There follows a guest post by Jessica Turpin, a home educator who is concerned about the Government overreach of the new Education Bill, which grants local authorities sweeping new powers to regulate home education and force home educated children to attend their own failing schools.
Who is responsible for your child’s education? It may well surprise you to learn that if you are a parent in the U.K. today then it is legally your responsibility to ensure that your child receives an “efficient full-time education… either by regular attendance at school or otherwise” (Education Act 1996 Section 7). This law makes complete sense since nobody loves a child, knows a child or is more committed to his or her wellbeing than the parent. Moreover, as a committed Christian, I believe that the Bible clearly delegates the responsibility of educating and training children to their parents, as well as admonishing us not to exasperate them! There is no space for the Government to usurp us on this point.
Most parents entrust the educational aspect of parenting to the Government. They are perfectly entitled to do so. A few of us do not.
My husband and I have seven children, aged four to 11, including two sets of twins. We have never made use of Government nurseries nor of Government schools. We have elected to give them a Classical Christian education at home and have never looked back. If you lived on our street, you would likely want your children to be friends with my children. Indeed, they are well-known and well-liked. My children will not teach your child to swear, they will not sell your child drugs, nor will they show your child how to find pornography on the internet. They will not beat up your child. I am not trying to be funny; my husband and I know the faces of the local schoolchildren who would not think twice about deliberately injuring one of our offspring.
If you would take the time to get to know another home educating family, you will meet people who may well do things differently to us. Families have differing values and differing reasons for home educating. Many, like us, have never taken advantage of the ‘free’ Government system. A great number have been burned by the schools. A large proportion have children with learning difficulties who have given up hope of receiving the support they require at the hands of the Government and elected to bring education ‘in house’.
Now the Education Bill has landed. It is being discussed in the House of Lords this week and devoted parents who typically pay twice for education (once for your children and again for ours), who generally manage on one income, who spend their evenings planning, preparing and networking instead of relaxing in front of the TV, who are raising the children whom you will want to employ ten years henceforth, are about to have their freedom removed by a Government that does not know the limits of its own power.
Before you brush us aside as an unusual and dangerous breed particularly deserving of Government control, could I ask you to ponder a few questions. What would you do if your child were being mercilessly bullied in the school playground and left the house each morning in tears? What if your child’s teacher posted explicit sexual content on Facebook and after an ‘investigation’, the school found nothing to be concerned with? What if your daughter suffered sexual abuse in the toilets? What if your bright child in a class of 25 was bored and frustrated, unstretched and unchallenged in the abilities you know he possesses? Is there a point where you would say, “Enough is enough. A line has most definitely been crossed. I no longer wish to outsource my child’s education to the Government since it has been tried and found wanting. Henceforth, I will personally oversee my child’s education and ensure his or her safety during the hours of 9am until 3pm?”
Allow me a moment to walk you through the ways in which this seemingly prudent and wise decision would open the door to unacceptable Government intrusion into your family life.
Number one, your name will be put on a register. “Innocuous,” I hear you say. The Government has lots of lists. It has a list of sex offenders. It has a list of people with driving licences. (Do we really need a licence in order to educate our own children?) What many home educators recognise is that once the Government takes control of one area of life, it does not easily relinquish it. The tendency rather is to impose ever tighter controls. A very real concern amongst home educators is that a register will open the door to the requirement to follow the National Curriculum. I would like to suggest that if they standardise us, they are discarding riches. Take my family: today our ‘book-work’ included Latin, Greek, a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem and some creative writing on an imaginary visit to Wonders of the Ancient World. We also visited the park, tidied our bedrooms, read stories to a poorly four-year-old and discussed recipes for an impending birthday cake. Every aspect of our day was an opportunity for learning and I have absolutely no idea whether any of these ticks the boxes of the National Curriculum. Quite frankly, I could not really care less, but I do know that we are thriving and that my children are receiving a far superior education to the one they would receive at our local primary school. The beautiful thing is that not one home educating family in the U.K. will have had the same day as ours. I know that a number were standing outside the House of Lords with their children, representing us all and giving their little ones a wonderful opportunity to learn about democracy in action.
Number two, once our name is on this ‘register’ the Local Authority (LA) will be given permission to require “such details of the means by which the child is being educated and any other information that may be prescribed” (Education Bill Part 436C). Take one moment to think about what this undefined, vague and dangerous statement means. All it would take is for one slightly hostile member of the Local Authority (and home educators know that we are generally treated with suspicion) to be legally entitled to visit my home and they have an open door to ask me what I teach, when I teach, how much sugar I give to my children, whether they can read, whether they belong to a library, what we teach about marriage, gender, the environment, Covid and why we read the Bible with our children every morning. This is tremendous, unthinkable Government overreach. The state has absolutely no authority to require this information of us.
Number three, if we fail (or forget) to tell the LA that we are moving out of the area, if we fail to provide some of the information required or even make a clerical error (perhaps we omit to inform them that we have changed our spelling curriculum), then based on no definite legal criteria whatsoever the LA may come to the belief that our children are not receiving a “suitable education” and slap us with an immediate School Attendance Order (SAO) (Education Bill Part 436 I). The Government can literally force us to send our children to a Government school, the likes of which the Prime Minister and Education Minister have deemed not good enough for their own children.
Finally, if we do not comply with orders to send our children to school, we are guilty of a criminal offence. We become liable to a £1,000 fine and a 51-week prison sentence (Education Bill Part 436 Q). The loving parent is criminalised, and removed from her children who are presumably put into care. What an excellent use of taxpayers’ money. It is almost as though the Government has taken offence to the fact that we do not wish to use its education system.
Before I wrap up, allow me to quickly address the suspicion that home educators keep their children home in order to abuse them. Contrary to popular belief, we are devoted to our children. Nothing turns our stomach more than child abuse and we are committed to keeping our children safe from predators. Research shows that home educators are referred at a higher rate under the Children Act than other families (which means we are held in greater suspicion) but that there is no significant statistical difference in the rates of child protection plans for home educating families and other children between the ages of five and 16. There is simply no credible evidence for suggesting that children are at a greater risk of abuse in home educating families.
There is, however, a strong argument that in keeping our child home with us, he is far safer than he would be in Government schools. Ofsted recently visited 32 schools in order to conduct a review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges. Its findings revealed that 90% of girls and nearly 50% of boys report being sent explicit videos and picture of things they do not wish to see. Moreover, it recommends that “even where school and college leaders do not have specific information that indicates sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are problems for their children and young people, they should act on the assumption they are.”
Six years ago, the Scottish Government tried to bring in the Named Person scheme and the Supreme Court in London ruled that, “The first thing that a totalitarian regime tries to do is to get at the children, to distance them from the subversive, varied influences of their families, and indoctrinate them in their ruler’s view of the world.”
Dear Government, by whose authority do you presume to enter our homes, assume the right to require whatever personal information of us you so desire and insist that we use your schools?
Might I suggest that you get your own house in order before you seek to tell me what to do with mine?
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Johnson was elected on the promise to Get Brexit done! but instead, he became the Keep COVID going! prime minister, always wax in the hand of his so-called advisors who were really running the (shit) show. Had he stuck to his guns in 2020, he would be a national hero now, at least for the thinking segment of the population. What he did instead shall not be forgiven.
Totally agree. He always reminded me a bit of Colonel K from Danger Mouse. However, it quickly became apparent that beneath that bumbling, chummy veneer he was more Baron Greenback.
Uptick for Dangermouse reference
Agree 100%. He had his chance at a Thatcher Moment, and he fluffed it, wilted like a wet lettuce, moulded over the form presented for him like damp toilet paper. He’s dried out now, but the form he flopped upon remains.
Question is, should we forgive him?
Maybe, but I’ll never forget his behaviour over a not-terribly-bad flu virus, whilst knowing The Coronavirus Act 2020 was all total BS.
Forgiveness is fine but should follow repentance. I don’t believe he has repented – at least not publicly.
He did screw it up in 2020, and it’s a shame that he wasn’t well enough at the time, and ended up temporarily in hospital. I seem to remember that one of the workers there “accidentally” let out some info about his weight; not good (the figures themselves). If he’d been more “normal” then, and it was a real case of C-19, he could have chucked out the scaremongers.
It’s possible he may have been close to “doing the right thing” with regard to covid, but either he’s simply not a conservative or he is but doesn’t care that much about anything and just wants power. Either way it’s clear he’s not worthy of respect or confidence.
Perhaps it is a case of one down, an indefinite number to go. Also, what is “the Blob”?
The blob is the name given to the faceless, unelected bureaucratic civil service that seems to be running the show and which usurps (so called) democracy.
The Civil Service is not running the show. Some senior elements might possibly be in a position to issue orders but those orders are emanating from the Davos Deviants, or branches thereof.
Glad you asked that because I didn’t have a clue either. Not sure we needed somebody to invent new terminology for something that isn’t actually new but there you go. How did we get by pre-‘Blob’? Actually, and more importantly, how did we get by pre-‘selfie’??
I’ve always wondered what was the best thing BEFORE sliced bread…
I’ve often wondered who this Gordon Bennett was.
But seriously, what did we used to call selfies before the word ‘selfie’ became a thing? 
Prima donnas.
What’s a selfie?
Whatever anyone thinks of Boris Johnson, at least he was elected Prime Minister. This Sunak government was never elected.
Liz Truss was at least elected Prime Minister by the members of the Conservative Party, according to the rules. Sunak wasn’t.
Too true.
There is no such thing as an elected prime minister in the UK, at least none elected by the so-called electorate. Voters elect MPs. MPs can then organize a government in whichever ways suits them (as determined by MP votes in parliament). Even this is technically still wrong as the prime minister is appointed by the king and the king is free to appoint whomever he desires to appoint. But no prime minister can actually rule against a parliamentary majority.
Everybody who voted Conservative at the last General Election was in practice voting for Johnson to be PM, and the idea that there was the slightest possibility that QE2 might have appointed someone else is ridiculous.
That was the sales pitch of Johnson’s party at that time. However, anyone with at least a passing familiarity with the tories-in-parliament will have known that this absolutely didn’t mean he was going to remain prime minister until his nominal term of office was over. And a sales pitch is just that, a sales pitch. People may have believed (or may have been fooled into believing) that they were voting for Johnson to become PM but this doesn’t change the fact that they actually didn’t.
The first pure tourist attraction on the British throne would certainly never have done anything than what she always did, do whatever she was asked to do and open the other hand to receive her payment for that (or rather, let a bunch of her servants open the huge sack it was supposed to be put into). But that was specialty of this lady and she was by no means required to exercise her prerogative in this way.
Because of this, the statement that Johnson was elected PM is wrong. The tory faction in parliament has chosen to suggest his appointment to the monarch and the monarch has chosen to accept that. Exactly like all of his predecessors (for some time) and all of his successors (so far).
Correct. However, General Elections do appear to be pseudo-presidential in reality, even though there is no such position on paper.
The sad/ unfortunate reality is that people vote for frontmen and not for policies.
“The temptation is for Johnson’s Rightward critics to cut him loose. But this would be a mistake.”
Well, he’s not a conservative so he can get stuffed as far as I’m concerned.
“Rishi Sunak’s Government is based on a simple idea: probity and ‘fitness for office’ to end the conflict with Whitehall. ”
The appearance of probity and fitness for office. Not getting caught. Globalism, socialism, crony capitalism, technocracy, safetyism. State interference in everything.
“Of those who have had any success in centralising power in Parliament there are exactly three: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson. ”
Cummings pushed stuff through against the will of Whitehall, but he also pushed for lockdowns without being elected (and then ignored them, of course).
Bozo is guilty of crimes against humanity.
Never forget. Never forgive.
He certainly was the figure head of the political, civil servant, public services face that withdrew most if not all of our basic human rights. As an individual I would not have wanted any part of his job at the time. For those who rejoice in his demise should remember the regime that initiated, controlled and enforced the human rights removal are still in place, and digging in.
Obviously. When faced with decision of governing for the people or for the bureaucratic establishment with its global ties to NGOs and big business, Johnson chose the latter. He was then kept in his somewhat influenceless position for as long as he was still useful — the final nail in the coffin was daring to dump the mask mandate — and then, let fallen onto a sword preprared for this purpose. He has none but himself to blame for that and certainly doesn’t deserve any sympathy.
There’s a German proverb, Die Kleinen hängt man und die Großen läßt man laufen, English Minor mobsters get hanged, big mobsters go free, which neatly describes the situation. But the solution to this problem is not Let the other’s go free as well. They’re still guilty.
I agree with what you say. I liked the German proverb, Aesop also said something like, We hang petty thieves but the great ones we elect to public office; or something like it. It seems the underlying opinion of politicians has not changed much in the thousands of years of political activity.
If we accept this ‘Blob Rule’ on the basis that Boris is a consumate arse and deserves no better, then we have lost our democracy completely. Pop it in a box and stick it in the attic, that our children can one day find like a time capsule and marvel at a time when the people had a say in choosing the government of the day, and could get rid of it if they so choose to do.
As PM, Johnson could have prevented the Lockdown Destruction.
He could have dropped the Net Zero lunacy.
He could have told Schwab and the WEF that their Agenda to Build Back Better was being ditched.
He could have closed the immigration floodgates.
He did none of them.
I don’t give a 4X what happens to him.
100%. All this nonsense about Brexit revenge seems to me to play to the very same entitlement caricature of Boris that let the idiot achieve the highest office possible in the first place! I voted Remain, but would now vote Leave, solely on the basis of how the states of the E.U. behaved during “pandemic”.
Lockdowns, the mask mandates, the idiotic NPI’s and the vaccine mandates knock the Brexit dilemma into a hat when it comes to liberty, human rights & dignity, and freedom of speech; anyone bringing up it up as to why Boris was done in is creating a massive straw man.
I much appreciate your blunt an comprehensive appraisal of the treasonous Johnson. Short memory syndrome is clearly alive and well even here on DS. Remarkable.
It is difficult not to conclude that we are being set up for a pre-election soap opera with the cruelly wronged Bozo ‘fighting to clear his name’ over the grave injustice he has suffered from Harridan Harman’s committee.
Bozo battles to have his – admittedly appalling- reputation restored and as Fishy is forced to let go of the reins Bozo gallantly gallops in to save the country from the Satanic Kneel and his partner in crime, Ranting.
Only once Bozo is elected the real carnage can begin and if he loses the Reset is safe with Kneel.
For the months up to the election the electorate can be kept happily distracted as the pantomime plays out while in the background our digital prison is firmly constructed.
Just the ticket.
‘Boris’ was a jellybelly. He thought he could coast along, letting his appointed loyalists get an ultra-soft, BRINO Brexit sorted while he took the credit for it. Then COVID-19 came along. Rather than stick to the pandemic plan, telling the authoritarian Macron to get shafted, and being bold by ‘doing a Sweden’, he panicked and threw us into the worst lockdown of anyone outside China: ‘worst’ not so much for the level of restrictions, but because it was one with no rules except what police officers and politicians made up on the hoof, while keeping an incompetent psychopath (who thinks malaria is a virus) in office as Health Secretary.
I have some concerns about the way Johnson was ejected: he should have been ejected as the most vicious dictator this country has seen since Cromwell and put on trial for crimes against humanity, not for scoffing a load of cake and champers. Then again, I suppose, Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion.
And this is personal too: my Dad had to wait six months for eye surgery, because the hospitals here had shut down all ophthalmology operations as ‘non-essential’. By the time he had the surgery, his eye was too far gone and it failed. He got confirmation yesterday that the second – and final – attempt had also failed. He now has about 20 per cent vision. We’re paying £1,000 for laser treatment for the other eye next month in the hope that he can be boosted to maybe 35 per cent vision. The NHS wait would be six months to a year, by which time the vision in that eye would be non-existent.
My Mum has sarcoidosis on her lungs. She had a big scan and treatment was sorted about the time the lockdown started. In between regular scans, she had the first Pfizer booster shot (jab 3) and was very ill. Next time she was scanned, the hospital discovered a serious heart condition that wasn’t there before. Her specialist was gobsmacked. She’s now on steroids and might be starting immunosuppressants. Her heart is working at about 50 per cent what it should be. She asked the specialist if she should have the offered fourth jab. The response was an unequivocal ‘NO!’
I wish nothing but ill on the people who ran the lockdown in the Government and wider country: I want full-on ‘Wrath of God’, Black Death and Ebola all rolled into one scenario for them. My level of hatred is such that I don’t want them harmed by anyone: I hope to see them live and suffer. My Dad is in despair. My Mum’s life is going to be shorter and more restricted than it would have been. For that matter, at 48, my foreseeable life is very restricted: I now have two elderly, infirm parents I absolutely have to live with, because Dad, at 86, has several other serious problems and my Mum struggles even to put washing on the line without having to lie down on the bed to sleep afterwards. I’m fine with doing this because I love them, but it means the next ten years of my life will be tough and by then I’ll be pushing 60 myself. Don’t want to sound ‘Woe is me!’ What makes me angry is that I’m reading stories about this happening to people all over the country.
It shouldn’t have been this way.
The old adage “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” springs to mind.