16.07.09: The following letter has been posted from AHEd members...

Church view of Elective Home Education 

To: The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Rowan Williams the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Lambeth Palace.

To: The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Sentamu the Lord Archbishop of York

The Office of the Archbishop of York.

Your Grace,

Home educated children in England, and their parents, are experiencing unprecedented attacks upon their chosen way of life and learning, and on the sanctity of their family lives. There has been a slow but steady build up over the last five or so years, of proposals to control and monitor our private provision. On each occasion to date government have reluctantly accepted that current statute is adequate and the balance between public and private is proper and well protected.

The latest effort to infiltrate our private lives has come in a rather nasty form. It commenced with scurrilous attempts to discredit home educators by connecting home education with issues of child abuse, forced marriage and domestic servitude [1]. Despite there being no evidence or good cause to connect home education with any of these issues, a government review of home education was launched by Baroness Delyth Morgan [2] and conducted by Mr Graham Badman.

Mr Badman reported on his review to the Secretary of State on June 11th this year [3]. You will be aware that the Church of England Education Division sent a submission to the review [4] and that Mr Badman quoted selectively from that submission in his report.

Action for Home Education (AHEd) [5] members are concerned that the selective quote was used to imply that the Church thinks home educated children's well-being is not protected and that their education is not appropriate, whereas this is certainly not the basic tenet of the submission.

We understand from several of our members that they have approached the Church to ask about this imbalance. During the correspondence an unfortunate and extreme mis-understanding about the number of home educated children on "at-risk" registers was repeated. Luckily this was eventually corrected, though it remains of concern to us where such gross inaccuracies originated and what long-term damage their temporary existence may have caused.

It is clear from this experience that very distorted views of home education can be formed by these private exchanges that only come to light by chance and otherwise become more widespread. Revd Janina Ainsworth of your Education Division believes that there is a significant enough number of home educating parents who don´t have their child´s best interests at heart, to make it worthy of comment and thereby worth the damage it will cause to the home educating community to have high profile Church members making such comments. Our research shows that local authority records of abuse of known home educated children show less than one third the numbers known in the general population [6].

Revd Ainsworth is also said to believe that home education keeps all officialdom at bay. However, there are adequate legal procedures already in place to address any concerns raised about a home educated child [7]. It is of great concern that Revd Ainsworth can hold this view after having a conversation with Mr Graham Badman who has reported to the Secretary of State and who is charged with being impartial and independent.

It is no exaggeration to say that many home educating families are experiencing enormous stress and anxiety since this review of Home Education began and that it is in danger of encroaching on family time that should be devoted to the education of the children. This review, which pays lip service to improving the lot of children at risk, had no evidential basis and has reported no evidence found, yet, ironically is causing widespread hurt to home educated children and their families and friends. If the recommendations are put into place, AHEd members are certain that terrible damage will be done to many home educating families.

AHEd would like to feel that home educators had the support of the Church whilst this war is being waged against us. We hope that you will be able to make a statement clarifying the position of the Church, denouncing Mr Badman´s use of selective quoting to misrepresent your views and verifying the Church´s previous conclusion that there is absolutely no need for a change to the current legal system covering home education.

For further information you may wish to refer to AHEd's briefing paper [8] regarding the Home Education Review and Consultation.

We thank you for your help in this matter.

Yours truly,

Barbara Stark

(Chair, AHEd)

For the committee and membership of AHEd

References:

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/is-the-government-right-to-be-concerned-about-homeschooling-1631969.html

[2]  http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0013

[3] http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/ete/independentreviewofhomeeducation/irhomeeducation/

[4] http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/education/electivehomeedu.rtf

[5[ http://ahed.pbwiki.com/About-AHEd

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

[7] Current statute provides that local authorities have power to act in the event a suitable education may not be in place - Education Act 1996 section 437. Social Services are provided with powers to act where the safety of any child is at risk, including those educated otherwise than at school.

[8] http://ahed.pbworks.com/BriefingPaperHEReview