trying to do the letter for la,havent a clue,any help.please

[twisha]

hi just started, now trying to put together the belief's/ed-phil/targets,ect and not sure what they will except as exceptable for a 12 yo, bright child. they say must be to ability/age,but i dont know what they say is "enough".
for instance, he's an avid harry potter fan and follows everything to do with it,who plays what part,and so on and can write/tell you the whole thing.
he's learning by questioning and researching things to find the answers,instead of actually sitting down and following a book of questions he's told to, which cover almost everything from space to way fish are smoked.

[BoffinMum]

Sorry in advance if any of this is teaching you to suck eggs! I am not sure if you are new to Homeschooling or not.

As I understand it, unless your son has a statement of Special Educational Needs, or has attended school, you don't have to do anything apart from inform the LA that you wish to educate your child at home. If your son has never attended school, then you don't have to contact them at all.

If you are writing to them, you might want to say that you intend to cover a broad educational programme including English, Mathematics and Science, with additional subjects along the lines of those specified in the National Curriculum, but delivered using child-centred, cross-curricular methods, aimed at preparing your child for adult life and ensuring that he is able to fulfil his potential. But this is up to you.

I am sure you would end up doing something like this anyway, and you could use the National Curriculum as a kind of reference manual to decide what is appropriate for your child at different stages. You don't have to comply with it slavishly or at all, but there are good things in there that you could borrow. Bear in mind that this is designed primarily for children taught in classes of 30, however, so levels may seem low if you have a motivated, bright child.

In your planning, you might wish also to include subjects not covered as separate subjects in the National Curriculum in your child's educational programme, for example Italian, astronomy, horticulture or geology; whatever you feel you can teach or facilitate. This is all fine.

It is probably good practice to keep samples of work for your own records, and to show the LA if necessary if there is any dispute about the quality of what you are offering. Many parents meet up regularly with other homeschooling families, which is also good for social purposes and for benchmarking your child's progress with children of similar age and ability.

I am sure you have come across the Education Otherwise website, but in case you haven't, here is a link to their information on Education law that may be relevant.

www.education-otherwise.org/Legal/SummLawEng&Wls.htm

Best of luck with your letter!

[twisha]

thankyou,yes he's been going to school and always been good at school and enjoyed it, but since starting high school in sept hes been totally isolated in classes,where no 1 will even speak to him, he was jeered at,called names and spent all the break times in the library for fear of being confronted, if it was 1 or 2 doing this then something could be done,but the whole school has "social class" issues,and unless your in the higher levels,which were not as hubby's disabled,my children are prime targets, on speaking to the teachers basically they are aware of it but cant force the rest of the school to like/speak to them!
we are going to keep maths eng etc up to date where possible and of course other things as it then gives the opportunity to go to collage to get cert's, i will keep some sort of records incase there needed by lea at some point, just didnt really know quite what theyd think exceptable.
thanks for your help.trisha

[mumtoo3]

oh trisha that is awful to hear, its scary how nasty some children can be, i think you are doing the right thing, i had the same thing happen to me at school lived in the library at break had notes writtern about me etc, so i refused to go to school, which had its own problems!!!! how old is your son? have you been on any other forums?

mt3 x

[twisha]

hi,he was 12 yesterday, and my daughters 14 in march.
i am a member of education otherwise.
we only deregistered him on last wed, but been thinking on and off since the twins were little,theyre now 15 but there wasnt the information then.

[julienoshoes]

Hi Twisha
I wouldn't worry too much just yet as you have only just deregistered him. If the LA come along and chase you for some information you can write back to them reminding them of case law, in the Perry Case in which Lord Slade said:

"Prima facie this opportunity will appropriately be given (as was done in the present case) if the Authority, having first allowed the parents a sufficient time to set in motion their arrangements for home education,"

(R v Gwent County Council Court of Appeal (Civil Division) 10 July 1985 JUDGEMENT BY-1: SLADE LJ)

So you can say that you are settling into your home education and will be back in touch with them by ........(you name date, three months or so, would seem reasonable to me)with information about the education you are providing.

However it is a good idea to start thinking about your Educational Philosophy, and maybe start jotting down thoughts about what you want to include

The Education Otherwise webpage is a good place to start, as they have recently overhauled and updated it.
They have a new section on Educational Philosophies going through the details step by step.
The HE-UK website has an article about Educational Philosophies and why they are important and has some Examples of Ed Phils to give you an idea where to start.

I found the idea of writing one initially quite daunting, so I looked at the examples on the website above, found one that that seemed to broadly suit us and that gave me some ideas.
I pinned a couple of A4 sheets of paper to the notice board. When I thought of something I wanted to say or came across a quote I wanted to use (such as "When my wife and I began, we had one main idea ? to make the school fit the child instead of making the child fit the school." AS Neil),I jotted it down on one of them. On the other I made a very brief note of outings/activities/projects etc that we had done.
I was surprised how quickly I filled up those papers and had something to write our philosophy around.

Although what BoffinMom says is not incorrect, you may find that you end up as more autonomous home educators, where the NC has no relevance at all and where education is not divided into subjects.
This is absolutely fine as the choice of how to home educate is yours-but it might help to state these beliefs in your 'ed phil'.
For example we have covered this by saying:
'Our home-based education allows for a high degree of flexibility and spontaneity. This ensures that we can meet X?s needs in an extremely efficient way, which we would be unable to do if constrained by an artificial timetable or subject boundaries.'
We also do not show any examples of work at all. Our children do wish to do so and it is their own intellectual property. (In fact as we are informal home educators, there is very little work that could be shown anyway!)
Again we have covered this in our ed phil by saying; 'Our belief is that X's 'work' is produced not for the fulfilment of others, but for the fulfilment of self' and expanded on that a little more.

The choice of how to home educate your child, is entirely yours.
The LA simply cannot make demands with regard to this.
The law requires you to provide a suitable and efficient education, not a broad based one-that is required by schools, although in reality a home based education is often more broad than any that could be provided in schools.
It would be well worth having a look at the Home Education: Guidelines for Local Authorities which outlines exactly what a LA can and cannot ask for. It isn't difficult to read.

Remember to that doing subject based work, isn't necessary to get into college later. Our children got into college with no problems after living a completely autonomous lifestyle for years before hand and our youngest started an OU course at the age of 15, with no formal education previously, and she is getting good results. And our children are not unusual in autonomously home ed families. It really is for you to choose what suits your son.

There is a book you might find useful to read How Children Learn at Home by Alan Thomas

[twisha]

hi,thanks for your reply, as you said the key words for me are being new.
the plan were doing for us is simple its being able to put it in words and a timetable form, for instance he's learning snooker and pool,hubby's teaching him but he's also doing the angles thats involved in getting the balls to go into the holes, then working it out(on paper) the degree of that angle.
he's also learnt about doing pie charts and block charts, involving a multi pack of crisps and sharing them out within the family there's 6 of us and putting that down on paper, but to put it on a time table for la doesnt seem much to have done over 3 days but its taken about an hour with different "sums" throughout the days to make sure he can do it in "mental maths" and we've applied it to the baths for instance as to spread over 4 hrs how long has each of us got in the bath, and then done a pie chart,which he find interesting working them out at that time.

[musicposy]

Hi twisha, have they been in touch with you yet? Only reason I ask is that we deregistered our 12 year old in September and we've never heard a word from the LA. I think some schools just don't pass the information on. I've no intention of approaching them! They do know of our youngest, so doubtless they will find out eventually, but till then....

What you are doing sounds fine. I, too, worried a lot about stretching my 12 year old as she was on the gifted and talented register at school, but they learn so much at home on a one to one, so I am sure it will be OK. I still keep asking her if she thinks she's learning anything! I think she's picked up loads just by living her life alongside me, quite aside from work.

[twisha]

hi, only the school welfare person today phoned to say she's posting the letter to l/a today,and gave me the name of the person, so i assume it wont be long now prob about a week or so before i get a letter and i'd like to be ready.
i'm finding it strange having to put the info into into words, weve always helped them with homework and sorted the info out if they havent got it,or the teachers havent explained it enough,and not really noticed it,but trying to log it on a timescale is the difficult bit!
good luck
trisha

[julienoshoes]

Hi Twisha
You don't have to log it on a time scale.
The LA cannot demand a timetable.
Home education simply doesn't work like that as you have found

Those Elective Home Education: Guidelines to LAs, I mentioned, published by the DCSF in November 2007 section 3.13, state that home educating parents are not required to;
·teach the National Curriculum
·provide a broad and balanced education
·have a timetable
·have premises equipped to any particular standard
·set hours during which education will take place
·have any specific qualifications
·observe school hours, days or terms
·make detailed plans in advance,
·give formal lessons,
·mark work done by their child
·formally assess or set development objectives
·reproduce school type peer group socialisation
·match school based, age specific standards.

[twisha]

hi,yes thats what ive been trying to sus out, how to put into words on paper what im doing so they can see were teaching him and doing it on a full time scale.

[julienoshoes]

have you had a look at the examples of educational philsosphies? to give you an idea?

[twisha]

hi,yes i think im going to go with the kind that says all the things were covering but adding its not to any set formal set timetable as its done through the course of the whole day and isnt measured in hours.

[julienoshoes]

That sounds good.

I'd also strongly suggest you don't put in any definite goals.
Home education has been defined as 'efficient' if it achieves what it sets out to achieve.

So if, for example, you were to state that you intend for your son to do GCSEs by the time he is 16-and then you find that the way you home educate changes completely by that time, and a difficult LA could be funny about you not achieving your plans.

If you aim is more general, for example 'that he will achieve his potential and will be self confident and that his learning will be lifelong', you will cover all eventualities without being specific IYSWIM?

[twisha]

thanks for all your help, finally sorted how to do it! its so much easier when you have other peoples comments and experience.