At primary level perhaps this does not matter so much because it is believed that children at this level are not able to master the material at such complex levels as, say, secondary children are

Well this is where school is wrong for so many children, children like mine are very able to but they are not able to write it down till secondary level, or not sufficiently to demonstrate the sophistication of their understanding. They have problems transposing numbers so make mistakes in simple maths but later go on to understand complex proofs and logic with relative ease. Primary school especially is abusive as performance is all that matters, performance and stats. School tells these children that they are unintelligent and a failure and how many never learn different, I had no idea of how very wrong they were about me until well into my 50s. Home ed lets the child learn and teach through conversation, hard to imagine how school could match it. Perhaps if it became a resource to help children answer their many questions rather that shut up sit down keep still stop talking. Due to my own dire and abusive education where I was blamed and shamed for having a different brain not a plodding sequential one but a leaps and spurts and make odd connections one I have protected my children from the damage schools do to people like us. We are the wrong shape for mass teaching, but I have learnt a lot about learning and child psychology and development in the process. Good luck with your Phd, it would be wonderful if a change that protected neurodiverse kids from plodding repetitive curricula and being profoundly misunderstood could could be instigated but you must know that government usually go in exactly the opposite direction of what quality research suggests would be efficacious.

Thing is children who are home educated can play through the primary years and pick up everything that is taught so laboriously to the children trapped in the classroom for so many hours, so many years, as a bi product of play and curiosity.

Consultation on the revised statutory guidance on children missing education for local authorities

Just had a very quick glance at what I assume is the revised guidance although it didn't seem to be labelled as such.

This bit jumped out immediately, could be helpful or could be problematic.

"Children with statements of special education needs can be home educated but the relevant local authority must provide the special educational provision specified in the child’s statement."


It is a very simple consultation form, very different from the leading questions and hidden agenda of the ones we are used to.

Consultation Response Form Consultation closing date: 15 February 2013 Your comments must reach us by that date.

Department for Education statutory guidance for local authorities in England to identify children not receiving a suitable education  Consultation Response Form

Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes, primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998.

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The Department will process your personal data (name and address and any other identifying material) in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.

Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential.
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If your enquiry is related to the DfE e-consultation website or the consultation process in general, you can contact the Public Communications Unit by e-mail: consultation.unit@education.gsi.gov.uk or by telephone: 0370 000 2288 or via the Department's 'Contact Us' page.

Please tick the box that best describes you as a respondent.

	Local Authorities		Governing Bodies		Head Teachers
	Youth Offending Teams		Other

Please Specify:

1 Do you have any comments on the draft guidance?

Comments:

Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.

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Here at the Department for Education we carry out our research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable to us, would it be alright if we were to contact you again from time to time either for research or to send through consultation documents?

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All DfE public consultations are required to meet the Cabinet Office Principles on Consultation

The key Consultation Principles are:

• departments will follow a range of timescales rather than defaulting to a 12-week period, particularly where extensive engagement has occurred before

• departments will need to give more thought to how they engage with and consult with those who are affected

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Responses should be completed on-line or emailed to the relevant consultation email box. However, if you have any comments on how DfE consultations are conducted, please contact Carole Edge, DfE Consultation Coordinator, tel: 0370 000 2288 / email: carole.edge@education.gsi.gov.uk

Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.

Completed questionnaires and other responses should be sent to the address shown below by 15 February 2013

You can respond to the consultation by completing the response form and emailing it to SchoolAttendance.CONSULTATION@education.gsi.gov.uk or sending it by post to:

Department for Education
C/o Juliette Duah
Behaviour and Atendence in Schools Division
Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT

There is a consultation document here.

Might need to have a look at this when it comes out.