west lothian and HE

[agapanthus]

hi, im based in Livingston and would love any input/opinions/info regarding how West Lothian Council are with the concept of HE.

i have 3 year old and a 4 year old and fully intend to take them through at the very least, their primary years at home. amelia has previously been at nursery and i informed them today that she would no longer be attending.
i will be informing pupil placement that we no longer require the proffered place, (none of the 4 we had requested might i add.) at school for august.

the academic and socialisation side of things doesnt worry me as much as the input/interference from officialdom. so any advice would be so very appreciated.

also im looking to make contact with other home educators in the west lothian area either individually or to meet up as a group.

many thanks and kindest regards to all. ann x

[Mickey]

I used to home educate in West Lothian, perhaps things have changed, but I can tell you that myself and other parents had bad experiences with Education Services, particularly with them lying and ignoring, illegally I might add, requests from parents to withdraw their children from state school. It sounds like you don't want face-to-face contact with them, so remember that you are entitled to written contact only. They spoke about annual contact with me, but in reality only got round to requesting contact once in the 4 years I home educated. I gave them a written update and they didn't bother me again. Probably because I'd also pointed out several of their website errors..

[agapanthus]

thanks for your reply mickey. i used to work in a school in west lothian and wasnt too impressed with the council then. i guess i had hoped for a wee improvement.

i guess ill just have to wait and see how they handle it and take it from there, we have informed them that we dont need the school place for Amelia now so im awaiting their response. but i think i will go for the written contact only for sure.
easier to keep track of and produce evidence etc.

thanks so much for your input.
kindest regards ann