Not At School Today

I haven’t blogged for ages! I’m so sorry if you’ve checked at all, but Mum (who normally helps me with the children) has been away all week, and we’re just about to complete the sale of our flat, so unfortunately this is a bit secondary at the moment. However, I just had to get this down.

(Thanks to Richard F. on Lord Lucas’ blog for bringing this to my attention.)

One of the most disappointing things, for me, about Graham Badman’s Home Education Report was in section 4 when he quoted the Church of England’s Educational Division as being pretty much against home schooling in general. This was upsetting to me personally because I go to a C of E Church, and while lots of families there home educate, I would hate to think that the organization as a whole was not behind us.

Badman wrote: “And the Educational Division of the Church of England states its concern:

‘that children and young people not in formal education are missing the benefits and challenges of learning in community with their peers. Children who do not go to school may not experience the social and cultural diversity encountered there; they will not learn how to deal with the rough and tumble of everyday life; they may never meet people with different faith and value systems…’”

However, fortunately Richard F. and other bloggers thought to share the other statements that the Division included with their response to the Report:

“Prevention of abuse under the cover of home education seems to be the main reason for this review, and in making it so, has the effect of tarnishing the reputation of the many parents who choose to home educate their children from the best of motives.”

“We have seen no evidence to show that the majority of home educated children do not achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes, and are therefore not convinced of the need to change the current system of monitoring the standard of home education. Where there are particular concerns about the children in a home-educating this should be a matter for Children’s Services.”

On the one hand I’m relieved that the Church of England are not anti-home schooling, but on the other I’m just astounding at how much Badman has manipulated the evidence of organizations’ responses in order to pursue his and the Government’s own agenda.

If you are interested in contacting the Church of England’s Educational Division to discuss what they might do about being so shockingly misrepresented in the report here’s a link to their website, or their number is 020 7898 1501.