Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by Gabrielle Kelly to The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Committee (CWSB109)

My name is Mrs Gabrielle Kerry and I am a home educating parent of 2 children age 13 and 14. I am writing to you to raise my concerns over the new, Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. I Would like you to consider the following concerns:

1. My first concern relates to the section 25; Registration, of children not in school and relates specifically to sub section 436C Content and maintenance of the registers.

As a home educator, I willingly and gladly give the majority of my week to providing an excellent education for my children. I source, fund and teach most of my children’s learning material myself. I review their work, test their progress, and review their corrections single handedly. I source and organise all exam preparation including making the arrangements for taking exams privately, finding exam centres etc. To maintain a register containing such detailed information about exact breakdowns of time spent providing education, who provides it, where and when, adds an unbearable burden to my already extremely full life schedule. As a home educator I want to retain my right to focus on giving my children the very best education that I can provide. Every hour I must spend keeping logs and writing reports for the proposed register, is precious time that I should have been giving to delivering the actual education of my children.

2. My second concern relates to the section 25; Registration, of children not in school and relates specifically to sub section 436C Content and maintenance of the registers.

Many home educators do not organise their children’s learning around a strict timetable of learning. This would be homeschooling i.e. learning organised like it is in a school, not home educating. Children learn in many different ways, and through many different settings or environments. Strict timetabling, in order to fulfil the demands of the proposed register will effectively eliminate teaching children in any other format than that of a school format. It has the potential to limit children’s access to the types of learning experiences, which would most benefit them.

3. My third concern relates to section 25; Registration in general.

As it stands the proposed Bill, by its very nature may encourage Local Authorities to proceed from a position of assuming that all home educating families are potentially guilty of, at best providing an insufficient or unsuitable education, and at worst neglect or abuse of their children, until the LA deem, they have collected enough information to prove them innocent of such assumptions.

Almost all home educators are providing the very best and appropriately diverse forms of education, to meet the diverse personal and educational needs of their children. Within the State School System, as it is organised today, it is impossible to provide such a diverse curriculum, and diverse teaching styles as are required to provide an environment where every child thrives, no matter what their needs (educational, medical, personal), personality, interests, or talents may be. Home educators are meeting the diverse needs and working with the diverse learning styles, of their children to actually make it possible for all children in England to be educated to a high level, and in a way that enables all children to thrive and succeed. Home educators are helping to achieve a reality that could not be achieved through State education alone. As such home educators should feel supported by any government Bill related to the wellbeing of their children, not threatened or accused by it.

4. My fourth concern relates to the section 25; Registration, of children not in school and relates specifically to sub section 436C Content and maintenance of the registers.

Particularly point 3 "A register under section 436B may also contain any other information the Local Authority consider appropriate"

The statement quoted above is a statement of such sweeping generality, that it leaves home educating families unprotected against unwarranted invasions of privacy in regards to their family lives. No government agency should have the automatic right to hold any and every piece of information that they deem necessary. This clause would need to be removed or very carefully defined for my children and I to retain our lawful right to privacy.

5. My fifth concern relates in general to the many unspecified and undefined authorities given to the LA by this Bill in its current format.

It should not be the case, for example, that a LA should be able to determine what is and is not a suitable education or educational setting. "A suitable education" must be specifically defined by a group of well-informed members, with specialist training in all forms of education. Many LA personnel, have no experience in home education, or specialist training in the many forms of education that exist, and are predisposed to believe that only state education in school will provide the best education for all children. Many are already hostile towards existing home educating families.

My family and I live in West Cumbria, thankfully we now have an LA member of the EHE team who was herself home educated and is thoroughly supportive of good home education, in all its varying forms. This is not the case in many parts of the country. I am sure you will read many personal stories from families who have been deeply hurt and greatly stressed by inappropriate involvement from poorly qualified LA staff, who have overstepped their legal obligations to protect children, to the detriment of the very children they were claiming to protect.

Thank you for considering the above concerns. I hope that I along with many other home educating families will be able to help you amend this Bill in such a way that all our children have the best chance, of the best education, that is best for them.

Yours sincerely Mrs Gabrielle Kerry

January 2025