Thursday 12 December 2013

Driving a coach and horses through the law on education.



One of the things that readers might have noticed about local authorities who are dealing with home educators, is that they are very fond of quoting the law. Sometimes, they do this regretfully; as though they are left with no choice but to undertake this or that duty. Their letters often contain sentences beginning, ‘We have a legal duty to…’ or, 'We are required by law...'. This is all the most horrible hypocrisy, because every local authority in the entire country is regularly and flagrantly ignoring great chunks of the legislation which relates to education. Let me give a glaring example of this.

At a recent  primary school assembly, the Head announced that he wanted to talk about a very great man. It’s coming up to Christmas and when he continued by saying that this person was probably the greatest man ever to live and that he changed the world; I thought that I could guess who he was talking about. ‘Nobody has ever taught us more about forgiveness’, continued the Head and by that time I was pretty sure to whom he was referring. What’s that? No you fool, he wasn’t talking about Jesus! He meant Nelson Mandela, obviously. In this primary school, as in practically every other maintained school in the country, assemblies are only held once a week and neither Jesus nor God ever get a mention. They are wholly secular occasions, where awards are given for industry or, as in the case of Nelson Mandela, some famous person might be mentioned. There is of course never any mention of  the Deity; let alone prayers and hymns. This is very odd, because Section 70 of  the School Standards and Framework Act  1998  specifically requires that;

each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship

What’s more, the law states that this act of collective worship should be of a wholly or mainly Christian nature. I do not suppose that there is a single school in the whole country which abides by this law. It is universally ignored and every local authority knows this very well. You might get an act of collective worship  at some church schools, but even then it will in general be only once a week. At other schools, there is nothing even remotely approaching religious observance of the sort required by the law. It does not matter whether we think that such daily worship is a good thing or not; it is the law and local authorities take not the least notice of it.  I can think of a dozen other example of laws relating to education which are widely flouted, but this one is common to every school in the land. It is curious that these same local authorities are able to recollect chapter and verse of the law as it touches upon home education and show such devotion to enforcing it! Hypocrisy always irritates me and this is an especially good instance.  When it suits them, local authorities are perfectly willing and able to disregard the law about education and schools. 

10 comments:

  1. that is why Webb it is great fun to quote the law on home education back at the box ticking LA councils where there is no legal requirement for a home visit or a meeting and i now refer you to my county councilor that soon gets rid of them!

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  2. I'm back to agreeing with you again, and would add that that quite possibly explains why many home educators don't want to deal with them any more than they absolutely have to.

    Would you like to do another post on the difference between 'law' and 'our policy',? My Beloved Council (we're a unitary authority so they're not a LA) seem to have trouble telling the difference.

    Anne

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    1. Would you like to do another post on the difference between 'law' and 'our policy',?

      Most box ticking LA think policy is law but of course we know its not

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  3. "It’s coming up to Christmas and when he continued by saying that this person was probably the greatest man ever to live and that he changed the world"

    Clearly, Isaac Newton!

    I'm not sure that he was big on forgiveness though.

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  4. Not only LAs that quote one thing and do another. My friend's daughter came home with two letters. One was to remind parents that as part of the schools healthy eating policy the children should only have water in their drink bottles. The second reminded parents that if the children had sufficient money at break time they could purchase bacon bagels pizza bagels and milkshakes. You couldn't make it up.

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    1. As in life a lot of people try and ignore the law on various issues then you have to remind them to follow the law.
      LA,s look down on parents thinking there better than us and it comes as a hell of a shock to them when you point out in writing what the law is on home education.I remember that box ticking fool form Hampshire being rather disappointed when Peter and Dr Ludow pointed out he had no rights to a home visit or to a meeting over home education.

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  5. "What’s more, the law states that this act of collective worship should be of a wholly or mainly Christian nature. I do not suppose that there is a single school in the whole country which abides by this law."

    I've no idea how many abide by the law, but some, at least, do.

    Along with the poor educational standards and aspirations of schools, and their aggressive, bullying, rambunctious environment, the insidious religious indoctrination was part of our decision to educate otherwise.

    I'm disturbed that LAs are worried about home educators when they have idiots, like the head you describe, in charge of schools. I have immense respect for Nelson Mandela, but for a head teacher to say that he was "probably the greatest man ever to live and that he changed the world" indicates something very worrying.

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    1. Religious indoctrination is something the secular society campaigns on regularly. Thank god they do.

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    2. Unfortunately the campaigns of the religious indoctrinators have a head start on the NSS - by many centuries - along with a lot of money squeezed out of the gullible in the process

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  6. What are the other laws?

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