Some clarification needed.

[discoverlife]

When I get my LEO visit.

a) do I have to accept a visit

2) if I accept a visit do I still have to do a written report or Education Philosophy. (other Home ed parents have said that the LEO lady is a good one, well informed etc)

I really have no idea what to put in a report, I guess I don't think I could keep it free from recrimination. My report at the moment would consist of " Better than the school could do" and leave it at that but its a bit childish.

[Julienoshoes]

Hello discoverlife

No you do not have to accept a visit.

The LA may make informal enquiries if they have reason to believe an education is not taking place.

In practice they almost always do make the enquiries.

Case law says that we would be wise to give information once the LA has asked.

How you choose to give that information is entirely up to you.
Some families choose to have a home visit, as that is what suits them, and that is fine if the LA is a reasonable one and won't be one who insists on seeing school type work, timetables etc etc.

Other families choose to meet with the LA somewhere else, such as the library.

Some families have the children present and some don't. Again it is up to you.

There is an article on this on Mike F-Ws website
home visits and why we might refuse them

You do not have to show any work either.

We have never had a home visit in seven years, the LA have not met the children nor have seen any of their work.
The children did not wish to meet them, nor show them any work, we didn't want them in our house, so the answer for us was to send in an educational philosophy and report.

A home ed solicitor (the one who wrote the legal chapters for Free Range Education and Paths are made for Walking HE books, and who is working with EO at the moment) suggests it is a good idea for all HE parents to have an educational philosophy, Mike FW again goes into the reasons why http://home-education.org.uk/article-edphils-why.htm here

There are good examples of ed phils on HE-UK and ed phils on the EO site for you to have a look at.

The ed phil sort of says why you are home educating and the report gives more of the practicalities as to how you will do this and what resources you will use, but frequently the two get mixed up a little.

If you wanted to write one, you could post to one of the main HE websites and folks would help you, put things into writing.

Does that make it any clearer or have I confused things further for you?

[emmaagain]

a) No. You do not have to accept a visit or phone call. You can instruct them that you wish to you all communicating in writing

b) the only thing you HAVE to do is an Ed Phil. there are sample ones you can get ideas from on the EO website and probably some on the HE-UK website too.

Some people are happy to write a summary of what they do each day (eek! too often for me!) or each week or each month. The good thing about this is that you can put an educational spin on things you did. The other good thing about it is that it doesn't compromise your child's privacy or interfere with their learning (there might be a difference between doing a page of sums because you feel like it, and doing a page of sums which mum keeps, and doing a page of sums which mum keeps for the LEA person - each of those steps might ratchet up the anxiety for the child and stop it being fun. Or not. Follow the child). But it is worth watching out that in the moment you arn't thinking "ooh, this is a times tables opportunity, I can put that in the report" and then pushing the conversation into times tables testing mode because you're so busy thinking about how "educational" this is that you've stopped listening. I'm not criticising you, discoverlife, it's more like, this is the way I tend to go off the rails, yk?

some people are happy to produce a portfolio of the child's work to show the LEA. Some are not.

some are happy for the LEA person to meet the child. Some children are not happy with that, some parents are not happy with that. It's very clear in the government guidelines (which you have printed off and wear next to your heart, yes?) that LEAs do NOT have the right to visit your home and do NOT have the right to meet your children and that this is not grounds for welfare concerns. (Just as we all have a right not to have our 3 year olds visited by state officials just because they aren't in an institution all day - they are in parental care, and this, by law, has to be assumed to be adequate unless there are grounds for believing otherwise)

Yes "Better than the school could do" would do very nicely

There's no way they can ask for a report yet. You are still recovering, all of you.

When they contact you, I'd send them an Ed Phil and tell them that of course you can't send a report yet, you've only just started. Politely decline the home visit, and wait to see what they say. I'd guess that in 6 months they'll ask for a report.

Quite a common tactic at the moment on the email lists seems to be to write an Ed Phil and report first time, wait for the LEA to send back the "satisfactory" response and then, when they write again, you say "I sent you an Ed Phil last year, which has not changed. I sent you a report and you pronounced my provision satisfactory. If you have grounds for believing that my provision is no longer satisfactory, please tell me what they are and I'll respond to them. Otherwise, I will continue educating my children rather than filling in your paperwork."

Only said more politely than that.

[discoverlife]

I have checked the Ed Phil's on the EO site and quite honestly I am in awe of them. They look so reasoned and thought out. I have tried putting down my thought as I think of them but it isn't gelling into something that looks so 'professional'. If I sent one in now it would give the LEA the idea that I didn't know what I was doing.

[emmaagain]

Well, the people who post theirs on the EO site are probably pretty damn proud of them

you can work it out here with us if you like - brainstorm

why are you HEing?

What sort of education are you planning to provide for your son?

What do you believe is most important in education?

If and when I have to write an Ed Phil (I'm hoping to stay under the radar for a while yet) that's where I'd start, I think.

[discoverlife]

Good starting points so far there Emmaagain.

Why? Would be Bullying, and DS not learning anything because he could not take in the whole lesson, he would 'zone' out after 10 minutes as he tried to assimilate the bits he had already learnt. So that part would be to educate him at a pace suitable to his special needs. (getting somewhere already).

What? Hmmm a bit harder, an autonomous education led by himself but as to how Im not sure yet.

Most important? Well I have always believed it is my duty, as a parent, to prepare my children for life away from the nest. So have alway put as much priority on cooking, budgetting skills, map reading, changing a nappy etc. as GCSE's. I never expected DS to be able to do GCSE's anyway and had always thought that NVQ's would be the route he would take.

Hey its working already. Thats part of a philosophy already.

[emmaagain]

[Julienoshoes]

"They look so reasoned and thought out"

LOL!
They are meant to!
They are meant to wow a LA remember.

Ours looks impressive now-we polished it over the first couple of years


We did exactly what emmaagain suggests-in fact i think those are very good points to use to hang an ed phil around

I had A4 sheets pinned to a notice board and everytime I thought of something i wanted to say I wrote it down.

Everytime we did something educational worth telling the LA i wrote that down too.

Took me quite a long time to get it to where I was happy for the LA to see.
Once it was done though it only needed a bit of polishing (we took all references to school out after the first year, as it was by then irrelevant to us)

Nowadays it is really easy to do deal with.
The LA gets it once a year when they ask.
Along with an updated report.
I keep both on my 'desktop' and i add new activities/workshops etc when we have done them and then when the LA asks for it, I can send it as it is all ready.

[terramum]

I've been brainstorming for a while with my ed phil just in case I get some contact from the LA. WE are HEing right from the start so don't expect to...but I'm thinking it will be a good idea to be prepared in case they find out about us!

It was a bit daunting when I started...but it helped reading other people's efforts like those linked to above. I also found lots of examples posted on the various HE yahoo lists like the EO & HEUK ones by searching on their sites via yahoo.

Then I started making a few notes in a Word document...no structure at first, just brainstorms really...things like the reasons we HE & what we want DS to get out of it.

Then it occurred to me I should probably structure it & went back to my essay writing skills & set up a basic structure - introduction, main points, conclusion/summary etc...and it's now morphed into the following sections:

1. Our Educational Philosophy:

a)Introduction - stating that we are HEing & doing so autonomously with references to the relevant sections of the education act & human rights act.
b)Purpose of education - what our ultimate aims are for DS's education (all long term not v specific stuff like being happy & useful etc)
c)Forms of education/Education Delivery - info on how we are autonomous educating & achieving our aims backed up with examples.
d)Conclusion/Summary

1. List of resources we use

I hasten to add it not very long yet as DS is only 3.5 & we haven't really 'done' that much yet. It's more a work in progress to be updated as he gets older & we do different things. TBH I will be deliberately not finishing it until he turns 5 as, of course, he doesn't have to be receiving an education until then & any LA who makes formal enquiries before then will be politely told to bog off

[discoverlife]

I am already using a word document to , as you put it 'brainstorm' but as with anything new, its a mess.
I also seem to be using anything and everything to 'show' that we are 'doing' something. But as we shouldn't be 'doing' anything ATM its a bit wrong. Is this coming across right?

[Julienoshoes]

Don't worry about it being a mess.

And don't worry about showing you are doing anything yet.

emmaagain said;
When they contact you, I'd send them an Ed Phil and tell them that of course you can't send a report yet, you've only just started. Politely decline the home visit, and wait to see what they say.

That's what i did-but I told them I was writing the ed phil and report and would get back to them by ..........date........
and they did accept that

[discoverlife]

Damn, I am so angry with myself. I should have seen this long ago. DS2 is Dyspraxic! why wern't we told after all the tests etc. I just followed some links that Julienoshoes had put up for another thread and he ticked so many boxes, its all it could be. Why, why, didn't the professionals see it, or mention it. Why am I so close to tears. I don't know if I'm happy that there may be a label for what he is/has or boiling angry at the wasted years, or angry with myself for being lazy and not doing the work myself and finding out what the proffesionals couldn't be bothered telling us. Grrrrrrr!!!.

[Julienoshoes]

Don't beat yourself up-you can't deal with something you didn't know about.

I remember that realisation dawning about dd2, and I felt so bad having got so cross about all the things that caused her problems.

the fact that her clothes 'felt funny' and she wouldn't want to wear them

and her shoes and socks.........they were taken off and thrown across the room so often....and always just before we were due to run out of the door for school.

And she hated having her hair brushed and teeth brushed and nails cut.........

Once we home educated so many of these problems stopped being problems because there was no longer that screaming mad rush in the mornings.
And because we only bought clothes she was comfortable with (dungarees, as they were not tight round the waist) and she didn't wear socks for so long at all! We managed to get her teeth brushed when there was no rush as she knew he consequences and put up with it.

Anyway come on over to the HE special needs support list and chat to us there-you'll find a warm welcome and lots of support

[discoverlife]

I understand about the clothes, DS can't abide buttons and zips, and now I know there is a particular problem I will start altering his clothes and use velcro etc. Like now, he is still in his dressing gown at 3pm, because he is comfortable in just his skin with something loose over. His handwriting has now been put on the back burner as its something he can't really do, I will have to sort out a printer for him and let him do written work using the keyboard.
It also confirms what I have tried to get across to sooo many people, that DS is very bright, very intelligent but just couldn't get things across in an intelligable manner.
Thanks again Julienoshoes.

[Blandmum]

If you want something to help with the Handwriting issues (not just limited to dyspraxia) can I suggest 'Write from the Start' ? It is a series of graded sheets that the child can use to help with the cursice flow of hand movements....not just copying over letter shapes.

the Ed Psych suggested this for ds when we got the dx of dyspraxia. We used it at home, as well as ds using it in school. you can get it from Amazon

Having a slanted board can be a breat help as well....even an A4 ring binder to lean on helps a lot IME.

[Blandmum]

cursive!

[discoverlife]

Why is it that there ia always a bargain on Amazon or ebay, when you don't have any money

[discoverlife]

martinbishop if you use a slanted surface which way would it be used, DS writes predominantly with his right hand. So if using a ring binder would the spine be under the right elbow and sloping down to the hand? Or some other way that completely puzzles me ATM.

[Blandmum]

sit at your desk. Put the ring binder directly in front of you, so that the 'spine' is away from you and runs parallel to the desk edge. Now move it in, and tilt it so that you can rest a paper on it, and write in comfort (soryy if that sounds daft! But I couldn't think of any other way to describe it!

So the spine would be above the top of the paper.

does that make sense?

[discoverlife]

Yep, its for the paper to lean on in a slope towards the writer.

[Blandmum]

yes, put much more clearly than I did!

This helped ds.

Also writing with a pencil, not a pen, pens are harder to control.

What is great about the Write from the start stuff is that it starts off with some very simple stuff that get harder veryyyyyyy gradually, so that the kids don't get thrown, or put off. It has made a huge difference to ds's writing skills. He still uses a scribe for some of his lessons (he is 7 btw) but the amount that he can write, and its legibility is improving. We will be looking at him using a keyboard at some point, as oddly his keyboards skills are above average. For many children with dyspraxia, typing can be almost as hard to do as writing.

[discoverlife]

Ds has had his own computer with internet access for about 4 years already. But we haven't let him have an e-mail address yet because we don't think he can judge what is suitable to open etc.
He has access to a gaming forum which we control and even there his contributions are very limited and immature, as if he was writing down a forign lanuage after only 6 months of lessons.

When we do the Ed Phil, if we put down about the online verbal contact he has via head set, microphone & 'Ventrilo' programme with members of our clan will it be accepted as part of the sociallising? Or will it be counted against as they are not 'in person' Most of the members are in the U.K but some are in America, Belguim, Portugal (going to theirs for a holiday this year), Greece, Holland (best mate online), Sweden and a German/French/Chinese member. About 25 of them are coming to our house in August for a 'Clan Meeting'.
I seem to have this ingrained belief that anything I do that is slightly out of the normal range will go against us.