School is not compulsory

[ailbhe]

We joined Education Otherwise, the UK's home education charity organisation support network thing, on Friday night, filling in an online form. The members' pack arrived today. It's a very good pack; I was impressed. We have a membership card, a list of local contacts, a list of national venues that give discounts to home educators similar to the discounts they give to schools, the newest edition of School Is Not Compulsory, a little handbook about the law and useful information for dealing with Local Education Authorities (where "dealing with" doesn't mean "being unnecessarily confrontational towards" but covers everything from "being benignly ignored by" through "working with" and on up to "fighting in the courts") and other stuff, and a newsletter - with a whole section by and for children.

That was a very very fast turnaround, I think. Mind you, the person in question processed our application at 00:42 on Saturday, so perhaps she got it posted Saturday morning.

So! Now we have a support network in place, which is nice, and I can get familiar with it before I actually need it much, and also we got a free book.

(On the other hand, we're not going anywhere today, because I overdid it at the weekend and caused my knees to swell up, my shoulders and chest to get sunburnt, and I think I strained my eyes in the sunshine. Linnea seems quite content to practice her Independent Play in the cool, dark indoors, though; all the windows and curtains are closed against the heat, due to get up to 32C today, and we're usually hotter here than the local forecast predicts).

Comments

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Is your local school no good? I did read up about parent run schools when Kate was a baby, but now I'd like her to go to the same place as the other local children (plus Holls too of course) so we fit in more. I'm not prepared to change who I am to fit in, as no-one else apart from me seems to read, watch Doctor Who, have online friends etc, but I'm happy for Kate & Holls to play with the local kids & to get to know their parents.

[ailbhe]

Oh, no, if I thought formal schooling was a good idea for Linnea I'd be perfectly happy to send her to the local schools. I've never been interested in sending children to school. I'd need to seriously change the kind of person I am and the way I want to raise my family to do that without the child's explicit request!

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, I was hoping my comment didn't look like it was citisising, I was just curious. I may need to conside less conventional schooling if my children take after their father. He hated school & no idea why exactly, but ended up being sent to boarding school so he couldn't run away. He was very miserable there.

[ailbhe]

I didn't think you were criticising. A lot of people assume that home education must be a second choice, because of poor schools, rather than a first choice, regardless of local school quality.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, that's how I view it, as I don't know anyone who doe sit really, so don't know much about it. I know Livi home educated Trish & Sue at one point, but that's about it. I looked into parent run schools as I wasn't that fussed about the local schools where we used to live in Sheffield & we were looking into sending Kate to a private girl's school. I'm happy with the local schools here, so that's fine now.