Memorandum submitted by Gary Brown

 

In connection with the above mentioned enquiry, I am a home educating parent actively involved in the home educating community in Surrey. I have a number of concerns about the Badman Review which I feel will adversely affect the ability of my family to carry out this activity in a way which has been very successful for us over the past three years. In particular:

· The Education Act makes parents responsible for providing a suitable education for their children, either by delegating this to the state by taking up a school place, or by organising their own provision.  The Badman proposals would effectively take away this option by allowing home education under licence that would need renewing annually by the state. This should need a review of the Education Act itself.

· The Badman proposals envisage a replication of the style of planning and monitoring against targets found in schools.  There is not the ability to adopt a more autonomous style of child-centred learning that many home educators use and which does not lend itself to formal testing.

In addition the Badman proposals will not have the effect of increasing child safety.  Most home educated children are very active and visible both to other home educators and in the wider community in libraries, museums, and conventional "extra curricular activities" such as swimming classes.  Abuse will continue to be hidden at home, whether the child attends school or otherwise.

 

September 2009