Monday 21 March 2011

Is Michael Gove up to something on the home education front?

After the fiasco of Schedule 1 of the Children, Schools and Families Act last year, I can't see any government having the appetite for a major confrontation with home educators in the near future. The game is simply not worth the candle. This does not mean that things will stay the same for ever though, or that there will not be relatively minor changes to the existing legal situation. Mind you, this hinges around what one would describe as a 'minor change'. What most rational people would view as being a minor change might very well prove to be what many home educating parents would regard as a deal breaker. Take a simple scheme of registration, for instance.

I am not the only one who has noticed a steady drip-feed of questions to the Secretary of State for Education about the numbers of home educated children in the country. These questions have come from both Labour and Conservative MPs and they are identically worded. This suggests immediately that they are 'planted' questions, rather than genuine requests for information. 'Does the Secretary for State have information about the numbers of home educated children in my constituency?'; that sort of thing. The response from the DfE is not, 'Get lost you loser and stop bothering us'. It is to the effect that the department is actively considering the situation and is working out what changes, if any, are necessary in the current arrangements for monitoring home education. A few weeks ago, we saw a new type of question, in which an MP asked the Secretary of State if he would consider introducing a mechanism for counting home educated children in the country. Anybody who has even the sketchiest knowledge of home education in this country will know that such a mechanism would be impossible without some form of compulsory registration.

As I say, I can't imagine any major new change in the law, but requiring parents to register their intention to educate their children at home would not need anything of the sort. A simple amendment to any of the existing laws around education would do the trick. Most people, by which I mean the 99.9% of people who do not educate ther children at home, would be in favour of this and it would be vastly less controversial than all the paraphernalia which the CSF Bill proposed to introduce. I shall be watching with interest to see how many more MPs beg Gove and Gibbs to bring in a 'mechanism' which will enable the numbers of home educated children to be counted.

32 comments:

  1. registration happens all ready with LA if you with draw your child from a state school to home educate the school/head then write to LA to tell them giving the name of the the chidren and its address.the only children LA dont know about are those that do home education from the start.
    im not so sure that 99.9% of people would be in favour of registration not if it means it would cost money staff time to do this remember councils are having to save money UK is in debt.people want money spent on schools not on home educators? this debt is going to take many years to pay off!

    you and your daughter never called the CSF bill paraphernaila when it was trying to go though the commons you where in full support of it and thought it was a great idea and you also claimed that it could not be stoped!

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  2. Punctuation, Peter?

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. teacher Julie says punctuation Peter?

    you going to give us a free english lesson Julie? i promise to be good in class!

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  5. 'Julie said...
    Punctuation, Peter?'

    I bet you wouldn't say that to James Joyce.

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  6. The problem I see at the moment is how to police compulsory registration. I'm all for it but if the LA don't know who you are or where to find you how can they fine you for not registering? OK so some people will get caught out but not everyone. I think Mr Gove and Co. should consider using a little more carrot and a little less stick. A few small things such as free music lessons would be enough for many of the families I know to register. OK it's not going to be enough for everyone but it could make a pretty big difference to the number of families volunteering their details.

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  7. Sorry, comment by Roger is actually Claire signed into my husbands account.

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  8. roger says-The problem I see at the moment is how to police compulsory registration. I'm all for it but if the LA don't know who you are or where to find you how can they fine you for not registering?

    the cost of how to police registration would be to much and enforcing it! councils are laying off staff due to the debt UK is in so thier is no way their would take on extra staff to police this crazy idea!
    when you say your all for it Roger do you mean your all for the extra cost as well?

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  9. I agree with Claire. I am actually not really keen on registering, however I would be more willing if it was worth my while.

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  10. Yep I'd happily register in return for a little bit more help. Soon I'll have to start selling my body parts to wealthy sick people in order to offset some of the financial burden. Until the government is ready to offer a little more vegetarian meals they can stuff me signing anything.

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  11. a few more. When is that edit button coming?

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  12. Samantha-. Until the government is ready to offer a little more vegetarian meals they can stuff me signing anything.

    Im afraid our government is far to busy with the UKdebt the 2 wars we are involved in with Afghanistan and now libya this new war will push the price of oil ever higher affecting food prices to.So im afraid you may well have to sell some of your body! which bits are you thinking about? you can rest assured that David cameron went have to do this!

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  13. 'Samantha said...
    a few more. When is that edit button coming?'

    Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to install an edit button. Does anybody know how this is to be done?

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  14. 'So im afraid you may well have to sell some of your body! which bits are you thinking about? you can rest assured that David cameron went have to do this! '

    Good lord Peter...getting a bit fruity there aren't you?? lol

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  15. Loz Good lord Peter...getting a bit fruity there aren't you?? lol

    what are you thinking Loz? do explain in detail? shame we not got a private message system on here? LOL

    the price of bits of the body or a whole body have gone up a great deal over the last few years! china is a major player in this!

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  16. 'what are you thinking Loz? do explain in detail? shame we not got a private message system on here? LOL

    the price of bits of the body or a whole body have gone up a great deal over the last few years! china is a major player in this! '

    o.0

    moving swiftly on.....

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  17. moving swiftly on..

    you look up the role of china in selling body parts such as the kidney or liver their kill prisoners for the organs!

    now for the good news Peter joint winner of Uxbridge chess adult open played from 18 to 20 March 2011 with score of 4/5 drawing with 2 leading grandmasters! you get a point for a win and a half for a draw Peter did not lose a game! Peter also again qualifies for the Adult British chess Championships.

    is that not such good news Webb? what a great weekend we had!

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  18. I doubt there'll be any carrot offered. Those known to the LA are de facto registered anyway. If this is to happen, I expect it'll be under pain of a fine for not registering.

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  19. anon in London says-I doubt there'll be any carrot offered.

    i want a bit of fine steak offered not a few carrot tops! and a nice bottle of red merlot to wash it down! then i will register if their throw in 2 bottles of red i do a cartwheel backwoods! i share the red with Loz and teacher Julie.

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  20. I have no problem with registration, this was discussed with David Cameron when we talked to him during the Badman Review situation.

    Our take on it was that registration is fine, so long as it is across the board. ie every child not in state education is registered by their education provision, not just home educators.

    Not to open up a whole other debate, but why should we be given any "incentives". We choose not to access state provision and I do not believe that we are entitled to pick and choose the bits we would like.

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  21. 'Our take on it was that registration is fine, so long as it is across the board. ie every child not in state education is registered by their education provision, not just home educators.'

    Which sounds perfectly reasonable; so that the educational setting of every child in the UK is known. What fool turned off ContactPoint.......

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  22. Lol.

    Our arguement was that HE should not be singled out. If you want to know how parents intend to educate a child, that is fine, so long as it is a level playing field and those that are going into public schools are counted as well.

    It is not difficult to do. When the parents get the form to register a child for school at 5, a simple tick box for "not thanks, we intend to send them to xyz school or home educate". Any deregistration from school is already noted and when this is done all that would be needed is another "they are going to attend such and such school or HE".

    How they collate the data and keep track of moves to different LAs is a minefield, but as a ball park figure it is not that hard.

    ContactPoint was not a bad idea, but as with most things, the execution of it was abysmal at best.

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  23. Another call for the edit button :)

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  24. perter and carol said "So im afraid you may well have to sell some of your body! which bits are you thinking about? you can rest assured that David cameron went have to do this!"

    No, I daresay Eatonian millionaire David will never have to consider selling one of his kidneys on the chinese black market. Perhaps he's a potential buyer though...my kidney will inbue him with new sensitive HE awareness and a burgeoning desire to share and expend his personal wealth in ensuring that every child in England receives an education suitable to his/her age aptitude and ability....

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  25. Sorry, Peter and Carol. Oh for the edit button. Loz might know how it's done Simon, she has one on her blog.

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  26. "What fool turned off ContactPoint....... "

    Probably the person who wanted to save £227 million over 5 years!

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  27. my kidney will inbue him with new sensitive HE awareness and a burgeoning desire to share and expend his personal wealth in ensuring that every child in England receives an education suitable to his/her age aptitude and ability....

    Im sure your kidney would do this with David but he be able to chose from what person he gets his new kidney from that is one of the big advanges of being very very rich!

    you also say-Sorry, Peter and Carol. Oh for the edit button. Loz might know how it's done Simon, she has one on her blog.

    if old Webb wants to edit us that means we speaking the truth and he and others do not want to hear it! but it is his blog so that is up to him!

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  28. anon says-Probably the person who wanted to save £227 million over 5 years!

    your right anon! the money is just not their to waste on home educators i dont think people understand how much debt UK is in it is going to take years to pay it off! Webb would like to spend it but im afraid the pot is dry! which for home educators is very good news as is means all those nosy parkers will not be able to poke thier noses into home educators lifes!

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  29. 'if old Webb wants to edit us that means we speaking the truth and he and others do not want to hear it! but it is his blog so that is up to him!'

    The only time that I have 'edited' you, Mr Williams, is when you behave like a madman and post things like;

    'YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER GOING TO EAT HORSE SHIT WEBB'

    and

    'I WANT TO SHIT ON A SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ORDER WEBB'

    Even then, it was less that I was bothered by this sort of nonesense and more that I felt that some other readers might find it offensive. Why should I wish to edit you, anyway? You are the world's best advertisement for the stricter regulation of home education.

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  30. your the madman Webb with you and your daughters support for crazy old Graham Badman!

    you also say-You are the world's best advertisement for the stricter regulation of home education.

    sure we are! then why did the stricter regulation go down the drain then? and their ARE GOING TO BE NEW LAW BROUGHT IN BY THIS CONSERVTIVE GOVERNMENT! does that hurt that you know that your efforts to get stricter regulation have failed you picked the wrong team Webb! home educators 1 crazy Badman?balls 0

    you lost Webb and we won no meeting no home visits nothing! and we still here writing letters making phone calls we never go away! and got to go to the house of commons to very nice place it is!

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  31. 'sure we are! then why did the stricter regulation go down the drain then?'

    In spite of you, not because of you. For goodness sake.

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  32. anon says-In spite of you, not because of you. For goodness sake.

    dont think so did you know we went to the house of commons over this matter Peter had a great time talking to various M.P's! their liked his letters to so did David Cameron M.P wrote a really nice letter back he did we framed it! our own M;P Mr Damain Hind was very helpful to come to our house to visit Peter and talk about home education and why he would not support the stricter regulation!

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