November 06, 2009 (Catholic education, Catholic Schools)

Editor’s Note: Over the past few days a certain type of ‘Catholic’ blog has been is a dither over the response by Oona Stannard, Chief Executive & Director, of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales to a set of questions from the Department for Children, Schools and Family (DCSF) regarding the establishment of a registration and monitoring proposal for home schooling parents.  Stannards response mirrors an editorial on the topic I wrote in January 2007 “Bringing School Home: Not Without Accountability “

To view some of the flack, see:

Mum6kids One

Mum6kids Two

Mom6kids Three

Hermeneutic-of-continuity

Catholic and Loving It

The following is the CES response to the Government

Consultation Response:

Home Education – Registration and Monitoring Proposals

1 Do you agree that these proposals strike the right balance between the rights of parents to home educate and the rights of children to receive a suitable education?

Generally agree. We start from the premise that parents are the first educators of their children with the prime responsibility for helping them to achieve their full potential. For most families schools are one chief means of achieving this. Where parents decide otherwise the government needs to respect parents’ wishes but also to assure itself that the rights of children are fully protected. We note that several of the recommendations of the review are still to be responded to by government and we await these developments with interest. In particular the training of Local Authority staff is key to a balanced interpretation of the proposals in practice.

2. Do you agree that a register should be kept?

Agree. We are aware that this feels draconian to some home educators but good home education should have no fear. It is a necessary step in the protection of children and their right to education.

3. Do you agree with the information to be provided for registration?

Agree. However, most parents will need considerable guidance on how to describe their approach to education. LAs will need to exercise discretion in this area: understanding that parents are (mostly) not professional educators and are not familiar with educational language that schools take for granted, while continuing to ensure that children’s rights to an efficient and suitable education are met.

A further factor is the dissatisfaction and lack of trust that home educating parents may be feeling towards LAs ie part of their reason for home education, so Guidance might best come from another source other than LAs.

4. Do you agree that home educating parents should be required to keep the register up to date?

Agree.

5. Do you agree that it should be a criminal offence to fail to register or to provide inadequate or false information?

Not sure. Failing to register or giving false information should be offences, provided LAs advertise the duty effectively. However, criminalising parents for inadequate statements of their approach to education, for example, would be harsh and probably unenforceable. How could it be proved that a statement was wilfully inadequate? So the grounds for considering that deficiencies merit criminalising the parents will need to be clarified rigorously and should only be invoked as a last resort.

6a) Do you agree that home educated children should stay on the roll of their former school for 20 days after parents notify that they intend to home educate?

Agree. We believe that it is very important that a track is kept of each and every child, how and wherever educated.

6b) Do you agree that the school should provide the local authority with achievement and future attainment data?

Agree. To be precise the word ‘probable’ needs to be added before ‘future attainment’!

7. Do you agree that the DCSF should take powers to issue statutory guidance in relation to the registration and monitoring of home education?

Not sure; see 6a). In principle we agree in relation to registration, but the issue of monitoring is peculiarly sensitive and it is impossible to give blanket approval before seeing draft guidance. The training of staff and quality of communications will be central to success here.

8. Do you agree that children about whom there are substantial safeguarding concerns should not be home educated?

Agree. This is highly sensitive. It will be important to have complete clarity on safeguarding matters and for these to be robustly upheld. Once again, the training of staff will be paramount in ensuring that discretion is exercised wisely.

9. Do you agree that the local authority should visit the premises where home education is taking place provided 2 weeks’ notice is given?

Not sure. We are uncertain about LAs in this role for reasons rehearsed above; might an Ofsted inspector not be better placed for this role?

The notice period seems generous. Perhaps two weeks is appropriate for the routine four weeks, six months and annual visits, but it could be important to provide a right to visit at shorter notice in case of particular concerns.

10. Do you agree that the local authority should have the power to interview the child, alone if judged appropriate, or if not in the presence of a trusted person who is not the parent/carer?

Disagree. The power to interview a child alone needs to be strictly limited and the grounds on which it might be appropriate clearly indicated. We could agree to the interview in the presence of a trusted person.

11. Do you agree that the local authority should visit…….annual basis?

Unsure. We agree that there should be annual visits but are anxious about how this will be perceived by parents if this is by the LA. We would like to see some further flexibility in who/what agency makes this visit.

Additional Comment

We are concerned to know more about whether, with whom and how information about home schooling is to be shared. If children from Catholic schools move to home schooling, will there be a requirement for the school where they have been registered to be told of the change and may they in turn pass this information to their diocesan education office? The reason being that if the child is Catholic, the diocese would want to make religious education materials and advice available to the home schooling family. We have also been told of parents describing their home schooling arrangements and curriculum as being “Catholic home schooling”. There is no such model or programme of which we are aware and it is important that monitoring authorities are aware of this and feel able to revert to diocesan authorities and/or CESEW for advice if such queries arise. We would also find it helpful to be kept informed of the extent of the use of such a term, ie for what numbers of children and in what areas.

Oona Stannard

Chief Executive & Director

14 October 2009

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