Positive Articles about Home Education in the Scottish Press

Positive Articles about Home Education in the Scottish Press

Stop Press:

As this Byte was being drafted, on 23 January the Scottish Government announced the publication of their new Guidance for Local Authorities and Parents on Home Education. This revision “will replace guidance from 2004 which was updated in 2007. It has been prepared following consultation with interested parties and aims to reflect the changes to education policy and legislation since the last iteration of the guidance.”

The Scottish Home Education Forum posted an interim announcement the following day stating, “while we are not entirely satisfied with the final publication, it represents an improvement on its outdated predecessor. We intend to publish our commentary separately when we have had time to scrutinise it in detail.” The Byte team look forward to further comment once this is available.

More recently Educational Freedom have published a more extensive response.

What’s been said?

The new year began positively for home educating parents in Scotland with two sympathetic articles about home education being published in The National (Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper). Laura Pollock deserves to be thanked for her refreshingly open-minded approach, by comparison with the usual negative tone adopted by the majority of the media.

“See the full map of home education across Scotland” [original | open access] was published on 4 January, complete with interactive map showing numbers of children home educated in each of Scotland’s thirty-two local authority areas.

All but two of the councils had responded to Freedom of Information Requests from The National, and the article opens with a summary of this data, going back as far as 2020 and detailing the overall rise in the total number of children being home educated up to, and in some cases including, the current academic year.

Pollock is also interested to know why more parents are opting for home education, and turns to Educational Freedom’s Scottish Administrator Stacey Matheson to shed further light on this matter.

Matheson cites “philosophical reasons” as partly responsible for the increase, but also notes that many families “feel forced into it as schools fail to recognise and accommodate needs for their child,” pointing out in particular that many have “at least one neurodivergent family member who has been failed by schools.”

The article surveys the growth in HE from the pandemic years to the present day. When asked about any knock-on effects for Scotland of the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill currently under consideration at Westminster, Matheson is perceptive:

“Education is devolved, but if Labour take over from the SNP I can see them trying to align policies more between the UK countries, which would be very bad for home educators in Scotland.

There has been a consultation in recent years, with all the home education organisations pushing to keep the current legislation as it remains, without government interference in family rights.

The current system works in Scotland and we don’t see the need for further input or control. Parents are the experts in their own children and know what they need to thrive.” [Emphasis added in all cases]

In her other article “Home education in Scotland myths debunked as figures increase” [original | open access] (4 January), Pollock also looks to Matheson, this time focusing on some of her personal experiences as a home educating parent.

Matheson’s nine-year-old was in an ASN (additional support needs) class for a year in 2021, but she became increasingly concerned for his wellbeing. Her comments on the impact of school on her son are both sad and worrying, but it’s encouraging to read of the positive outcome:

“I was told it [a different approach in his teaching] wasn’t possible, despite schools claiming to follow a GIRFEC [Getting it Right for Every Child] approach. The longer my child was in school, the more anxious, withdrawn and tired they became.

After being told I was the problem, not the school, I withdrew them in order to home educate them instead. Within weeks, it was clear my decision was the right one and they’ve thrived ever since.”

Why does it matter?

In terms of providing encouragement to apprehensive parents starting out on their HE journey, the second article has much to offer. Newbies can take heart from Matheson’s words about the first eighteen months being a learning curve for both her and her child as they “found a stride and routine that meets both their needs.”

If we as parents were raised in the school system ourselves, it takes time and courage to move beyond the mindset that look-alike school methods are the only way to go, and take hold of the advantages of a personalised education shaped around a child’s particular interests and needs.

And taking a broader view, because HE is the ‘road less travelled’ in terms of parental choice about education, there are many misconceptions about it out there in wider society. This article does a good job of debunking some of these, and offers a different perspective when it comes to communicating with sceptics.

Matheson’s approach can encourage parents to respond with more confidence to those inevitable questions about their educational choices. Rather than starting on the back foot or giving the impression it’s a very dubious position to defend, she goes in proactively and reminds her hearers that home education has credibility and credentials far older than the school system! No “new and radical approach” here for her!

“School leaving age was only raised to 16 in 1973, and schools as we know them have only been enshrined in law since 1918, so it’s schools that are the experiment in society rather than home education.”

Such perspectives can also help us when it comes to assessing agendas like GIRFEC, the legislation which was behind the unlawful Named Person Scheme. Further information here and here. This highlights how it’s necessary to take a reality check and question how a standardised system could possibly get it right for every child.

GIRFEC is a prime example of policy based on Utopian rhetoric, one of the many myths which exist in the minds of policy-makers as well as general society. Children’s professionals are also drawn into subscribing to these by their training.

Scotland is not the only nation to see the introduction of such policies. A previous article on this site noted how readily bad practice with regard to home education can be shared across the four nations of the UK. Wales has had its own Wellbeing of Future Generations Act since 2015. Note how reference to parents and family are conspicuous by their absence in this short explanatory video below.

Most will be well aware from their observations of wider culture of the tactics employed to shut down the voices of any who question the standard narrative. They are cancelled, discredited, portrayed as a threat or a disruptor – in the case of HE parents, as a potential danger to their own children.

So wisdom and a certain amount of resilience are needed in order to push back or even survive in such a climate. But a strategy of exposing the weaknesses in the standard belief system to any who will listen is always worthwhile. Culture-induced mental fog desperately needs clearing.

What can I do?

Read both these articles and share them widely. One reader expressed his appreciation in the Letters page, pointing out that “Parents who choose to home educate their children should not be scapegoats for the failings of society.”

If you are home educating in Scotland and have similar experiences of your own which you would be willing to share, reach out to Laura Pollock. It’s so important to communicate meaningfully with those outside the usual HE echo chamber.

If you’re new to home education or considering embarking on such a journey, take courage from this summary of Matheson’s own experience. Visit Educational Freedom’s website for more information, or reach out to them for advice/support if you have questions.

And finally, let’s ask ourselves why Matheson’s words about parents being the experts in their own children and knowing what they need to thrive chime so readily in the hearts of many parents. Could it be because they’re true? Parents are parents after all, no matter how they educate their children. Their gut instinct tells them that their children’s wellbeing is essentially a matter of relationship. No impersonal function of the state can do or be for their child what they can do or be.

Now is the moment to stand firm against further state incursion into those vital family relationships, whatever form it takes. The state is not your child’s parent, children’s professionals are not your child’s parent – you are!