HED0281

Written evidence submitted by [member of the public]

[Note: This evidence has been redacted by the Committee. Text in square brackets has been inserted where text has been redacted.]

Introduction

My name is [member of the public] and I am a home educating parent of two boys [age] and [age] years old. I started home educating officially in [date].

1.       The duties of local authorities with regards to home education, including safeguarding and assuring the quality of home education.

I believe that local authorities should be available for support, however, my concern about their role in assuring the quality of home education is their lack of appropriate experience, knowledge, and education surrounding what home education is and what quality looks like. If home education is to be judged on the standards required at school that will be damaging to the freedom to tailor education to each individual child. The outcomes and assessments I use to judge the quality of my provision look quite different from the outcomes and assessments required in school and set out by the government.

I also believe there is a general distrust of local authorities amongst the home ed community. I believe this is down to a lack of understanding, within the local authorities, of what home education involves and what learning at home looks like.

In relation to safeguarding, I feel that this term can often be used as an excuse to take control of the home ed community. On the higher end of the scale, schools are not the only route for discovering children who are being neglected or abused. Children in this unfortunate position are often discovered via other routes, such as healthcare, neighbours, friends reporting them etc. Multiple agencies are often involved, and home educated families are not excluded from accessing these other agencies.

On the lower end of the scale children in schools also suffer from wellbeing issues that are considered ‘normal’ parts of growing up, yet can be incredibly harmful to their self esteem and mental health. Pressure of exams and bullying are two of these. [personal information]

All of the home educating families I have met, including my own have our children’s safety and wellbeing at the heart of our decisions. Learning is often deeper and provided in a wider range of ways, usually with a more child led, multi-faceted approach that is often unavailable at schools. Local authorities would be best placed offering elective home education provision, such as groups or classes for families. These could provide local support networks within the home education community and encourage open dialogue between the two.

2.       Whether a statutory register of home-educated children is required;

I don’t understand the need for this, unless you plan to quality assess home education in an Ofsted style manner. In this case, who sets the standards of quality and who decides what it is appropriate for children to be learning and at what age? One of the pitfalls of the current curriculum is that learning is not always age appropriate, particularly in the younger years. Learning to read and write, for example, is started at a far younger age than is appropriate. Research has also shown that play based learning for children up to the age of 7 is most effective, yet our current state system does not cater for that. Educational research is very often ignored in policy making decisions.

If the register is to be used to support safeguarding how will that be managed? I can’t imagine that one visit from the LA every so often will pick up on any child that is suffering any kind of abuse or neglect.

3.       The benefits children gain from home education, and the potential disadvantages they may face

Benefits

• Being intrinsically motivated to seek out learning opportunities
• Being provided with a wider approach to their learning, with the opportunity to visit places of interest, have a more hands on learning experience and explore subjects of interest through a variety of sources.
• Child led learning.
• The freedom to escape difficult and uncomfortable situations such as peer bullying.
• Learning can take place at an individual pace suited to the child. Reading, for example, can be delayed until the child is ready. Maths can be explored in context and through play.
• Creative and independent thinking is encouraged.
• Learning can take place at any time of the day and is often not considered as something separate. It is encompassed in all they do at home and throughout the day.
• The freedom for children to set their own curriculum and discover what genuinely interests them.
• Learning as a democratic process.
• Children have more agency over their own lives.
• Learning is more adaptable.

Disadvantages:

• Currently, during the coronavirus pandemic, meeting others and socialising has become difficult. During normal times, this would not be an issue.
• My understanding is that exams can be difficult and expensive to access.
• Negative beliefs and comments from others around home education have the potential to cause harm.

4.       The quality and accessibility of support (including financial support) available for home educators and their children, including those with special educational needs, disabilities, mental health issues.

I currently have no comments on this. So far, I have been able to access any support I have needed through home education networks. Currently we do not need SEN, disability, or mental health support.

5.       Whether the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure that the wellbeing and academic achievement of home educated children is safeguarded, including where they may attend unregistered schools, have been formally excluded from school, or have been subject to ‘off-rolling’

As far as I am aware it is. I have heard from others that access to exams can be difficult and coronavirus left many home ed candidates without GCSE’s this year. This is incredibly unfair for those children who worked hard for those exams.

In relation to children who have been formally excluded or ‘off-rolled’. I suspect more could be done for these children; however, they are a very specific group of home educated children with very specific needs. This group should be considered separately and are not being home educated electively. They usually have not been given a choice.

I would also suggest that children in unregistered schools be considered separately. This is not home education as I understand it and comes with its own challenges, benefits, and disadvantages. Illegal unregistered schools should be tackled independently of elective home education. A register or inspections on home educated families are unlikely to improve this situation and the two types of education must not be confused or lumped into one box.

6.       The role that inspection should play in future regulation of home education

I do not believe inspection has any place in the future regulation of home education. What would it achieve? Who decides what is appropriate for a child to be learning and when?

Academic achievement is only one part of the achievement we expect from our children, and in many cases is overstated in its importance over creative and vocational achievement along with emotional resilience and wellbeing. What would the inspection criteria be and would it take individual goals and outcomes into account?

Inspection could turn home education into school education at home. That is not why we choose to home educate.

7.       What improvements have been made to support home educators since the 2010-15 Education Committee published their report on ‘Support for Home Education’ in 2012

I cannot answer this question as I was not home educating before this was published.

8.       The impact COVID-19 has had on home educated children, and what additional measures might need to be taken in order to mitigate any negative impacts.’

COVID-19 has had a dreadful impact in terms of being able to meet others, allow our children to socialise, attend groups and visit places that would support our learning interests. I’m not sure how you could mitigate these impacts though, the pandemic is what it is, and health must be a priority. I do, however, feel that we have been a forgotten group and guidance around our specific needs has been minimal to non-existent.

I do feel that my family is safer with our children not in school.

On a final note, our future is changing and holds very specific challenges. I chose to home educate, not only in consideration of my children’s’ current needs but also in consideration of their future needs. It is my right to this choice, as it is the right of parents to choose to privately educate their children and therefore increase their children’s chance of ‘success’. Private education is out of our reach, financially, and state school does not fit our needs. To remove the choice of home education, or to turn it into another version of ‘school’ would be failing those children that do not fit the system or who are unsafe in school. School is a safe space for many children, and a haven for some, but for many this is not the case. Home education should remain a viable choice open to all.

December 2020