Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Possible home education scandal brewing...

A few weeks ago, the former Chair of the Education select committee, Barry Sheerman, tweeted this:



Barry Sheerman MP
‏@BarrySheerman
Home education is the next scandal which will eventually come to public
attention.It is being used in ways that deeply concern @Ofstednews

I haven't seen anything about it in Ofsted News, but I'll look into this.
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8 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 November 2013 at 11:17

    Barry Sheerman tweeted:

    "Home education is the next scandal which will eventually come to public attention.It is being used in ways that deeply concern"

    Deeply concern who? OFSTED? Sheerman? Are the thought police worried about children receiving an education that might enable them to think for themselves, instead of the pap provided by the state?

    No doubt OFSTED is keen to expand its empire and Sheerman is happy to help. Perhaps he's angling to follow Baroness Morgan as OFSTED chair when he retires as an MP.

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    1. Anonymous12 November 2013 at 23:56

      I doubt that Sheerman has much chance with OFSTED. He'll be well over the hill and may have made himself too unpopular over the years to have any supportive sponsors.

      It's not clear that he was ever playing with a full bag of marbles and and he's certainly not now.

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  2. Julie12 November 2013 at 11:37

    Have you also seen this?

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2503357/Mother-told-severely-disabled-18-year-old-son-live-wants-home-school-him.html

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  3. Anonymous12 November 2013 at 22:32

    Ah yes, your 'chum' Barry. You are obviously working with him closely. (I saw you in a room together once, therefore that statement is obviously true.)

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  4. Anonymous12 November 2013 at 23:58

    Mr Sheerman's views on home education are well known and long standing, and this is not the first time we've been told that there are nebulous concerns which, for various reasons, are not in the public domain, and which never seem to get into the public domain either.



    And the wording's interesting too. 'Deeply concern.' Not illegal.

    The truth is that there are some home educators who should not be doing it. That also goes for social workers, teachers, and maybe even politicians (perish the thought.)

    There are existing laws that allow action in these cases. The fact that some don't like them and routinely go beyond them doesn't mean that we need new laws.

    BUT, Simon, I am fascinated by the hashtag, Ofsted news. Do you know what he's referring to? You're good at uncovering this sort of stuff and I would quite like to know what we're being accused of this time.

    Atb
    Anne

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    1. Anonymous13 November 2013 at 04:43

      "There are existing laws that allow action in these cases. The fact that some don't like them and routinely go beyond them doesn't mean that we need new laws."

      Well said you talk a lot of sense Anne

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    2. Anonymous13 November 2013 at 11:04

      Anne wrote:
      "I am fascinated by the hashtag, Ofsted news. Do you know what he's referring to?"

      Ofstednews isn't a hashtag, it's the twitter account for OFSTED news: https://twitter.com/Ofstednews

      Presumably Sheerman tweeted his message at that in the hope that OFSTED would pick it up and run with it. There was no obvious immediate reaction (e.g., they didn't retweet it) but it would have appeared in their feed. One can only speculate on whether they bother to read it.

      Perhaps HE tweeters could respond to them as well as him in an appropriate (measured, polite, calm, evidence-based etc.) manner.



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    3. Anonymous14 November 2013 at 00:36

      Thanks for that. I'm not a Twitter or a Facebook person, so I get confused easily!

      Atb
      Anne

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