Wednesday 13 November 2013

More about Barry Sheerman and home education

Readers might be interested to know what questions Barry Sheerman has been asking lately in parliament. This on November 7th, less than a week ago:





Written Answers — Education: Home Education (7 November 2013)
Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education
what estimate he has made of the number of (a) girls and (b) boys
registered as being home-schooled who are not receiving an
 adequate education.
Written Answers — Education: Home Education (7 November 2013)
Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what
steps he is taking to ensure that girls and boys who are
home-schooled receive an equal education.

I think that something is very definitely in the wind. What I
have beentold is that the clue is in the second of these two
 questions, with its reference to 'equal education' for boys 
and girls. This apparently refers to the Gypsy/Traveller/Roma
 practice of taking girls out of school after they finish primary 
school. Somebody has also mentioned Muslims who 
home educate as well. 


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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 November 2013 at 00:29

    Thanks, Simon.

    Can you educate me a little further? Am I wrong in saying that there are currently perfectly good legal powers for Councils to issue SAO's if they think this is happening?

    And looking at this practically, given that travellers are prone to travelling, how on earth do you make anyone responsible for their education? Are you going to have a visit everywhere you stop in which case LA officers would end up a bit like the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Or is this one case where central control would make sense? Or, awful and pragmatic as it sounds, are you going to have to accept that 'respecting a lifestyle' may have to mean 'respecting a lack of respect for education' because you can't treat it like a pick and mix.


    Oh, and btw, any ideas how you define an equal education so that you can enforce it? I come from an era where girls did cookery and boys did woodwork, which was fine by me because I didn't want to do woodwork but I liked cookery... Equal doesn't mean identical, does it?

    Atb
    Anne

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Simon Webb14 November 2013 at 00:48

      The whole idea of somehow 'cracking down' on on the supposed abuse of home education among travelling families is, as you say, absurd! Of course, any local authority could issue an SAO to parents under such circumstances. Delivering it might be a little tricky, since many temporary camps do not receive mail. bringing a prosecution for not obeying it would be even harder...

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    2. Anonymous14 November 2013 at 03:11

      worn out webb says"any local authority could issue an SAO to parents under such circumstances. Delivering it might be a little tricky, since many temporary camps do not receive mail."

      An SAO does not mean anything Webb its just a bit of paper i had one you just write back and say i am home educating my child please put down in writing what it is you wish to know and we decide with our county Councillor if we can answer many thank for your interest

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