tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78814025845682856272024-03-13T14:58:25.214-07:00Home Education HereticSimon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.comBlogger1182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-47538520346159716812016-07-28T10:01:00.002-07:002016-07-28T10:01:16.818-07:00The tyranny of opinion among home educatorsFor parents who send their children to school, there is a ready-made support network among all their friends, family and workmates. Everybody has been to school; many people currently have children at school. The problems which are encountered when children are at school, whether bullying, poor teaching, undesirable culture among teenagers, to give just a few examples, are familiar ones and many people may be called upon for advice and assistance. The case when you are home educating a child is quite different. There are no mothers at the school gate to whom you may turn, no parents who will remember how they tackled this or that difficulty, no friends or neighbours of whom you may enquire. Which of course is why so many British home educators turn to online groups, chiefly on Facebook, for support. This can be unsatisfactory.<br />
<br />
Because I have published my personal Email address here, I often get messages from home educating parents who want advice and help. Invariably, they begin such appeals by saying, 'I couldn't tell anybody in any of the groups about this!' or perhaps, 'I feel that you are the only person who will understand.' This is pretty strange, because these people are all complete strangers to me. The reason is simple; on almost all the online support groups for home educators, there is a particular ethos and those who hold views running counter to it are made to feel uncomfortable. Sometimes, a group will be strongly opposed to visits and claim that those who accept a visit from their local authority are letting others down and indirectly making it harder for other parents. The reasoning goes that the more parents who allow their local authority to visit their home and discuss home education, the trickier it becomes for those who refuse visits. In other groups, the view might be strongly held that actually teaching children in dangerous and liable to harm them. These so-called unschoolers or autonomously educating parents can make those with a different perspective on home education feel very awkward about their own lifestyle.<br />
<br />
Some groups are in the habit of simply ejecting anybody who does not appear to share the views of the majority about home education. It is not unknown for people to be thrown out of groups just for asking too many questions! All this makes some parents feel that they are obliged to give lip-service to ideologies with which they strongly disagree, because otherwise, they will no longer be accepted as one of the group. This is a particular thing with home educators, because as I said above, they do not have access to the same support networks as those whose childrne are at school adn tend to rely heavily on the internet for social contacts with other parents. Without the online groups, they would feel very isolated.<br />
<br />
It is worth remembering this the next time that we hear that the majority of home educators believe this or that about registering or monitoring. Often, the only way that we know this is via the internet and if everybody else is complaining loudly about local authorities, then there is an incentive for parents to go along with this; whatever their own opinions. In this way, some home educators find that they have nobody to whom they can talk when they wish to ask about such things as whether their children might really be better off at school.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-62336467600116807292016-07-27T00:06:00.003-07:002016-07-27T00:06:38.736-07:00The legality of monitoring of home education under European lawA little while ago, we looked at the fact that parents who wish to educate their own children in Britain are required to meet certain minimum standards in doing so. This inevetiably raises the question of who should decide wheter such minimum standards are being met; the parents or the state. Most home educating parents in Britain are under the mistaken impression that they are in law the final arbiters of what their children should and should not be learning. This view has never been accepted by anybody other than a handful of militant home educators. It is instructive to look at what happened when two parents from this country took their case to the European Commision on Human Rights. The ruling went against them; which was encouraging for local authorities in Britain who are in favour of monitoring home education.<br />
<br />
A woman called Iris Harrison insisted throughout the 1970s that not only did she have the right to educate her own children, but that the lcoal authority had no right to dictate the form that this education should take. Eventally, the case was settled in court, with the judge ruling that children educated at home should at least receive systematic instruction in such subjects as reading, writing and arithmetic. (Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson (1981) QB (DC) 729/81). The parents then took their case to Europe, on the grounds that their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights were being violated. Article 2 of the Protocol says that;<br />
<br />
<i>No person shall be denied the right to education. In the exercise of any functions which it<br />assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the state shall respect the right of<br />parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and<br />philosophical convictions.</i><br />
<br />
The result was not at all what Iris Harrison and her husband had hope for, as it was ruled that not only is compulsory schooling quite compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, but that if any child is not in school, then the state has a perfect right to monitor his or her education.Clive Sheldon QC wrote about this case, saying that;<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> It was clear that A2/P1 implied a right for the State to establish compulsory schooling, be it in State schools or private tuition of a satisfactory standard, and that verification and enforcement of educational standards is an integral part of that right.<br />Accordingly, the Commission held that to require the applicant parents to co-operate in the<br />assessment of their children’s educational standards by an education authority in order to ensure<br />a certain level of literacy and numeracy, whilst, nevertheless, allowing them to educate their<br />children at home, could not be said to constitute a lack of respect for the applicants' rights under<br />Art 2 of Protocol. Accordingly, the Commission found that the complaint was inadmissible</i><br />
<br />
In other words, according to the ECHR, the state can monitor home education to its heart's content! Indeed, in a later case, brought by a German, it was ruled that home education can even be completely banned and that the ECHR allows for this.<i> </i>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-83450750357491567122016-07-25T23:38:00.004-07:002016-07-26T11:18:54.226-07:00Why the British government sometimes views home education with suspicion<br />
<br />
One of the problems for home education in this country is that it often presents not just as another educational setting, but rather as a weird cult. It is a particular concern of most European governments at the moment to see that society becomes more cohesive and does not start splitting into self-contained and divisive sections; each with different core values and exclusive beliefs. One can quite see the point, the development of parallel societies within a country seldom ends well! It is from this perspective that home education is sometimes seen as likely to lead to a group of people who live by a code which varies greatly from that which the rest of a country shares and abides by. This is why Germany does not allow home education.<br />
<br />
In Britain, there is a strong sense among the more prominent home educators that their chosen educational technique is somehow superior to the one used by almost everybody else. Before going any further, we should bear in mind that home education is essentially neither more nor less than just another way of educating children. Like all educational settings, there are advantages and disadvantages. Single-sex schools for girls, to give one example, are very good educationally for girls, but can leave them a little socially immature. What comprehensive schools lack educationally, on the other hand, they make up for in preparing children for life in a diverse society. All those involved with British education recognises such differences and are prepared to discuss them rationally. <br />
<br />
Home educators tend to be different. They typically refuse to believe that there can be any disadvantage to the educational setting which they have chosen for their children. For them, it seems all too often to be a wonderful ideal; one which cannot be bettered. There is often a messianic air about home education in Britain, with anybody asking too many questions about it being regarded as an enemy; just as with many cults. Here is good example, from a few years ago;<br />
<br />
http://ahed.pbworks.com/w/page/1552653/About%20AHEd<br />
<br />
Just look at the mad things which are being said here! ‘Home educators have unique and privileged access to fundamental truths about the human condition’, ‘Home educators can reveal these truths to the rest of society’, ‘This is our precious gift’. Just replace the expression ‘home educators’ in those quotations with ‘scientologists’ or ‘Muslims’ and you will see that this is the language not of education, but religion. There is a distinctly religious feel to the thing.<br />
<br />
Several things strike one about peculiar ideas like this; that home education is some sort of Utopian lifestyle which will one day change society. The first is that this theme is a very powerful one among the self-appointed leaders of home education in this country. The second is the sheer absurdity of talking about an educational setting in this exalted way! Imagine if I were to say that, ‘Those of us who send our children to comprehensive schools have unique and privileged access to fundamental truths about the human condition’. It would sound as though I had taken leave of my senses!<br />
<br />
The final, and most important point, is this. It is in nobody’s interest to see society fragmenting into individual strands, whose members have little use for the mainstream way of life. This can be dangerous if those who belong to such groups follow some particular religion; Islam or fundamentalist Christianity. It is also unlikely to be healthy for society if political groups start to split off from the rest of us and promote values greatly at odds with those held by everybody else. There is a vague fear among some people, both in central and local government, that something of the sort is happening among home educators; that they might be indoctrinating their children with strange notions, which will make it difficult for them to fit into the ordinary scheme of things when they grow up. This is all of a piece with the worries about Muslim independent schools which are a big concern at the moment. Perhaps if home educators stopped behaving as though they were somehow special and possessed of insights which elude parents who send their children to school, it would go some way towards allaying such fears.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-72299267020709988972016-07-24T01:15:00.000-07:002016-07-26T11:23:54.157-07:00Maintaining the illusion of widespread opposition to the registration of home educated childrenI wrote a couple of days ago of the way in which a small group of militants try to give the impression that they are speaking on behalf of the majority of home educating parents and promote the idea that most of these parents are fiercely opposed to the registration of home educated children or any monitoring of them. Only yesterday, a fine example of this racket turned up in a provincial newspaper. Here is a piece from the <i>Bradford Telegraph & Argus</i>; which only appeared online yesterday;<br />
<br />
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/14637037.New_report_warns_that_Bradford_Council_has__limited_powers__to_monitor_333_home_schooled_children/<br />
<br />
Within hours, two of the people whom I had mentioned in my recent post here had commented on this article. They may be seen in the comments as <span class="small semi-loud comment-username">770177wendy and llondel. They are of course Wendy Charles-Warner and Dave Hough and they are the owners of the Facebook group <i>Home Education and Your Local Authority: Help Dealing with Officaldom. </i>A number of points spring immediately to mind. The first is that one of these people lives in North Wales and the other in California. Why on earth are they commenting about home education in Yorkshire? We also observe that neither of these people are even home educating their children in the United Kingdom; this being so, it is hard to see in what way they might be representing the interests of home educating parents in this country. There is also the fact that both have a variety of identities under which they comment. Why should Dave Hough be so averse to using his own name? Wendy Charles-Warner also posts under various identities. This is done so that the same names do not appear to be cropping up again and again. A final point is the sheer dishonesty of the things which are said in the comments there! Here is Dave Hough yesterday;</span><br />
<span class="small semi-loud comment-username"><br /></span>
<br />
<i>parents who have the option of remaining unknown to their local authority invariably choose to remain so and not make contact.</i><br />
<br />
In the first place; how could he possibly know this? Secondly, let us remind ourselves of the advice which he dished out on the 'Officialdom' group, a little while ago, to a home educating parent who was moving house;<br />
<br />
<i>post a letter with a second-class stamp on your last day there
informing them that as of that date you're no longer in their area but
that you will still be home educating. Don't give them your new address
or area, and make sure the new occupants of the house and any neighbours
also know not to tell them where you've gone if they know.</i><br />
<br />
One of the reasons that home educating parents do not have contact with their <i> </i>local authorties is because they are denounced and ostracised for doing so on many of the online support groups for home educators. They are called traitors and Quislings; those who do allow visits from the local authority often do so secretly, for fear of the reaction from people like Dave Hough! The chief reason that people remain, or pretend to remain, unknown to their local authorities is because many of them rely upon support from Facebook groups containing other parents whose children are not at school. It is the reaction of some of the more vociferous of these parents which they fear, rather than the local authority itself.<br />
<br />
Turning now to the comment posted by Wendy Charles-Warner, we see she claims that;<br />
<br />
<i> Freedom of information requests to Bradford Local Authority confirm that
there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that a single home educated
child in the region has been 'radicalised'.</i><br />
<br />
Seriously? How would you find that out from a Freedom of Information Request?<br />
<i> </i><br />
The two people mentioned here today are of course not the only people patrolling the internet to find articles about home education on which to comment; although they are certainly among the most industrious. The fact is that about two dozen people, at least half of whom either live abroad or are not home educating their children in this country, are responsible for over 90% of the comments one sees about the dangers of registration and monitoring. They are part of a very small sub-set in the home educating community who are desperately anxious that local authorities and the general public should see them as being the dominant trend in British home education.<br />
<i> </i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<br />Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-52779585309856159812016-07-21T23:14:00.000-07:002016-07-21T23:21:47.225-07:00Causing trouble for home educating parents<br />
There is a longstanding and mistaken idea that there exists in this country a powerful home education movement, which constantly agitates for and defends the supposed rights of, home educating parents. Even the Department for Education has fallen for this false belief and it is one of the reasons why there are no plans to slip through a new law to regulate and control home education in Britain. It is felt that the campaign which was waged in the aftermath of the Graham Badman report was so fierce and produced such bad publicity for the government, that it really is not worth repeating the exercise. This is the chief reason that the DfE has no intention currently of pressing for a change in the law; it would simply be more trouble than it is worth to fight all those home educators again!<br />
<br />
In fact, despite there being anything up to 80,000 home educated children in this country, which would mean perhaps 140,000 or 150,000 home educating parents, opposition to any form of registration and monitoring is actively maintained by only a few hundred people; many of whom are not even home educators. I say a few hundred, there is probably a hard core of a few dozen who are doing all the work to maintain the position that registration of home educated children would be an intolerable imposition on parents. Hardly any of the parents of the 20,000 or more home educated children known to local authorities have any problem at all with being known and the vast majority cheerfully accept visits if their LA wished to make them. <br />
<br />
How many parents are really determined to fight against things such as the registration of home educated children? This is very hard to say, because the tiny handful who fight against this idea manage to make themselves look far more numerous than is really the case. They do this by adopting false names and being very industrious in complaining to online newspapers and so on whenever any article appears about home education. If there is a poll on the internet on the subject of home education, they organise via Facebook groups for anti-registration messages to be sent in bulk. What this means is that an illusion is created that there is some kind of mass movement against registration and monitoring. A typical example of the way that this is done may be seen by looking at a Facebook group called Home Education and Your Local Authority; Help dealing With Officialdom. This is run by a former home educator called Wendy Charles-Warner, using the name Jennifer Downing. Many of those fighting against monitoring prefer to use false names in this way; why this should be is something of a mystery! The other person running the group is man called David Hough, who lives in California and will hardly be affected by any of the changes in British home education which he so vigorously opposes.<br />
<br />
The two people who run what is generally known as the ‘Officialdom’ group are to be found all over the internet under various guises; seldom or never using their real names. If an article appears in a small, provincial newspaper which suggests that somebody wants the registration of home educated children, then people from this group will comment online, putting forward their anti-registration line. Here is an example; llondel is David Hough in America. He often uses this name or sometimes Thienz to post his comments;<br />
<br />
http://www.droitwichadvertiser.co.uk/news/worcester_news/13790522.The__overwhelming_majority__of_home_educated_children_are_safe__says_senior_Worcestershire_Tory/<br />
<br />
Readers might care to look for similar examples online; there are many. This sort of thing creates the impression that a lot of people feel as David Hough and Wendy Charles-Warner, the owners of the face book group, do about registration and monitoring; there is no reason to suppose that this is the case. Their group is devoted to stirring up parents and trying to set them in opposition to their local authority and the advice they give is always aimed at confrontation, rather than cooperation. Here is David Hough advising a parent on the ’Officialdom’ group whose local authority wishes to speak to her about her home educated child;<br />
<br />
<i>post a letter with a second-class stamp on your last day there informing them that as of that date you're no longer in their area but that you will still be home educating. Don't give them your new address or area, and make sure the new occupants of the house and any neighbours also know not to tell them where you've gone if they know.</i><br />
<br />
An atmosphere is created of people on the run from the authorities and anxious to hide their children. It need hardly be said that this sort of behaviour only makes local authorities more suspicious of home educators and more determined to track them down! It is counter-productive. I shall give other examples of these sorts of covert operations by small groups of militant former home educators in the next few days. In the meantime, it is worth bearing in mind that neither of the two people running this Facebook group are parents home educating their children in this country and so are not likely to be affected by any of the problems which might result from their activities.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-30411775029376972092016-07-19T23:38:00.000-07:002016-07-19T23:38:44.960-07:00The coming crackdown on uncooperative home educators <br />I mentioned a fortnight ago that local authorities in Britain are being encouraged by the Department for Education to pull themselves together and start dealing with home educators who refuse to provide information or look as though they are not actually teaching their children properly. This will be part of a general drive, which will also be directed at unregistered schools; most of which are run by Muslims and Jews. As the DfE rightly points out to LAs who have been badgering them for a new law, they already have all the powers they need under home education law to tackle what is seen by some as a growing problem.<br /><br />There are two sorts of law in this country; statute law and case law. Statute law is the stuff passed by parliament and case law is how courts have interpreted those laws. In the case of home education, the statute law just states that a child must, from the age of five, be receiving an efficient, full-time education, suitable to his or her age and abilities. This seems vague enough and we must turn to case law to see what this education must be like. We know, for instance, that it must prepare a child for life in modern society (R v Secretary of State for Education and Science, ex parte Talmud Torah Machzeikei Hadass School Trust 1985). We also know, from Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson (1981) QB (DC) 729/81, that it must include systematic instruction, that is to say teaching, in mathematics and English. I quoted the relevant part of this judgement on July 5th.<br /><br />I would guess that hardly any home educating parents in this country is aware of the fact that they are legally obliged to teach their children mathematics and that they cannot simply encourage them to acquire arithmetical skills from day to day activities. Local authorities know of this, but have chosen until now to do nothing about it. There are several reasons for this. The first is that until the last few decades, there were very few home educated children in Britain. Those that there were more likely to be hothoused than educated autonomously. We think, for instance, of children like Ruth Lawrence. It is the recent growth in numbers of home eduated children which is causing alarm for local authorities, especially since many of these new home educators are either not teaching their children or refuse to say whether or not this is the case. <br /><br />The second reason that local authorities have turned a blind eye so far to breaches of the law regarding home education is that taking these people through the courts is a very expensive and time consuming process. Even if the LA wins, they are likely to be massively out of pocket, as home educating parents faced with the prospect of a court case often make it clear that they will fight the case vigorously; causing the local authority to have to spend money on barristers and so on. If you have hundreds of awkward parents like this in your area, then you could easily end up spending a big chunk of your money on pursuing these idiots. Here is Leicester council explaining this aspect of the problem;<br /><br /><i>Case Law, (Harrison and Harrison V Stevenson 1982) has established that any education that does not include instruction in Maths and English, if a child is capable of learning such things, cannot be considered suitable. However, on one recent occasion, the suggestion to a family that the child should be doing some maths and some English every day so that evidence of this this could be shown to the LA Officer was countered with the argument that they are following autonomous education and that any work the child does is the intellectual property of the child and should only be shared if they wish. So even if work in books is being completed, there can be no expectation that an authority can see it. This was coupled with the threat that a Barrister, a legal expert in EHE (who has ‘never lost a case yet’) would successfully challenge any LA who sought to prosecute a parent following EHE being deemed to be unsuitable where the parent then failed to comply with a School Attendance Order.</i><br /><br />None of this is attractive to local authorities and it would be so much easier for them if there was a clear, specific law which set out precisely what home educators should be doing. This is what was being proposed following the Graham Badman report and it is what LAs have been begging the Department for Education to introduce over the last year or so. Unfortunately, the DfE say that they have more important things to deal with right now and so there is no chance of any new legislation. Nobody wishes to go through all the fuss of the Badman era again if it can possibly be avoided. The problem with taking parents to court based only on case law is that a higher court could reverse the earlier judgement and this would create its own difficulties for both parents and local authority officers.<br /><br />Still, something must be done. Local authorities are now under pressure from central government to crack down on extremism and close any unregistered schools in their area. Since the pupils at such schools, most of which as I said are Muslim or Jewish, are technically home educated, this means that a crackdown on home education is in the wind. A number of councils have been increasingly unhappy anyway about the large number of children who are taken out of school and then not taught anything for a year or more; so-called ‘deschooling’. Informal discussions are now taking place between a group of local authorities who are working out a coordinated strategy for tackling this problem. This will entail a series of School Attendance Orders, followed swiftly by prosecutions if they are ignored. The basis for these prosecutions will be the judgement in Harrison & Harrison V Stevenson.<br />Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-57967931230521216692016-07-14T08:31:00.001-07:002016-07-14T08:31:33.510-07:00How to scare potential home educatorsFollowing on from yesterday’s post, in which we looked at the pernicious influence of a document entitled <i>Home Education and the Safeguarding Myth</i>, which was consulted by those investigating the death of Dylan Seabridge, I want to consider now a fear which some well-known figures in the world of British home education seem determined to promote; the idea that parents opting to educate their children at home are routinely referred to social services. This is of course quite untrue, but for some reason people like Mike Fortune-Wood, Wendy Charles-Warner, Alison Sauer and Paula Rothermel all seem determined to promote this particular fiction and even, as in the <i>Home Education and Safeguarding Myth</i> paper, elevate it to the status of supposed fact. Here are two quotations on the subject; the first from Wendy Charles-Warner’s document and the second from Paula Rothermel’ book, <i>International Perspectives on Home Education; Do We Still Need Schools?</i><br /><br />'referral rates in some Local Authorities indicate a policy of automatic referral for home educated children,' <br /><br />'there is an increasing tendency for welfare officers and social workers to become involved with home-educating families from the outset.'<br /><br />Both these statements were published in 2015, so this is very much a current myth in the making. Rothermel gives no reference for her belief that social workers might be involved with home educating families ‘from the outset’, and it is possible that she has relied upon Wendy Charles-Warner for the figures to back up this strange assertion. Looking at how these figures were acquired will show us firstly that the idea is a nonsense and secondly that we may safely disregard the paper <i>Home Education and the Safeguarding Myth</i> as a reliable source of information on this, or indeed any other, subject.<br /><br />We find that Wendy Charles-Warner is claiming that in one local authority 100% of home educated children have been referred to social services. It is of course quite untrue and the explanation casts further doubt upon the methods used by the author of the paper to compile and analyse data. <br /><br />The local authority in question is Telford and Wrekin and on 31 December 2014, a Ms Martel, acting on behalf of the author of <i>Home Education and the Safeguarding Myth</i>, made a Freedom of Information request, asking how many children aged 5 to 16 in the LA had been referred to social services. She then asked, how many of these were home educated. The answer given was; <br /><br />Aged 5-9 EHE number is 28<br />Aged 10-16 EHE number is 105<br /><br />This was a simple error on the part of whoever answered the request, because these are the total numbers of home educated children in the LA. In fairness to the local authority, the question was not very well phrased and it is easy to see how the misunderstanding arose. Obviously, they have not referred every single child to social services. Just to be sure, I telephoned Malcolm Webster, the man at Telford and Wrekin who deals with EHE, and asked about this. He was absolutely bemused at the idea that he would have been referring every child to social services. Why on earth would he do such a thing? Just to make perfectly sure, I followed this up with a Freedom of Information request of my own, which confirmed what I had suspected.<br /><br />The fact that the document's author did not bother to make checks of this kind indicates another flaw in the process. It also suggests that the number of social services referrals for home educated children has been greatly inflated. The numbers are very low anyway and the addition of 133 extra children in this way was sufficient to throw all the apparently careful calculations made about social services referrals hopelessly out of kilter. When this and one or two other points are taken into account, there turn out to be no more referrals for home educated children than there are for those at school.<br /><br />I do not know why these characters are so determined to spread the alarming notion that home educating parents are being referred, as a matter of course, to social services. In the case of one of those mentioned above, there is probably a strong business end to it, for she runs a company called 3rd Way Law, which is a commercial concern helping people deal with legal problems relating to home education. Obviously, the more anxiety there is about the possibility of social workers knocking on the door; the greater market there will be for an organisation which will, for a price, help deal with the supposed problem. From this perspective, it makes sound business sense to promote a feeling of unease and fear among potential home educators.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-81418298444732127162016-07-13T00:44:00.001-07:002016-07-13T00:50:58.296-07:00The Child Practice Review on Dylan Seabridge I have been reading through the Child Practice Review which was held in the wake of Dylan Seabridges's death. One point leaped out at me, and this was that Wendy Charles-Warner's paper about safeguarding and home education was cited. This was a great shock, because this document has caused harm to home educators in several ways and to see it being consulted officially in this way is a little disturbing. <br />
<br />
Those of you familiar with the thing will know that the author is hoping to tell us something about the rate of abuse in
home educating families; Wendy Charles-warner claims in this paper to have
something useful and novel to say about the levels of abuse in home
educating families. How do we know how many home
educated children are being abused? For the author, this is simple. For
everybody else though, it is shockingly offensive and wholly
misleading. The only way that abuse is measured is by the number of
children with Child Protection Plans. The author thinks, quite wrongly,
that any child with a Child Protection Plan in place must have been
ill-treated, neglected or abused by her parents. She says this explicitly on page
13;<br />
<br />
<i>A child educated at home subject to a CPP is most usually found to have suffered at the hands of a carer or parent</i><br />
<br />
This is completely untrue. Children are given Child Protection Plans
for all sorts of reasons which do not involve suffering at the hands of
their parents. Sometimes, a teenage mother is unable to cope, perhaps
another mother has an unsuitable boyfriend, there is drug use, it look
as though the mother is struggling; there are all kinds of reasons for
CPPs. The aim of issuing one is often to avert problems. To suggest that
any child with a CPP has ’suffered at the hands of a carer or parent’
is not only wrong, it is also stupendously offensive to parents who are
being helped by social services. I know home educating
parents whose children have had, or do have, CPPs and I
doubt very much whether any of the professionals involved with them think that they are are abusers!<br />
<br />
In short, the only way
that the author of <i>Home Education and the Safeguarding Myth</i> has been
able to say anything at all about the abuse of both schooled and home
educated children is by assuming that all or most Child Protection Plans are a
result of abuse or neglect. This is quite untrue and tells us that we may safely
disregard anything she has to say on the subject of levels of childhood
abuse.<br />
<br />
That a group of social workers, people from health and so on have been reading this sort of thing and seeing that a home educator herself thinks that any home educating parent with a CPP has probably been, as Wendy Charles-Warner puts it, suffering at the hands of a parent, is terrible. I shall have more to say about this document in future posts.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-62758475587647140002016-07-08T00:24:00.001-07:002016-07-10T13:45:17.947-07:00International Perspectives on Home Education: Do We Still Need Schools? by Paula Rothermel - A Review, Part 2<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some readers yesterday might perhaps have thought that I was being a little harsh when I suggested that Paula Rothermel’s contribution to the above book suggests either slapdash and shoddy research or deliberate dishonesty. The evidence however points strongly in that direction. Let us begin with what Rothermel has to say about one of the most well-known horror stories of British home education; the death of seven year-old Khyra Ishaq in 2008. The details of this case are familiar to most people in this country who are involved in home education. In the introduction to her book, Rothermel cites the Serious Case Review as a reference for her claim on page 8 that; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><i>In the tragic case of one young child (Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board, 2010) the LA registered her as home educated simply because the parents stopped sending her to school. </i><br /><br />This is of course absolutely untrue. In fact the child’s mother told the school as soon as she stopped sending her daughter that the child would be educated at home. As the Executive Summary of the subsequent Serious Case Review said;<br /><br /><i>The child and some siblings, were removed from state education during December 2007 and a clear statement issued by the mother, of her intention to educate them at home.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> </i><br />This is <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">plain</span> enough and the mother also told the police the same thing during a Safe and Well check. In addition to notifying the school and Education Welfare Service verbally of her intentions; on January 8th 2008 the child's mother sent a letter to the Special Educational Needs Assessment Service; explaining in writing that she would be educating her daughter Khyra at home. The inference is inescapable. Either the author has not actually read the Serious Case Review which she cites in her reference and is accordingly unfamiliar with its contents or she is intentionally misrepresenting the facts in order to strengthen her argument. <br /><br />Consider another of Rothermel’s statements, when she writes on page 6 of;<br /><br /><i>the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee (CSFC,2010) set up to review Badman's report </i><br /><br /> In fact the Children, Schools and Families Committee was a standing committee established in 2007; two years before Graham Badman even began his investigations into home education. This select committee had nothing whatever to do with Badman's report, other than examining it briefly in 2009. Again, we are compelled to ask ourselves, is it the case that Rothermel simple knows nothing about the subject of which she is writing or is she exaggerating and romancing for dramatic effect? Neither of these would be what we look for in a supposedly academic work!<br /><br /><br />A charitable person will attribute errors such as these to superficial and inadequate research rather than outright mendacity, but a quick look at the body of the book provides us with a pointer that suggests that lack of knowledge alone is not a sufficient explanation. <br /><br />It might be understandable, although still disconcerting, to find that an editor of a book like this knows little about the sources which she <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ci</span>tes. Such ignorance could be innocent and unwitting. It is however quite a different matter where her own research is concerned. Surely she would know at once if anybody was making a mistake about that? Let us look now at Chapter 3 of the book, written by Noraisha Yusof; whom I mentioned yesterday. On page 44, Yusof says that;<br /><br /><i>Rothermel’s (2002) study of 419 UK families showed that the home educated children outperformed their schooled counterparts on a general mathematics test, achieving an average mark of 81 per cent, compared to the school educated pupils average mark of 45 per cent.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i> </i><br />This seems clear and quite unambiguous. It is being claimed that Rothermel administered tests in mathematics to at least 419 children. No other construction could possibly be placed upon this sentence. In fact, as Rothermel herself knows perfectly well, the tests were given to just 35 children. We are left once more with only two choices. The first possibility is that Dr Rothermel simply does not remember accurately the research which she conducted. The second is that she knows very well that 419 children were not tested in this way, but feels that this figure looks 12 times more impressive than the actual one of 35. When reading through the contributions to her book, it would have been easy enough for Rothermel to correct something like this. That she chose not to is curious and revealing.<br /><br />This is by no means an exhaustive catalogue of the mistakes or misrepresentations to be found in this book. Paula Rothermel is well known in British home educating circles as something of an expert on the subject and I think that we may really assume that she is not lacking in knowledge about such things as the Khyra Ishaq case; still less about her own research. We are drawn inexorably to the sad conclusion that the things which I have outlined above have been done by design, rather than accidentally. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></span></span></span> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> I would be happy to be proved wrong about this and invite <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">those</span> able to put forward an opposing view to do so in the comments below. Anybody wishing to check what has been said here may go to <i>Amazon</i>, find the book and then use the feature which allows one to look inside the book at the text. I would not want anybody simply to take my word for anything written here, but urge people to look for themselves.</span>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-90437079077394296442016-07-06T10:52:00.000-07:002016-07-08T02:12:06.426-07:00International Perspectives on Home Education: Do We Still Need Schools? by Paula Rothermel - A Review, Part 1The editor of the above book, Paula Rothermel, is exceedingly dissatisfied with the way that it is selling; as well she might be, with sales currently running at fewer than one a year! Instead of asking herself where she might have gone wrong in compiling it or writing the introduction, Dr Rothermel evidently finds it easier to seek a scapegoat. She has accordingly come to the conclusion that if people aren’t queuing up to buy her book, then it must be <i>my</i> fault for reviewing the thing on Amazon! Put like that, it sounds quite mad and yet Roxane Featherstone, who is apparently a friend of Rothermel’s, has recently been advancing this hypothesis to anybody who will listen. Perhaps it is now time to examine this book in detail and try and work out the real reason why there is such a marked reluctance to purchase it.<br />
<br />
There are two aspects in particular of Rothermel’s book which might be causing concern among potential customers and making them hesitate before shelling out £70 for it; apart that is from the grotesquely high price. The first of these is the introduction, which is written by Rothermel herself. This is a singularly awful piece of work, containing, apart from the factual errors, some of the most misleading and inaccurate references which it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. I shall deal with this separately in a subsequent post. The second thing likely to cause both professionals involved in education, as well as home educators themselves, to raise their eyebrows a little is the list of contributors; the first of whom is a woman called Leslie Barson. As soon as I saw the name, I gasped audibly and muttered under my breath, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ I have every reason to suppose that others glancing at the contents page reacted in precisely the same way. Leslie Barson attained notoriety a few years ago when, in the course of an interview for the <i>Times Educational Supplement</i>, she said;<br />
<br />
<i>I would remove the law that says education is compulsory ...I believe children should be able to work in paid employment as soon as they would like to, and would feel more valued if allowed to do this.</i><br />
<br />
Yes, really. Here is a woman who would scrap the various laws which currently guarantee children an education and protect them from exploitation by unscrupulous parents and employers and turn back the clock a hundred and fifty years; so that children might once again spend their early years working in factories and fields, instead of being at school. This is the person whom Rothermel regards as perfectly suited to be the first name featured in her book. We return to the question of why Dr Rothermel’s book is not selling well. Here’s a hint; if you wish for professionals and academics in the field of education to buy a book, do try and avoid having the first name one sees upon opening it belonging to a woman who wishes to see the nation’s educational system dismantled, along with a return to the days when small children could be sent up chimneys and down mines!<br />
<br />
The next name is unexceptional, somebody from Australia who is championing a crank theory of learning originating from a contemporary of Lysenko, but the third contributor once again causes a sharp intake of breath; it is one of the Yusof children. If Rothermel had scoured the length and breadth of Britain, she could hardly have uncovered a worse and less appetising example of home education than that inflicted upon the siblings of Noraisha Yusof, author of the third chapter of the book. Noraisha’s sister described her childhood as a ‘living hell’ and wrote of ‘15 years of emotional and physical abuse.’ At the age of 11, she tried to kill herself as a result of the home education to which she was subjected. What sort of abuse was there in the Yusof home? Her brother Abraham said of his father, ‘He used to wake us up in the middle of the night by punching our faces. It was awful what he put us through.’ The father was subsequently convicted of indecently assaulting two 15 year-old girls whom he was tutoring. <br />
<br />
In her essay on the learning of mathematics in the home environment, Noraisha Yusof does not mention the valuable contribution made by being punched in the face at night. Nor does she explain how important it is to keep the home cold and to ban television and pop music; both integral parts of her own learning in the home environment which led to her attending university to study mathematics at the age of 16.<br />
<br />
I have not the leisure to go further into the choice of authors made for Dr Rothermel’s book, but I will limit myself to saying that the sight of a reactionary who wishes to see children in this country stripped of the legal protection they currently enjoy is hardly calculated to encourage those of us who work in education to view her book kindly. Nor could I read, without feeling a little queasy, a piece about the virtues of learning mathematics at home, written by somebody from such an abusive home.<br />
<br />
In the next piece about Rothermel’s book, we will look at her own contribution and try and work out whether she is guilty of nothing worse than sloppy research or whether, on the other hand, she has been deliberately untruthful in some of her claims.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-9048549700864325262016-07-05T15:01:00.001-07:002016-07-05T22:36:31.603-07:00Good news, and bad, for home educatorsThere is always a general anxiety among British home educators that whatever government is in power might suddenly take it into its head to pass a new law; regulating or restricting the practice of home education. I have spoken recently to people working for two local authorities, one in the Midlands and the other in East London, and it seems that there is not the remotest chance of this happening; at least for the foreseeable future. In fact the news is even better than that! A number of local authorities have begged the Department for Education to consider new legislation and the response has been quite brusque. They have been told that their existing powers are quite sufficient to deal with any supposed problems with home educators. This is what many people in the home educating community in this country have been saying for years and so I am sure that there will be a good deal of satisfaction about this development.<br />
<br />
Mind you, as with so many things in this world, there is a bad side to this, as well as a good. In this case, it means that local authorities are, in effect, being urged to ensure that all home educating parents are actually teaching their children and working to a curriculum. Those who are not face the prospect of being issued with School Attendance Orders. The reason is simple; those not actively teaching their children to read and write, or instructing them in mathematics are breaching the law as it stands. This is perfectly well-known to most local authorities, but many parents have not the least idea that this is the legal situation. A few words of explanation might be necessary.<br />
<br />
Of course, we know that home educators must provide for their children a full-time education which is efficient and suitable for their age and aptitude, but it is popularly supposed among most home educating parents that there exists no legal definition of what constitutes a ‘suitable’ or ’efficient’ education.. There is of course precedent or case law, but that is incredibly vague and waffly; something about an ’efficient’ education being one which achieves what it sets out to achieve. As a result, many parents think that they do not have to follow a curriculum or even teach their children if they don’t want to. They are quite wrong, as they will probably soon be finding out.<br />
<br />
In 1981, there was a landmark court case involving a home educating mother called Iris Harrison (Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson (1981) QB (DC) 729/81). This is often seen as a victory by home educators, because they feel that it established their right to educate their children autonomously. In fact, the judgement contained the following words;<br />
<br />
<i>We regard the fundamental academic skills of writing, reading and arithmetic as fundamental to any education for life in the modern world - essential for communication, research or self-education. We should not in the ordinary case, regard a system of education as suitable for any child capable of learning such skills, if it failed to instil in the child the ability to read, write or cope with arithmetical problems, leaving it to time, chance and the inclination of the child to determine whether, if ever, the child ever achieved even elementary proficiency in these skills. Efficient education should include a systematic approach to learning the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy.</i><br />
<br />
In other words, the judge in that case ruled that home educated children had to be taught English and mathematics systematically. If this is not done, then the education cannot be regarded as being a suitable one. <br />
<br />
A lecturer in law at a London university has been consulted about this and given as his opinion that the judgement in Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson means that local authorities are entitled to access to a child’s work and also that they may require evidence of academic progress from year to year. It is this which the Department for Education has in mind when it advises local authorities that they already have sufficient powers to act in the matter of home education. Any parent who refuses to teach his or her child mathematics is, according to the precedent in this case, not providing a suitable education. <br />
<br />
I think that this post is long enough and I will have to continue it in a day or two. The obvious question that readers will be asking is if this is indeed the legal situation, then why has no local authority yet taken any home educating parents to court on the strength of it? This is an interesting point which I will deal with in my next post.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-16507604015280050202016-07-05T01:13:00.000-07:002016-07-05T01:13:18.156-07:00Wendy Charles-Warner and Alison Sauer's latest business ventureHeatherside Education Consultants Ltd, the company which was run by Wendy Charles-Warner and Alison Sauer, has now been dissolved. Their latest enterprise, also aimed at home educators, is called 3rd Way Law. The website may be seen below. The company who designed the website, Keston Media, is run by Julie Arnold, who was until recently a trustee of Education Otherwise. Some clients of 3rd Way Law are under the impression that they are solicitors, but this is not of course the case. I shall be writing more about this outfit in the future.<br />
<br />
http://www.thirdwaylaw.co.uk/our-services.html<br />
<br />
<br />Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-53210154345051024822016-07-04T09:26:00.000-07:002016-07-04T09:30:29.444-07:00Paula Rothermel and her dupes spread lies about me…<br />
<br />
I seldom post on this blog these days, but when people circulate untruthful stories about me; I feel that I should at least set the record straight. <br />
<br />
Paula Rothermel’s name is probably familiar to many home educating parents in this country. In the late 1990s, she conducted a piece of research which has been widely quoted by home educators ever since. Last year, a book was published by Dr Rothermel; a compilation of essays about home education. This book hasn’t sold well and the author apparently blames me for this. It is claimed that a poor review which I gave for the thing on Amazon has harmed sales. The Amazon listing may be found here;<br />
<br />
https://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Perspectives-Home-Education-Schools/dp/1137446846/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467648259&sr=1-1&keywords=rothermel<br />
<br />
<br />
Perhaps I should mention at this point that the publisher of this book, Palgrave Macmillan, approached me before agreeing a contract to elicit a professional opinion from me on the merits or otherwise of the thing. In my report, I pointed out that the references were a nightmare and that there were many factual inaccuracies. I suggested that these points might need to be dealt with if it was to be published. In the event, nobody bothered to correct any of the errors to which I drew attention and I posted a review of the book on Amazon.<br />
<br />
I now find that Paula Rothermel is telling people that I have been dishonest in my review as part of some sort of personal vendetta against her; which is absurd. She had previously told the publisher, apropos of me, that, ‘The Select Committee condemned his contribution to the review on home education’. This is of course a bare-faced lie; as anybody reading the transcript of the select committee hearing can easily establish. Since I write non-fiction books for a living, making a false statement of this sort to a publisher was harmful to me. She went on to claim that I hated her and that she didn’t know why, since she had never met me!<br />
<br />
The truth is that in the spring of 2009, Dr Rothermel contacted me quite out of the blue and asked for my advice about a developmental problem which afflicted her youngest child. I didn’t know her, but did my best to help. She told me all sorts of details about her life history and family circumstances. When I later criticised the methodology of the research which she had conducted, she became convinced that I was her enemy and threatened me with legal action. The whole business was very peculiar.<br />
<br />
I would myself have been happy to forget all about this, except that a woman who evidently knows Rothermel is now dogging my footsteps on a Facebook group concerned with home education, to which I belong. It seems that all sorts of lies are being told by Paula Rothermel and since I have no idea where else these are being circulated, I thought that I would place this statement in the public domain; rather than being obliged to refute every individual claim being made about me by this woman and her friends.Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-16765551129297160052015-06-28T01:38:00.003-07:002015-06-28T01:39:37.747-07:00The legal requirement for home educators to follow a curriculumOne of the most depressing things about the world of British home education is that year after year, the same nonsense is endlessly recycled; the same fundamental misunderstanding of the law perpetuated, to the confusion of new home educating parents. Take the constant talk about the ’right’ to home educate. There is of course no such thing; the child has a right to an education, while the parents, alas, have only duties. This is one of the commonest myths in home education; that any attempt at monitoring is somehow infringing upon the rights of the adults involved. It is in fact aimed at securing the rights of children.<br />
<br />
This basic error of perception has had the most unfortunate consequences for some home educators. Because they get into the habit of thinking about their ‘rights’ and not their duties, they lose sight of what those duties actually entail. Despite what some people tell them, there is far more to their duty than at first meets the eye. Let’s have a look at one or two of the things that home educating parents must do to abide by the law. The first thing that they must do is actively supervise and teach their children. It is not enough from the law’s point of view just to let their children pick up things in their own time and at their own inclination. There is a legal obligation too, to follow a curriculum. This curriculum will have certain minimum standards that must be adhered to. Any parent not taking active steps to ensure that the child acquires literacy and grasps the basics of mathematics would be in breach of the law. <br />
<br />
These are just a few of the things that home educating parents must do to keep within the law. Many parents do not bother to find out about such duties, because they are instead preoccupied with their imaginary ‘rights’ in the matter. Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-47392650784069986142015-06-27T00:38:00.004-07:002015-06-27T00:42:31.216-07:00Joining the movement..<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
other day, somebody posted on one of the home education groups on Facebook,
saying that she was about to take her child from school and was trembling all
over and feeling tremendously emotional about the whole thing; in a dream-like
state. She asked if this was abnormal. The correct answer of course is that if
you react so violently to the prospect of making a new educational arrangement
for your child, whether changing schools or assuming responsibility yourself
for his education; then this is definitely not normal and you should see either
a doctor or a therapist of some kind. People don’t, or rather they should not, not if they are emotionally healthy, become hysterical every time a
child’s educational setting changes. This being the world of British home
educators, there was of course a mad stampede to reassure the woman that her
feelings were quite common for those sending letters to a head teacher.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">The
feelings that those commenting on this post talked of, reminded me of varieties
of mystical religious experience; the sort of thing that people report when
they are slain in the spirit at an evangelical church, for instance, or have
just accepted Jesus as their saviour. Recollect, these are parents who have
simply made a new arrangement for their child’s education, nothing more. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One mother had cried for two weeks, another
had slept for six weeks. One person cried and was nearly sick, somebody else was
shaking so much, it felt as though she was coming down with the flue. Words
such as ‘terrifying’ were bandied about, others were ‘scared stiff’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";">All
this talk puts me in mind strongly of people who have made the decision to join
a cult or surrender themselves to some higher power. It is the language of
religion, rather than education. Here are parents who feel that they are
joining some movement or taking part in an experience which is greater than
them and they are seeking reassurance from others. This is frankly weird and I
can see how some such people end up being exploited emotionally by stronger
characters than themselves. These are vulnerable individuals, who are now desperately
seeking guidance and hoping to be told that they have done the right thing. Little
wonder that some fall under the spell of self-assured men and women who believe themselves
to be leaders of the home educating community. We shall be looking in greater
detail at this idea in the next few days.</span></div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-77910733725528358732015-06-17T23:40:00.000-07:002015-06-18T00:56:12.018-07:00A Militant Home Educator <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mrs Wendy
Charles-Warner must surely be one of the best known home educators in the
country. An indefatigable, an unkind person might say shameless, self-publicist;
she has appeared in many newspapers in support of her chosen hobby horse. In
addition to being a representative of the national home education charity, Education
Otherwise, Mrs Charles-Warner has remorselessly chronicled in print the lives
of the daughter and grandson whom she taught herself. Here is a recent example
of her appearance in a national newspaper, in this case <i>The Guardian,</i> on behalf of Education Otherwise;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/23/state-must-raise-its-game-to-protect-home-educated-children-judge-insists">http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/23/state-must-raise-its-game-to-protect-home-educated-children-judge-insists</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In addition
to these activities, Mrs Charles-Warner runs, under an assumed name, a Facebook
group which purports to help home educating parents in their disputes with local
authorities. It is popularly <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>known as
<i>Help Dealing with Officialdom</i> and may be found here;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/239232119524989/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/239232119524989/</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So much for
the public face of this woman’s activities on behalf of the cause of home
education. There is another side to her interest in this subject though and it
is one about which she is strangely reticent. It is time now to shed light upon
this lesser known aspect of Mrs Charles-Warner’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>involvement with home education in this
country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A brief look
at the advice given on the Facebook group mentioned above, soon shows that its
members are urged to live in a state of virtual warfare with their local
authorities; refusing visits and doing their utmost not to cooperate with any
requests for information about the education which they are providing for their
children. This is because, as Mrs Charles-Warner has repeatedly said, ‘There is
no legal basis to monitor home education’. On her Facebook group yesterday, a
mother posted, saying that she was happy to have a visit from her local
authority to check up on the educational provision she was making for her
child. Mrs Charles-Warner thought this a bad idea, saying ‘I would not meet
with her because she is seeking work samples and evidence, to which she is not
entitled.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I hope we
all have this clear now. Wendy Charles-Warner, who acts on behalf of Education
Otherwise and is a militant home educator, advises parents not to meet with
local authority officers or provide evidence of a child’s work. One mother who
adopted this strategy, received a pretty sharp letter from her local authority
last week. They threatened her with legal action. The letter she received may be seen below.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Look now at
the lower right<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> hand of that letter </span>and you will see who
helped to compose it. It was of course, none other than that
same Wendy Charles-Warner who was yesterday urging a parent who was happy to receive
a visit and provide samples of work to resist such an intrusion. And yet here
she is now, helping and advising a local authority to take action against
somebody who follows just this approach! Note that the letter, drafted with Mrs Charles-Warner's help, demands visits and samples of work; the very things which she told another mother that local authorities have no business even to ask for.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I will leave
readers to judge for themselves what is going on here. It is however worth bearing
in mind that Mrs Charles-Warner and the woman with whom she runs the Facebook
group are founders and joint directors of a company which has a commercial interest
in education; Heatherside Education Consultants Ltd. Almost unbelievably, after
advising the local authority to send this letter, Mrs Charles-Warner then set
out to offer her advice to the recipient on how to deal with the local authority!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> Cynical readers might think all this a
perfect illustration of that old saying which mentions those who run with the
fox, while at the same time hunting with the hounds. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBWfg6NOGlI/VYJm0SsFzaI/AAAAAAAAANA/FTuyMCf4bSs/s1600/Wendy%2BImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBWfg6NOGlI/VYJm0SsFzaI/AAAAAAAAANA/FTuyMCf4bSs/s320/Wendy%2BImage.jpg" width="176" /></a></div>
<br />Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-63536855808192574042014-09-22T09:05:00.003-07:002014-09-22T09:05:33.698-07:00What does Alison Sauer actually do for a living?<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have been trying to puzzle out lately what it is that Alison Sauer actually does. We know that she is a paid professional, because she said the other day that;</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<i><span style="background-color: #fafbfb; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px;">In the next 10 days I have a trip to Whitby, wages, VAT return, annual accounts, 6 clients to catch up on </span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span style="color: #4e5665; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 15.3599996566772px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All well and good; she works at some business which entails being paid to work with clients. A few days before this, she said;</span></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px;"><i><span style="color: #141823;"> </span>I spend about 15 hours a week helping people in child protection issues all over the UK and work with some top lawyers</i></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; line-height: 15.3599996566772px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Is this the same work? Is she a social worker, a counsellor or what? I am genuinely interested to know. </span></span></div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-20766804448969903442014-08-31T06:55:00.001-07:002014-08-31T06:59:09.795-07:00Negative energy...<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Commenting yesterday, somebody made the very sensible point that it looked as as though I was somehow trapped in the past and obsessing about things that happened ages ago. the expression negative energy was used to describe this. I think that the fault is mine, for not making myself clearer about why I am reminding people about all this stuff that happened in the past. Attempts have been made over the last few months, chiefly by Alison Sauer, to install Mike Fortune-Wood at Education Otherwise in some ill-defined role. Alison herself refers to, 'bringing him on board'. It is understood that once he was 'on board', then he would work with Alison and one or two allies of hers within EO to re-vitalise the organisation. What I have been doing over the last few days is to remind people who we are talking about here. If, knowing what these characters are like, members of Education Otherwise are happy to see their group fall under the increasing influence of such people; then all well and good, there is nothing more to be said. By looking at their past actions, we can form a pretty good idea of the sort of people that Alison & Co actually are, which is why I have been raking over past events.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If home educators in this country are content to see the biggest home education group in the United Kingdom being guided and directed by a woman who runs secret campaigns of harassment against those with whom she falls out; then that's up to them. Alison's main friend within EO is currently suing one of the trustees of the charity, has threatened other home educators with legal action and more than once tried to have people arrested by the police for drawing attention to her activities in the field of home education. She and Alison have launched a company concerned with education which they hoped to keep secret. They were so annoyed when this company was mentioned here, that a solicitor's letter was sent and the police contacted once again. I have never in all my life heard of the directors of a new company being so desperately anxious to keep their business a secret that they have resorted to such tactics. Perhaps readers could suggest an innocent explanation for this desire for secrecy? There was something decidedly surreal about finding myself being questioned by the police about mentioning Alison's latest business venture in a blog! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am, in the next few days, going to stop blogging again. It does not really matter to me what happens to Education Otherwise, or who runs it. All I would say is that those who are members should think very carefully about the direction that the organisation is going. </span>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-46068699243388095332014-08-30T02:32:00.002-07:002014-08-30T03:07:36.074-07:00Am I a liar?<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I observe that Alison Sauer is now telling people that I am lying about her role in helping to close down free speech on this blog. Earlier today, I posted a brief account of how this was done and below will be found evidence that Alison did precisely what I have said that she did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Perhaps readers might like to ask themselves why Cheryl Moy could possibly have wanted to know my wife's name? They might wonder why Alison really wanted to know my home address. She said that it was because Wendy might need to serve 'papers' on me, but all I had said was that Wendy lived near Snowdonia. What legal action would be possible for mentioning that somebody lived near a National Park? Having acquired my address, for the purpose, as she claimed, of Wendy Charles-Warner serving papers on me, why do readers suppose that she then gave it to everybody else? Was that in case they too wished to serve me with papers? Or was it perhaps to encourage people to send nuisance deliveries to my home? And why on earth did Alison only want this to be spread via private messages? Might it be that she wished to keep her role in coordinating the harassment secret? Since Alison is telling her friends that I am making all this up, and since she is reading this blog, may we expect her to come on here and tell us all about this? Does anybody <i>not </i>think that this looks like a woman launching a campaign of harassment and intimidation? </span>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-4958928862807842752014-08-30T02:27:00.001-07:002014-08-30T03:09:37.187-07:00Alison Sauer launches a campaign of harassment and intimidation...<br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5509" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5508" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5507" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/211609_793614059_1197941369_q.jpg" height="50" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5506" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5494" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5497">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5558" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:02</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5513">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5557" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5496">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5495" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5493">
<b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5492"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" id="yiv1470205414js_8" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Alison Sauer</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5517">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.380228528722222">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5516">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5515">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5514">
Could we please utterly bomb Simon's site with telling him what a low life he is for his blog today. please keep it to one line and say how valuable we feel Wendy's contribution is and what a scumbag he is by comparison....</div>
<div>
Do not engage in discussion and do not respond to anything he says. Leave your smelly message and walk away please.</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5519">
<a href="http://homeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html?showComment=1350251045535#c4183944194147488196" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5518" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">http://homeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html?showComment=1350251045535#c4183944194147488196</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5524">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5523">
<div class="yiv1470205414mvm yiv1470205414uiStreamAttachments" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5522">
<div class="yiv1470205414shareRedesign" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5521">
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414shareRedesignContainer" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5520">
<a class="yiv1470205414shareMediaLink yiv1470205414shareRedesignMedia yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414lfloat" href="http://homeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/more-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html?showComment=1350251045535#c4183944194147488196" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" tabindex="-1" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414shareMediaPhoto yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" style="border: 0px;" /></a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5556">
<a class="yiv1470205414pam yiv1470205414shareText" href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk%2F2012%2F10%2Fmore-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html%3FshowComment%3D1350251045535%23c4183944194147488196&h=LAQFGtv6S&s=1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5555" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"></a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414attachmentText yiv1470205414fsm yiv1470205414fwn yiv1470205414fcg" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5554">
<div class="yiv1470205414uiAttachmentTitle" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5604">
<a class="yiv1470205414pam yiv1470205414shareText" href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk%2F2012%2F10%2Fmore-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html%3FshowComment%3D1350251045535%23c4183944194147488196&h=LAQFGtv6S&s=1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5555" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5603">Home Education Heretic: More about the 'briefing paper' on the Welsh proposals</b></a></div>
<a class="yiv1470205414pam yiv1470205414shareText" href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk%2F2012%2F10%2Fmore-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html%3FshowComment%3D1350251045535%23c4183944194147488196&h=LAQFGtv6S&s=1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5555" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span class="yiv1470205414caption">homeeducationheretic.blogspot.com</span></a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414mts yiv1470205414uiAttachmentDesc yiv1470205414translationEligibleUserAttachmentMessage" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5553">
<a class="yiv1470205414pam yiv1470205414shareText" href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk%2F2012%2F10%2Fmore-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html%3FshowComment%3D1350251045535%23c4183944194147488196&h=LAQFGtv6S&s=1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5555" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Here is the email I sent to Mr Webb last night:From: "alison@sauer.demon.co.uk"To: simon.webb14@btinternet.comSent: Saturday, 13 October 2012, 22:19Subject: WendySimon please do not link Wendy's name with her address for reasons of her personal safety and the safety of her family which are nothing t...</a></div>
</div>
<a class="yiv1470205414pam yiv1470205414shareText" href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeeducationheretic.blogspot.co.uk%2F2012%2F10%2Fmore-about-briefing-paper-on-welsh.html%3FshowComment%3D1350251045535%23c4183944194147488196&h=LAQFGtv6S&s=1" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5555" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">
</a></div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414shareRedesignTopBorder">
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414shareRedesignRightBorder">
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414shareRedesignBottomBorder">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5491" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5545" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5549">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/211609_793614059_1197941369_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5544">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5543">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:02</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5542">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5655">
<b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5654"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5653" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Alison Sauer</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.421948001193438">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr">
Please spread this message but ONLY by PM</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5527" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5529">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/sarah.eaton.5661" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/186279_695566848_1172895462_q.jpg" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5526">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5525">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414_9h" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:04</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5528">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5530">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5531">
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sarah.eaton.5661" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Sarah Eaton</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5535">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.433742600016089">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5534">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5533">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5532">
What a scuntbag!</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5536" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5606" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5605">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/katbroon" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-prn1/623876_558770013_540008389_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m ">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414_9h" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:19</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/katbroon" id="yiv1470205414js_7" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Kat Brown</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.327464710685113">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr">
Far too tempting just to sign up his email address to random lists for fun.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5576" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/211609_793614059_1197941369_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5575">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5574">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:20</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5573">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5577">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5578">
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Alison Sauer</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5582">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.432392006797810">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5581">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5580">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5579">
Can anyone get me his house address? Wendy may need to serve papers on him</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5583" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5585" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5584">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/260824_627945900_1569316123_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5587">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5586">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414_9h" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:21</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5589">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5588" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5602">
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Chez Moy</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5601">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.409741605746334">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5600">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5599">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5598">
whats his wife called?</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_90" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5592" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<img alt="" class="yiv1470205414mercuryLogMessageIcon yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8s yiv1470205414lfloat yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414mercuryUnsubscribeIcon" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5591">
23:22<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5590"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/dawn.baxendale" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Dawn Baxendale</a> left the conversation.</span><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_a9 yiv1470205414hidden_elem">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5597" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5595" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5596">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/211609_793614059_1197941369_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5594">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5593">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:43</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5612">
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Alison Sauer</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5611">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.487021211329546">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5610">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5609">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5614">
And for future reference and deliveries of manure...</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5613">
Simon Webb</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5608">
XX XXXLane<br />
Loughton<br />
Essex<br />
IG10 XXX</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5607" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5625" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5624">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/260824_627945900_1569316123_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m ">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414_9h" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:44</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Chez Moy</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.455993001105860">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr">
i once did have 2 tons of manure delivered to someone <span class="yiv1470205414emote_text">:)</span><img alt="smile" class="yiv1470205414emote_img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/blank.gif" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px;" title=":)" /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5626" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/211609_793614059_1197941369_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m ">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:45</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/alison.c.sauer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Alison Sauer</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.495392947151202">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr">
We could have a whip round...I'll put a tenner in the pot!</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/260824_627945900_1569316123_q.jpg" height="50" style="border: 0px;" width="50" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m ">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414_9h" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 23:45</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/chez.moy" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Chez Moy</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.458137344230109">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr">
lol <span class="yiv1470205414emote_text">:)</span><img alt="smile" class="yiv1470205414emote_img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/images/blank.gif" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px;" title=":)" /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_sq">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_90" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5652" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<img alt="" class="yiv1470205414mercuryLogMessageIcon yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8s yiv1470205414lfloat yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414mercuryUnsubscribeIcon" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5651">
23:48<a href="http://www.facebook.com/mrsmiric" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Hellen Barnes- Kowalkowski</a> left the conversation.<br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_a9 yiv1470205414hidden_elem">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_90" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5650" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<img alt="" class="yiv1470205414mercuryLogMessageIcon yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8s yiv1470205414lfloat yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414mercuryUnsubscribeIcon" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5649">
23:52<a href="http://www.facebook.com/julie.thomas.9634" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Julie Thomas</a> left the conversation.<br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_a9 yiv1470205414hidden_elem">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Today</span><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_90" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5648" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<img alt="" class="yiv1470205414mercuryLogMessageIcon yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8s yiv1470205414lfloat yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414mercuryUnsubscribeIcon" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5647">
06:14<a href="http://www.facebook.com/annmarie.harrigan.9" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Ann-Marie Harrigan</a> left the conversation.<br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_a9 yiv1470205414hidden_elem">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_90" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<img alt="" class="yiv1470205414mercuryLogMessageIcon yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8s yiv1470205414lfloat yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414mercuryUnsubscribeIcon" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_8m ">
07:27<a href="http://www.facebook.com/tracey.mcpherson.71" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Tracey McPherson</a> left the conversation.<br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_a9 yiv1470205414hidden_elem">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_yh yiv1470205414lfloat" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<input style="color: #454545; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" type="checkbox" value="on" /></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5630" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">
<div class="yiv1470205414_2w7 yiv1470205414_8o yiv1470205414_8t yiv1470205414lfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5644">
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/mammajai" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5646" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414_s0 yiv1470205414_rx yiv1470205414img" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc6/203113_100003369461116_1512960427_q.jpg" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5645" style="border: 0px;" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414clearfix yiv1470205414_8m " id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5629">
<div class="yiv1470205414rfloat" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5628">
<a class="yiv1470205414mrs yiv1470205414_9k yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="yiv1470205414img" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v2/y4/r/-PAXP-deijE.gif" height="1" style="border: 0px;" width="1" /></a><a class="yiv1470205414_b9" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px; text-decoration: underline;"><i class="yiv1470205414_ba yiv1470205414hidden_elem yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_93170d"></i> 07:44</a><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_39" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5643">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5642" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Expand</a></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_3a" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5627">
<a class="yiv1470205414hidden_elem" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5641" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Show Images</a></div>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5631">
<b id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5640"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/mammajai" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5639" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank">Jai Daniels-Freestone</a></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_37" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5635">
<b></b><br />
<div class="yiv1470205414_53" id="yiv1470205414id.493992650624588">
<div class="yiv1470205414_3hi" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5634">
<div class="yiv1470205414_1yr">
<span class="yiv1470205414_2oy"></span><span class="yiv1470205414_1rb"><a class="yiv1470205414mrm yiv1470205414fbtraceLink" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="view fbtrace for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_855022"></i></a><a class="yiv1470205414brokenHeart" href="http://www.facebook.com/#" rel="nofollow" style="color: #2862c5; outline: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Report a bug for this message"><i class="yiv1470205414img yiv1470205414sp_6bq9t8 yiv1470205414sx_034371"></i></a></span></div>
<div class="yiv1470205414_38 yiv1470205414direction_ltr" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5633">
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1409389920281_5632">
I appreciate the heads-up, but it strikes me that this man, vile as he is, wants attention! This is attention seeking behaviour and I'm not going to give him the satisfaction.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-7420094672289560222014-08-30T02:22:00.002-07:002014-08-30T05:28:36.632-07:00How to close down debate on home education; a case study<br />
<br />
Some readers will probably be aware that I have, in one way and another, been mixed up with home education for over forty years. My views are not shared by everybody, but I am always ready to discuss home education; which was of course why I started this blog and never switched on the moderation or tried to stop anybody from saying what they pleased here. This was very annoying to some people and so one or two of them set out to put a stop to the free exchange of views here. Let’s see how this was done, and by whom.<br />
<br />
Two years ago, a briefing paper about the Welsh Assembly Government’s plans to alter the law on home education began to circulate. Parts of it first appeared anonymously on Mike Fortune-Wood’s site and some people, including me, thought that it had been written by Alison Sauer. After a while, the author’s name was added. This was Wendy Charles-Warner. Like a number of home educators, I had already come across the name, because Wendy had written to the <i>Daily Telegraph</i> about home education and approached the BBC and various newspapers and got them to publish information about her family, along with photographs of her and her relatives. She also of course was listed in the <i>Good Hotel Guide</i> and various other places on the internet. I mentioned briefly on this blog that the briefing paper had not been written by Alison, but was rather the work of Wendy, who lived near Snowdonia. That was all. No address or other details; just that bare statement. Considering the sheer quantity of information that Wendy herself had caused to be placed in newspapers, the BBC and so on about her family, I hardly thought that this was an invasion of her privacy.<br />
<br />
I was then approached, not by Wendy herself but by Alison Sauer; which I found odd. She asked me to remove mention of the fact that Wendy lived in North Wales, as it put her in danger. Since that very week, yet another article had appeared in a newspaper at Wendy’s instigation, actually mentioning the name of the house she lived in; this struck me as absurd and I told Alison so. That night, she organised a campaign against me on Facebook. She published my home address and suggested that people make nuisance deliveries to my home. Cheryl Moy wanted to know my wife’s name, somebody else suggested sabotaging my email. Alison herself urged people to come on here to, as she put it, ‘bomb’ this blog, with offensive messages. She told people not to debate, but just, ‘leave your smelly messages’. Clearly, she hoped that people would be as offensive as possible. This was a brilliant success, because Alison and her friends vied with each other to see who could be most inventive with personal abuse about me and my family. I removed the worst examples, which made mention of my wife, but left some of the others for people to see. Then the abuse became even cruder and some people contacted me and asked me to take down some the messages as they were afraid that it was making home educators look like absolute maniacs. At that point, I was compelled to switch on the moderation for the first time since I had begun the blog three years earlier. Round one to Alison Sauer.<br />
<br />
After a while, I turned off the moderation, only to find a new problem starting. Industrial quantities of spam began to appear; hundreds of advertisements for things like rubbish disposal turning up in the comments every day. I had never encountered anything like this before and it only began in earnest after Alison had launched her campaign of harassment. One of Alison's chums, Kat Brown, had already suggested sabotaging my email and so I assumed that this was a variation of that theme. Because I didn’t have time to go through every post and all the comments to remove this stuff, I was compelled once again to switch on the moderation. Round two to Alison and her friends.<br />
<br />
None of this made me feel very well disposed towards Alison and Wendy and so I posted a few questions here, asking what on earth was going on. Quite a few people answered in the comments, giving their own views on the subject. The general opinion was not favourable towards Alison and Wendy. Then I received a letter from Wendy, threatening to sue me for defamation. She objected to forty three things which had been said about her on this blog. The clever bit about this was that almost none of these things had been said by me. Forty of the things she complained about had been remarks made anonymously in comments here. Wendy pointed out that I was legally liable for these comments, even though I hand't made them myself; it was my blog. If I allowed them to continue, she would take me to court. Game set and match to Wendy and Alison. The moderation has been switched on here ever since and because I don’t have the time to come here every five minutes to check the comments and allow publication of those which are acceptable to Wendy, I no longer bother with this blog. My wife was also alarmed about the threats, especially about our home address being publicised and Alison's friends trying to find out her name. She too put pressure on me to stop blogging.<br />
<br />
This same method has been used to close down debate on home education in other places as well.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-82419253194951768132014-08-29T01:04:00.001-07:002014-08-29T01:04:09.895-07:00Can you imagine?<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To show readers how things have changed in the home educating scene in this country over the last five years or so, I invite you all to conduct a little thought experiment, which involves former trustees of Education Otherwise. Can anybody imagine Fiona Nicholson threatening to have somebody's daughter raped? What about Shena Deuchars ringing the police and having somebody arrested for criticising something she had written? Can anybody believe for a moment that Annette Taberner would incite people to make nuisance deliveries to the home of somebody who annoyed her? </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Put like this, the whole thing sounds utterly grotesque. Five years ago, those who were well-known or high profile home educators would never in a million years have got up to such tricks. The fact that we now have a bunch of people who regularly engage in activities of this kind and that those people are trying to exert influence over Education Otherwise tells us how much things have changed for the worse.</span></div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-46732577592570369092014-08-29T00:08:00.001-07:002014-08-29T07:14:37.025-07:00Why does any of this matter to me?<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Three people contacted me yesterday and asked why I was bothering with this business about Education Otherwise. After all, I’m no longer a home educator; why should I care? The reason is simple. I am very strongly opposed to censorship and am very much in favour of free speech. What I have seen happening in home education in this country over the last five years or so, is the emergence of a group who are committed to quite the opposite point of view. They wish to suppress debate and prevent others from expressing their opinions. This is awful, both in the abstract sense of being a bad thing, and also in the practical sense of being unhealthy for home education.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Readers with long memories will perhaps recall that I was at one time widely hated by many other home educators. This didn’t particularly bother me. Those who felt that I was a fool or a rogue could say what they wished about me; why should I object? This was so, even when they told lies, such as that I was a relative or employee of Graham Badman. It didn’t occur to me for a moment to try and stop them speaking. What I did find a little disturbing was that I was thrown off all the home education lists to which I belonged, so that I was unable to explain my views. Even more alarming was that anybody who supported me or even said that I might have a point, was also shouted down and thrown off various groups. This was back in 2009 and in retrospect, was a warning of how things were developing in the world of British home education.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After I was chucked off the various lists, such as the one run by Education Otherwise and Mike Fortune-Wood’s HE-UK, I started this blog. The aim was always to allow people to come here and debate. I never operated any moderation, although of course that has now changed. The reason that comments are now moderated is that a small group of home educators and former home educators cannot bear others to exercise free speech. Some of you might remember that there were pretty lively debates on here, with anybody being able to say anything at all. I was widely insulted and in return, expressed my own views freely. It was a forum where anybody could come and say what he or she pleased. Not any more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As time passed after I was thrown off those internet groups, I realised that others were suffering the same fate. Sometimes they would be removed, at others, their comments would be removed or they would be placed on moderation. Slowly but surely, free debate about home education was strangled. This became so bad that people started a face book group where they could discuss things relating to home education freely. This was called <i>Right to Reply</i>. It no longer exists, although there is a second incarnation; <i>Right to Reply 2. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The fate of this blog and the <i>Right to Reply</i> facebook groups are very similar. They were both targeted by Alison Sauer and her friends. Threats were made, involving both legal action and more direct, physical harm; such as the rape of family members, nuisance deliveries to people‘s homes and the sabotage of email accounts. The police were called, arrests were made and writs issued. The consequence of all this was that I had to start moderating and deleting comments on this blog; which had the effect of preventing free discussion. The Right to Reply group was closed down and on the on the new version, posts are copied and sent to the police, as well as a writ being issued. All this has had the effect of preventing free discussion there as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The same, small group of people is behind all these actions. This group includes Alison Sauer, Mike Fortune-Wood, Katya Lamb and Cheryl Moy. It is some of these people, who have caused so much harm to free speech and open debate, who are now involved in the attempts to acquire influence or control over the largest home education group in the United Kingdom. That is why I am concerned and it is why I have started blogging again for a while.</span>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-19261196516882192472014-08-28T00:47:00.000-07:002014-08-28T00:47:58.130-07:00A poisonous home educator from Doncaster…<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No, not that home educator, you fools! I’m referring not to Cheryl Moy but rather to her friend; Katya Lamb. I had heard vaguely of Katya Lamb, but had no personal dealings with her until this year. She contacted me out of the blue, in a very friendly fashion, in order to tell me that Maire Stafford had bought special computer software to analyse comments on her blog, to see if they were being made by me. Yes, I thought it sounded pretty mad as well. Then, a month or two later, I had another brief exchange with Katya; but this time the mood was very different. Instead of being chatty and amiable and suggesting that we exchange stories, as she had in her first message, she threatened my family. This threat was so explicit and awful, that I think it deserves to be widely known.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After claiming to be a friend of Wendy Charles-Warner, on whose behalf she was evidently speaking, Katya said;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>What if, to get back at you and your obnoxious attitude, someone put your daughters photo, profile and home address on a rape fantasy website and invited undesirables to break into her house and fulfil her fantasy? How would you feel? </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Any further comment would be superfluous!</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7881402584568285627.post-41916594019476552572014-08-27T02:38:00.000-07:002014-08-27T14:25:26.407-07:00Mike Fortune-Wood in his own words<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Because what I am writing here is being described as a 'fairy story', I thought that it might be worth quoting Mike Fortune-Wood's own words on the subject of 're-vitalising' Education Otherwise;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">National campaigns cost money, at least on a large scale they do.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> We need to start putting a war chest together (I think a big one perhaps £100,000 or </span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">more)</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>We need a charity to manage that (infrastructure issue - bank account, auditing, formal </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>treasurers, democratic decision making accountability etc. etc.)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Its too late (and getting later while we argue) to set up a new one</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The only extant one we have is EO, which is still in a recovery mode.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> Ergo EO needs further revitalisation and help with its development.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>I did discuss the idea at a meeting at my home a few weeks ago with two members of EO </i></span><br />
<br />
<i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> EO could assist by hiring meeting halls and paying for people </i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>with experience of fighting other local campaigns to travel and offer help in getting started, </i></span><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">bring people together and establish structures where none exist.</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here, we see how jobs might be created for a few people who would be paid for travelling round the country and offering help. These posts would be for those with 'experience of fighting other local campaigns'. I wonder if he has anybody in particular in mind? I have also been accused of making up the fact that trustees at EO have been discussing this with Mike Fortune-Wood and Alison Sauer. As we can see from what he has written above, this is not some invention of mine. Edwina Theunnison and Fe Mukwamba-Sendell went to his house and talked over his proposals. They were encouraged to do this by Alison Sauer.</span>Simon Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10865289865412656573noreply@blogger.com1