Learning Freely Network

House of Commons
Children, Schools and Families
Committee
Second Report of Session 2009–10
Report, together with formal minutes

Children, Schools and Families Committee

Here you can browse documents of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee arranged with the most recently published document at the top of each section.

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We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reject the Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England by Graham Badman.”
Details of Petition:
“This report is a totally disproportionate response to a ‘perceived’ problem full of unsubstantiated allegations that home educated children are more at [...]

If you think this is New Labour policy, think again
Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill currently in Parliament would lock home educating
families into a bureaucratic system that is all about restricting educational freedom and nothing to do with
ensuring children are well educated and looked after.
Write to your MP now and demand that [...]

Home education: England

Registration and monitoring

1          

In Chapter 3 of Part 1 of EA 1996 (local authorities), after section 19 there is

5

inserted—

“Home education: registration and monitoring

19A     

Maintenance of home education register

(1)   

A local authority in England shall maintain a register for the purpose

of monitoring the provision of education to children of compulsory

10

school age in their area [...]

About this 'Notice of refusal to co-operate', which is rapidly making the rounds.

It is for pparents to register their protest directly with parliament. A refusal to co-operate means anything from, saying no to demands, to time wasting, to absolute refusal to obey their law."

This is urgent, and requires active participation by all Home Educators. Please [...]

Parents have been banned from supervising their children in public playgrounds, because they have not undergone criminal record checks.

Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.

The [...]

Home educators today reacted angrily to the news that the DCSF has granted Graham Badman extra time to gather "evidence" for the Select Committee Inquiry into his report on Elective Home Education in England, in which he controversially claimed that home educated children are at greater risk of abuse than schooled children. Formal submissions [...]

Work and play: Alasdair Coles with children Beth, nine, and Edward, five.
Their schooling programme includes roller-blading in Battersea Park

Parents today attacked government plans to impose new controls on home schooling.

Families were handing out leaflets and taking part in street theatre to "spread the message" about learning outside the education system.
Ministers are drawing up rules [...]

As protesters gather in London today to campaign against tighter restrictions on home schooling, our writer, educated in a council house with her seven siblings, gives a learned riposte to those who doubt its benefits

Caitlin Moran
The Badman Report, published earlier this year, suggests the compulsory regulation of home-education — an area of life [...]