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?
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.
