Comments on: Powers to enter the family home and interview children alone – The Great Educational Balls up – Part 4

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:14:54 +0000

Grit – Ah, now you are pre-empting part 5! Coming soon to a PC near you…

By: Grit

Grit — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:17:46 +0000

i cannot see how the la could practically visit each and every one of us; the resources required to get through the gates of just ONE bolshy home ed family would probably stretch the service to breaking point. we should be encouraging the la's to kick this stupid piece of legislation out too.

By: Mieke

Mieke — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:21:18 +0000

Just discovered your blog and thoroughly enjoyed reading your continuing story . I am in the fortunate position that all my children are of an age where they wouldn't let themselves be manipulated into anything – that is if the interviewer had managed to get past myself, my dh and my adult children to talk to them by themselves – but still, it's a scary thought.
But just imagine what precautions they would have to take to make sure they wouldn't run the risk of being accused of allsorts while interviewing a child on their own.
Nah, I don't think this will get through, although they might try to use it as a negotiation tool. "If you agree with this that and the other, we'll drop this…"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:25:19 +0000

The thing that concerns me about the 'secret' interviewing thing is whether my children are going to be asked leading questions about my role as a parent. "Does Mummy ever get cross with you?", "Does she shout sometimes?", "How does that make you feel?" etc etc. I accept that I'm not a perfect parent and yes I have got cross and shouted occasionally! But the Govt clearly has an agenda about somehow 'proving' that HE'd kids are more subject to abuse. So by asking a 5 year old leading questions that are nothing to do with education and more to do with the Govt's 'safeguarding' agenda, I could suddenly find myself having Social Services removing my children because one of them has inadvertently made 'accusations of abuse' because I, for instance, shouted at them for running across the road in front of a car a few days before the meeting and they still feel upset about it!