixabay.com 

"On the other hand, HEAS found that the present legal framework provided the “correct balance beween [sic] the rights of home educators and the duties of the authorities.”"

...which is absolutely right.  Powers are already there when they are needed, they do not need to be changed.

"We believe there should be a mechanism for local authorities to speak with a child receiving EHE in order to assess whether the duty to provide a suitable education is being met."

Does the LA or the ESC or the DfE meet with every single schooled child?  Or do they determine the basis of the education from reports produced by the school?  Education and welfare should not be conflated - which is what the current ESC continually does,

"” In Ofsted’s view, local authorities should have powers to visit the child’s home to make assessments of home education but that those powers should be limited to ensure that they can only be used when there are “reasonable concerns” about the suitability of the home education, and not used “routinely.”"

i.e. even Ofsted says that EHE children shouldn't be before an EHEO as matter of routine; only where there are reasonable concerns - i.e. the current guidance.

Government consultation and guidance

This next section is a lot of bollocks and conjecture.  Basically, the ESC seems to think that forcing HErs to jump to the tune of the LA will improve relationships, and that defining a 'suitable education' will be beneficial - clearly they do not understand the nuance within home education.

Tracking SAOs, however, will be a good thing for the DfE to do; especially if they publish the results.

Visibility of EHE in wider guidance

"74. We heard that EHE was invisible in key guidance on keeping children and young people safe. For example, Working Together to Safeguard Children, the statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, does not mention home education."

 Or could it be that it doesn't mention EHE because EHE is not a concern?  I've not read it, admittedly, but does the Working Together to Safeguard Children document mention veganism, because some children are vegans, or perhaps it mentions pink clothes, because some children wear pink clothes?

The potential role for inspection

In this section, there was 1 paragraph that summarised "Of the hundreds of written submissions that we received from home educating families and the organisations that support them, many strongly rejected the inspection of individual families." Yet, there were 7 following paragraphs detailing why there should be inspection.  Given that we no over 75% of the published submissions reject any more interference by LAs, why is there disproportionate amount of space given to the minority within this report?

"88. The Department must assign Ofsted a role in quality assuring the delivery of local authority support for EHE and adherence to EHE guidance. This will require the creation of an inspection framework, based on the clarified guidance for local authorities and EHE families that we also expect the Department to produce."

Will this mean that home educating families can complain to Ofsted when a LA steps out of line?  
It  says in the 2019 Guidance that LAs should tell home educators when there is an upcoming inspection by Ofsted so that they can have their say.  I'm still collating the responses from my FOI requests atm, but the vast majority of LAs have never given evidence from home educators into an Ofsted inspection, and of those that say they have, I think they misunderstood (based on ongoing conversations) and thought I was asking about whether Ofsted has asked to view the EHE department - a totally different thing!

"By contrast, home educators emphasised to us that the fact of being home-educated did not constitute a safeguarding risk. However, ..." 

Home education is not a safe guarding risk.  That is 100% true. However, the ESC likes to ignore facts and rather make up biased opinions in order to grab themselves more power.

"91. The Department must clarify and strengthen the expectation in its 2019 guidance that local authorities make contact with parents on at least an annual basis, so that local authorities have the ability to see a child in person (at a venue of the family’s choosing) in situations where this is necessary to establish the suitability of the education they are receiving. The Department must make any necessary statutory changes to enable this, and make clear that:

• annual contact with an EHE family is a minimum expectation;

• local authorities should be asking to see examples of children’s work and parents should not reasonably refuse this;

• local authorities should be assessing children’s progress from one year to the next, especially in areas such as literacy and numeracy which are essential to access future educational opportunities and employment. By the time children are at the age when they would leave compulsory schooling, they should be able to demonstrate the same baseline numeracy and literacy skills that we expect from their schooled peers. While children with SEND may follow different paths, it is vital that they too have the right support provided so that they can flourish.

92. The Department should provide local authorities with a set of clear criteria against which suitability of education can be assessed, taking into account the full range of pedagogical approaches taken in EHE, as well as the age, ability and aptitude of individual children, including where they may have SEND."

This is quite frankly horrifying.

Annual Contact - only if it is contact (like a report of a phone call [or visit for those who want them]) rather than specifying it must be a visit.

Examples of children's work - how does this work for children who do not produce written work?  Maybe the child reads a lot and has great discussions and in depth conversations? How wil this work for unschoolers who often do not produce formal written work?
And what about the rights of the child?  What if they don't want to share their work?  What if they are a perfectionist and don't want others to see their mistakes? Or what if they had a bad experience at school, and whilst they are happy to produce written work, they do not want it shared?

Assessing progress annually - again, this doesn't make sense and does not take account of all the differing types of home education.  My eldest, DD1, taught herself to read aged 3.  Once she had mastered that skill (solving the puzzle of shapes on a page), she decided she didn't like reading.  She could read, but chose not to.  Now she is in secondary school (her choosing) and can read and write with the best of them.  Would it be deemed that she hadn't progressed, because I couldn't produce a list of books that she had read each year?  When in fact, she could read. On the other side of the HE coin, I know children who couldn't read until they were 10+.  They had no need nor any desire to, but learnt plenty in other ways - visually, audibly, orally, hands-on etc etc. Once they had internalised the need and motivation to learn to read, they got on with it.  Without the stigma of not being able to ready by XX age, the child had nothing to hold them back.  In these cases, it isn't uncommon for the child to develop a love of reading, and reading various 'hard' literary texts.
Similarly in numeracy, children do not learn in straight lines.  They do not learn this one year, that the next, but learning is messy, flows from one topic to another and sometimes covers old ground, sometimes learns things anew.  Expecting children to progress by following some arbitrary standards defined by age (which though they haven't said it, is what will be up ahead if we're not careful) is not realistic of how people learn.

More consistent support from local authorities, including for children with SEND

Most of this section is good in that it emphasises that there is no consistency across LAs.  Unfortunately, my concern is that the ESC will bring all LAs down to the lowest standard <cough>Portsmouth<cough> rather than getting all LAs to behave like their better counterparts.

"The Association of Elective Home Education Professionals told us in their submission that from Autumn 2021 Birkbeck College would be offering essential training for local authority EHE professionals."

Who are the AEHEP?  Read my previous blog post to find out what we don't know about them.  Despite them talking to the DfE lots, having input with the HE Inquiry, and setting up meetings for various EHEOs, the AEHEP is not a professional association.  Again, I am in the middle of collating responses from FOIs I have done regarding the AEHEP, and despite repeatedly being told the AEHEP has incurred "no costs except staff time" the number of man-hours x£25/hr means there is in fact a big cost associated with this club.

"99. Given the rise in EHE numbers and lack of consistent support from local authorities, the Department should commission and roll out a national training package for all local authority officers with responsibility for EHE—developed with a wide range of stakeholders—so that those officers have a thorough and consistent understanding of the duties of and guidance for local authorities. That package should explain the various EHE approaches—possibly in the form of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). All local authority officers with responsibility for EHE must be expected to complete that training as part of their job."

This training MUST be produced with collaboration with national Home Education organisations.  The fact that they are suggesting Mr. Monk's training to be "essential" is dangerous and erodes the little faith that home educators have with the ESC and local LAs.

So, that's the end of Part 4.  Part 5 will be looking at outcomes and assessment for EHE kids.

Taste by Mary E Twomey

Another book by Mary E Twomey, and another series that I got hooked on - this time I read all 9 books in under a week!

Taste follows the life of October Grace.  She works as a nurse in a prison, lives with OCD and an obsession with cleaning, and has a dysfunctional relationship with her hoarding mother.  Out of the blue, her mother announces her engagement to an English gentleman, Ezra, and October and her brother Ollie prepare to meet the man willing to take on their mother.  In Ezra's house, October cannot cope with her mother's charade, and runs to the bathroom to wash her hands again.  Whilst there, October accidentally overhears Ezra's family talking about her, specifically whether she is the one they've been looking for...

The blurb says:

Just when correctional nurse October Grace has a handle on her stressful job and taking care of her mentally ill mother, a shifter king and a potential vampire mate plunge her into a foreign land that’s on the brink of starvation. Now, with a ticking clock and a target on her back, October takes up the mantle of becoming one of the rare Omens who can bring hope to a dying world.

Mason and Von remain by her side to shield the national treasure while she sacrifices herself to reap the souls that will feed the nations of Terraway. As the death toll rises daily, October finds herself tangled up in a cutthroat world where fairytale creatures run wild… and every day is a new bloody battle.

Given that I bought and read the whole series, it's obviously I liked it, so I'll start this review by saying what I didn't like: the chapter titles.  Such a small thing, I know, but I found they gave away what was about to happen, so I had to train myself to not read them as I was going through this book.

This book as a fantasy, so there are many fantastical creatures in addition to the humans: vampires, shape-shifters, mermen, Goblins, and reverse centaurs amongst them.  It is set between Terraway and Earth (or Topside), and only a few people from each Terraway country can port between the two.  Unfortunately, Terraway is in the grip of the evil Sama, who despite being banished to an undisclosed island, still manages to cause terror in the nations through starvation and famine.  Terraway needs to stop its scorching suns, so that their food can grow, but because a magical stone has been hidden Topside, the only way to keep the heat of the suns in check is for Omens to reap a soul for Topside for each nation, every day.  Until now, only Ezra's daughter Mariang has been able to reap souls, but fortunately for Terraway, October is about to be awakened...

It is YA.  There is copious amounts of kissing and snogging between October and almost all the male characters, but no sex scenes.  The closest to a sex scene is the occasional spicy dream that October has, but even these would be suitable for a teen to read. In the later books there is reference to rape (though the specifics are not described) and as has been hinted, October is polyamorous.  

I like the way Mary E Twomey writes about the psychological side of October's personality, the impact of her neglectful mother, the impact of growing up not knowing her father, and essentially being parented by her older brother and sister.  Despite all the trauma and underprivilege of growing up in a trailer park, October has made it on her own two feet. And because some of the characters are English, I liked how Twomey includes English dialect (though to me, they are just normal words, lol) - who doesn't use 'hence' in a sentence?? The only minor criticism here is the use of "mates" and "knickers".  Whilst an English person would call someone "mate" or refer to their "mates", you wouldn't actually say to a group of friends "hey mates", rather in this circumstance you'd say "hey guys" (where guy refers to male and female friends).  Similarly, "knickers" are specifically female underwear, a bloke would wear "pants" (though I do understand the confusion with Americans calling trousers, pants) or depending on the type of pants, you'd call them Boxers or Y-Fronts. 

Taste was T in my A-Z of Fiction Titles.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, my U is also by Mary E Twomey (Ugly Girl) and is also the start of a series.  I am forcing myself to take at least a week's break from reading so I can bet back to the real world a bit and do all the stuff I've been neglecting, before I dive headfirst into yet another absorbing word.

Strengthening Home Education Report - Part 3

If you haven't already read it, please click HERE to see Part 1 of my read-through.
And HERE is the original report (all 67 pages!).

This, Part 3, starts on p12 of the report: What do we know abut children who are home-educated?

And I'm going to start again with my refrain of RESEARCH EXISTS!

Elective Home Education: what data do we have?

I have to confess, I'm getting tired now. Sitting here, reading this bumf, isn't fun.  I am trying to pick out the key points, but much of it adds to the rage.  As such, if you want to rage, I suggest you read it yourself then take yourself to the gym or pound the streets with your anger.  I, however, may be a bit more succinct as I'm fed up of repeating myself.  There is so much conjecture and opinion in this document, without evidence behind it (yet there is research in the opposite direction that has mysteriously been overlooked), if I don't pick out bits and pieces, I'm going to end up reproducing the whole document.  That's no fun for me, and less fun for you who not only reads the doc, but my words in between.

So, data.  

“the Department does not collect statistics on the number of children in home education”

This makes sense because the state is not responsible for these children, their parents are. 
If the majority of children being deregistered come from a minority of schools, look into those schools.  Seven schools had more that 30 children deregistered in the year 2017-18? Something is seriously amiss at those schools.  As much as I'm for home education, I'm not anti-school, and any school that is losing that number of children suggests there is something deeper going on.  Don't mess around with HE, sort the schools out first!
The report goes on to say that there was an uptake of deregistrations due to covid - no shit sherlock!  If schools are going to fine parents (as was threatened at the start of the pandemic) for keeping their children off school for health reasons (either of the child themselves or close family members), of course the alternative is deregistration!  This is actually a sign of the parents putting their children/family life first - and it should be applauded.
The report uses the ADCE numbers, which are not to be trusted.  There has been a wider response using FOI data that gives the true number at 25% increase, not 38%.
From paragraph25: "It is vital that the OSA returns to home education as a topic in future surveys." No, the Office of the Schools Adjudicator should be looking at the schools; there is enough within them that need fixing!

"Without more robust data, commentators such as Fraser Nelson have raised concerns about a possible 20,000 pupils who “seem to have vanished from the school roll”"

Schools have a legal obligation of reporting deregistrations to the LA.  If there are 20,000 pupils who have vanished from the school roll, that is a fault of the schools.

 "However, she [Amanda Spielman] added that some had chosen to keep their children at home, and that “not every parent is equipped to be a teacher”—an issue which could “seriously derail the catch-up effort,” especially as children who had not yet returned to school were “disproportionately” those with “various kinds of problem or need”."

Firstly, there is a big misunderstanding of what home education is, if she thinks that every parent should be aa teacher.  Home education is learning outside of school, and learning does not stop at age 18. If a parent home educates their children, they only need be facilitators of that education.  They are not required to have learnt everything themselves so they can regurgitate it.  Nor is there any wrongdoing if the parent ends up learning alongside their children.
Secondly, I don't think there should be any "catch-up effort".  Maybe it's justifiable for children who are in exam years, but other than that, it's a waste of time and effort and I would go so far to say that it would have a negative impact on children's lives.  
Imagine you attend a school where Romans are taught in Yr7, but you missed much of the content due to the pandemic.  How is that going to stop you learning about WW2 for GCSE history years later?  Or if it is needed, why can't you learn it at the point it is needed?  Why are you suggesting that children need to be filled with more information that is ultimately going to be forgotten about anyway?  Why should children stay afterschool later, or have summer schools or evening classes to catch up?  All children across the country were (and are) affected by the pandemic.  Nobody is left behind because of it.
Thirdly, there may be many reasons why those with "various kinds of problem or need" may not have returned to school.  It could be because covid19 is still here and schools are not yet safe enough for those who are immunocompromised (or their family members).  Or it could be that parents realised that children learn loads without school and after a 'practice' during lockdown, they have decided to fully embrace home education.  Maybe they have realised that without school, their children are happier and have less mental health issues?  
A statutory register for children in EHE

"The Department’s own guidance states that there is “considerable evidence” that many of those children are not receiving a suitable education, and “increasing concern that some children educated at home may not be in safe environments.”"

Evidence please.   
Just because the EHE DGfLAs states "there is considerable evidence that many of these children are not receiving a suitable education. There is a less well evidenced but increasing concern that some children educated at home may not be in safe environments" does not mean it is true.  Indeed, in that document, there is no evidence given.  Clearly, if you say something enough to the government they start believing it's true.  That does explain some of the goings-on politically recently...

(Here is my readthrough of the aforementioned guidance from April 2019)

"Many written submissions to the inquiry from home educating families and the organisations that support them rejected the idea of a register" 

Actually over 75% of all published submissions are against having a register, however, they have only quoted a section from HEAS, but lots of quotes from people who are for a register.  Is the ESC actually listening to home educators??

Summary of published submissions
to the HE Inquiry, so far.
Analysed by the EHE Alliance.

"37. On 8 June 2021, Baroness Berridge, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education, responded to a Parliamentary Question that the Government’s guidance to local authorities on EHE would be “reviewed again in due course”. She added that: We remain committed to a registration system for children who are not in school. Further details on a proposed registration system will be in the government response to the Children Not in School consultation, which we intend to publish in due course."

I actually participated in the CNIS consultation.  It was kicked off in the January with Channel 4's Dispatches program , in the April I compared the new EHE guidance to the CME guidance, in the June of 2019 I was invited to attend an oral session which I shared here, and finally did a multi-part readthrough of the CME document in Nov 2020.

"The Committee heard from home educators that home-educated children are not ‘invisible’"

Actually, it was Graham Stuart MP, previous chair of the ESC, who said that home educated children were "peculiarly visible". 

"and that safeguarding has failed children who were already known to local authorities."

Yes! There are zero SCRs where HE is a contributory factor. 

"39. The Committee’s view remains that a statutory register, serving to more consistently identify children outside of school, is absolutely necessary. This would aim not to remove freedoms from those who are providing an effective education for their families, but to better target support to those who need it. The register should have a national reach but be administered locally. Rather than only targeting EHE children, it must cover all those who do not receive their principal education in a mainstream school. It may well be that the Government announces a statutory register ahead of this report being published. In any case, it must adhere to the principles we outline."

Bold and italics to emphasise that they didn't care about any submissions that they have received, the ESC had already decided they want a register and aim to bringing it in regardless.

 Inclusion, Off-rolling and Unregistered Schools 

I haven't looked yet, but this whole section is going to be stuff that has nothing to do with HE, but the ESC are using as "proof" they need to register and monitor HErs.  There's no need to fix schools, they'll just go after those parents who are doing their legal duty by providing an efficient education for their children.

Again, the paragraph about SEND and HE not being a "positive choice" fails to distinguish between those who realise  after they have already started that HE is a better solution for their children than schools, and those who are struggling and want their children to return to a school where they can get the support they need.

They have also made a note of the report that led to the Dispatches program I shared above, and are using this to try and justify a register.

"48. Throughout the inquiry, home educators and the organisations that support them told us that the problems of off-rolling, exclusion and illegal schools were not problems of EHE. Indeed, we were told that EHE was “a casualty and not a cause of these unacceptable practices”"

 And that is because off-rolling is an action by a school, so is clearly the school that needs to be dealt with.  Suppose I started stabbing people, should the solution be to take a register of everyone or to remove the knife from my hand?

I will continue with this series tomorrow (as I have to ferry my girls to their activities tonight).  The next section will be Part 4 (link HERE) and looks at the support given by LAs.

Strengthening Home Education - Part 2

If you haven't already read it, please click HERE to see Part 1 of my read-through.
And HERE is the original report (all 67 pages!).

So, the Introduction starts on page 7 of the document.  Paragraph 2 details that not much has changed since the recommendations of the previous inquiry and that there is indeed a "postcode lottery" - I said that myself in my submission.

The Committees Inquiry

"The inquiry sought not to debate the desirability of EHE, but rather to explore the extent to which current arrangements provide sufficient support for home-educated children to access efficient, full-time and suitable education, and to establish what further measures may be necessary in order to facilitate this."

Except, of course, it is obvious to all who read this, that the "desirability of EHE" for the ESC is that all HE kids get put into schools. 

"We held oral evidence sessions in November 2020 and March 2021"

But did not hear from any home educators during this time, and only heard from a single HE organisation (Education Otherwise) and conveniently twisted their words, so much so that the EHE Alliance (a group of HE organisations and academics all working together for the same goal) had to put out a letter complaining about the behaviour of some during the hearing )this can be found HERE).

"6. The State should not view those who make the perfectly legitimate choice to home educate with automatic suspicion, nor should it put unreasonable barriers in their way. However, as a society we must seek to balance the right of families to make the best choices for themselves with the responsibility to promote good outcomes for all children and young people, whether or not they go to school. It is not unreasonable to seek some reassurance about the suitability of the education received by children who are electively home-educated."

 This sounds all fine and dandy, I mean who in their right minds would complain about this paragraph?  Well, me for one.  Not that I have an issue with what it says, rather than what it doesn't say (though that may be in the document later on.  This is my 'live' read-through, so it's perfectly possible I haven't got there yet).

LAs already have the power to check up on families who have deregistered their child from school, and for these children, they already receive annual updates: sometimes over the phone (or online this past year), sometimes in person and sometimes a written report.  For children for whom there is evidence to suggest they are not receiving a suitable education, the LA already has powers to get further information and if they are not satisfied, they can issue a s437 and ultimately a School Attendance Order forcing that child into school.

"7. The Committee’s primary concerns centre on those children who are currently missing education. Indeed, our understanding is that children receiving an efficient, fulltime and suitable education at home would not fall under the Department’s definition of that category."

So basically, the government are getting battered because they cannot keep children in school, nor keep tabs on the children who are registered at school but not attending.  Therefore, the obvious conclusion is to have a go at EHE children, drumming up more paperwork and therefore possibilities for people to slip through the net, rather than tackling schools with what is their issue.
Yes, makes total sense... <hugely sarcastic tone and eye roll>

The legal framework for EHE in England

"8. Parents in England have a legal duty to secure the education of their compulsory school age children “either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”. Those who choose to home educate are responsible for ensuring that the education provided is efficient, full-time and suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and any Special Educational Needs. (SEN)"

And those who choose to school educate are responsible for ensuring that the education provided is efficient, full-time and suitable to the child’s age, ability, aptitude and any Special Educational Needs (SEN).  Why isn't that bit mentioned???

"According to Government guidance, parents are not required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, follow the National Curriculum, or aim for children to acquire specific qualifications."

 And (last time I checked), private schools are not required to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, follow the National Curriculum, or aim for children to acquire specific qualifications, yet many people aspire to or do send their children to private schools.

 "As of 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that there were around nine million working aged adults in England with low literacy skills, numeracy skills, or both."

I would bet my bottom dollar that, of these, around nine million of them went to school. 

"10. When the Department’s guidance is next revisited, it must indicate what level of numeracy and literacy is sufficient, in its view, to enable an adult who received EHE as a child to “function as an independent citizen in the UK."

So, there will be a minimum level of numeracy and literacy imposed on EHE kids, but not one for schooled children?  Who can school-parents complain to when their child is unable to read or do basic maths, whether or not the child has SEND?

 "11. Guidance for local authorities specifies that approaches such as autonomous and self-directed learning should be “judged by outcomes, not on the basis that a different way of educating children must be wrong.”

Would the ESC care to explain to me how a child can be monitored yearly and how a child can be "judged by outcomes" (which in England would be at age 18)?  These are contradictory, and we know that the better scenario ("judged by outcomes") will be pushed aside by those proclaiming that children must be monitored annually.

Paragraph 11 also goes on about Fundamental British Values and how HE parents take financial responsibility.

"14. Compared with our European neighbours, the English model is relatively permissive. A 2018 survey of systems participating in the Eurydice network found that “home education at the request of families is possible in a majority of educational systems.” However, in a dozen countries—including Germany—“it is possible only in exceptional circumstances” and “in many cases, parents have to ask for authorisation from top level or local authorities.” Furthermore, students’ progress was “monitored and assessed everywhere except in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom”."

I don't see the point of this paragraph, since we're in England and we've been forced to leave the EU.  Wasn't part of our sovereignty meant to be that we don't have to be forced to follow EU rules and whatnot?  Unless, of course, the government wants to limit home education? Surely that's not the case? <more sarcasm> 

Why do parents choose to home educate?

"18. Submissions from home educating parents and the organisations that support them told us that EHE could deliver a more personalised, individual education which moved at the pace of the child. We heard from parents who had observed huge improvements in their children’s mental health after being removed from schools where they were not kept safe from bullying, and from those who relished the opportunity to spend time together as a family, providing their children with a wealth of experiences outside the relatively narrow school curriculum."

Of course there are only 400-odd submissions that have been published of the 900+ this report has stated to have received.  But anyway, this was a good paragraph, so to maintain the appearance of being balanced, I thought it best to include it here.

"19. The Committee unanimously supports the right of families to opt for EHE, provided it is in the best interests of the child and the education provided is of a suitable standard to meet the needs of the child. In the eyes of the law, the duty to secure an education for a child rests with parents. It follows that the choice to home educate should be afforded the same respect as the choice for children to attend a state or private school. However, without data on outcomes we cannot know how many children receiving EHE are getting a suitable education. For that reason, it is reasonable that local authorities have the ability to assess the suitability of education"

Research Exists!!!

"20. The next iteration of the Government’s guidance for local authorities and parents must set out a clearer vision for a ‘suitable’ education - including the levels of numeracy and literacy which it would usually expect students to have achieved before they move on to later education, training or employment. This vision should take into account the different paths that children with SEND might take."

This paragraph must be super way* important for it to be italicised AND bolded!
        * I've just read a series, starting Ugly Girl by Mary E Twomey, and the protagonist is always saying 'super way' instead of another descriptor.

Again, because of the different routes through home education for ALL children (whether they have SEND or otherwise), specifying levels of attainment in numeracy and literacy on an annual level does not make sense.  And if there are sanctions for parents whose children do not achieve these attainment levels (because of course, a stick is what is needed for parents who are often already down to a single income and are financially responsible for everything), can these sanctions be given to schools who have children who fail to meet these levels?

 Part 3 of this read-through is available HERE.

Strengthening Home Education Report - Part 1

Last night, at 10pm, the Education Committee published its Strengthening Home Education Report.  Apparently, this was so that it could be discussed in today's papers, yet I know many journalists got a heads-up what the report was going to say, so already had their articles written and waiting.  Home educators, otoh, had to wait until it was actually published before being able to read it.

I have not yet read the report myself, though I have seen some people's reactions to it.  I thought I would share my reaction with you, as I read it and jot down notes.  There may be the occasional swear word, but fuck it - I'm an adult.

So, opening up the report I can see that it is 67 pages long. Joy.

Looking at the contents list, under "Summary" it begins - a statutory register for children out of school...

"The Association of Directors of Children’s Services projected that as of October 2020 more than 75,000 children were being educated at home, an increase of 38 per cent from the previous year"

The ADCS numbers are inaccurate.  This has already be clarified by WCW of Education Otherwise, yet the Education Select Committee (ESC) still continues to use it.

"It is simply not good enough that we are only able to make a best guess at the number of children receiving EHE, especially when the Department for Education itself acknowledges that there is “considerable evidence” that many children may not be receiving a suitable education"

Really?  I'd like to see this "considerable evidence" as it all seems anecdotal and made-up to me.

 "The Committee remains deeply concerned that we cannot support children who may have been ‘left behind’ during the pandemic without knowing who they are and how many of them there are."

'Left behind' does not make sense when talking about home education.  The law clearly states that the education must be suitable to their age, ability and aptitude.  I am much more concerned about the children in schools who genuinely get 'left behind' because they do not have the individual support needed in order to keep up with the rest of the class. 

"Without a national register for EHE, we have no equivalent intelligence about the impact of covid-19 on the participation in educational activities of the full range of children receiving EHE."

The Centre for Personalised Education (CPE) recently held a conference with leading academics entitled "Research Exists".  The research is there already, and there is still some ongoing research regarding to covid (for exam THIS research project looking at the impact on HErs trying to take exams during covid).  If Robert Halfon (Chair of the ESC) refuses to attend such conferences, how does he expect to find out about the evidence? Oh yeah, by bringing in a register... (See my thoughts on bringing in a register HERE).

"During the inquiry hundreds of parents that home educate their children told us about the benefits they see from EHE."

There were actually over 1000 responses to the HE Inquiry, it's just that they have only published a few hundred of them. 

Summary Recommendations:

1. A Statutory register for children out of school

As I've said before, a register will not achieve anything that they are hoping it to.  They keep saying that the evidence from home educators cannot be trusted to ensure that all HE children are receiving a suitable education, but unless they search every single house (which may be next steps, who knows?) anybody who is nefarious will simply not register their children.  They are encouraging people to snitch on their neighbours for having children.

"Once the register is up and running, we expect the Department to collate, analyse and publish anonymised annual data on the number of children out of school so that stakeholders are better able to understand trends and create effective policy in response to them."

And that's what this is about, really.  Stakeholders in a children's education are the child themselves and the parent.  Schools are involved if the child is registered at school, and the LA should only be involved if there is evidence to suggest that an education is not taking place.  Creating work for paper-pushers within the government is not a good use of tax payer money, especially when there are already researchers from various universities who study trends and can actually understand what they are looking at.

2. Supporting children with SEND and home education

"We do know that for some families EHE is not truly ‘elective’, especially those where children have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and do not get the support they need from the school system. No-one should be forced into educating at home through lack of support—instead the Government must act to ensure that schools are able to provide proper support for SEND in the first place."

This is not a HE thing.  Instead they have conflated two things, and are using it as a way to 'encourage' more children back into school.
The government must act to ensure schools are able to provide proper support for SEND - absolutely!  If a child is in school, they should get all the help and support they need in order to get the education they deserve.
Some parents of children with SEND do look into HE due to the lack of support and services on offer at school.  These parents are then split into two groups - parents who decide that HE is the best way for their children to get a good education, and those who feel forced into home education.  This latter group is then split into a further two groups - those who realise HE is totally flexible and therefore the best place for their children to get a good education, and those who still wish they could send their child to school.  It is this latter group of parents that need the support.  Having already used a school, these children will be known to their Local Authorities.  A register will not make a difference here.

"To ensure that families who are considering EHE receive the right information at the right time to make the best decision for their children, we call for the Department to reconsider the creation of an independent, neutral advocate which has the responsibility for co-ordinating all statutory SEND processes and could support families where a choice about EHE is being made."

Will this "independent, neutral advocate" have knowledge about home education and have firm links with the home educating community, or will it be someone else to suggest that children with SEND need to be in school, and therefore yet another hoop for these parents to jump through?

3. Assessment of a 'suitable' education

 "Local authorities must be able to assess the educational progress of children who are home educated at least once a year, in order to take reasonable steps to reassure themselves that EHE is providing a ‘suitable’ education."

So, I'm not even out of the initial summary of this document (bottom of page 4) and already a recommendation for a register has turned into "at least" annual monitoring. 

"However, as a minimum, home-educated children must have equity of access to the next stage of their education, work or training with their schooled peers. This means attaining essential standards of literacy and numeracy, while also taking into account the different paths that children with SEND might follow."

"Next stage of their education" means, imo, age 16+ when they go off to college/sixth form or apprenticeships.  At a push, it could be brought back to age 14 (when schooled children start studying for their GCSEs) to ensure that these options are available for home educated kids, but however you look at it, it does not mean there should be annual monitoring.

Then there's a sentence about LA staff needing effective training, which I totally agree with, but again, there should be input from one of the national HE organisations (Educational Freedom, Education Otherwise, or whoever) to ensure that this training is correct wrt HE, and not just pushed from the government/ESC to make even more LAs act unlawfully.

"While we know that a number of local authorities do more than the bare minimum, local authorities must have the ability to see children (at a venue of the family’s choosing) and evidence of their progress as appropriate, even where educational content and style varies widely from the school curriculum"

So a child no longer has autonomy over themselves or their belongings?  They cannot refuse to meet a stranger?  They must hand over their work to be scrutinised by some random?
Small consolation - but at least they have said "at a venue of the family's choosing", rather than demanding to see and inspect children's homes and safe spaces too.

4. Better data on outcomes

As I've already said, there has even been a conference entitled Research Exists.  Even anecdotally, join a national HE facebook group or two, and you can see loads of examples about outcomes from home education. 

Personally, I don't think this section is a bad thing, however, it should be voluntary (whilst acknowledging that may skew the data slightly).

5. A level playing field on access to examinations

"The Department for Education must 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, in order to help EHE children gain the qualifications needed for the future education, training and employment that will allow them to play active roles in society."

Apart from the derisive suggestion that only people with specific qualifications "play active roles in society", I do think there should be better support for HE kids taking exams.  However, these should not be limited to specific subjects, qualifications nor age of the child - they should be available as and when needed.

This is the end of the summary of the document.  In Part 2 I will go through the introduction of the report.