HED0792

Written evidence submitted by [a 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.]

I am a parent who home educated teenagers [ages].  They are happy balanced young people who are dealing creatively with the covid situation by developing their autonomous home education in combination with some more formal learning.  We were intending for them to take exams in 2021 but cannot be sure that this will be possible if they don’t have teacher assessment available to them.  Consequently, they have chosen to do some tutoring and night classes to access this support for some of their planned exams.  Our aim as parents is that our teenagers focus on their emotional and physical health at this time and that any academic ambitions are secondary to that. There is some good scientific opinion behind taking this perspective.  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/29/teenagers-brains-not-ready-for-gcses-says-neuroscientist

We find ourselves grateful in this unpredictable time to have taken this on board and to be supporting our teens in developing physical, emotional and life skills as a priority with the academic skills being taken on by them as a genuine self-directed interest on their own chosen time scales. The result is that they weave more conventional learning into their days with interest and joy.

 

Response to the committee’s invitation for submissions. 

A. THE DUTIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES WITH REGARDS TO HOME EDUCATION, INCLUDING SAFEGUARDING AND ASSURING THE QUALITY OF HOME EDUCATION. 

The most EHE Guidelines are somewhat problematic; they seem to have led many LAs to believe they have duties that they don’t actually have in legislation, and are not supported by case law. The guidelines have been used to essentially retrospectively change the scope of legislation (Section 436A).

I have worked in schools of all sorts for many years, in the public and private sector and in mainstream and special schools. I am well aware of the challenges schools face in meeting the developmental, social, emotional and learning needs of young people.  I am also aware of the science and psychology related to learning and social development, it’s partly my knowledge of these and my experience of my own children’s learning and emotional development that has led us as a family to choose home education.  I am aware therefore that it is parents who are willing to prioritise their children’s learning and development who are most qualified to oversee their education.  It is reasonable of course that if parents are failing that society should provide support and oversight.  If the home education is working well enough as judged by the parents and others around the family then it’s important that it does not suffer the interference of those who are biased in their thinking towards school education.   Learning outside a school environment is very powerful and effective, often it doesn’t look anything like school.

It is important that family and professionals are aware that families can be reported to the local authority if there are genuine safeguarding concerns or genuine concern about the provision of education. There are dangers there though in that we don’t all agree about what a suitable education looks like. 

It is essential that home education is enabled to continue without unnecessary interference so that we continue to support young people in accessing diverse educational provision that is bespoke to each child and their situation.  The science is behind self-directed learning, schools cannot do it as well as a rich home educational environment can. The 2007 guidance on home education achieved this balance better than the current guidelines. I feel grateful to have begum home educating just when that guidance was published.  The result was that we as a family felt confident to enable our children to have a self-directed education.  The result has been that our family life has been full of interest and joy as we enable the children to learn according to their motivation. 

B. WHETHER A STATUTORY REGISTER OF HOME-EDUCATED CHILDREN IS REQUIRED.

This is not necessary and risks giving the impression that home education needs to be monitored.  Education needs to be seen as a normal natural activity, like walking, eating and breathing. If we leave no flexibility and freedom for it to develop naturally, we constrain the creativity that is possible.  We don’t assess walking or breathing let’s stop monitoring learning except in the circumstances when we need to show competence for professional or safety reasons. The monitoring risks directing the learning and gets in the way of parents' confidence to follow the child’s lead in their education.  It is a dreadful waste of possibility when parents feel the need to make a home education mirror what happens in schools due to fear of monitoring or judgement from the LA.

C. THE BENEFITS CHILDREN GAIN FROM HOME EDUCATION, AND THE POTENTIAL DISADVANTAGES THEY MAY FACE.

I’m going to speak primarily about our family here, though I see similar stories in many home educating families we know.

We knew schooling would not be as effective in developing our child’s learning as a more unschooling approach, but we didn’t know anyone else home educating so we just went along with school in the normal way for our [age] year old.  [personal information], so we gave up school. It worked so well his sister never went at all. 

At [ages] they are comfortable teens working out how to live well and develop towards adulthood.  Being conscious of the negative impact of assessment on learning and emotional wellbeing, we’ve helped them choose their own learning throughout childhood.  

The uncertainties around covid have led them to choose to have formal teaching to support them in gaining some exams this year.  Then teachers can support them with mock exams and the predicted grades that may be required next summer.  Seeing them engage in conventional learning now after years of directing their own activity is interesting. A recent quote about their Maths tutors “I don’t think they are used to teaching people who are self-directed, we were doing more maths before we started the tutoring, they aren’t giving us enough homework”. 

They fill their days living well and happily developing skills, how to cook, mend bikes, make clothes as well as playing games and skating and hanging out with friends. They are competent motivated humans, one has worked as a home help for a neighbour and was appreciated for his ability to get all sorts of practical tasks done, another is appreciated as a childminder and illustrator.  They have an excellent circle of friends, a combination of schooled and home educated young people.  Home education gives them time to develop friendships with people with whom they have shared interests. 

Our aim is that they find a route into a good adulthood that suits them well emotionally, practically, and intellectually. Unschooling is looking to be a great tool to enable that self motivation into the adult years.

In terms of disadvantages some would say a disadvantage is that people make negative assumptions about the quality of their education, I think we’ve noticed this to be true but anyone who gets to know them or work with them is invariably impressed and finds they need to update their first impressions.

Another disadvantage is that some local authorities overstep the mark and monitor and add stress to many home education families.  We have been lucky in this regard as [location], where we live, have made great improvements to their understanding of home education, they have a policy of intervention only when there is proven reason to need to or when parents request it.  This means that there is a great culture in the home education community in our area of children being free to learn according to their motivation.  The result is a community of very interesting, knowledgeable and skilled young people.

E. 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’.

I agree that it’s important that families should only home educate if they are truly willing to do so.  The practice of “off rolling” young people who are struggling is outrageous, it is often the result of unmet special educational needs.  Having unregistered schools is also concerning but not actually related to home education.  These are issues around the regulation of the provision of education in schools and whether it is suitable for all individual children. 

F. THE ROLE THAT INSPECTION SHOULD PLAY IN FUTURE REGULATION OF HOME EDUCATION.   

Knowing how the educational provision in home educating families varies depending on the interests of the child and the capacity of the parents I really do feel it would be impossible to create an inspection framework that respects the wise words of Section 7 of the Education Act.  Essentially that section of the education act dictates that authorities should only intervene if it appears that parents are not providing a suitable education.  Systematic Inspection would be in contravention of that section of the act.  The act enables parents to provide children with the most logical method of education.  It's interesting how Section 7of the Education Act predates much the research on motivation and learning that now tells us that assessment and monitoring hinder learning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi#Flow

https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/application-education/
My teenagers who have been supported to learn according to their interests do not fit the unmotivated teenagers described here.  They have not been taught formal maths until recently when they have decided to do a Maths GCSE for instance, they are now learning Maths with interest, self-motivation and actually with joy. They have chosen to learn in months what many schooled children have resisted learning daily in school for years.  The basis of their learning is of course years of rich natural learning, cooking, measuring, building, playing computer games, their maths has been learned through life so the formal learning now comes easily at exam time.  An inspector looking now at them learning maths could not fail to be impressed.  The same inspector might have looked at their education a few years ago that was spent mainly in the woods, the hills, and playing on Minecraft less favourably, and yet it was the ability to learn freely and to follow their interests that enables them to choose the examination based learning they now feel will help them take the steps they need towards that adult world.


G. 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’m aware that some LAs have become more rigid in their expectations of home education families and that leads many families to limit the scope of their home education and feel compelled to replicate school at home rather than take advantage of the wide possibilities that home education can enable. I am not aware of any improvements in support for home educated families.

H. 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.

The challenge of doing exams when teacher assessment is required is a major problem for home educating families.  Otherwise I feel that home educated children have been affected less than school going children.  The most recent lockdown rules do allow us to gather with other home educators for educational purposes, this is more generous and flexible than the first lockdown.  It means that it’s possible for them to keep some shared learning and social contact with peers.  Of course even in the first lockdown home educated teenagers were able to keep connection with peers through online conversation and gaming, the impact on younger home educated children will have been greater as it’s important for their development that they are able to engage and play physically with peers. 


November 2020