Sunday 1 July 2018

Sprout's Response to the Draft EHE Guidelines Consultation



Further to my submission earlier, here's Sprout's. As ever, he was thoughful and articulate chatting to me about his view on each aspect of it, and his response is gold :)

8. How effective are the current voluntary registration schemes run by some local authorities? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory registration of children educated at home, with duties on both local authorities and parents in this regard?

As a home educated child, I do not want to be registered. To me, it feels dystopian, and I would feel as though I was being spied on. I feel that governments should not put people on registers when they haven't done anything wrong.

9. What information is needed for registration purposes, and what information is actually gathered by local authorities? Would it help the efficacy of these schemes, and the sharing of information between authorities, if there were a nationally agreed dataset or if data could be shared by national agencies, such as DWP or the NHS?

As a home educated child, if I have trusted my doctor with my information, and someone, whether or not that is the government, takes that information without my permission, as far as I am concerned that is data theft.

10. Does experience of flexi-schooling and similar arrangements suggest that it would be better if the scope of registration schemes included any children who do not attend a state-funded or registered independent school full-time? If so, do you think that local authorities should be able to confirm with both state-funded and independent schools whether a named child is attending that school full-time?


If they are already registered at the school they are going to, why would they need to be registered again. Also, there should be no register for home educated children anyway.

11. Would the sanction of issuing a school attendance order for parental non-compliance with registration be effective, or is there another sanction which would be more useful?

I don't think punishment should be given to people who are just refusing to be put on a register when they are carrying out a lawful activity. It's completely unfair that I would be sent to school, and completely unfair that my parents would be given a choice between me going onto a register when we haven't done anything wrong, or going to school which wouldn't be a suitable choice for me. You're giving the choice of going on a register, or going on a different register.

12. What steps might help reduce the incidence of schools reportedly pressuring parents to remove children to educate them at home?

I don't know. It's not home educators' problem if there are problems in schools. Depending on the situation, it's either the parent's or the school's issue to deal with, but it is unfair if they make parents home educate children so they don't have to deal with the issues any more. I think that if a school pressures parents to remove children when they can't or don't want to due to whatever reason, then the school should do more than apologise, they should financially compensate the family to ensure that the school never does this again.

14. How effective is local authority monitoring of provision made for children educated at home? Which current approaches by local authorities represent best practice?

I don't know enough about this to formulate a helpful answer.

15. If monitoring of suitability is not always effective, what changes should be made in the powers and duties of local authorities in this regard, and how could they best ensure that monitoring of suitability is proportionate?

I think it's pretty good that if a concern is raised by someone then the local authority can make enquiries and see if everything is fine, and take action if it isn't.

As a home educated child, I don't think that trying to monitor people in their regular lives to try and find out what they learned is a good thing. Learning is like a leaf, not a ladder. Each person's leaf starts at one bit and goes up, but then separates into different branches of veins. With a ladder, there would be a rung, or level, for each subject level, and this is easier to monitor, for example in schools. I'm not saying that the leaf is how learning should be, but just how it is. Each time you learn something it starts off small and then has tons of bits branching out. You might learn how to multiply before dividing, whereas in school you might be taught to divide before multiplying. In school, you will be taught certain things in certain order, like the ladder. With the leaf, it grows at its own pace. For example, a new leaf might grow first before a leaf that started to grow the day before. The newest leaf might finish growing first. I learn at my own pace, just like the leaf. I learnt maths and reading from my own life, from the things I enjoy. They started off slowly, then blossomed. Nobody's learning leaf is the same. You cannot compare them. You can only measure a ladder.

16. Should there be specific duties on parents to comply with local authorities carrying out monitoring if such LA powers and duties were created, and what sanctions should attach to non-compliance?

If local authorities are abusing the limited powers that they already have, and telling home educators that the local authority has powers it doesn't have, it should be made clear to everyone that the local authority doesn't actually have these powers. As I have already said, monitoring should not be allowed as the local authority doesn't understand individual learning. As such, parents shouldn't have to comply and there should be no sanctions.

17. Is it necessary to see the child and/or the education setting (whether that is the home or some other place), in order to assess fully the suitability of education, and if so, what level of interaction or observation is required to make this useful in assessing suitability?

As a home educated child, having to meet with someone from the local authority feels like the kind of thing I would do in a paid office job, not as part of my childhood. The prospect of them coming into my home feels like the kind of thing that would be done to a criminal or suspected criminal, not a child.

18. What can be done to better ensure that the child’s own views on being educated at home, and on the suitability of the education provided, are known to the local authority?

First of all, this is pure irony. Nobody asks school children whether they are happy going to school and if they want to be home educated instead. I, as a home educated child, have a real and genuine choice of whether I am home educated or go to school. Are you only interested in me having this choice if I am home educated? Or is it important for schoolchildren, too?

The local authority has nothing to do with this. I tried to think of reasons why they would need to know my views, when my parents are literally the ones that want the best for me, but I couldn't think of any.

19. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using settings which are not registered independent or state schools, to supplement home education? How can authorities reliably obtain information on the education provided to individual children whose education ‘otherwise than at school’ includes attendance at such settings as well as, or instead of, education at home?

Philosophically, I am not opposed to unregistered schools. If there are welfare concerns, these could be dealt with separately. However, unregistered schools are completely different from home educating. It's even in the name. If the government is worried about them, they should address that and not home education.

20. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using private tutors to supplement home education? How can authorities best obtain information on the education provided to individual children whose education at home includes private tuition, or whom attend tuition away from home?

Anyone can go to a class with a tutor. It is not a home education issue.

If you have concerns about the child, they can be raised under the usual process. Information about who uses a tutor shouldn't be routinely shared.

22. What might be done to improve access to public examinations for children educated at home?

I understand why home educated children would want or need to take these exams, for example for a dream job that they wanted to do. I think it would help if exams were cheaper for us than they are.

23. What good practice is there currently in local authority arrangements for supporting home-educating families? Should there be a duty on local authorities to provide advice and support, and if so how should such a duty be framed?

If someone asks for advice, this should be free. Talking is free. If someone deregisters, they should be given links, for example on social media, to local home education groups as they can be given support and advice by people who know about home education. This would be very low cost. A page on the local authority website with links such as this would be very useful.

24. Should there be a financial consequence for schools if a parent withdraws a child from the school roll to educate at home?

No. Although I can see the thinking here, in that if a school is failing the child then this would be consequences for the school when they leave as a result, the concept is flawed because there would be a lot of room for the school abusing their power in terms of making it difficult for parents to deregister their children.

25. Should there be any changes to the provision in Regulation 8(2) of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 requiring local authority consent to the removal of a child’s name from the roll of a maintained special school if placed there under arrangements made by the local authority?

Parents should not have to ask for consent to deregister from these schools. It should be assumed that the parents are doing this in the child's best interests and for their happiness. 

26. Are there any other comments you wish to make relating to the effectiveness of current arrangements for elective home education and potential changes?

Trying to monitor people in this way is very bad. It's like a moss, it grows a little bit and then a little bit, until you suddenly see how much it has grown. 'Just checking' becomes monitoring and monitoring becomes control of my education. It's *my* education, facilitated by *my* parents. It is not the local authority's place to be invading my privacy.

27. What data are currently available on the numbers of children being educated at home in your local authority area?

I do not have this information. I do feel that it is not the business of the local authority.

28. Do you have any comments on any of the contents of the call for evidence document in relation to equality issues?

Intrusive monitoring would potentially affect children with special educational needs or mental health issues much more than other children. I, personally, would be very weirded out by a stranger coming into my home, but one of my siblings would react in a much more extreme and anxious way. It's not as though someone is just coming to fix a sink and can completely be bypassed by the child. It would be much more direct. It's not acceptable for this to be an issue that we, as children, have to face, and we should not have to have this monitoring with the intrusion into our lives.

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