Wednesday 30 October 2013

Local authority, wishing to talk about home education

Once again, I am struck by the apparently limitless ability of some home educating parents to make their own lives difficult and to wind each other up! On one of the largest of the home education lists, one with thousands of hapless and deluded members, a home educating  mother posted a request for  advice.  Her local authority wishes to arrange, ‘ to meet with you to discuss the provision you have made’.  Now there are a number of good pieces of advice one feels might fit the case here. For instance, ‘Just talk to them, you idiot!’ springs to mind. Or if the mother really doesn’t, for the Lord knows what reason, want to open her door to somebody from the council, perhaps she could arrange to meet the person in the local library? 

 It is hardly necessary to tell readers that one angry person suggests, ‘it may be useful to get advice from a solicitor that’s what I did’. I wonder if these characters start ringing up their lawyers when the man comes round to read the gas meter?  Another person also becomes furious; ‘total bollocks’…’They have no power to force their processes on you unless they're backed by law’…’no point in even dealing with them’. Once again, one misses the normal and rational touch. 

 I am still, after several years of debating this point, wholly unable to make any sense of this fanatical determination not to let people into the house. We have visitors here quite often and as long as they are polite and leave when I ask them to; I can’t see any problem. I was always very eager to talk about home education and if somebody had the wrong idea about it, I was keen to set them straight.  I never saw home education as something that I had to keep secret and start thinking about calling in the lawyers if somebody wanted to, ‘meet with you and discuss the provision you have made’. Why would you do that?

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11 comments:

  1. Julie31 October 2013 at 00:35

    I have no problem with declining an HE visit - after all, legally you are not required to have a visit, so if it is legal not to do so, what is the problem? However I know some people prefer visits to writing reports etc - and some people have additional reasons for wanting to be able to say they have had a visit ( ie difficult relationship with ex partner). What is dislike in tensely is the implication that if you do decide to have a visit you somehow letting down the team! How home ed families respond should be entirely up to them.

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    1. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 03:12

      Julie says" What is dislike in tensely is the implication that if you do decide to have a visit you somehow letting down the team!"
      You are letting down the team down if you have a home visit.But i guess if your a scared type who obey authority your going to have a home visit.Lucky i am made of much tougher materiel and could say no thanks to Hampshire LA that did put a spanner in the wheel fro them

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    2. Julie31 October 2013 at 04:37

      Peter - I didn't actually have a home visit at all! But the point I am trying to make is that if someone wants one-then they should be able to have one in perfect freedom.

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    3. Simon Webb31 October 2013 at 05:10

      'What is dislike in tensely'

      There is sometimes a kind of weird, surreal beauty about Mr Williams' writing, which transcends the mundane world of reason and logic; evoking James Joyce at his most gnomic and impenetrable. 'What is dislike in tensely'? This is poetry and don't let anybody tell you differently, Mr Williams. It is the sort of question that Stephen Dedalus himself might have posed; 'What is dislike in tensely?'

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    4. Anonymous4 November 2013 at 16:58

      If you're going to make fun of someone you should at least aim your comments at the original writer rather than the person who quoted the text. But maybe you wouldn't have bothered if you'd realised it wasn't written by Mr Williams?

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  2. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 01:05

    old Webb say "I wonder if these characters start ringing up their lawyers when the man comes round to read the gas meter?"

    There a difference between the gas man reading your meter and the Local LA officer.The LA officer will be judging your home is it tidy to his standard and if he believes the education is not good enough he can then go on to cause you a lot of problems because his report about you will be used in a court of law to attempt to prove the education your giving your child is not up to standard once stuff is writing down by an LA officer it is almost impossible to get it changed.
    The gas man is also well aware that you are a paying customer and will treat you as such the Local LA officer does not see you as a paying customer and will cause you problems if you meet with him/her Also many of these LA officers have caused the problem in the first place for the child or parent by supporting the school before the child was home educated to put it bluntly whats in it for the parent to meet with an LA officer?
    My advice is always keep everything in writing and contact your solicitor this will get get rid of the Local LA for ever!

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  3. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 02:07

    I think, Simon, the problem may be something that was highlighted by the Select Committee last year, which is that many LA's, for whatever reason, are claiming to have powers that they do not have.

    Now, maybe I have a very wide toddler streak, but my instinctive reaction when someone tells me that 'it's the law' that they do something when I know perfectly well that it isn't is to say 'No way are you doing that.' Had I been asked nicely, or had there been any advantage for me in doing it, then I'd probably have felt differently.

    Even OFSTED pointed out that the LA's whose tone was hostile to HE found people were more reluctant to deal with them. (And next week they'll invent the wheel!)

    And trust is a funny thing. Once you've found out that someone has exagerrated their powers you start wondering why they'd do that and what else they're misrepresenting, and that makes you very much more careful about how you deal with them.

    So, it seems to me, the solution is simple. If LA's want people to go beyond their legal responsibilities and invite their representatives into their homes, then they need to make very sure that their representatives are aware of their legal duties and stick to them and remember at all times that they are a guest and act accordingly. And claiming some of the money which they could claim from central government so that home educators who did choose to engage with LA's saw an active benefit to doing so would probably help too.

    Actually, it's always struck me as funny that the powers that be have so totally missed the point that if they said 'Sign up here, have annual visits and get free exam entry, access to extra library priveleges, maybe discounts for off peak use of council sports and cultural facilities' and then were actively nice to those who did sign up they could probably get enough registered voluntarily within 5-10 years that they'd be in a far better position to go for legislation to get compulsory registration. As any parent could tell them, asking nicely and letting the other person see clear advantages to cooperation works so much better than threats and shouting...

    Atb
    Anne

    Atb
    Anne

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    1. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 03:16

      well said and this is so true what you wrote
      And trust is a funny thing. "Once you've found out that someone has exagerrated their powers you start wondering why they'd do that and what else they're misrepresenting, and that makes you very much more careful about how you deal with them."

      That is how i felt when he said i be coming around to your house its the law

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  4. Simon Webb31 October 2013 at 03:10

    ' if they said 'Sign up here, have annual visits and get free exam entry, access to extra library priveleges, maybe discounts for off peak use of council sports and cultural facilities' and then were actively nice to those who did sign up they could probably get enough registered voluntarily within 5-10 years that they'd be in a far better position to go for legislation to get compulsory registration. '

    This is indisputably true, but might prove expensive and encourage other parents to deregister their children from school. From that point of view, it would be counter-productive for the local authorities.

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    1. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 04:59

      Do you really think people will deregister kids from school for the sake of extra library books and free exam entries? And as for expensive, they could claim most of it back from central government and some LA's already manage to do it, so it can't be that bad.

      Maybe I'm a cynic, but I suspect that the 'counter-productive' bit would be having to admit that HE can be just as effective as any other method. It's easy to forget that home educators aren't the only ones who are very attached to their ideologies.

      I have a high proportion of teachers in my family, who found home education almost undermining, until I pointed out that I'm not TEACHING. Teaching a class of 30 kids of different educational levels, aptitudes and enthusiasms needs a skill set and patience that I simply don't have. I think there's a word for those who do, and it may well be 'masochist!' I still admire teachers enormously, because I don't see how they get the results they do with everything that's stacked against them.

      Being able to tailor an education to each child's learning style, enthusiasms and any health/SEN needs is an entirely different matter and much, much easier.

      I'd like to see a situation where trust could be rebuilt on both sides, and that, for me, means the LA's being clear and open about the difference between what they'd like and what the law is. And if they'd like more than the law, then they really do need to give something in return. It's there to be given too, and I genuinely don't understand why some LA's are so pushy on their websites that they seem to be setting themselves up for fights and others are so much more relaxed.

      Off soapbox now, and off to get lunch!
      Anne

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    2. Anonymous31 October 2013 at 05:03

      Old Webb says "but might prove expensive and encourage other parents to deregister their children from school. From that point of view, it would be counter-productive for the local authorities."

      You could cover this problem by saying after you been home educating for 3 months that you get the discounts or any help from the council this would stop a very tiny number of parents who thought their could de- resister for a few days to get the discounts

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