Every year or so , the Department for Education asks for our views on proposed changes to guidance on home education or legislation . This blog is now in its 20th year. Here is the curren...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2024/01/another-year-another-consultation.html
When I was parenting several younger children of compulsory education age, I felt highly motivated to focus on the various threats (usually coming from Government) to their freedom to learn in th...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-latest-threat.html
There is a hierarchy of people whose livelihoods are based on our children. At the bottom are teachers, social workers and local authority officials. Further up are the businesses who run academi...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-keenest-personal-interest.html
Such has been my dismay about the new government guidance for local authorities - and parents! - on home education , I haven't even looked at the consultation on registration yet. Thousands of us...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2019/06/consultation-on-registration-my.html
The Department for Education has this morning published:
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2019/04/new-guidance-and-consultation-on.html
Much of the draft guidance currently open to consultation is based on a misinterpretation of Section 436A of the Education Act . Without this misinterpretation, which runs throughout the draft,...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2018/05/section-436a-again.html
Section 7 of the Education Act, as we all know, tells us it is the: > DUTY OF PARENTS TO SECURE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN OF COMPULSORY SCHOOL > AGE. > > The parent of every c...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2018/05/sections-436a-and-437.html
The DfE issued this consultation yesterday. Here is an FAQ about it for home educators: 1. WHY HAS THE GOVERNMENT ISSUED NEW DRAFT GUIDANCE FOR CONSULTATION WHEN LORD SOLEY'S BILL IS ABOUT TO...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2018/04/faq-call-for-evidence-and-revised-dfe.html
Lord Soley 's bill was read for the second time in the House of Lords on 24th November, during which a scheduled debate on the subject took place. In this post, after a short overview, I'm goin...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2018/02/baroness-cavendishs-contribution-2nd.html
Lord Soley 's bill was read for the second time in the House of Lords last week, during which a scheduled debate on the subject took place. In this post, after a short overview, I'm going to go...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2018/01/baroness-morriss-contribution-2nd.html
Lord Soley 's bill was read for the second time in the House of Lords last week, during which a scheduled debate on the subject took place. In this post, after a short overview, I'm going to go...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/12/lord-addingtons-contribution-2nd.html
Lord Soley 's bill was read for the second time in the House of Lords last week, during which a scheduled debate on the subject took place. In this post, after a short overview, I'm going to go...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/12/2nd-reading-of-bill-debate-in-house-of_6.html
Lord Soley 's bill was read for the second time in the House of Lords last week, during which a scheduled debate on the subject took place. In this post, after a short overview, I'm going to go...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/12/2nd-reading-of-bill-debate-in-house-of.html
I visited the Isle of Man last year and was struck by both its beauty and its strong sense of identity as a self-governing British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland. I...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/10/educational-freedom-also-under-threat.html
BBC Radio 4's Winifred Robinson has been successfully lobbied into making a programme designed to promote Lord Soley's bill in the House of Lords . Here are my thoughts as I listened today. Th...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/10/bbc-biased-journalism-shocker-six-pro.html
The Home Education (Duty of Local Authorities) Bill 2017-19 was given its first reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday. Here's an FAQ about the bill. WHAT IS THE HOME ED BILL? It's a Priv...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/06/home-ed-bill-hl11-2017-faq.html
Daniel Monk, whose research I scathingly critiqued in 2015, appears to be trying to pressure the Department of Education into conducting another Badman -style review into home education. So fa...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2017/02/daniel-monks-attempts-to-force-another.html
Yesterday, myself and two friends attended a meeting of Bradford Metropolitan District Council's Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee which I was allowed to address on the report a...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/10/scrutinising-scrutiny-committee-bradford.html
For your meeting on Wednesday 12th October you are being asked to scrutinise a report on Elective Home Education by Judith Kirk, the Deputy Director of Children's Services in Bradford. I am a ho...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/10/dear-members-of-bradford-metropolitan.html
Four days ago, this bright, sunny article appeared in the BBC News Education section: Home education: The children going 'not back to school' , in which a variety of effective home education meth...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/09/home-education-and-illegal-schools-again.html
UK home educators will never forget the 2009 Badman Review , which presented the biggest threat to their way of life since Joy Baker's children were in Chancery in the 1950s. The Badman Review...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-as-home-educator-i-will-be-voting.html
I've even heard this question coming from home educators in the past few days - albeit relatively new ones: people who weren't home educating in 2009, the year of the Badman Review . The review...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/01/but-whats-wrong-with-compulsory.html
The tragic case of Dylan Seabridge has mysteriously resurfaced across mainstream media, yesterday and today. Dylan was known to be home educated by his local authority, but education staff did n...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/01/dylan-seabridge-section-47-and-home.html
A few people have been asking me about the meeting that took place between some home educators and the NSPCC on Friday, since I have expressed my dissatisfaction with it. I'm therefore formulati...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-thinking-on-nspccehe-meeting-faq.html
Home educated children must be registered says Stroud's MP Neil Carmichael (new Chair of the House of Commons Select Committee on Education): "I think it should be compulsory. It would enabl...
http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2015/10/ten-reasons-why-home-educated-children.html