Tag Archives: Parenting

Education Choices Pt 2: State school, independent school or home education?

Beyond babyhood, Education, Learning, Parenting, , , , ,

There are three main choices for educating your child in England – State school, Independent school or Home Education…

When to start:

Every parent in England has to, by law, provide an education from the start of the term following their child’s fifth birthday.

School stages and ages

(State schools and many independent schools)

Primary:

  • Key Stage 1: Reception, years 1 and 2 (5 to 7 yrs old)
  • Key Stage 2: Years 3 to 6 (ages 8 to 11)

Secondary:

  • Key Stage 3: Year groups 7 to 9 (ages 12 to 14)
  • Key Stage 4: Year groups 10 and 11 (ages 15 and 16)
  • Year Groups 12 and 13 (ages 17 and 18) are referred to as Post 16.

In many other countries formal education does not start until age seven, as it does in independent Steiner Waldorf schools. And within home education it is common for informal methods to be used for the majority of a child’s education.

If you prefer to start school later, you can delay your child’s school start as long as you like by home educating, then apply to schools when your child is ready. With pre-school aged children you may choose to do things full-time as a family, or supplement with play-based settings such as nurseries, playgroups.

How to Choose a School

Inspection reports, reviews and league tables can all be helpful, but you can learn far more by visiting a school and talking to pupils and observing the teachers and pupils.

Remember to ask lots of questions.
How does the school seem to you?
Do the teachers and children seem happy and how do they interact with each other?

It is important to remember that not all children will benefit from a high ranking academic school, and there is more to school than what you learn.

Any reports of a school, whether by writers or parents are subjective, based on their own opinion and background, and may not necessarily reflect your or your children’s priorities or viewpoints.

Mixing it up

Many parents will use a different option at different times, or for different children, depending on their individual needs. Another option is flexi-schooling, where a child is registered at school, but attends part-time at the discretion of the head teacher and is home educated offsite the rest of the time.

Find out more

 

<< Back to: Pt 1: What would suit your child and family?

On to: Pt 2a: State School >>

Anti-Barefoot bigotry

Parenting, ,

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/ What a horrid idea.

As a child who chose to go without shoes and would go to extreme lengths to ensure that it stayed that way! And with friends from all over the world who treasure the freedom, cultural associations and joy that going barefeet gives our children, and ourselves as adults, and fear the prejudices of those who have never had that freedom and who consider us bad parents or mad in some way for that choice.

Hope this doesn’t come across as too strident – but this is something I feel very strongly about.  

Bare feet are not a terrible thing – they are wonderful! You feel powerful, grounded, walk and run differently – with lighter steps. No sore feet, blisters, bunions, or misshapen feet. Cuts and scratches aren’t usually  a problem. You can feel the earth beneath you.

Shoes have their place – in cold climates or where there are health issues with parasites, but they are not essential for life in other climates.

Ask many a New Zealander, Australian, or white South African. Shoes are a cultural issue not necessarily an indicator of poverty. For those of us who have experienced the move from a western world to a sunnier clime – shoes are often one of the first things to go – not because we can’t afford shoes, but because they are constricting, a by-product of a different climate, an irrelevant imposition. The barefoot – poverty association is a dangerous thing. Many people choose bare feet for the joy of it.

Wanting to end poverty is a wonderful sentiment – but it is patronising and frankly damaging to dictate the terms to those who we feel need help, to dictate their aspirations in our image.

People need to be empowered to make their own decisions for their family, free to take the western influences they want, but retain their own values and culture. Not be constantly told that unless you wear shoes, drive the right kind of car, wear a suit and tie, eat western approved foods although your traditional ones are ideal for the climate and more nutritious, use formula, use a pushchair, go to school 9 to 5 every day then we don’t consider you suitable peers. The issue is that people are able to provide for themselves and their families – not that they remake themselves in the western image.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot

http://www.unshod.org/pfbc/

http://www.barefooters.org/

‘My’ child

Beyond babyhood, Parenting,

In debate with a Lord home educators have been told off for claiming possession of their children. A few thoughts.

Of course my child is MY child. Just as I am HER mother. Not that I own her like a thing, but on a far more fundamental level we belong together, are part of each other.

My husband and I created our child. She is a mixing of our genes. She grew in my body for 9 months – fed and enclosed by my body. Then when she was born I gave her warmth, safety love and breastmilk. At the age of 6 months every fibre of her being had been provided by me and the air around her. Her environment was determined by my body – a newborn baby’s natural habitat is afterall its mother’s body.  That connection is powerful, primeval and all encompassing. Far more so than simple possession. As her parents we love her wholeheartedly – we shape her genes, her environment, her very experiences of the world around her.

And as she is MY child, I am HER mother, we are HER parents and family. Just as we have created and shaped her by our very presence and our love, she has transformed us. As parents we are different people to those we were before. She has taught us, and we have taught her. She shapes our family, remodelling my relationship with MY own mother and father and grandmother. I have changed from the child, to the parent.

This relationship is powerful – one full of love and connections. A powerful relationship, with it comes mind blowing responsibility.

As she becomes less dependent those links lengthen, but they don’t vanish. Just as I am still my mother’s child and my mother is still my grandmother’s. We shape each other, support each other and create OUR family in the process.

As we grow into adults the links lengthen, and as adults we move away from our parents in many ways. But one thing having a child yourself does is bring you back to your parents. It demonstrates the intensity of the mother-child relationship, usually long submerged in an adult’s life – it shows us how much we are shaped by our parents and how as our child transforms us, we once had that effect upon our parents.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to uphold that parents have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their child

Home education, Parenting,

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to uphold that parents have the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of their child, to not undermine parents legitimately fulfilling their fundamental duties, and to assume that the best interests of their child is the basic concern of parents unless there is specific evidence to the contrary

In particular, the government should ensure :-
• No right of access to the family home without evidence of a crime
• No right to interview a child alone without evidence of risk of serious harm
• No CRB checks or registration for parents to look after their own children, or to informally look after those of their friends, family etc
• No licensing / registration / assessment / monitoring of methods by which parents fulfil their duties without evidence that they are failing to do so, and with specific recognition that education “otherwise” than at school is a perfectly legal option to fulfil their duty regarding education
• No undermining of parents as being in the best position to determine how to meet their child’s needs, according to their age, ability, aptitude, and any special needs they may have
• Greater focus on applying existing resources and procedures to cases of children known to be at risk, rather than dilution of these resources by routinely monitoring whole sections of the community
• Compliance with the fundamental presumption of innocence unless there is specific evidence to the contrary

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Home-ed-families/ – Sign this petition
You do need to be British citizen to sign, but you do not need to be of voting age – children can sign too as long as they have their own email address. REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL YOU WILL RECEIVE FROM NUMBER 10, OR YOUR SIGNATURE WILL NOT BE ADDED