...at least for a year. Yay, but honestly, you'd have thought she was committing some terrible crime, the way the authorities have reacted.
And no, you don't have to convince the authorities that you will provide a suitable education when you deregister. You just have to hand in a letter.
Here's the deal: in law, parents are responsible for ensuring that their children receive a suitable education. The state only has to step in after the event, if it a suitable education isn't happening.
UPDATE: here's Kelly on the story.
Hope she goes ahead with it, tho she doesn't strike me as the sort of person to be bullied by so-called 'powers'. And what a fantastic experience it will be for her daughter.
ReplyDeleteBTW, does Margaret Morissey have a crystal ball? How can she say with such conviction that Gaia WILL miss an awful & WILL be way behind her peers?!?? Humph!!!
Very clever of her, really. Don't know how she does it.
ReplyDeleteMy DD missed 3 years of school, being HEed to begin with and then going in to year 3. I was nervous going to the parent/teacher evening...but glowing report from school. Couldn't have been better!
Done a little bit of digging and it isn't so much "Margaret Morrissey, of education campaign group Parents Outloud" as it's Margaret Morrissey who CALLS HERSELF 'Parents Outloud' so that the media will pay attention to her and repeat her personal opinions as if they were more important than those of any other granny in the country.
ReplyDelete'the way the authorities have reacted.'
ReplyDeleteAm I missing something here? I have been following this case and have not seen any statements from either the local authority or any government department. Who are these authorities and how are they reacting?
I think it is a fundamental right of each parent to educate their child in a way they see fit - I have never used 80% of the things I was taught at school (often against my will!). Being educated at home gives the child much more opportunity to give its own input. Listen to what the child is exited to learn about and let it develop. Surely in that way the child will feel in control of its future, motivated and ultimately successful rather than frustrated - go Emma Thompson!
ReplyDelete'I think it is a fundamental right of each parent to educate their child in a way they see fit '
ReplyDeleteParents have no rights at all in this matter. It is the child who has the right; the right to a suitable and efficient education. What parents have is a duty. Their duty is to ensure that their children receive an education. To think of this in terms of the parents' 'rights' is to look at the whole matter from a skewed and dangerous perspective.
Webb says-It is the child who has the right; the right to a suitable and efficient education.
ReplyDeletedoes this include a right to home education Webb? or only for a state school education?
Am pretty sure SW would be fully supportive of HE as a legal option. What he would disagree about is the nature of a suitable education.
ReplyDeleteHe (I believe rightly) maintains, it is all about a child's right to a suitable education. Given that an autonomous education is, by its very definition, by far the most efficient form of education, I would have thought he must accept that it is the most appropriate form of education when it comes to parents fulfilling their legal duties.
I don't know though....he may disagree!
you say -Am pretty sure SW would be fully supportive of HE as a legal option. What he would disagree about is the nature of a suitable education.
ReplyDeleteBut S Webb has not said that a child has a RIGHT to be home educated? Webb appears to say a child has a right to a state school education? but not home education even if the child said it wants to be home educated Webb would refuse the child and sent it t o a state school? yes or no webb?
' Webb appears to say a child has a right to a state school education? '
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify this point. I would not send a dog to a state school. I am a lifelong, dedicated home educator, whose own daughter did not spend a single day at school. It never crossed my mind for a moment to send her to a state school or any other.
Good point, Anon. Since SW rightly states that children have a right to a suitable and efficient ed and since (as I have argued elsewhere) the only efficient and suitable form of education is an autonomous one, then legally, all children should be autonomously educated, and since autonomous education would involve the child choosing the place of education, home education should thereby be the legal right of the child. Nice idea.
ReplyDeleteIf the Tories set about legislating, lets ask them to do something practical, logical, efficacious etc and set that in stone.