An admirably persistent home educator has kept on at the DfES until he got some result from his many FOI requests for information about DfES communications on "light touch changes to HE legislation", during the second part of 2006. He has made the results of his request widely available on various UK Home Education lists, such as on the here and here .
All in all, it makes for scary reading. You realise just how close we really were to a state-imposed curriculum, and other nasties such as LAs being handed the right to insist on seeing and inspecting HE children.
The thing is, despite the relatively benign-looking EHE draft guidelines, this threat does not look to have gone away for sure. These guidelines are, after all, only in draft form. They could change for the significantly worse and LAs are reportedly making such a racket about not being able to check out our educational provision with a much greater degree of oversight and prescription, that the DfES may buckle if we don't keep shouting about why LA demands are so illogical, damaging and even dangerous for both themselves and for us. We really should keep shouting about these points in our responses to the Consultation on EHE Guidelines.
This is a much needed reminder not to get too complacent!
ReplyDeleteI really admire all the work you're putting in here. I don't know where we'd be without people like yourself fighting these battles.
Adele