We've won a battle, but not the war

Thanks to the support of opposition MPs, home educators yesterday saw the Ed Ball's "flagship" CSF Bill take some heavy damage.

Clause 26 - the home education clause - was thrown out of the Bill.

Home educators across the country lifted a glass/cup at 9.30pm to toast our relief, and all the efforts of hundreds of parents and children across the country who had spent the last twelve months fighting off the invasive, aggressive agenda of this government against our community.

However..

The war isn't over. Labour and the current DCSF leading civil servants have succeeded in casting aspersions onto home education, and in sowing poisonous seeds of doubt in the minds of local authorities, children services professionals, and the general public.

Home educators have now got to weed out all of those lies, replant healthy relationships (you can tell I've been gardening today!), and generally spend precious time and energy (that we'd rather be spending on our children) on trying to fix things.

Most of all, we have to consider how we are voting on May 6th. I'm not the only home educator who is aghast at the thought of having to vote tactically JUST on the basis of one issue. There is so very much within the Tory manifesto that I disagree with, but this one policy affects us right to the core of our family in a way that nothing else could (other than policies that infringe our Christian values and lifestyle - which is why I personally won't be voting Lib Dem), so I am left with very little choice other than to vote for the Conservatives this time.

I am under no illusions as to what might come after a Tory win, in terms of home education getting back on the agenda, but I think that will be secondary to the local level (and media level) battles that will face us.

To put it bluntly, most local authorities didn't know how to correctly operate within the existing legal framework, when it came to home educators. They didn't know the powers they had, and they didn't understand what powers they didn't have.

DCSF have played with their minds over the past fourteen months, and all the inaccurate statistics, misinformation and rhetoric has now left us with the situation where schools are refusing to take children's names off of school registers ("because you have to get permission now from the LA"), where local authorities are turning up with tickbox forms to "assess the suitability of your educational provision" and much more.

Unless there is a change at senior level in DCSF, then even a change in government will not be enough to bring clarity and calm to the situation.

I allowed myself the luxury of a celebration last night, but I remain in battle mode.

What A Wonderful Life

Thanks to the generous loan of a car by a friend at church, we got out the house today. Josh and Samuel took the bus (it is an ordinary seater car so we couldn't all get in) to Bromley and the rest of us met them there.

We went to the bookshop to spend our World Book Day tokens (which we got posted out to us from EO), then on to the clothes shops. Shock No 1 - Josh now needs to shop in the menswear department not the kids section! Shock No 2 - Josh looking drop dead gorgeous (that wasn't the shock!) in a very grown up blue shirt...

Next we headed over to a cafe for a drink and a snack.

I love being with my family. I am blessed that not only can I truly call my husband my best friend, but also I am honoured to be able to count my sons as best friends too. We had our usual laugh, chatting, sharing, teasing, smiling over cute things that Jonathan was doing..

Shortly before we left a lady got up from the table next to us and came over and put her hand on my shoulder. She said she just wanted to congratulate me on having such a lovely family. She commented on how all the children had eaten with their mouths closed (!) - even the two and a half year old. She couldn't help but be enthralled by Jonathan - everyone is! She'd also noted how relaxed we all were, how friendly, how polite, and it was clear that our relationship with each other was something that stood out as being unusual and noteworthy.

Her husband then commented "don't let it go to their heads!" which, whilst we laughed, actually was quite a sad comment really - why shouldn't my boys be proud of themselves for behaving in such a way? I hope I always encourage, compliment and reward my boys.

It was so nice, that I think we all felt a bit choked up.

Next we headed off to the 99p shop to get a long-promised replacement toy for William (for a Christmas present that had broken straight away). Samuel took some money out of his bank, and Josh had a couple of pounds that his Nan had given him (for turning up at his Cousin's 4th birthday party and putting up with being bored to tears surrounded by screaming tots for nearly 2 hours - just because he had felt it was the right thing to do for the sake of his Cousin). Josh decided that he wanted to treat Samuel and William "because I don't do it often enough" (he said) and proceeded to spend his £2 treat money on treating his brothers.

Once again, Roarke and I were choked up.

I am truly, truly blessed. I thank God for my husband, and for my children. I thank God for home education which allows us the freedom to each be ourselves, and to have the family lifestyle (being together) that we all want and enjoy.

None of these things are things that I take for granted, and all of them are things that I will fight tooth and nail to protect and keep.

Let's get something straight

As is usual in all these cases where a child tragically dies, everyone is now desperate to point the finger and shift the blame.

Elaine has summed it up perfectly:

Simple fact of the matter is that the school tried to save Khyra, the social services could have saved Khyra, the EWO could have saved Khyra, the police could have saved Khyra, the neighbours could have saved Khyra instead of leaving unreported the fact she was left standing outside in winter in underwear, the family could have saved Khyra instead of walking away, AND Khyra's father - who wants you to relieve him of guilt by taking the blame for his absence from her life - could have saved Khyra. I could not have saved Khyra. I did not harm Khyra. I was not there. If I had been I would have joined the school in expressing my concern to the Family and Authorities who could have saved Khyra

I find it disgusting that some are now publically making statements that are simply untrue, in order to justify the extreme measures currently before Parliament, that is Clause 26/27 of the Children Schools & Families Bill.

None of the existing procedures and process appeared to have been followed correctly in this case. Therefore it cannot be rationally used as justification for bringing in new measures. It can only be misused by those who ought to know better, who claim to have the interests of children as their priority, to feed the current witch hunt against home educators.

I trust that the Lords who are now to debate the CSF Bill will show integrity and refuse to be swayed by media hype but instead chose to stick to the FACTS.

My "education summary" for my LA

Having made it clear to my LA that I will not have any more home visits - in protest over Badman/Clause 26 et al, I decided to agree to their "suggestion" that I send a report in instead.

I remain convinced that what I see as an accurate, honest and appropriate summary of how home education has looked for our family - and where we see it going - will not be acceptable if DCSF gets it's way.

With that in mind, I am sharing the summary that I sent this week to my LA - which they have accepted.

Since our last visit from our LA’s EHE team (around June?), the family has continued to follow an autonomous style of education. Each child is allowed to follow their own interests, and to progress at their own pace. We occasionally have conversations about things that we – as parents – would like to see happening but
we do not force them to do anything (other than tidy their rooms!).

Joshua’s main focus continues to be drama and acting. He has taken part in two shows with the SAVVY Young Company (http://www.savvytheatre.co.uk/young.htm). The first was "What Use Any Generation?" Josh wrote a review of the project for Youth Theatre Now magazine as part of his Bronze Arts Award (see pages 8 and 9 here http://www.savvytheatre.co.uk/ytn.pdf).

A cut down version of the show was also performed by them at GUILFEST in 2009.
The second show was DAGS (http://www.savvytheatre.co.uk/yngpast.htm). Josh is currently working on the next show, Midsummer Night's Dream, where he is playing Theseus, Duke of Athens.

Josh is about to submit his Bronze Arts Award work for accreditation. This has included writing a website to showcase his "arts hero" – David Tennant (see
http://www.artsaward.joshnewstead.co.uk/).

He had a modelling job, on a photo shoot for Macmillan Education, which was fun – if somewhat ironic!

Outside of these things, like any teenager, he spends a lot of time on instant messenger and facebook chat keeping up with his friends. He also helps out at Baseline in Bromley – the largest youth group in the Borough of Bromley – every Friday.

He maintains his own interest in current affairs via news website and the BBC news channel.

Samuel continues to progress amazingly well. He has made tremendous efforts to deal with the quirky aspects of his personality resulting from Aspergers and his social development has been incredible. A year ago, he would not go on a bus, would not want to be out when it was dark, would not have stayed away from home and was awkward in peer social situations.

However in the summer he decided to go to Rock Camp, the 5 day youth camp for 7-11 year olds that our church runs every year. For a child with Aspergers this was such a big deal. Going away from home for the first time, new people, new environment, crowds, noise, no privacy, shared sleeping, games, activities, constant stimulation... the list of challenges he had to overcome is long. Yet not
only did he go but he met all those challenges and grew noticeably as a result.
He now helps out on a monthly basis in Sunday School for 7-11 year olds, being responsible for the multi media.

He attends a weekly teen group along with Josh which involves them getting a bus to and from Bromley in the dark. Again, this is a significant step for Samuel (though he still won’t go alone).

Despite have no formal "lessons" Samuel has worked himself on his spelling and towards the end of the summer went from having quite atrocious spelling to now a very competent level of writing.

Somewhat counter-intuitively this seems to have come about from using chat/text speak via instant messenger and the in-game chat facilities on World of Warcraft. He can type very fast, and very accurately.

Samuel is keen on cooking and is currently designing a website to showcase his gluten free cooking (http://www.samuelspecialsupplies.co.uk/). He is also designing leaflets to hand out to local people!

William’s progress has been slower but we are aware that his issues are more complex.
When we were living with William’s grandmother the situation had become untenable and, in particular, sharing a room with Samuel had led to multiple meltdowns on a daily basis. Since moving into our own place in May – where William now has a room of his own – these meltdowns are less than one a week.

He now attends Sunday School weekly on his own (as his brothers are in different groups) and also goes to Urban Saints on a Sunday afternoon – again, whilst Samuel goes as well they are in different groups. This is significant because William has to manage without any of us there to interpret to him, and on his behalf. Whilst it is obvious that he is failing to grasp some 60% or more of what is happening during the sessions, he is enjoying them. His section leader is SEN-trained which is a
bonus.

William has not wanted to learn to read and we took the decision to wait until he appeared ready and willing to learn (I do not feel it is appropriate to force an ASD child to learn something they do not want to – quite apart from it being very difficult!).

Despite this, William has made some amazing progress with his reading. In true autonomous style, this has taken place via Club Penguin! Within the Club Penguin website there is a place that he can take his character that has a "library" where you can "take a book out" and read it. The idea is that you type the words you see on the screen to turn them from grey to black, and every now and again you can select one of two words to go into the story. Despite not being able to "read", he attempts to do this. He sits and tries every key on the keyboard until he finds the right one.

He has his own laptop which of course has a keyboard all in capitals so hardly any of them look like the letters on the screen. This means he is learning his capitals at the same time.

This experience led us to discuss as parents the relevance of the actual alphabet (as a learn-by-rote activity). The relevance of the order of the letters is not as relevant in today’s society. Other than being able to recite it, or use it for codes, or filing, why do you need to know it? However the relevance of the position of the letters on a keyboard (or on a mobile phone pad) seems to be more important.

In addition to this, William wants to use an online game that his brothers have used and as such has decided that it will be useful to be able to read. He is now voluntarily spending half an hour a day on sites such as Super Why and Star Fall practising spelling.

As a family we have enjoyed the company of many other home educating families both through regular organised gatherings and through the many family-to-family relationships that have been formed.

We’ve made use of the plethora of home education groups in the South East of London and across Kent and taken part in many of their outings. This have included the Annual South East Home Educators’ Beach Day, a visit to a chocolate factory, the Britain at War Experience, and Reigate Fort to name but a few) as well as outings to parks and indoor play areas.

Our hope for the rest of 2010 is that Josh will continue to pursue his love of drama. We will need to discuss with him whether or not he wants to progress to the Silver Arts Award and/or look to take GCSE drama or indeed start looking at the entry requirements for drama school.

We will continue to encourage his involvement in the community activities through our church, reaching out to the desperate and needy of Bromley – and particularly to the disenfranchised youth.

Samuel has recently developed a serious interest in drumming and we are seeking someone to teach him how to play the drums. We also hope that he will pursue his love of cooking. We intend to provide as many opportunities as possible for him to follow his entrepreneurial instincts.

William needs a lot of support as he starts to become more aware of how his ASD impinges not just upon himself but upon others. Blissfully unaware for the most part of the world around him, it is important that he discovers those things that he needs to be able to manage in order to take part in the wider world – outside of his family, church community, and home education community where he is understood and supported.

This needs to be a slow and gentle process.

As always, we will continue to be guided by our children to ensure that progress is relevant, appropriate, and timely.

Home Educators' Vigil Tonight

On Tuesday 8th December from 6.00p.m. home educators are holding a vigil in Old Palace Yard opposite the Houses of Parliament.

Inside, history is being made as home educators begin to petition the House of Commons to get rid of Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families bill. More than 120 petitions will be presented in a mass presentation with 10% of MPs in the Chamber, smashing the record for petitions in one day.

In total more than 250 identical petitions from constituencies all over England, an overwhelming record in parliamentary history, are to be presented to Parliament over the next few weeks.

Under existing law, Local Authorities have powers to take action if they have reason to believe home educated children in their area are not receiving a suitable education, according to their age, aptitude and ability. Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 they also have the power to intervene and gain access to the home where there is evidence that a child is at risk of significant harm.

However, under clause 26, the Government is seeking to dramatically extend State powers.

• The Bill requires that all home educators apply annually for permission to continue home educating.
• Local authorities will also to have the right to enter the residence "where the education takes place" and potentially to interview children without the parent present.
• Home educating parents will be required to formulate an annual educational plan, which must be approved by the Local Authority. Parents will then be assessed in accordance with the plan.
• Non-compliance with the demands of the Local Authority will result in a Statutory School Order being issued.
  

The proposed legislation is in direct opposition to Section 7 of the Education Act that it is the `duty of parents to secure education'. For the first time in British legislative history, the Government will become responsible for children's education instead of parents. This represents a fundamental shift in power, allowing the State to intrude yet further into family life.

Currently home educating parents take full responsibility for their children's learning, at no cost to the taxpayer. They are sensitive to the shifting developmental needs of their children. However, the proposed legislation threatens this educational approach, as parents who diverge from the enforced plan will have their children forcibly sent to school.

The Government is proposing to spend £1000 per child per annum on just monitoring each home educated child (no funds are earmarked for providing support or improving access to services for home educated children). As there is no evidence that this monitoring will improve educational outcomes for children, this is an unwarranted additional expense at a time when massive cut backs in existing services are necessary to stem
Government debt.

Home Educators: if you are planning on coming, please bring any placards left over after the mass lobby although there’ll be some stuff to wave provided and some masks that were used at the mass lobby demo. As it’ll be dark we thought it might be fun for everyone to bring torches. Also anything loud like whistles would be good as MPs might be able to hear us as well as hopefully some passing traffic honking their support. Bubbles in torchlight might work too.

If you can't be there, but you are on twitter, please tweet! Join the P Party at 8.30 by searching and tweeting with the tag #HEPP.

Try to get media coverage please call BBC London, Radio 5 live, LBC etc or send a press release to your local paper.

BBC London’s news desk on 020 776 50935 or text them on 07786 200 949

It is likely to be covered on Five Live Drive Time - http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/get-in-touch/

Call: 0500 909 693

SMS/MMS: 85058

Email:5live@bbc.co.uk

Twitter: @bbc5live

I don't want to talk about it

Added to the long list of debt owed to me by DCSF is the loss of the time to blog regularly.

It isn't just time though. My life is revolving around the battle to save home education as we know it, I live, sleep, eat, dream it. It has felt that to blog means to write about that fight and, to be honest, I don't want to. I feel enough words and space has been given over to the travesty that is the Badman Report and I don't want to add to it. I just wish I could dig a hole big enough to bury it all in once and for all.

So, I'm going to blog about what is REAL, what matters, which is MY FAMILY.

I'm Having a Day Off. Honest.

They say a week is a long time in politics... well the past 10 days have been a very long time!

The fight that home educators are engaged in at the moment has really consumed those days. Monday 12th saw Graham Badman and DCSF up in front of the Select Committee (if you watched online, that was my head in the bottom right corner of the screen!). I went along and made copious shorthand notes which thankfully I haven't had to try and transcribe as the official transcript is available online!

The next day was the mass lobby. Roarke went up to this and helped out as a steward. Some 450 home educating parents, children and young people attended and it took over 2 1/2 hours for them to get through security and in to lobby their MPs.

It was such a massive acheivement and it is a shame that there was only one bit of TV coverage.

Well done to everyone who took part.

The next day Autism in Mind, Education Otherwise, Home Education Advisory Service, Home Education Centre, and a pro-Badman home educating parent, gave evidence followed by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, National Children’s Bureau, NSPCC, and West Sussex County Council. Again, you could watch it online and read the transcript.

Families were beginning to feel some stirings of hope at the way in which some on the Committee appear to have got their heads around the issues and begun to understand the concerns and outrage of home educators. An indication of this was the Chair's decision to hold an informal session on Monday 19th at which a number of home educating parents, their children, and home educated young people were invited to attend. By all accounts, it was a positive experience with the children and young people as always being the one piece of evidence you just can't ignore - home education WORKS.

That same evening, the consultation on the monitoring and registration of home educators closed with at least 5342 submissions made. The e-petition also closed, with 4,884 signatories.

We will NOT be bullied!

Tuesday evening, Education Otherwise's Government Policy Group took the battle into the heart of Westminster by holding a briefing event for MPs. A team of twenty eight people had formed a working party to arrange the event. Speakers included Ian Dowty, and Dr Alan Thomas. I need to get my head around writing the event up properly, but it was certainly a positive event.

Now today I'm meant to be taking a day off... so I'm not really online, writing this...

Mass Lobby of Parliament on Tuesday 13 October 2009

Press Release from the Badman Review Action Group:

PARENTS and their children will be attending a mass lobby of Parliament next week to protest about planned changes to the law on home education that will strip them of their rights and intrude into family life.

Nearly 200 adult supporters have confirmed with the organisers that they will be attending the rally on Tuesday 13 October, bringing with them 190 children. Many of them have firm appointments to see their MPs.

The mass lobby has been organised in the wake of a Government review into home education.

Graham Badman, former Director of Education at Kent County Council, who carried out the study, recommended that local councils should have the right to enter family homes and question children alone.

He also said that parents who home educate should be forced to register every year and gave local authorities carte blanche to refuse registration.

The Review of Elective Home Education in England was accepted in full by the Government, which wants to change the law as soon as possible.

It intends to use its Improving Schools and Safeguarding Bill to introduce home education registration and monitoring legislation as early as next month.

The Badman report and the Government’s eagerness to accept it has brought an angry response from home educators.

Mass lobby organiser Claire Blades, 45, from Aylesbury, said: “No longer are parents being trusted to make decisions about their own children.

“First we had the news that 11.3 million people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - close to one in four of the adult population – would have to have Criminal Record Bureau checks.

“Then we had the case of the two policewomen who were accused of illegal childminding because they took care of each other’s children on their days off.

“Now parents who home educate are to be forced to undergo intrusive monitoring in their own homes because they are not trusted with their own children.

“By ignoring the onward march of legislation that intrudes into family life, we are allowing ourselves to sleepwalk into a nightmare. It is time to wake up and call a halt to the ever-growing band of officials who think they know what is best for our children and our families.”

Home educators claim that the Badman report, published in June, is inaccurate and shows little understanding of the home educating community.

So many home educators complained that the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee ordered a short inquiry into the report.

There were more than 200 written submissions to that inquiry and home educators are awaiting notification of when the Select Committee hearing will be.

Mrs Blades said: “Mr Badman claimed that the ratio of home-educated children who were “known to social care” was twice that of the population at large.

“It turns out that that vague statistic came from a small sample of 25 local authorities.

“The group, Action for Home Education, has carried out its own research using Freedom of Information requests to all local education authorities in England and the picture painted is quite the reverse.

“Interestingly, even Mr Badman has come to realise that his statistics are flawed.

“On 17 September 2009, he wrote to all local authority Directors of Children’s Services to say: ‘I would like to strengthen my statistical evidence in advance of the Select Committee hearing so that it is more extensive and statistically robust.’

“He practically begged the Directors of Children’s Services to help him ‘make the strongest possible case to the Select Committee’.”

“The picture painted of home education in the Badman report is unrecognisable to the thousands of families in this country who exercise their legal right to educate their children without sending them to school.

“It is unrecognisable to the thousands of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends who share the lives of home educated children. It is unrecognisable to the children themselves.

“The mass lobby is an opportunity for us to show our MPs what home education is really about and to bring important issues like inaccuracies and bias in the Badman report to their attention.”

2007 Home Education Guidelines

For some odd reason the DCSF 2007 Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities has disappeared from their website.

EO have asked them when it will be back...

In the meantime, a number of people and groups have helpfully put a copy online for ease of reference. So if you are looking for it, you can find the DCSF 2007 Elective Home Education Guidelines for Local Authorities here!

For all my non-home educating friends

The Government's main plans for home educators focuses on several areas:

• compulsory registration
• the parent providing a statement of educational approach against which the child's "performance" will be assessed
  
• annual inspections, with right of access to the home and
  
• right of access (alone if necessary) with the child

I can understand that some people who have no experience of home education may fail to appreciate why reading that list is sufficient to make me weep, and I also understand that some families who DO home educate, may also scratch their heads and wonder why other home educators are so distressed and angry at these proposals.

Many finer minds than mine and more eloquent writers have already put into the public domain explainations of the issues in order to raise awareness and to gather support. However this is just my attempt to get some of the stuff rattling around in my mind OUT - in the hope that perhaps some of my non-home educating friends might better understand what is consuming me at the moment.

Compulsory Registration

This is a point that I think most members of the public have the biggest problem with, in terms of understanding why many home educators are against this. What everyone needs to understand - including home educators who are already to known to their Local Authority and/or who don't have a problem with the concept of registration - is that this is NOT about "being known". This is NOT the "we're doing it to protect the children" measure that it claims to be. Being registered will not save the life of even one child. I am convinced of that.

One thing that it is about is numbers, statistics; the fodder for government departments to use, manipulate and chose to focus on - or ignore - as it suits them. Knowing just how many home educating families there are is important if you are wanting to win votes, or bring in unpopular measures. Knowing how many children are home educated is a useful figure to know for budgeting purposes. It would also help them know if more people were turning to home ed (though sadly, I doubt any increase would drive them to examine the reasons why and improve schools - instead it would just lead to more restrictions).

If it was just a matter of your name being on a list of home educators, held by your local authority, then it is true that some home educators would not have a problem with the idea of being known. However, not only do many more home educators have real issues with the idea of registration even if it was something straight forward (for a variety of reasons, ranging from lack of trust - with good reason - of the authorities, social services, and other services right through to a belief that the state does not have any right or need to have such a list), but also we take issue with the sort of registration proposed by the Badman Report.

One recommendations states:

That local authority adult services and other agencies be required to inform those charged with the monitoring and support of home education of any properly evidenced concerns that they have of parents’ or carers’ ability to provide a suitable education irrespective of whether or not they are known to children’s social care, on such grounds as

• alcohol or drug abuse
• incidents of domestic violence
• previous offences against children
  

And in addition:

• anything else which may affect their ability to provide a suitable and efficient education

Does not the phrase "anything else" not frighten you? Maybe you have been fortunate enough to never have experienced depression, or post natal depression. Or have any long term illness, disability or condition. Maybe you do not have strongly held Christian, Muslim, Pagan, or any other religious or political views that you know often sets you apart from others. But, if you do, then you are well aware of the potential abuse of such a dangerous phrase.

I am not a conspiracy theorist. I think I'm a fairly open minded, fairly rational person. The fact remains however that we live in a world where governments - western governments - regularly use laws to their own ends regardless of the original meaning or motivation behind the law makers. I think the Terrorism Act is one prime current example.

On top of which, lets just examine the rest of that recommendation. Of course it might seem on reading it through that it was reasonable to think that someone with a history of, say, drug abuse, shouldn't be allowed to home educate.

Can I ask you to stop and think WHY? WHY shouldn't they be allowed?

"Safeguarding", you say, "the child isn't safe there".

Now think that through logically.

The child is considered safe to be in the care of its parents - otherwise it would have been removed. Yet it isn't safe to be educated at home. That is illogical - Mr Spock or Tuvok could see straight through that one! Either a child is safe, or not. Either a child is under social services care, or not. To suggest that a child is safe with their parents as long as they are at school during the day, is ludicrous. Even to say ah well its because the parent couldn't cope with them home all the time - er, excuse me, what about the summer holidays?

If a child is not safe enough to be educated at home by its parents, then presumably if the local authority deny permission to educate the child at home then the same local authority will pay for that child to attend some kind of school club in every single school holiday - because the child is "not safe" to be with its parents between the hours of 9 and 3.

Absolutely complete RUBBISH. It is so ridiculous I repeatedly have to reread the Report to believe that someone actually wrote this down without thinking it through.

The fact that the DCSF and government have come out 100% in support of the Report either means they haven't read it, or they are equally ridiculous.

Statement of Education Approach

This is an area where there are a number of opinions, it has to be said, amongst home educators, but nearly everyone can see that particularly for those of us who are child led, autonomous learners, informal learners, unschoolers - whatever label you want to use - this is a disaster.

It also has to be said that many who home educate for religious or philosophical reasons also will have issues with this, regardless of whether they are structured or not, because it has the potential of your view being judged by the LA as "not being suitable".

This has already happened in Sweden where you can no longer, in effect, home educate for religious reasons as to provide an education based on one world view is apparently not suitable.

The detail of this recommendation is truly ridiculous, but possibly only of interest to a home educator - things like the LA being the one to help a new home educator draw up such a statement, which is like saying that a GP should get help from a herbalist in drawing up a plan of medication for a patient. The GP and the herbalist share little in common other than (supposedly) both wanting the best for the patient and for them to get better. However, their belief as to what constitutes "the best" and "getting better" and how to acheive that will most likely be completely different. For every GP who is open to alternative therapies, or every herbalist willing to work alongside a GP, there will be many more who wouldn't even want to give each other the time of day because they each believe that the other is doing more harm than good.

That's what it is like to say that an LA employee should help a family who have just deregistered to draft a plan - even worse, that they should have a say in whether or not MY PLAN is suitable.

I don't have a plan! There, I've said it. I have no educational goals for my children.

I certainly have hopes and desires. As a parent, and as a Christian parent, I have very firm idea as to where I hope my children will be - as people - by the time they are 18 or 19. I know what I would like them to have learnt and understood by then. Not one of those involve anything to do with maths or english.

I want them to be secure in themselves. I want them to love life, love God, love learning. To have open hearts and minds. To be able to see the beauty around them. To be able to see the beauty inside everyone they meet. I want them to have a willingness to help, to teach, and to be helped and to be teachable. I want them to believe that they can have, do, be anything that they want to. I want them to have chosen for themselves to always walk within the will of God.

I want us as a family to have had the chance to explore each other, to build bonds, to store up precious memories, to be able to rely upon each other. I want them to continue to see their parents and their siblings as their friends.

I don't think that my LA will take that as my "statement of educational approach" - though I will certainly be submitting it as one should it come to that.

Annual Inspections/Right of Access

I would hope that most people could understand for themselves that for the Government to be bringing in powers that give a local government employee automatic, legal right of access to the home of someone who choses to home educate, is, well, downright scary.

Remember, the law already exists to give them legal right of access to the home - and the child away from it's parents - if they have safeguarding concerns. They had right of access to the child in Birmingham who was taken out of school and starved to death. For some indefensible reason, they didn't exercise that law. Instead, that case is now being thrown in the faces of home educators as justification for this change of the law. I can barely type that sentence because of the rage that I feel whenever I think about it.

This is an automatic standard right. It can only be seen as "prevention" - our children are, because they are home educated, "at risk of being at risk" of not receiving a suitable education and/or of being harmed without anyone knowing. Apparently.

Anyone who believes in human rights, civil liberties, should be horrified at this and campaigning alongside us to get it thrown out. I cannot understand how any MP, once made aware of these facts, could consider voting this through. Anyone who doesn't believe that the State knows best, should be against this.

Actually, I may come back to this point, because I am genuinely now so upset writing about this that I think I need to go away and come back to it.

I need to think how I can make my friends understand the seriousness of this.

If you are a friend of mine/ours reading this, regardless of your personal feelings about home education, please please consider supporting us in fighting these proposals. Please add your name to the petition against the recommendations which you can find here.

Please also consider writing to your MP to ask them to vote against the proposals to be contained in the Improving Schools and Safeguarding Children Bill due to be announced in the Queen's Speech in November. You can either read more about this here or contact me personally to find out more.

You can also watch a short video about it here.

If you are still reading this, please consider if these proposals were applied to whatever is dear to you. Whatever is precious to you.

Consider replacing the word with any other minority.

What if it was right of access to the home of any Muslim? Any Socialist? A disabled person?

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

There is no evidence that supports this attitude of "guilty unless proven innocent" being directed towards home educators. Trust me on this. I am living and breathing this at the moment, and am part of many different groups of people who are doing an incredible amount of work to find the statistics, the information, the detail, the evidence, the research, and are gradually building up the picture as to what evidence is (or actually isn't) available that could form any basis for any of these recommendations (something that was severley lacking in the actual Review/Report).

If you are the sort of person who needs proof, evidence, that's fine - contact me. I can talk detail!

More Sleep Needed

SO much has been happening that I rarely get time to think let alone blog!

I've been really busy working on this video for Education Otherwise.

On top of that, there has been some pretty cool family stuff going on.

Samuel decided to go to Rock Camp, the 5 day youth camp for 7-11 year olds that our church runs every year. For a child with aspergers this was such a BIG deal. Going away from home for the first time, new people, new environment, crowds, noise, no privacy, shared sleeping, games, activities, constant stimulation... the list is endless.

I am achingly proud of him for not only making the decision to go, but going, seeing it through, and coming home so proud of himself too.

I have to give huge credit to our church, BCC, for being such an awesome place and to the youth workers for being such amazing people that we could entrust Samuel to them for such an important step.

Joshua then got the chance to go with the teen group from church, Baseline, to the amazing 5 day experience that is Rocknations. He had an AWESOME time and my child of God who went away has come back a young Man of God.

Jonathan had his second ever casting for a Huggies advert and we should know by midday tomorrow if he has got through to the next round or not.

Roarke has been busy, several days filming for a new film coming out next year, plus several auditions.

We all need more sleep!

My More4 Interview

I just found out that someone had managed to record my More4 interview from the day that the Badman Report was published.

I was so fed up, I'd had a horrendous day, and I really didn't feel in the mood to do it.

I think it shows ;0)

The rest of the week

Roarke finally got in a 1am Thursday morning, after his mammoth travelling session, made worse by the fact that part of the M40 had been closed.

The next morning I was up to take Jonathan to his paediatrician's appointment. To be honest, it was the same old same old. Jonathan is "obviously" thriving, happy, healthy, exceeding his "targets" therefore there can be nothing wrong. As for the colic and other symptoms he agreed it sounds like he has an issue with reflux but *shrug*....

"Just keep doing what you are doing Mrs Newstead, you are obviously doing a great job".

Interestingly, he had indeed been contacted about Jonathan's trips to A&E and the child protection flag. Guess it is a good thing he thinks I'm doing a "good job"...

In the afternoon we had another HE family over, for their two boys to play with my boys. I guess I should say "hang out with" rather than play these days.

In the evening Josh went off to his last SAVVY meeting of the term. Sunday he has the performance at GUILFEST. He's going all that way without us. Not that I'm worried. Of course not...

Friday was another marathon day. I got a train at 8am into London in order to meet with EO trustees at 10am for meetings that lasted until 3.45pm. Then we went on to Fielden House where Lord Lucas had kindly reserved a room. We meet up with some home educators who had succesfully been lobbying Mark Field MP, Ian Dowty, Lord Lucas, and some of the trustees. We were also joined by some home ed children and young people and, of course, the film crew.

Between them all we managed to film some great clips that EO are hoping to put into a promo/lobbying film. I particularly enjoyed meeting Theo, son of trustee Vicky, and Alex, one of Ian Dowty's sons. Lord Lucas made a friend in Theo when he assisted him to *ahem* make use of the House of Lords branded items lying around that Theo is rather hoping someone might wish to purchase from him via eBay! Encouraging enterprise in the young, well done Ralph!

I finally got back on a train at 8pm however as said train decided to break down, I didn't actually end up getting off the train until 9. We went straight to pick up Josh who had gone to the Baseline end of term party. I think Josh has just realised why people love parties. Maybe he has inherited even more of his Dad's genes that he thought - second generation party animal maybe?!

Today I let everyone lay in. Not that Jonathan did of course. Nor William. But Samuel made it up around 9.45 and Josh was eating breakfast by about 10.45

Roarke has been out working for Channel Advantage today at PC World. He's had his hair done differently and I can't but think he looks like Rik Mayall now... It's the straight hair. Can't get used to it. He hasn't decided if he is going to keep it or not. It certainly makes having his hair long easier though, and the part that he has got in "The Special Relationship" requires him to have his hair long.

Jonathan is learning his abc as fast as William is at the moment, and loves watching Super Why. He is also almost running around now on his cast!

I'm so desperately tired today I just didn't want to play. Didn't want to be "mum". Just wanted to be all on my own. Obviously that hasn't happened! Roarke has gone off to a bbq on his own because I'm not in a social mood, which is a shame because it would have been good (and mum had offered to have the boys for a few hours). I am hoping that I can get all the boys upstairs around 9pm because THEN I might get a few moments to myself!

Mass Lobby of Parliament

(Forwarded with permission:)

Dear Friends,

Re: Mass lobby about the Badman Review and White Paper: Your Child; Your Schools; Our Future: Building A 21st Century School System.

In response to a suggestion by an MP, some home educators are organising a mass lobby of Parliament on Tuesday 13 October 2009. Please keep that date free if you want to join in. The more people who come, the greater the impact will be.

I would also be grateful if you could email me at masslobby@live.co.uk to let me know if you are coming. It would be good to have an idea of numbers and to be able to contact you with further details if necessary.

Please cross post this everywhere.

Claire Blades

Where Have I Been?

Well I guess the majority of my readers will understand why I've been absent for a few weeks...

On 11th June Graham Badman published his Report into Home Education, and Ed Balls simultaneously published his response.

I don't know what I can say that hasn't already been said. I'm utterly exhausted, emotional wrung out, angry, frustrated...

I feel betrayed at a personal level by Graham Badman. I think any home educator (especially autonomous ones) who met him during the course of his "data gathering", and those of us who met him as representatives of home ed organisations (EO and HEAS), have a right to feel angry. A man who could have looked us in the eye and said "I assure you I 'get' autonomous home education" and then writes the insulting, inappropriate, draconian rubbish that the report contains didn't GET anything.

All we have GOT is hung out to dry.

On the day of the publication my phone did not stop ringing. At one point I was on the phone to the press, Roarke was on my mobile answering a query, and Josh had the press ringing for me on HIS phone.

At 5.30am on Thursday Josh and I got up (as did Roarke of course) and at 6 o'clock we were collected by a car and driven to the BBC. We went into the Green Room (which is red, of course) for BBC Breakfast. Tony Mooney (well known sadly to home educators) and Dr Rosemary Leonard were there. It didn't appear to occur to either of them that the child and mother in the room were there for the home education piece so they both spoke quite freely.

In this litigious society I shall refrain from posting publically what they both said, though Tony didn't say anything that we haven't heard him spout before, but I can say I was not impressed with the attitude of the Dr and hope that her comments were born out of ignorance rather than anything else.

We then went on and did our bit. If you didn't see it then the clip is on YouTube. Enjoy the moment when Tony Mooney's phone went off. The camera doesn't do the moment justice. The camera also doesn't do justice to the look on Bill and Kate's faces when I said that my boys don't do any formal academic work at all....

From there Josh (wasn't he FAB?!) and I went to the Green Room (magnolia) for BBC News Channel and we appeared on there live around 8.40. I just think my 13 year old son is AWESOME for being so willing to get up early, to go on live tv in front of millions, and be so cool about it all. Even before home ed he was an amazing person - but home ed has given him the chance to truly embrace and be what he is.

We then were brought home and there followed a manic time as the Report was then published. Every single newspaper and station in the country it seemed wanted a quote from EO.

In the midst of it all, Newsround turned up to film Josh (did I mention how amazing he is?). Then the BBC rang and asked if I could go back in for the evening news.

So at 3 oclock, having just had my first food of the day, I got back in the car - alone this time - and went back up to London. Of course this was the second day of the tube strike so the traffic all day was awful.

I went back to the BBC News Channel Green Room and went on air live around 5.40pm. Nice moment was when someone for the next news item came in and said "oh I recognise you from the tele this morning"! Fame! Or is in infamy...?

Whilst I was waiting in the Green Room someone came in from the 6 O'clock news to ask if I would do a piece to camera, pre recorded, for the show. If I had known the inaccurate way they would be linking Spry with home education in the piece I would NOT have taken part.

After I finished with the BBC I was collected by car by More4 who took me across to their studios to do a live piece for Thursday's evening More4 News live at about 8.30pm. By this time in the day I was utterly fed up with all the rubbish being thrown at home educators. Before leaving at 3pm I had had the misfortune to have been able to read the Report in detail and I was still feeling sick. The poor reporter got more than he bargained for and people who watched it said it was obvious that he was not happy with the answers he was getting and that someone was shouting in his ear to stop the interview!

By now I was exhausted and I really didn't want to do anything anymore. Roarke had come up to meet me, knowing how I would be feeling, and we got the car home together. We collected the boys from Mum; ironically our friends who are both teachers had been helping by looking after Samuel and William whilst Roarke came up to meet me, and had then taken them over to Mum who had Josh and Jonathan. Roarke drove us home then went to get me a take away as I had only had that one sandwich all day.

Josh went straight to bed, bless him (10.15 by then) and I finally got into bed at about 11.15pm.

Friday I was still in shock from the report, still answering the phone, doing live interviews on three local radio stations, still feeling displaced from everything the day before.

Saturday it all caught up with me I think! Fortunately we had a birthday party to go to, for Callum, in the Medway and seeing Sheila and Phil really helped (and Phil's home made beer REALLY helped!). Sunday I felt yuk and just wanted to sleep all day.

This week has been tough too. Every highlight brings pain because every magical family moment (like Jonathan falling asleep on me on the trampoline), every autonomous home ed "moment" (like realising that somehow, without doing a shred of written work or reading, Samuel has learnt to spell all on his own somewhere in the past few months) brings the immediate pain of realising that this Government is determined to take away my freedoms.

Another day I will write on why it is so bad for ALL parents, and why everyone should be supporting us at this time, but today we had our HE meeting and I have talked about it so much that I am sick of hearing my own thoughts.

If you haven't already, I suggest you go over to Dare to Know and read someone who is much better placed than I to outline the situation.

Please also, if you haven't already, sign this petition.

The fraudulent consultation, if you are interested in reading it, is here.

So far..

Apart from having just burnt my arm on a removable bottomed cake tin (long story, which I've already bored my friends on Facebook with), what else have we been up to?

Samuel had a day long birthday celebration with one of his friends on Saturday. They kindly invited Josh to, so they went to the cinema, then to the Noodle House. Josh then came back and Samuel went on with the others to the swimming pool.

Roarke spent the day focusing on William and Jonathan. Amusingly he noted how William didn't stop talking once during the day! Where was I? A seven and a half hour Education Otherwise Government Policy Group meeting in London! It involved a tube journey on my own which was pants (I am phobic about enclosed spaces since being bullied at secondary school) and then a LOT of talking. Still, we covered loads of ground, collated feedback, argued points, and generally thrashed out the basis of another submission to the home education review from EO.

It was actually fascinating to have the luxury of such a long debate, child free, for once with other home educators face to face.

William this week did the Crucial Crew safety tests - one of the first things that Samuel and Josh did when they came out of school! For someone like William it is really important to drum those safety messages in, so I intend to get him to do it regularly. Josh kindly sat with him to do it, which was of benefit to both of them.

This week Josh has signed up to become a Young Reviewer for Bachtrack which, as well as broadening his knowledge will also hopefully become part of his Bronze Arts Award course.

We're really struggling still with William, and his violence. Only today he provoked Samuel to such a point that Samuel totally and utterly lost it, and ended up rushing into the kitchen to grab a knife... I know he was doing it more to demonstrate his pain than actually intending to harm himself, but it is still just as heartbreaking, just as scary, and still reinforces yet again how bad it could have been for him to stay in school.

He ended up with a nose bleed and fresh bruises and marks to his neck from William. William forgets it all within seconds which, as it took a while to get the story (Samuel wouldn't tell us so I had to ask Josh) it ended up too late to do anything about it in terms of any discipline or discussion with William - he simply would not remember what we were talking about.

We are trying to find ways to give Samuel the space he needs away from William but it remains difficult all the time we are here - I do hope the Council sort a 4 bed out for us soon :0(

Jonathan continues to grow his vocabulary and his precociousness. We've had to move the phone because he's worked out that he can press the call button to make the phone ring and then he picks it up and pretends he's answering the phone. However cute it is, it is still annoying - especially because he has already once actually answered the phone when it was ringing (its one of those that connects as soon as you pick the handset up) - we still have no idea who it was who rang that day as they never called back or if they did they didn't say they had first spoken to a toddler! He just held the phone and said "yes, yes, yes" but by the time we got the phone from him they'd hung up!

He also likes walking along the window sill of the bay window of our room which is equally cute and even more dangerous.

Josh is pleased that our HE group is starting up some more sailing practice soon at Danson. I gave Samuel the chance to try again (as they are also running another level 1 course) but he said a very firm no.

End of the week

On Tuesday I had Jonathan all to myself. He was really stuffed up with a cold and is not sleeping well, so Roarke took the other three off to Beaver Water World with the home ed group. They got to see lots of small animals, beavers, and reptiles. Josh did the reptile handling and seemed to enjoy it.

Wednesday was a tough day. In the morning I went for William's diagnosis result, which was ASD. On one part of the questionnaire where 8 was the cut off point for showing that yes the child was on the spectrum, he'd scored 23...

It was a lot to take in even though I was prepared for it and it has caused us to sit and really reevaluate everything. We had a chat with Josh about it and said it might be easier for him to think of William as being the same as Jonathan - that is, toddler behaviour - rather than seeing him as naughty etc. To give Josh his due, and he deserves HUGE credit for this, ever since that conversation he has been spending lots of time with William playing with him and indeed responding to him how he responds to Jonathan. The pay off is huge as William is really happy and it seems to have been less stressful for Josh too.

Straight after the interview I had to drive to Hither Green for my friend's cremation service.

It was never going to be "good" but sadly it was an awful experience. As a Christian I get very uncomfortable at "christian" services for non-Christians. My friend's mother had been religious and I understand he had been baptised as a baby and on that basis his father had arranged a religious funeral. But my mate was an atheist and for his friends sitting in the pews it was so uncomfortable to listen to stuff that we knew he was utterly opposed to. We all expected the lid of the coffin to fly off to be honest and him to sit up and answer back! At one point there was a huge gust of wind and the skies darken and some of us couldn't help looking at each other and winking as we all thought the same thing!

The person taking the service didn't know my friend, and had obviously only spoken a few words with his father - who sadly didn't really know his son either. So there was just one sentence actually about my friend and the rest was just the service in the book.

It was excruciatingly painful, sad, and made me very upset. When we came outside it was obviously that all his mates felt the same. We all agreed that if we'd planned the service it would have been about what our friend wanted - but then I guess funerals are for the living not the dead :0(

Some of us went back to the house to pay our respects then we slipped out and joined the others in the pub. THAT was when it really felt like we were saying goodbye properly. Standing in a pub, insulting each other, playing practical jokes on each other, and sharing funny stories about our mate was the reality of our friendship with him and each other and I felt so much better after I'd been there.

It was great to see some mates I hadn't seen for a LONG time, and reminding me of my dim and distant youth and all the stuff I got up to ;0) The only thing missing was my friend.

The next day I woke feeling awful having obviously come down with one of the many bugs going around. With both Jonathan and I ill I had to cancel a meeting I had with a local LA which was a shame. The only highlight of the day was watching Roarke try on an army uniform for a marketing film he was starring in the next day! Shame I felt too ill to take advantage ;0)

The only boots he had suitable to use for the shoot as part of the uniform where his old work/garden boots, so that meant an evening of spit and polish for me. I didn't mind, as it kind of took me back and made me think of Dad. We used to spend hours together getting ready for parades, and especially for competitions (both Dad and I were British Legion Standard Bearers, I went up to Area level, Dad as far as National). I am extremely good at polishing shoes to service standard!

Roarke took Josh to SAVVY and back for me, as I really wasn't safe to drive as I was so dizzy, and it sounds like Josh had a good time as usual.

Friday was a long day. As well as the usual household stuff like shopping in the morning I also went to London in the afternoon as part of a group from EO going back for a return meeting with Graham Badman. Like I've said elsewhere notes from the meeting won't be out till next week as we all need to compare notes and write something coherent, and between family commitments amongst those of us there, it isn't going to happen quickly. Needless to say the meeting was only noteworthy for me in what we didn't find out.

Roarke was filming all day but we got a chance to relax a little late in the evening once we were both back home, before an early night. Only once in the past fortnight have we gone to bed after Josh! Gosh how old am I?!

Today I did some baking to relax and try to get my head together, making bread and biscuits and then sorting out a nice roast for the evening. I noted that the free range chicken said it served 3-4 and yet we managed generous portions for two adults, three kids (well, Josh and Samuel are more adult portion actually), Jonathan's dinner, and then 10 portions to freeze down for more meals for him. I assume that means people usually waste huge amounts as I can't believe it is because they eat all that much meat. If they do, well, no wonder obesity is rising. Having said that those of you who have met either Roarke or myself will know we don't exactly look like people who eat small portions so... like I said, it must just come down to waste.

Jonathan is currently sitting on the table next to me trying to get onto his push along train which is ALSO on the table... you can see where this is going to end can't you?! Yes I know he shouldn't be on the table but you try reasoning with him!

One extreme to another

I'm not sure where the past week has gone, but it seems to have flown by.

The low-light was definately the visit by Graham Badman to our home ed group. I found it quite disheartening to see him in that environment seemingly missing the WHOLE POINT of it all. When we've had reporters come there to meet with us, they have all been impressed by the kids, by the parents, by the whole atmosphere. Now I'm not saying he didn't think those things - he did say that the kids were "doing you proud" when I dragged him away from talking to the teens - but on the whole I just didn't feel the same "wow" reaction that we usually get.

Because our kids ARE amazing. They are so confident, so relaxed. He said he thought that a similar bunch of schooled kids would be reacting the same to him - I disagree. Totally. I said they would be talking to him because they were being made not, not because they'd want to, and again he disagreed.

*shrug* Sorry. I just don't think he really SAW.

Anyway, enough of that. To balance that a fabulous day was had today. Someone suggested a trip to Danson Park for a picnic as the weather was so good. We had at least 10 families there (I think I counted them all) with at least 18 kids between us ranging in age from 21 months to 14 years. We had quite a few in the 12+ bracket and it was so very very good to see all those teens getting on, playing, letting their hair down, roller blading/skating, running around and generally hanging.

Sorry Mr Badman but THAT isn't so usually these days, amongst a bunch of teenagers. Especially to be comfortably mixed male and female.

The adults all had a good natter, put the world to rights (especially Mr Badman et al!), caught up, and generally hung out too.

The weather was ideal. All in all a very good day to be out and about and revelling in the freedom of self expression and freedom from constraints that home education brings.

I've taken lots of calls this week about home ed. At least 4 new families taking their kids out. I've also had a few tough cases which I've been involved in.

We got the car fixed in time to take Josh to SAVVY on Thursday which was a huge blessing. Its good to be back on the road again ;0) It also meant we could get to Fun Drum on Tuesday with the home ed group. One of the teens in the group is a fabulous artist, and was there with her younger brother. Whilst she sat around she was tracing out some great designs and kindly did one for me. I love colouring in! That's another good thing about HE - it allows me to be a kid again! No one thought I was mad to be sitting there colouring in, as an adult.

I do love the fact that home ed parents are non-judgemental, just like the kids.

On Sunday the cooker broke in the middle of Mum trying to roast her dinner, and just before I put my chicken in, so we've had a week of stove-top meals. I've made no-bake cookies, baked a cake in the breadmaker, and generally dusted off some recipes. I can recommend Sainsburys Pork and Mustard Stew from their Meals for a Fiver range - it was very tasty! Also we've done home made meatballs simmered in tomato sauce (Jamie Oliver - but in the stock pot rather than the oven!), home made falafels in sweet and sour sauce, and of course pasta.

I'm looking forward to my roast chicken though, eventually, once we get the new cooker on Friday!

On Friday Roarke and I are also off to the Council to see about rehousing us...

Sunday Roarke and I got told off in M&S by a complete stranger, and told to "behave, children!" as we were larking around by the wine... seems no one on my Facebook page was surprised by that announcement!

Jonathan is such a delight to be around. He is so into his imaginary play, with any little figures he can find. He feeds them, puts them to bed (and takes them to bed in the afternoon!), puts them in and out of toy cars. Such fun. His thing of taking up to bed whatever he is playing with at the time has led to some strange bed fellows this week, including a piece of wooden train track, cars, lego people, and he even tried to take his sit on train upstairs!

His vocabularly is huge, with him repeating most words now after he is told them, and I have lost count of the range. He's adding at least 5 a day it seems.

Unfortunately though he is very colicky again and I don't know why. I've had two horrendous nights in a row out of him, with him waking every 30-40 minutes screaming. Tired is an understatement.

Well, its been a lovely if long and tiring day, and it is nice that the boys are still outside playing in the failing light.

Roll on the summer.

Article in Digital Journal

You might like to read an article I wrote for Digital Journal, on the petition by Roxane Featherstone, for Ahed, calling on the government to abandon the review into home education.

The article is here.

Protecting the Virtual Child – the law and children’s consent to sharing personal data

From ARCH's website:

"Increasing amounts of sensitive information about children and their families are shared between education, health and social care services. The Government’s Information Sharing Guidance says that children from around the age of 12 can usually give valid consent to allow this personal information to be shared.

During the past year, ARCH has been funded by the Nuffield Foundation to explore the legal basis for assertions about children’s capacity to consent to data-sharing and to examine practice in local authorities. We have consulted a number of academic and practising lawyers with knowledge of consent issues, and interviewed staff from the Information Commissioner’s Office, the General Medical Council and the British Medical Association.

Other countries within the EU approach the subject of children’s consent in different ways, and so ARCH also commissioned a study of children’s consent in 7 EU countries. This was carried out by Professor Douwe Korff, a specialist in EU data protection and human rights law.

ARCH’s full report: ‘Protecting the Virtual Child – the law and children’s consent to sharing personal data’ can be downloaded in pdf format here.