Parents fined for non school attendance ...

Chocolatelovinggran

Well, Granmaderby, that's put my forty year teaching career, my degree and post graduate qualifications, and my passionate interest in children, young people, and their future in its place - I was just " allowing parents to get on with other stuff".

This sums up the way a lot of people think about education these days... I wonder why countries elsewhere in the world (not including the US here) value education so highly when we treat it as just another form of day care?

It's enough to make you despair really.

Well, Granmaderby, that's put my forty year teaching career, my degree and post graduate qualifications, and my passionate interest in children, young people, and their future in its place - I was just " allowing parents to get on with other stuff".

I see home education or rather less orthodox schooling becoming increasingly usual or common in future.

After all for the most part going to school has really been all about allowing parents to get on with other stuff -such as going to work rather than the true education it could be.

It is just ingrained in our culture but as with many work place changes such as work from home or hybrid hours, education will gradually evolve away from school buildings to being more about the child’s prospects.

sazz1

NotSpaghetti
I think you are the exception rather than the rule.

No there are/were lots of us.

NotSpaghetti

sazz1 - my children all took GCSEs early.
Not unusual.

Families who home educate are all very different you know.

Too true. My only regret is sending her to school, we originally intended to home educated till secondary. Hindsight is great.

sazz1

One of my relatives is a primary teacher. Children who have been home educated and then joined their class are always at least 2 years behind the rest of pupils in a yr 5 class. Most are struggling with reading, English and maths. Unless you have a good knowledge of the National Curriculum or some teaching experience Home Teaching severely limits the child's success at GCSE, A levels Uni etc. There aren't enough staff or enough time to get them up to the required levels before senior school.
People should bear this in mind and see Home Education as a very last resort not something that is an equal way to educate. Things I learned in first year grammar school are now being taught in primary schools so the levels are much more advanced.

One of mine started school at 9. We encountered this prejudice with the Head saying she would need individual help with the SENCO to catch up. She was assessed by class teacher who said she was the most advanced reader in the class and only one child was her equal in maths. She was also grade 5 piano, grade 3 music theory and great on he computer. She went on to get 12 top grade GCSEs, four top grade A levels, a first from a top university and has post grad qualifications.

I find it hard to believe that every child was two years behind, I knew lots of home ed families and that certainly wasn't my experience.

NotSpaghetti
I think you are the exception rather than the rule.

keepingquiet

In what ways is it less flexible?

Home ed schedule, timetable is the decision of the educator. If you’re using zoom lessons, that might mean structuring the day .
I’d be interested to know about the less flexible too.

In what ways is it less flexible?

The system is very different now in fact.
My home-educating family have it way less flexible than it was in my day.

It's the same local authority too

Yes, maybe I should have stated that more clearly.

Parents are free to educate their children at home with minimal intervention from the state.

When I was teaching we had one person whose job it was to monitor the home-schooling in the entire county!

The system is open to abuse by parents and there is very little that can be done about it.

sazz1 - my children all took GCSEs early.
Not unusual.

Families who home educate are all very different you know.

keepingquiet Actually it is the parent's legal responsibility to see their child recieves an education - suitable to their age, ability and attitude (and any special needs they may have).

But when a child is registered at a school, the parent's responsibility is simply to get them there - as they are delegating the education to the state.

I expect you know this.

Obviously a parent can take their child out but then the education is up to them.

One of my relatives is a primary teacher. Children who have been home educated and then joined their class are always at least 2 years behind the rest of pupils in a yr 5 class. Most are struggling with reading, English and maths. Unless you have a good knowledge of the National Curriculum or some teaching experience Home Teaching severely limits the child's success at GCSE, A levels Uni etc. There aren't enough staff or enough time to get them up to the required levels before senior school.
People should bear this in mind and see Home Education as a very last resort not something that is an equal way to educate. Things I learned in first year grammar school are now being taught in primary schools so the levels are much more advanced.

I will just say it again that homeschooling is an option that parents take in which the child is taken out of the responsibilty of the LEA.

It is not an alternative for parents who want their children to attend school but the child itself sometimes for very complex reasons, cannot do so.

The two things are not the same and I wish people would recognise the difference here.

The child’s mother works in a school, inflexible hours NotSpaghetti, if she could home teach she would believe me!

I have known quite a few single parents who have home educated over the years - women mainly.

Yes, several worked for themselves - but these days with so much more flexibility in the workplace I think it would probably be easier.

We used to have a friend's daughter every Friday when she went back to work. Lots of families help each other out (and work to their particular skills on those days).

My friend was an Educational Psychologist and worked just three (long) days.

Thank you NoSpaghetti I agree it can be done, the lady in the article is self employed , not possible for all and it takes time to establish such a business, but well done her.

In the old days when I was a teenager my mother's friend kept her youngest 11yr old son at home for company. He didn't like school anyway.
The school board took her to court and he was removed and placed in a secure boarding school over 200 miles away until he was 15 and could legally leave school. She was fined by the court. I think that was a much better deterrent than just fining parents. She made sure his 2 brothers went regularly after that.

There's a recent article here about home education including how one single mum makes it work, Jaxjacky

www.theguardian.com/education/homeschooling

I think that the reason is, ReadyMeals that it's the parent's legal responsibility to ensure that their children gain an education "either by regular attendance at school or otherwise".

It's not the child's responsibility. Or their legal obligation.

ReadyMeals weekend detention, barbaric, have you seen suicide rates amongst those either excluded from school or persistently absent?
Spare the rod, spoil the child, great idea not.
Regarding home teaching, it just isn’t possible for many who work, particularly single parents, or should they give up their jobs and claim benefits.

I wish I had refused the brutal schooling I suffered from, back in the day, which still haunts me many decades later. It destroyed my sense of self and it took me till my fifties, and many years of therapy, to be able to embrace education. Refusing, of course, not an option then, as there was no home schooling and parents and school would have ensured I suffered in silence and went to the place of torture.

ReadyMeals

I don't really understand why, if the age of criminal responsibility is 10 (too young imho but bear with me) why the child isn't initially held responsible for not attending school. School refusal at 13 upwards cannot be down to the parents as children that age are too large to be dragged into school by their mum and that's probably illegal anyway. If having ruled out any good reason (of which there are many and should be dealt with sympathetically), the youngster is still not turning up, if we bring back the enforcement officers to do the dragging in there could be weekend detention centres as penalty for kids who are just being obstinate. You know, punish the person who is doing the non-attending not the unfortunate mum whose nagging and pocket money withholding is not working.

Not attending school is not a crime. Before austerity, every school had an EWO (educational welfare officer) whose job it was to check on students not attending.
After the cuts these EWO had to take on the load of several schools and just couldn't keep up.
It is now the job of the school itself (and working with other agencies) to monitor attendance and to intervene when necessary.
Your language is saying these children should be 'dragged' to school betrays a lack of nuance in understanding these complex situations.
If parents are unable to encourage their children to attend school at normal times, how are they ever going to take them to 'detention' centres at weekends?
Who will staff these centres? Where will they be? How will the students get there? Who will pay for them? What will the children do there?
If you think a little bit more on these things and not just use negative language such as detention or nagging I think you will begin to see how untenable your proposal might be.

I don't really understand why, if the age of criminal responsibility is 10 (too young imho but bear with me) why the child isn't initially held responsible for not attending school. School refusal at 13 upwards cannot be down to the parents as children that age are too large to be dragged into school by their mum and that's probably illegal anyway. If having ruled out any good reason (of which there are many and should be dealt with sympathetically), the youngster is still not turning up, if we bring back the enforcement officers to do the dragging in there could be weekend detention centres as penalty for kids who are just being obstinate. You know, punish the person who is doing the non-attending not the unfortunate mum whose nagging and pocket money withholding is not working.