HomeSchooler.org.uk

SCOTS CHARITY ENQUIRIES "SKYROCKET" AS ENGLISH HOME EDUCATORS HEAD FOR THE
HIGHLANDS

- England's loss will be Scotland's gain, says Schoolhouse

Scotland's national home education support organisation Schoolhouse [1] has
reported a dramatic increase in enquiries from English home educating
families who are preparing to move north of the border following publication
of a DCSF-commissioned report on elective home education [2] by Graham
Badman.

While the summer holiday period is usually less busy for the charity,
enquiries from England are said to have "skyrocketed" since the report was
published in June and its controversial proposals were accepted in full [3]
by English Children's Minister Ed Balls.

Schoolhouse spokesperson, Alison Preuss, said:

"Our volunteers have been dealing with a growing number of enquiries from
England since the home education review was first announced in January, but
these have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The latter half of June saw a
fourfold increase when compared with the same period last year. We are not
only being asked about the law relating to home education in Scotland, but
about the political climate, transport links, housing, employment and
business opportunities by parents who are making plans to move to Scotland
as the direct result of stigmatisation of home educators by the UK
Government.

"These are parents who are not prepared to sacrifice their children's right
to a suitable education, nor abdicate their legal duty to provide it [4], on
the altar of DCSF dogma. As law abiding citizens, they are outraged at the
prospect of having their private family homes routinely invaded and their
children interrogated alone by strangers, which is what the Badman report
has proposed and Ed Balls has so enthusiastically welcomed."

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government has confirmed that it has no plans to
undertake a similar review in Scotland [5] since its own statutory guidance
on home education, issued in 2008, has proved both helpful and workable.
That guidance was informed by a comprehensive consultation exercise and
included recommendations from the Scottish Consumer Council (now Consumer
Focus Scotland) [6] which had undertaken independent research into
relationships between home educating families and local authorities .

Comparing the different approaches of the Scottish and UK Governments, Ms
Preuss said:

"Schoolhouse is satisfied that the right balance has been struck with the
Scottish guidance. We are disappointed that the DCSF made no effort to learn
from the Scottish experience before labelling home educators in England as
likely abusers and traumatising their children. There is no evidence of a
link between home education and child abuse, although some local authorities
still seem desperate to discredit home education while doing precisely
nothing to deal with bullying and abuse in their own schools.

"It is time to drop the hysteria and accept that the vast majority of
parents, whether schooling or home educating in England or Scotland, have
their children's best interests at heart. Local authorities on both sides of
the border should surely be focusing their increasingly stretched resources
on the protection of children who are at risk, rather than seeking to
interfere in the lives of ordinary law abiding families who have simply
chosen to reject their schools."

An unprecedented backlash from home educators has resulted in the
announcement of select committee inquiry into the Badman review. [7] The
most contentious government claim, that home education could be used as a
cover for child abuse and neglect, has meanwhile been demolished by AHEd,
Schoolhouse's counterpart south of the border, whose members collected child
abuse statistics from every English local authority using the Freedom of
Information Act . Analysis of the data [8] effectively demonstrated that
home educating parents are far less likely to abuse than schooling parents.

Ms Preuss said:

"It will be a sad day for English citizens if they are to be persecuted for
choosing to care for and educate their own children in accordance with a
long established legal right. If MPs do not reject these draconian proposals
when they come before the UK Parliament, Schoolhouse anticipates an influx
of home educating refugees from south of the border. England's loss will be
Scotland's gain as we have plenty of room for well educated, motivated and
enterprising people who place the same high value on freedom that we do."

ENDS

For more information, please contact Alison Preuss on 0772 962 3532 or
email media@....

NOTES FOR EDITORS

[1] Schoolhouse http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk

[2] Badman report
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/PDF%20FINAL%20HOME...
D.pdf

[3] DCSF response
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/ete/independentreviewofhomeeduc...
n/irhomeeducation/

[4] Parental duty to educate (England)
http://ahed.pbworks.com/BriefingPaperHEReview#EnsuringSuitableEducation

[5] Scottish Government position
http://www.home-education.biz/forum/scotland/428-no-plans-for-a-further-...
review-in-scotland.html

[6] SCC report http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk/news/scc_hbe_report.pdf

[7] Select Committee Inquiry
http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/csf/csfpn220709.cfm

[8] AHEd stats
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rbrk5-GEdrUdcmfi670Mihg&gid=2