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Ensure there is adequate monitoring of privately home schooled children

“This Association in Conference Assembled Urges Her Majesty’s Government to Ensure There Is Adequate Monitoring of Privately Home School Children.”

Selnec,

2019

Sent to the Secretary of State for Education

According to our research there are a staggering 60,000 children being home schooled in England and yet there is at present no official register to monitor their progress, education or welfare.  

As we understand it anyone can withdraw their child from school to educate them at home.  The school and council would be informed, and the council may make an informal enquiry to check if your child is getting a suitable education, but there are no official checks on the quality of education being provided, and they are only likely to check on this once a year if at all.

With this being the case, anyone deemed giving their child home schooling, does not have to follow a national curriculum, and they do not even have to teach maths and English as a basic guideline.

The children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield, is calling for greater supervision for children being schooled at home as numbers have doubled over the past 5 years.  The figures are somewhat vague, but it is estimated at somewhere between 60,000 and 90,000.  If 1% are falling through the cracks that’s 600 children but if its 10% that’s 6,000.  

In addition to the concerns regarding home schooling and the educational side of it, there is also the issue of potential cases involving abuse or neglect of children, if they are under the radar so to speak, problems would potentially never come to light compared to a teacher that may express concern and start an enquiry.

Ironically if you look at the other side of the coin, such as unauthorised absence for those children that are in school, If you ensure your child attends school on time, in full uniform, does homework, behaves whilst there, revises for exams but takes unauthorised holidays what happens, you get fined.   The figures regarding this are not vague.  1,480,048 days were lost this way in 1 year. Term time fines were up by 93% over one year, and penalty notices rose to almost 223,000 in 2017/18.  It seems if you take your child away for a day you are fined, and yet if you take your child away for good and they disappear from the radar there is no problem.  Holidays in term time are not always chosen based on price. Someone may have the last choice of holiday request dates from their employer due to lack of seniority.

A register is urgently needed and hopefully the authorities will find well rounded children both in education and social skills.

As we understand it the Department of Education is raising the prospect of a compulsory register and we second that. It is strongly hoped that home school parents will support this measure and that local authorities will, as these are similar to measures already introduced in Wales.

Placing a legal duty on parents to register home schooled children with their local authority would help councils to monitor how children are being educated and prevent them from disappearing from the eyesight of services designed to keep them safe.

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December Update

2020 is a year none of us will forget in a hurry but as it draws to a close we would like to update you with the current situation as far as Head Office is concerned. The office is now closed until after Christmas but Claire, our secretary, is working from home.

It has been a very strange year with no events, no clubs, no getting together. All our events had to be cancelled, and though we are no different to any other organisation it has been such a pity because this is what we are about friendship, education and fun. On the positive side we have worked hard getting out letters to as many members as we could with the help of club officials. They have been brilliant keeping in touch with their members through emails, ‘WhatsApp’ and phone calls they all deserve a star!

With the moving into different tiers it sometimes gets very confusing and loneliness has been talked about a lot on the television and the media but we hope through the clubs this has not affected our members too much. With the hope of a vaccine it might not be too long before we are back and enjoying our club life again and remember after December 21st the days start to get longer and Spring will be around the corner.

Here at Head Office Eleanor retired at the end of September, Eleanor had told us of her plans at the beginning of the year so we had plenty of notice but of course we could not have the retirement party she was entitled to. However, we are hoping she will come to conference next year and we can say farewell properly. We did send flowers on the day and Mary, our treasurer made her a collage of all our good wishes, and it was beautiful.

If you are looking at our website for the first time look at the list of clubs and see if we have one near you, they are friendly places to go to. Most meet once a week with speakers, demonstrations and outings. Each club is different and if there isn’t one in your area, why don’t you start one!  We honestly think our sort of club is just what the women of our country needs right now.  We are a non-political, non-religious and non- sectarian group that offers friendship and interest. Take a look at this website and see what we have to offer.

So Christmas is coming and what a difference to the one we probably envisaged, but remember ladies we might not be able to party as we have in the past but if we keep safe we can celebrate next year with family and friends. 

So on behalf of The Committee to all our members and whoever is looking at this website, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, keep well and let’s look forward to a better New Year.