....in a letter to Directors of Children's Services:
"I know you and your staff are committed to ensuring that all children are able to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes. However, we know that some colleagues feel that they are not able to ensure that all home educated children are able to do so. The Secretary of State has asked me to investigate if and how far children who are educated at home are able to achieve the five outcomes..."
He wrote this on the 19th January. Let's hope he's read and understood the Children Act 2004 in the interim.
1. The ECM ideas are framed as ambitions, not as outcomes for assessment.
2. Local authorities only have a duty to co-operate to promote them and parents should remain the parent of first resort.
3. LAs only have a duty to step in where there is a serious problem. They should not be using the ECM ambitions to intervene at a lower level of concern.
If you believe, unlike Mr Badman, that parents should be the parents of first resort, and that families should be allowed to work out for themselves what ambitions they want to strive for, sign the petition here.
Hey, I just noticed my mum's signed it! Way ta go mum :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, my mum too!
ReplyDeleteShe is now a fully fledged HE afficiondo though, so I guess no surprise, but I do feel that she would have signed had this not been the case, as she does understand that the legislation that allows for the freedom to HE is under threat, and that because this legislation allows for the principle of parental responsibility, all parents everywhere, schooling or otherwise, stand to lose the right to parent as they choose and to be the parent of first resort!