After careful consideration … SOD OFF!
I don’t CARE what Isaiah Berlin said. If you want quotes we’ve got a whole page of them here.
“Great spirits have always been violently oppressed by mediocre minds” - Albert Einstein
1.5 “there has to be a balance between the rights of the parents and the rights of the child”
This has been addressed by other bloggers but I’ll say it here again. It is a false premise that the ‘rights’ of parents are somehow in opposition to the ‘rights’ of children. Most parents say ‘rights’ but think in terms of being allowed to discharge their responsibilities towards their children who they love and want the very best for. Those of us who take a largely autonomous approach take the ‘rights’ of our children far more seriously than the state is ever going to. Would they for one second consider asking every child how they wish to be educated or what they want to learn and then ACT upon the answers? I think not!
3.3 “Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right
to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being
given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”
Yet under the current legislation and guidance, local authorities have no right of access to the
child to determine or ascertain such views.
They already have access to all school children. When will they be asking them THEIR opinions about going to school? Why not start with the thousands of children who by virtue of truanting are already clearly expressing the view that they don’t want to be educated at school? Yeah, right, I thought not. Hypocrites!
3.11 such is the demand and complexity of 21st Century society and
employment that further thought should be given to what constitutes an appropriate
curriculum within the context of elective home education.
And what form will 21st Century society take pray? Got a functioning crystal ball have you? Please tell me it’s not that insane notion of UK Plc as a “knowledge economy”.
And here they are, the battle lines are drawn. I’ll pause for one moment to pass on one word coming from other local HEers which sums up the feeling right now
Bastards!
RECOMMENdATION 1
That the dCSF establishes a compulsory national registration scheme, locally administered, for all children of statutory school age, who are, or become, electively home educated.
This scheme should be common to all local authorities.
As expected, they want us to help them violate our children’s right to privacy and to update ContactPoint. Roll on the national ID database!
Registration should be renewed annually.
Why? Seriously, the point of that would be what exactly?
Those who are registering for the first time should be visited by the appropriate local authority officer within one month of registration.
Let me see … the phrase “PISS OFF!” springs to mind.
Local authorities should ensure that all home educated children and young people already known to them are registered on the new scheme within one month of its inception and visited over the following twelve months, following the commencement of any new legislation.
No, seriously I mean it, piss off! They are NOT ‘visiting’ this house, we won’t let them in.
Provision should be made to allow registration at a local school, children’s centre or other public building as determined by the local authority.
When parents are thinking of deregistering their child/children from school to home educate, schools should retain such pupils on roll for a period of 20 school days so that should there be a change in circumstances, the child could be readmitted to the school. This period would also allow for the resolution of such difficulties that may have prompted the decision to remove the child from school.
NEARLY but no cigar. Make that “When parents CHOOSE TO DEREGISTER their child/children” and make it very clear that school attendance is not required and that it is ONLY for the benefit of the family should they change their minds. When parents are only at the THINKING stage there is no need to make any changes.
National guidance should be issued on the requirements of registration and be made available online and at appropriate public buildings. Such guidance must include a clear statement of the statutory basis of elective home education and the rights and responsibilities of parents.
At the time of registration parents/carers/guardians must provide a clear statement of their educational approach, intent and desired/planned outcomes for the child over the following twelve months.
That’s easy, I can give you mine right now! “My approach is autonomous and the intended outcomes for my child are that she achieves whatever she chooses to during the next 12 months. As such she will be the sole judge of her own success.”
Guidance should be issued to support parents in this task with an opportunity to meet local authority officers to discuss the planned approach to home education and develop the plan before it is finalised. The plan should be finalised within eight weeks of first registration.
See above, it’s already written.
As well as written guidance, support should encompass advice from a range of advisers and organisations, including schools. Schools should regard this support as a part of their commitment to extended schooling.
Like they would know an autonomous education if it came up and bit them on the arse. You just don’t get it do you Badman?
Where a child is removed from a school roll to be home educated, the school must provide to the appropriate officer of the local authority a record of the child’s achievement to date and expected achievement, within 20 school days of the registration, together with any other school records.
Local authorities must ensure that there are mechanisms/systems in place to record and review registrations annually.
Right and no school is going to exaggerate to make themselves look better are they? Pointless!
RECOMMENDATION 2
That the dCSF review the current statutory definition of what constitutes a
“suitable” and “efficient” education in the light of the Rose review of the primary
curriculum, and other changes to curriculum assessment and definition throughout
statutory school age. Such a review should take account of the five Every Child
Matters outcomes determined by the 2004 Children Act, should not be overly
prescriptive but be sufficiently defined to secure a broad, balanced, relevant and
differentiated curriculum that would allow children and young people educated
at home to have sufficient information to enable them to expand their talents and
make choices about likely careers. The outcome of this review should further inform
guidance on registration.
Home educators should be engaged in this process.
No, no, no, NO! So wrong on so many levels. Not only would autonomous education become impossible (what about those rights of the child?) it would even allow the government to proscribe the curriculum contents of structured HE. You can take this recommendation and stick it where the sun don’t shine! I will seriously leave the country before allowing this!
Maire Said on June 11th, 2009 at 12:08 pm quote
Bastards, got it in one
Bubble Said on June 11th, 2009 at 4:29 pm quote
I would be very worried about allowing people to see children on their own anything could happen! it would be a pedo dream job to see young children on their own!