Parents condemn plans for councils to ‘police’ home education

A very lively and interesting set of posts follow the article : Parents condemn plans for councils to ‘police’ home education in

Kent Online 24th June 2009 by the political editor Paul Francis. It begins…

Parents have criticised plans to allow councils to enter their homes and question children over their home education.

The plan forms part of a wide-ranging shake-up in the way parents who choose to teach their children at home are monitored.

There are about 750 children in Kent who are currently educated at home.

The shake-up follows a review conducted by Kent County Council’s former children’s services director Graham Badman.

More http://tinyurl.com/mzcxvj

Among some excellent posts (and a few dire!) I had to chuckle at Derry Hannam’s

33 ‘failing schools’ in Kent?
24/06/2009 20:24:26 by Derry Hannam
It would appear that at the time that Badman retired (2008) there were 33 failing secondary schools in Kent judged by Balls’ (DCFS minister) own criteria (the highest number for any English county). If this is the case are some of the 750 home educators in Kent refugees from the ‘failing’ schools that Badman was responsible for? If so it seems a bit rich to pursue them in their homes after you have failed them in your schools! Is this what the policy change is all about – to distract attention from the growing number of parents taking their children out of ‘failing’ schools – either to private schools if they can afford it or home education if they cannot.