hello, considering home-schooling in Glasgow

[JamesJane]

Hi,
I think you have your children's best interests' at heart-follow what you believe is the best, and be flexible in whatever choice you make, so that you don't completely close off other venues for yourself and them.

I am new in home-ed and am full of questions, and would love to meet up regularly with other home -ed parents/kids in glasgow and south lanarkshire.
Could someone please tell me when, where and waht time they meet up? My sons are four years and 14 months old respectively.

Thanks alot

[suze]

Hi James and Jane

Glad you guys made it over. You should check the Scotland Activties Section on the forum. You will find information about all the meet ups there.

See you soon,

Susan

[roosvelt]

emi.... hia i'm in ur same position anxious to begin process of home ed.... i'm in gasgow west,..... i am at present in process of acuiring all info i need to get through process successfully of getting schools grips off jnr... once thats done more than welcome to exchange ideas and outings.... although i have not sent letter yet I have been building on supplies , ideas , diary planners etc curriculum personal to jnr to be prepared.... i am certain of what i want to do just here to acquire expertise knowledge on process answering questions etc.... dont reckon , or rather anticipate it will not be easy to withdraw jnr.... afraid of what i will encounter in attempting to excercise my rights and jnr;s.

[weedaftie]

Originally Posted by roosvelt

emi.... hia i'm in ur same position anxious to begin process of home ed.... i'm in gasgow west,..... i am at present in process of acuiring all info i need to get through process successfully of getting schools grips off jnr... once thats done more than welcome to exchange ideas and outings.... although i have not sent letter yet I have been building on supplies , ideas , diary planners etc curriculum personal to jnr to be prepared.... i am certain of what i want to do just here to acquire expertise knowledge on process answering questions etc.... dont reckon , or rather anticipate it will not be easy to withdraw jnr.... afraid of what i will encounter in attempting to excercise my rights and jnr;s.

Glasgow are not generally obstructive - just make sure you quote Section 3.3 the Scottish Guidance in your letter. This section gives the withdrawal procedure and makes no mention of home visits or meetings being part of the procedure. Quoting such sections shows that you are aware of your rights and know the correct procedure that they should be following.
They would usually reply saying they will come to visit but if you quote Section 3.3 saying that the specific instances where consent cannot be granted immediately do not apply and as you have provided an initial outline of your intended education provision which has been prepared iaw Section 6.1 then they should confirm consent to withdraw immediately or give a date approx 14 days from receipt of your letter. The timescale in the Guidance states that a decision should be made within 6 weeks - that is the max time they are allowed to take... as the guidance says: "The majority of applications can and will be dealt with well within this timescale. "

Include a copy of your initial outline of provision. Start that with a sentence saying that it is prepared iaw Section 6.1 and end with something about this provision will evolve according to your child's personal development.
ALWAYS send correspondence to LAs by recorded delivery otherwise many will deny receiving it. NEVER use email as you need paper copies and proof they received your correspondence in case you have hassle with them.

[Elaine Kirk]

Thanks WeeDaftie I had always thought email was ok I will make sure I say paper in future we live , we learn.

[weedaftie]

Originally Posted by Elaine Kirk

Thanks WeeDaftie I had always thought email was ok I will make sure I say paper in future we live , we learn.

The LAs will often deny receiving email and you have no proof they have received it. They will also deny receiving mail that has not been signed for. If personally delivering letters to schools or LAs always get a receipt!!
Copies of your correspondence and replies signed by the officer and on their headed paper is crucial in case you need to appeal a decision esp if it ends up having to go to the Ombudsman.
Same goes with correspondence to schools. The school in the lengthy SA case denied receiving the boys' medical certificates that covered their absence while waiting for consent to withdraw. But the mum had the school secretary's signature as proof of receipt. I was able to go through every bit of correspondence and pick out all the illegal statements the LA made and argue those with the correct info. Not one reason given for refusing consent was legal but without the signed paper copy of McCabe's letter I wouldn't have been able to prove that he had said any of it. The appeal was 9 pages of nitpicking every inaccuracy and nasty thing SAC had done in the case and took me nearly a week to do.
In every difficult case I have dealt with having all the correspondence has been absolutely crucial to winning the case.
You never know when it will be needed. Even a fairly supportive LA such as Glasgow can be extremely obstructive at times. Once you start having SWs, Ed psychs etc getting involved it is essential to have all the correspondence with handwritten signatures of the officers so they can't blame anyone else for the lies.
I always asked parents to copy SH in to all the correspondence and so I accumulated a mass of evidence about every LA. That evidence was essential to the SCC report and swung the Scottish gvt team in favour of home educators - the LAs had no evidence to back up their fabrications while SH had masses of evidence proving that the LA officers were not even attempting to use the Guidance and worse were lying and bullying parents. The SCC used some of the evidence and cases studies but we had an awful lot more and the Scottish gvt knew it. Not just anecdotal but all the copies of letters to prove what we were saying was true.
If there is another review in Scotland then that same kind of evidence will be needed again.

[roosvelt]

I SENT IN MY LETTER RECORDED DELIVERY, SINCE SPOKE ON PHONE BOUT 3 TIMES ASKING PROCESS INVOLVED . GOT A LOT OF UNCLEAR ANSWERS AND INTIMIDATED FOR HOME VISIT. WHEN I CORNERED LEA INTO A CLEAR ANSWER TO QUESTION IF HOME VISIT WAS NEEDED TO PROCESS APPLICATION SHE CLEARL SAID NO CAN GO ON LETTER. eVEN THOUGH SHE HAD PREVIOUSLY SAID VISIT NEEDED. I SINCE EMAILED ASKING FOR INFORMATION OF PROCESS FOR GLASGOW AUTHORITY AND EACH BENCH MARK AND WHERE I WAS AT AT WHAT STAGE, I REITTERATED MY CURRICULUM PROPOSED AND RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO US AND GOT A 1 SENTANCE RESPONSE SAING SHE GOT FILE FROM SCHOOL AND WOULD LET ME KNOW ONCE SHE HAD REVIEWED IT. OOPS CAP ok back to normal letters.
think i'm being drawn out the full six weeks if not more. I agreed to meet with them in the hope i can pick their brains for some stuff i need to know for future curriculum and put a face to name. She has agreed to visit at summer when she does rotation of home ed families... why do the attempt to make you feel that you have some other agenda i.e. you cant be arsed getting up and taking children to school or you want to spend your day on a couch with your child bringing you coffee and biscuits after they cleaned the floors and made 100 garments for primark????!!!!! we are perents who know and see our children are unhappy in school and are not thriving and reaching their full potential.. surely it should not be so difficult to excercise our rights as parents to fulfill potential of our kids.... i suppose lea have interest of children at heart but cannot help feeling there is always another agenda.... i.e. funding for schools system etc..... wouldn't it be great if there was a home ed revolution and each parent was made to educate their child and enforced to do this.....what a wonderful world would be..... children raised b a community way it always was in past.. and parents would be too busy to worry about other silly stuff in life. moreover many adults would think twice about having children if they knew their duty to educate them to full potential..... sorry if this last remark offends anone not intended. Some children obviously do well in school and parents have right to send them to state school.

Peeved off that i want to teach my daughter in a setting that is beneficial to her and taking so longb to get confirnmation.

[moonrabbit]

Originally Posted by emieye

I think my main problem is that I don't see myself as massively successful in life - I've just gone back to art school to study illustration at the age of 34 because I never did what I really wanted before - and my partner just finished an Art Therapy post grad but hasn't got work yet - both of us haven't ever done what we really wanted, or even been successful at a career we didn't want! and I worry that if I home-school maybe I'll teach that to my kids too!? I feel like I don't really know how to get on in the society that we live in and maybe a school like this would teach my kids how to be successful. But the big problem is that it seems to go so against any values that I have!
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?!

Emily

Emily, just came across this, feel like I could have written the exact same paragraph, word for word, almost! My partner and I are in the same situation with never having followed our dreams, or even lost the ability to dream (myself more so than my partner) School certainly never helped me to be sucessful in their sense of the word or mine - though I was very good at passing their tests and ticking boxes. We are only just now slowly realising our interests and getting away from the endless pointless, unsatisfying jobs to doing what we want and need to do for ourselves. Though we've never sent our eldest (5, almost 6) to school I've been constantly questioning my ability to do enough for her at home and not wanting my own insecurities etc. to be passed on to her and her little sister. This is gradually getting better as we meet more people and realise we're not alone and other people share our views etc. and I get stronger in myself. I see we do not necessarily have to fit in with a society of which we don't share many of it's values etc.

It sounds like you and your partner are well on the road to achieving your own goals and perhaps your children being around through this process to see you grow also will be a lesson in itself. I do look around at many so called sucessful people and this often seems to be in terms of money and them having to sacrifice other aspects of their lives in pursuit of this. I think you both having the strength to follow your dreams, no matter what age you do it, is a fantastic lesson for your children. Follow happiness whenever and however you can. I hope you and your family find your own perfect balance, we're up in Inverness, but it seems there's a lot going on around you in Glasgow.
Lots of luck with it all,
Gemma.x

[aprillove20]

Well, I'm agree with opinion of Katie.