Continued.....I wrote again to Brendon Nelson last year May 2005 as, because of lack of action and care and failure to protect my children, even my younger children were also now being systemically neglected, targeted, bullied and victimised.

I don’t know who the Minister for Education was trusting to do the right thing by my children when they were not prepared to?

I received a response in June/July 2005 that said.

Thank you for your letter of 9th May 2005 to the Hon Dr Brendon Nelson, Minister for Education, Science and Training, seeking his assistance in bringing your allegations against the NSW Department of Education and Training out into the open and having them investigated. The Minister has asked me to reply on his behalf.

I note your previous correspondence and the matters brought before the Minister in your recent letter. While the Minister is sympathetic towards your feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment about your children's experiences in schools in New South Wales, he is unable to directly intervene in matters which fall within the responsibility of the NSW Minister for Education, the Hon Carmel Tebbutt MP

I have written to the NSW Minister's Chief of Staff to request an explanation concerning the procedures adopted to address the issues you have raised, and to see if there are any further avenues available to investigate your claims. I will write to you again once I have received a reply from the NSW Ministers Office.

It is now 13 January 2006 – I am yet to receive a reply. Through lack of action by adults, children are being permitted to be exposed to neglect, victimization and bullying - without protection!

If the system doesn’t deal with the bullies within their ranks in order to protect the children, what hope is there to change the culture of bullying in schools? Children learn by example!

What right does an Education system have of dictating to parents about their children’s education when they do not have to protect or take any responsibility in relation to the needs of individual children in education?

Sajo, you interest is wonderful.

I don't think it is at all surprising many homeschoolers react to queries about homeschooling slightly defensively. At the moment, in Victoria, a perfectly well working legislative process for homeschooling is being threatened by restrictive legislation which will mean parents are no longer able to simply decide to homeschool, but will become legally obliged to apply for the right to homeschool and submit to, as yet unstated, requirements of "the Authority", which may well dictate what and when children should learn, defeating the purpose of home educating for many families.

As things stand in Victoria, if you choose to home educate your children, it is not necessary to register with any department or ask anyone's by or leave. If your child is already in school, all you need do is write a letter to the principal at the school stating your intention to withdraw the child.

New proposed legislation threatens to encroach on these freedoms, no longer allowing parents autocracy in choosing the best educational process for their child. This, as you might understand, upsets most home educators as we have, very responsibly and successfully, managed our children's education to this point, and find it offensive that the Government feels it is necessary to assess our eligibility and monitor our progress in educating our children - especially as they seem inable to manage their own publicly funded schools with much competence (that is my opinion, I do not speak for all home educators).

As to the disadvantages of home educating. I can see no educational disadvantages as home educated children have access to all the resources mass schooled children tap into. The only disadvantage I have experienced, personally, is changing my own expectation of "free time" away from the children during the day - much of my day IS spent with my children, and I have had to work through the expectation of having a lot of free adult only time.

Good work, Jolanda!
Life learner (& others) - The presentation of my posts may be challenging. This is intentional as I do not know a more effective way of creating debate where there is little. Debate is vital for the unearthing of facts & opinion. The name & intention of this site? A few of those posting here claim all the facts are readily available. As an outsider, I disagree. That's why I'm probing.
I'm fully aware of the history of education. Without consulting statistics (because I don't have a great deal of faith in modern stats), I will assume home ed is a growing practice & its growth is directly related to declining funding & staffing of our public schools. Call it 'post-industrial' or 'new' home ed - it has little in common with pre 20th century education.
There must be a considerable number of home educators who 'test the waters' of public ed & react to the problems presented to them. Congratulations for the forethough to those who have used home ed intentionally from pre ed.
This raises the obvious questions - are there two distinct groups of home educators? Do they have different needs & intentions & connect with different govt & social bodies?
Sajo - well said!

I cannot understand why the Victorian government wants to change something that works well. Perhaps it is too easy for parents to use homeschooling as an excuse for truanting but aren’t actually homeschooling or maybe children are being abused or neglected by parents who want to hide this from authorities. I believe that NSW already requires registration to homeschool. Personally I can see no problem with this so long as the requirements aren’t too restrictive. Some children really do need to be protected from their parents.

The main reason I would consider homeschooling is that my children are wasting a lot of time doing work well below their level. I am assured that this will improve in year 3 when the children are grouped according to ability – time will tell! In the meantime I just give them lots of activities and access to books etc. at home – a sort of part-time homeschooling. If I did homeschool it is a concern that new legislation might require me to teach the normal curriculum which would completely defeat the purpose.

I also have to consider the positive aspects of school that I would have to compensate for – not least the fact that they love it. I am probably as able as anyone to cope with the challenge. However, as my youngest is about to start Kindergarten I can’t help but notice how much I am looking forward to a bit of freedom and possibilities of a career. A depressed mother is the last thing children need on a full-time basis!

Celia – I am so impressed that you are able to home-educate eight children – superwoman or what? Almost a 'school' of your own!

One thing I wanted to know - in NSW it seems that you have to be enrolled at school in order to take the school certificate or HSC - is this right and how do you get around it? Also is it possible to do the International Baccalaureate by home-ed?

Sajo. I think that you are right, there has to be a reason for the change and it might be because there are parents and schools who are allowing children, or turning a blind eye to children not going to school, often for different reasons. If there is no organized system to monitor this, the parent, or school, can just indicate or assume that the student is being homeschooled - in order for the matter to be left alone!! This allows for children to be roaming the streets without question or challenge and that usually leads to no good.

In NSW you might need registration to homeschool but it isn’t enforced. I pulled my children out of school many a time and just said I was homeschooling. I didn’t register or put anything in writing. I waited for the authorities to come to my home, I wanted them to come to my home and hear why my children were not at school and I wanted them to support and help them! I wanted my children’s issue to come before a different Department of the Education System so that they would be forced to deal with what was happening to my children and family in school. I heard nothing!.

The way it is now too many children are allowed to be neglected and “put in the cracks” because there is no supervision, control or discipline. There needs to be some sort of supervision, not just of homeschoolers but of schools, because the adults on this forum are representing those that are motivated and dedicated and do the right thing by the children, not all adults do.

There needs to be a system in place, however controlling the lives of those that are motivated and dedicated is not necessary – the system should be able to differentiate. But then again, that is a major problem with the system. They keep telling us that we are all different yet they insist that to be ‘fair’ we have to all be treated and taught the same. I cant help but wonder “Fair to whom?”.

The thing is, no system of registration is going to stop parents neglecting their children. Children in schools are neglected all the time In fact, when you hear about children living in appalling conditions and being mistreated, you never hear that those children were homeschooled, therefore you are left to assume they were actually sent to school, but the neglect or abuse was not detected.

Many school aged students are truant in states where there are rather restricive homeschooling laws (such as QLD) - obliging parents to apply for permission to homeschool, and be registered and assessed up to twice a year has not stopped or reduced the rate of truancy.

Having home educating parents jump through hoops will not impact on child neglect or abuse because the department is only responsible for ensuring education is occurring, but it is quite easy for parents "fake" this - just as some parents will do homework assignments for their mass educated children. If the departments cannot ensure education is occorring within their own schools, how are they to ensure this in people's private homes?

So, basically, making registration obligatory, and for parents to apply for the right to educate their child, is both a futile waste of department resources, and an unneccessary penalty for the vast majority of caring and motivated home educators who just wish to get on with the job without Big Brother supervision.