Agenda item

To receive and consider a report giving details of the education being received by children not at school.

During the meeting it was noted that Alan Stubbersfield was leaving the Council as his contract was ending.  The Chairman expressed sincere gratitude for all his work and his contribution to the education in the Borough, and wished him well in the future.

The Committee considered the Elective Home Education report which was set out in agenda pages 23-28.  During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Soane expressed concern as to how children being educated at home would develop social skills;

·           Alan explained that the Local Authority’s powers in relation to children being educated at home were limited.  Alan stated that some families arranged for offsite activities and used facilities in the community for learning;

·           Alan informed that there was a new Officer working with monitoring Elective Home Education.  This Officer was a teacher, therefore well equipped to supervise the level of education being achieved at home;

·           It was noted that home educated children should learn in all dimensions, social and academic development were both monitored;

·           Councillor Soane shared an example (not in Wokingham Borough) were a family had decided to home educate their child because the child was being bullied at school and the school had not dealt with the bullying;

·           In response to a question Alan confirmed that if a child had never been registered at a school, there was no way of knowing and monitoring this child’s education;

·           Councillor Swaddle stated that a resident in her ward had not been able to obtain a suitable place at a local school and as a result was considering home education;

·           Councillor Dolinski was interested to know the reasons for parents choosing to home educate, and also any trends;

·           Alan stated that the reasons were not always known.  Some of the reasons included: parents not wanting a special school for children with SEN; bullying and no accessible school offer;

·           Councillor Dolinski observed that more children were taken out of school to be home educated in transitional points, for example in Year 6.  He asked if schools were being pro-active in addressing this trend.  Alan stated that this related to a very small number of children, schools monitored vulnerable children very closely.  Alan also stated that the trend was not linked to an area, but to groups of people, for example the Gipsy Roma Traveller (GRT) community had a large percentage of children not in school;

·           Councillor Blumenthal asked for information regarding the grades of home educated children.  Alan stated that there was no data available, historically this related to a very small number of children.  However, this information could be collated for future analysis;

·           Members were concerned about the limited powers of the Local Authority in relation to the education of children not at school;

·           Judith stated that the current legislative framework caused much debate and challenges amongst professionals;

·           Judith stated that most parents acted with their child’s best interests at heart.  Cases of abuse were rare;

·           Councillor Soane believed the Local Authority should be able to bring home educated children for assessment.  Judith was in disagreement and believed this would be an abuse of power;

·           Councillor Haitham Taylor, Executive Member for Children’s Services stated that she had written to the Secretary of State expressing concern over this issue.  She believed the number of SEN children choosing to be educated at home was disproportionally high, comparing with the overall number of SEN children in the Borough.  She believed the legislation needed updating.  Unfortunately there was a group of people lobbying against change;

·           Councillor Haitham Taylor urged any Member/ person who felt concerned about a child to contact the services and raise the alarm;

·           Councillor Haitham Taylor stated that where possible, creative school places were offered, for example offering a school place in a school on the way to parents work.  However, sometimes parents refused to take such offers;

·           The Chairman stated that the school leaving age was not 16 anymore, and would like to know what happened to children over that age that were not at school.  Alan stated that this age group tended to engage in work experience, apprenticeships or other alternative arrangements;

·           Councillor Younis stated that he knew of two examples where families had chosen to home educated and their children had done very well.  Home education required a lot of commitment and hard work from parents.  He believed that cases of abuse were very low;

·           Councillor Swaddle expressed concern that there may be a trend relating to SEN children choosing to home educate.

RESOLVED That:

1)     The report be noted;

2)     Further reports including trends will be submitted to the Committee annually.