Wednesday 29 September 2010

A statement of educational intent

Somebody commented here about yesterday's piece. I had mentioned that there had been opposition from some parents to the idea contained in the Badman review about providing a plan of education for the coming year. The person said;

'I hope, after providing you with some information about how autonomous education actually works, you now understand why a plan of education is such a difficult thing for AEors to provide.'

Well no, I don't understand this at all. In fact to put the case in the vernacular, it seems completely potty to me to oppose such a thing! Perhaps we should look first at what Graham Badman actually suggested in his report. This is to be found in the eighth bullet point of Recommendation 1. He says;

'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.'

What are we to make of this? The idea behind this recommendation is pretty straightforward. It is to focus the parent's mind upon what she hopes might be achieved in the coming year. Writing such a statement would get the parent to stop for a moment and think about what her child was currently doing and what she hoped that he might be able to do in a year's time. As far as I am able to understand, autonomous educators objected to this idea because their children might do other things as well in the course of the next year, surprising and unexpected things which they would be unable to predict. The individual who made the comment quoted above gave the example of her child becoming interested in music and taking up the playing of an instrument.

I simply do not see that this has anything at all to do with the case! I had perhaps a clearer vision of what I hoped that my daughter would achieve in the coming year than most home educating parents. I never had any problem discussing these plans, either with my local authority or anybody else who would listen! Nor did I have a problem with committing these plans to paper. Even so, my daughter took some very surprising directions which I could never have foreseen. Take the year that she decided to take up bell ringing, by which I mean church bells. I could not have guessed that she would take this up when she was eleven, nor that she would go on to take part in various competitions and ringing quarter peels and so on across Essex and East London. Although unexpected developments like this occurred with her life and interests, as indeed they do with all children, this did not mean that she abandoned any other aspect of her education. Why would she? Plenty of children take up hobbies and other interests without it preventing them from studying science or history at the same time. So the argument that somebody's child became an accomplished musician and that this came as a surprise to the mother, does not seem to me to have any bearing on the matter. This sort of thing happens to all children, whether in school, being taught at home in a structured way or autonomously educated. It's what children do.

When all's said and done, what would the statement of education have required? Well, parents would have been required to give some idea of their educational approach. That would not have presented a problem surely for autonomous educators? Their educational approach is autonomous. They would not object to telling their local authority that, it is what they already say in the educational philosophies any way, so this should not be controversial. What about their 'intent' and 'desired outcomes'? These two should not really present any sort of difficulty either. If one has a child who is unable to read at the age of ten, I rather think that a 'desired outcome' in the coming year for any parent would be that the child started reading independently. I would be surprised to hear of any parent of a ten year old who did not have this as a desired outcome for the coming year. What would be the problem with writing this down on paper? In fact we all have hopes for what our children might be doing and achieving in the next twelve months.

Of course, autonomous educators are quite right when they say that it is impossible to predict entirely what a child will be doing and learning over the coming year. All children take up interests and want to find out about things that their parents could not have guessed in advance. A child at school might have a sudden enthusiasm for some sport or finding out about dinosaurs. This is perfectly normal and does not mean that that the kid abandons mathematics or history. These childish passions can sit easily alongside a curriculum; they do not usually replace it!

I find it hard to imagine any parent who does not have hopes and wishes for her child's future development. All parents want their children to grow and learn. I am sure that this is also the case with autonomous parents. Perhaps their hopes do not centre around strictly academic achievement. The mother of a child with severe learning difficulties might hope that her child increases his command of Makaton signs or becomes able to go to the shop alone. Whatever the child and no matter the age, all parents have such hopes. It is a reluctance to write down these hopes and share them with others which seems to be at the root of the opposition to providing a statement of educational intent.

14 comments:

  1. Old Webb says-I never had any problem discussing these plans, either with my local authority or anybody else who would listen!

    do not tell your Local Authority anything to do with the edcuation you are giving your child or have a meeting with them this way the LA can not catch you out! as this is what it is really about you put something down on paper and you do not teach your child this the LA will have the evidence to issue SAO tell them the very bare amount you can get away with!

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  2. Simon wrote (my highlighting):
    "As far as I am able to understand, autonomous educators objected to this idea because their children might do other things as well in the course of the next year, surprising and unexpected things which they would be unable to predict."

    No, the problem would be if the child learnt things instead of the list of hoped for achievements given to the LA. Given the amount of knowledge out there I suspect it's far more likely than not that what a child actually learns will be radically different to what a parent might hope they learn at the beginning of the year (though there is no reason to suppose that one body of knowledge will be better than the other).

    What is the point in producing a plan if the parent has no intention of holding their child to it and fully suspects that the majority of it will be ignored? What is the point of the LA asking for such a plan if they have no intention of holding the parents to account if it is not followed?

    What is wrong with describing what has been achieved educationally over the previous year along with the stated intention to continue using the same approach?

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  3. 'the problem would be if the child learnt things instead of the list of hoped for achievements given to the LA.'

    I'm not sure what the nature of the problem would be here. Surely it would be easy enough to say, 'In the event we didn't focus so much on physics, but spent more time on chemistry instead'?

    'What is the point in producing a plan if the parent has no intention of holding their child to it and fully suspects that the majority of it will be ignored?'

    Anybody who follows the HE Internet lists carefully will know that it is not uncommon for a parent to post saying, 'I've just de-registered my son. what do I do now?'. This can be catastrophic for a child, particularly if it happens in the middle of the run-up to his GCSEs. Thirteen and fourteen are very popular ages to take this step and for a parent to pull a child out of school without having any idea what she is going to do next is not really to be recommended. A radical change of educational provision in this way is a very serious step. the purpose of the statement of educational intent was just to get the parents to think over what they were planning and to underline for them that they would in fact be providing an education for their child and that this would probably need a little thought.

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  4. Webb says-the problem would be if the child learnt things instead of the list of hoped for achievements given to the LA.'

    I'm not sure what the nature of the problem would be here. Surely it would be easy enough to say, 'In the event we didn't focus so much on physics, but spent more time on chemistry instead'?

    it would be used as evidence against you by your LA if you failed to follow the education plan it would go on file and could be used to support an SAO in court!

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  5. "Anybody who follows the HE Internet lists carefully will know that it is not uncommon for a parent to post saying, 'I've just de-registered my son. what do I do now?'. This can be catastrophic for a child, particularly if it happens in the middle of the run-up to his GCSEs."

    So, because some people are unprepared, everyone must change their education style?

    "the purpose of the statement of educational intent was just to get the parents to think over what they were planning and to underline for them that they would in fact be providing an education for their child and that this would probably need a little thought."

    This is your opinion of the use it should be put to, but may well not be the use LAs make of it. By law an education must be efficient and case law has established that an efficient education achieves what it sets out to achieve. Therefore, if a parent sets out plans for the next year and fails to achieve them, they have provided evidence to the LA that they are not providing an efficient education, evidence that could be used to support a SAO.

    What is wrong with describing what has been achieved educationally over the previous year along with the stated intention to continue using the same approach?

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  6. 'So, because some people are unprepared, everyone must change their education style? '

    I can't follow this line of reasoning at all! Why would anybody have to change their educational style?

    'What is wrong with describing what has been achieved educationally over the previous year along with the stated intention to continue using the same approach?'

    Because when first parents de-register their child, they might not have any experience of educating him. This would be uncharted territory for them and the statement of educational intent gives them a chance to think about what they are planning.

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  7. So do you think only new home educators should produce this plan?

    What if a new home educator wishes to allow their child to learn autonomously and does not want to plan their child's education for them?

    Are they not allowed to choose autonomous education (bearing in mind that autonomous educators risk giving the LA grounds for deciding they are not providing an efficient education if they produce a plan and fail to achieve what they set out to achieve)?

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  8. Of course, such a law would not just impact AE'ers. Even those despised creatures, the 'structured', 'coercive' HEers (of which I was one, according to AEing aquaintances), might find such a system a problem.

    I always had plans for the next year for my kids. I researched and bought in the resources we would need to fulfill those plans. I loved mapping out the trips and hands-on opportunities etc which would support my educational objectives. Planning for the next academic year was one of my favourite things about HE.

    However, I am also a big fan of flexibility, of responding to a child's needs and desires and also of regular re-evaluation of how things were actually working out in practice.

    Sometimes, the things we'd planned just did not work out. For eg, I'd been given some learning Spanish resources and planned to teach my kids to speak that language. However, the resources ended up being uninteresting and unengaging for us all, my kids were bored and I couldn't afford to buy new resources or hire a tutor. So after a term, we dropped that idea and focussed on other things instead.

    Thankfully, by that point, we'd dispensed with visits from the LA, or I'd have had to explain all that to a someone who'd have a copy of my plans and would be wanting to hold me to them, as a measure of the 'efficiency' (a concept in the legislation) of my educational provision.

    Not being, or feeing, accountable to any outside agency, only to my children, my husband and God, I was able to adjust my plans freely. This is what I treasured most about home education, being able to respond to what was working, what was not working, adjust, tweak etc with no potential legal consequences hanging over me.

    I do know HE'ers having regular visits, whose education provision was excellent but who were indeed being 'hoist by their own petard' in such a way, causing them unnecessary aggravation and untold stress.

    Mrs Anon

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  9. 'Not being, or feeing, accountable'.
    That should be 'feeling'.

    Mrs Anon

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  10. 'Because when first parents de-register their child, they might not have any experience of educating him. This would be uncharted territory for them and the statement of educational intent gives them a chance to think about what they are planning.'

    I'm afraid that I think this would be a pointless imposition anyway. Many parents would simply get very clever at being extremely vague about their plans, along the lines of the 'ed phil' stuff that people send in now.

    I know that's exactly what I would do.

    So how would a request for a statement of intent avoid that?

    Mrs Anon

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  11. Hi Simon,

    Am hoping things have become clearer to you now. The commentator above is completely right that AE children will do things INSTEAD of other things that the parent may desire, and many of these things will mean that other activities will not keep up with the NC.

    My son has been playing music now for about three months solidly, more or less the exclusion of everything else, bar going for medium distance runs and long bike rides, playing warhammer and seeing his friends. I had planned (in the privacy of my own head and in some deluded moment), that he do some more maths, but he won't and may once again slip behind his schooled peers in this subject, but really, I am no longer worried about this in the least, as I have seen him catch up and then speed well ahead before. eg: He didn't learn to read until he was nearly 9, but was an adult level reader by the time he was 10 and a half.

    I would far rather not have to explain all this to my LA officer. We have had four different officers in this county since we have been here. Two of them grokked AE, how different it is from schooling, it's full strangeness and how it works. The other two have kept on at the AEors in the county, hassling them at every turn and ruining their experience of life. It really is the luck of the draw who one gets.

    It is often hugely difficult to explain AE to people and one simply cannot rely on explaining it to a close-minded LA officer. It is just too strange and they have no experience of it as there just aren't enough people out there doing it properly.

    We were so lucky in that we walked into the middle of a flourishing group of AEors. It really was inspirational.



    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.'

    What are we to make of this? The idea behind this recommendation is pretty straightforward. It is to focus the parent's mind upon what she hopes might be achieved in the coming year. Writing such a statement would get the parent to stop for a moment and think about what her child was currently doing and what she hoped that he might be able to do in a year's time. As far as I am able to understand, autonomous educators objected to this idea because their children might do other things as well in the course of the next year, surprising and unexpected things which they would be unable to predict. The individual who made the comment quoted above gave the example of her child becoming interested in music and taking up the playing of an instrument.

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  12. Sorry...hadn't realised I had clipped a bit of yours onto the end of mine. Please ignore last 2 paras from the above.

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  13. From one of the lists, apropos of applying for Child Benefit after the age of 16;

    'I've just filled in the same form and just waffled on a bit about subjects my autonomous son plans to study. I also said that he doesn't plan to take any exams. Make sure you put the minimum hours that your daughter will be studying. '

    Strange how when there is money to be had, some autonomous educators are suddenly able to make a statement of educational intention without any difficulty!

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  14. >>>>>'I've just filled in the same form and just waffled on a bit about subjects my autonomous son plans to study. I also said that he doesn't plan to take any exams. Make sure you put the minimum hours that your daughter will be studying. '

    Strange how when there is money to be had, some autonomous educators are suddenly able to make a statement of educational intention without any difficulty! <<<<<

    And if that is what a Statement of Educational Intent would look like, what on earth would be the point? How would it help the child?

    Mrs Anon

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