Books: School is not compulsory

[ailbhe]

Title: School is not compulsory (The essential introduction to home-based education)

Editor: Education Otherwise

Publisher: Education Otherwise

ISBN: 0952170337

A useful guide from the UK's primary home education organisation, lots of useful tips about the law etc rather than suggestions for actually doing it (though some of those too). Definitely useful to get again when Linnea is "school age" - ie the first school start date after her fifth birthday, which I think is 01 September 2009. She'll be 5 years and 4 months then, so they'll start teaching her to count to ten and learn her ABCs. I can't see that, somehow. It seems very unlikely.

New word: Pwing (swing) and now she pronounces horse correctly, H and all (English R, but never mind). She's working on teeth, mouth, and flower, too, but not there yet. And she has a word for breastmilk - Thass. I have no idea where it came from - perhaps "Oh, that's what you want, is it?!"

(Home education: get up, tidy house, wash dishes, cook dinner - you've done "domestic science" and probably maths. Go shopping - maths and reading comprehension and all sorts. These books are really changing the way I look at my day. It's very funny to suddenly think "... and that's geography!" when I've looked up a train timetable or something.)

Comments

[helenprev.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean - we don't home educate, in that ours do go to school, but I do look at lots that we do at home as education too.

Freya and I just baked a cake together. That's Maths, Science, Hygiene (wash your hands first!) Communication Skills, and General Life Skills too - I let her break the eggs herself today for the first time ever; she's a natural! It would have been Literacy too if we had in fact used a recipe, but as it was a sponge cake and the recipe is in my head, I didn't think of it in time!

[k425.livejournal.com]

Train timetables are maths, as well as geography. So is telling the time and translating from the clock hands to a digital display. They were certainly part of the KS2 tests when I secretaried for a team setting KS2 maths tests! It's fascinating how you can turn your normal day into education. Pouring stuff is science and maths, baking is dom sci, maths and science, washing up is dom sci and possibly PSE, and science if you think about bubbles and they work. Jack is probably going to be a school-educated child, but I intend him to be taught at home too, because there's so much exciting stuff to impart to a child that it's foolish to leave it all to the vagaries of a school.

Jack's word for breastmilk is "fmor" - probably because I used to say "do you want some more?" while his word for milk is "mok".

[perdita-x.livejournal.com]

I can warn from first hand experience (I was home schooled for 7 years and was part of EO for 3 of those years) that Eo can talk a load of bull... becareful of what they tell you.

[ailbhe]

Do you mean that the information on legal issues in their official literature is inaccurate? Or that individuals within EO are unreliable when regurgitating information? Or something else altogether?

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Yeah - Liam's word for nursing seems to be something like "dee." No idea where that came from either.

[d-h.livejournal.com]

You wrote: so they'll start teaching her to count to ten and learn her ABCs. I can't see that, somehow. It seems very unlikely.

I realise practices may be different there than here (NZ), but here the child's literacy and numeracy is assessed when they start and at 6 month intervals, so can tell what the child already knows. Our school has adjusted things to suit our daughter, though it has meant that, at 7 now, she is the youngest in here class by some margin. Mind you our school is in a university catchment area and has a reputation for providing well for bright kids.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

FWIW: Children do not legally have to start school until the term after their fifth birthday. If you are offered a rising five place but wish to defer your child's admission until they are statutory school age then you can do this as long as this is still in the same academic year. This means children born between 1st April and 31 August are admitted as rising fives in April but cannot defer admission until September as that falls in another academic year. (Borough Council website) Which means you would have to start the process of getting the LEA to accept homeschooling somewhat earlier than 5y4m, AIUI, in order for them not to go into bureaucratic meltdown at the thought.

We have a reasonable set of guidelines here (http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/notes_for_guidance.pdf) - there are a lot of home schooled children in this county for one reason or another, and I've worked with the HEd liaison team at the council in the past so look forward to dealing with them from a parent's POV...

[ailbhe]

I've misread some of my baby bumf then. Oh well. I'm pretty sure I don't need to inform the LEA of my intention to homeschool though, unless I've already registered her in a school. I've not had much local info on how well they'll take that though. I expect I'll talk to some local Home Educators closer to the time.

That LEA thing is... trying hard to be almost neutral. It really is.

Until then, I won't bother home educating her... I'll just raise her. Or survive raising her. Possibly.

rising fives

[(Anonymous)]

Are you *sure* that "cannot defer" is a statement of law? Because if so, the law has changed since my brother was 5 in 1980. He and I, born in May and June, weren't given a school place until September and didn't experience the Reception class (nor did my oldest sister, born in August). I remember feeling most indignant that I couldn't start school on my birthday (approximately a week before the end of term, if that) because after all, I was five now!

The first line you quote says "do not legally have to start school until the term after" which leads me to suspect that the cannot defer thing is a BC addition and largely about getting a place in the school - ie if you don't go into reception there won't be room for you in year 1.

LBs

Julie paradox

Re: rising fives

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think it's a statement of law, and agree that it's the Borough Council's spin on things. But since that is the local policy, it's the one ailbhe will run up against, and experience from Oxfordshire LEA suggests that it's the earlier date (1st April) that will trigger the nagging if L is in their records at all - and she has a library ticket now, no? Pre-empting the 'you must make a decision about your child's future NOW' letters is a Good Thing, minimising all sorts of hassle, and should probably occur before the relevant birthday rather than after, given this clause.