New proposal to delay deregistration by 20 days.

Gill says it all.

News of yet another consultation

...in the third from last paragraph here. 

"The consultation document Hunt will launch next month will also set out three areas for discussion starting with how to foster innovation in areas such as games, telemedicine, home education and "micro-broadcasting" or local television."

Sigh. 

Home Education and Funding

Details of the current position here.

Yet more research in support of child-directed learning

...this time from Psychology Today.

See here for more on same.

Free Audio and Video Downloads

...listed here on Learn Out Loud.

More from Kelly

...this time, on the significance of the struggle to home educate world-wide.

One conclusion:

"It is from a British base, I am convinced, that homelearning freedoms will be won back in Europe."

2010

Things have been very quiet here but this is not for want of keeping an eye on things. Should there be a need - should the Department of Education suddenly find a spare pot of cash and decide they have nothing better to do with it than to hassle home educators, this place will fire up again.

In the meantime, Kelly has reviewed the most significant bits from 2010.

Harrison & Harrison v. Stevenson on "Suitable Education"

Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson (1982) QB (DC) 729/81

From the Elective Home Education Guidelines 2006: 

"A clearer interpretation of the meaning of some terminology used in the 1944 Education Act (repealed by the 1996 Act), was gained in the case of Harrison & Harrison v Stephenson (appeal to Worcester Crown Court 1981). The term 'suitable education' was defined as one which enabled the children ‘to achieve their full potential’, and was such as ‘to prepare the children for life in modern civilised society’. The term 'efficient' was defined as achieving ‘that which it sets out to achieve’."From the Badman Review 2009:

Case law offers some insight: 

“...in our judgement “education” demands at least an element of supervision; merely to allow a child to follow its own devices in the hope that it will acquire knowledge by imitation, experiment or experience in its own way and in its own good time is neither systematic nor instructive…such a course would not be education but, at best, child-minding.”

See EO Website for further information.

How this is interpreted by LAs.

eg: Leicestershire LA Policy (2017):Case law (Harrison v. Stevenson) also states that a suitable education – for a child capable of learning such skills – should instil in them the ability to read, write and cope with arithmetical problems. In other words, an education that does not include English and Maths cannot be considered suitable.

Home Educators Briefing Document on the CSF Bill 2009

With many thanks to the authors, here is an extremely helpful briefing regarding the Children, Schools and Families Bill 2009,  which was intended:

"to help inform and assist MPs, Peers and their assistants to understand fully the impact upon Elective Home Educators and their children of the Children, Schools and Families Bill 2009 should it enter into statute in its current form."

"It is compiled and presented by a number of people with independent skills and expertise. They also have between them over 50 years of personal home educating experience."

Tania Berlow's work, also summarised here, can be found from page 49.  A even simpler summary of the figures is here.

New Look HE UK

HE UK updated and sparkly.

What most autonomous educators already know

...that late reading isn't a disadvantage.

Ken's at it again!

Lovely! And he will mention autonomous education soon, am quite sure of it.

First Australia, next the UK?

Queensland dad says the state doesn't know best.

On-line Education

...disrupting traditional models and not a moment too soon!

News from Lord Lucas

...here.

Ken Robinson's 2010 TED talk

...just in case you haven't seen it yet.

Still thinking about Autonomous Education!

I need a motivational self-talk just now, and what better way to re-energise myself (other than some balmy runs in the country, and some lovely friends), than to think about the theories of AE! This set of theories means the most to me in the whole wide world. They are beautiful in the way that the writings of great physicists are. They makes sense. They hang together, they fit the data, and they work and at times like this, when I could be so sad, it is my greatest consolation.

Elsewhere, (guess where, folks!), my attention has been drawn to the problem of knowing just exactly when one is coercing one's child and when one isn't. I mean, this can actually be a difficult problem, I think.

Take a child whose parent has offered an over-arching theory which makes sense to the child, but which results in the child adopting plenty of self-coercive theories in order to fulfill the over-arching theory with which she agrees. The parent doesn't have to do the coercion as the child will be doing it for themselves, so to speak.

Of course, this isn't AE, if one takes the definition of AE to be that a person is enacting the theory that is active in the mind (as opposed to being forced, or in this case, forcing themselves) to enact a theory that is not active...ie: is coerced. Setting an over-arching plan for the child, and leaving the child to do the rest: this is not AE, but a slow absconding with the being of another person.

How can one prevent such a scenario one wonders? Well, am not sure that the following suggestions are 100% reliable, but the parent can't do much more than to stick to these principles:

(Please don't think am being horribly preachy just here. This is really for me, a reminder and a pep talk., so to myself, I say....)

• I won't have an over-arching plan for the children in my life
  
• I'll make sure the theories I offer really are tentative...if they are good, the children will grok this
  
• I'll be prepared to change my preferences
• I'll help the child solve his problems so that he isn't subject to subtle self-coercion along the way, even if it is to fulfill his grand plan. (Coercion is never useful).
  
• And of course, we'll seek common preferences...we'll go wild, be creative, seek other solutions we never dreamt possible.
  

How to tell if this is panning out? If my children can happily tell you they have lost interest in something, (frick, do they do this!) then I do probably have it right!

The Essential Problem HEors have with LAs

... is neatly encapsulated here.

Proposed new guidance?

Everyone PLEASE NOTE: Gill has the answer to the conflicts that current education law presents.

Christian Homeschooling Org is meeting with the DCSF

...on Wed 29th. Tech has the details.