Hello :-)

You're right, it is very odd.  And despite the fact that it was on record from our first ever meeting with the LA that my children were ahead of their schooled peers and I was providing an "outstanding" education (which was very well documented too) I still got this stupid reaction from a GP who had no clue and clearly thought it preferable to panic and assume without checking anything out.  Some people just shouldn't be in the jobs they are in.  And we are still suffering the repercussions of his very ill-judged actions to this day, causing a lot of stress to the whole family.  The problem is, one professional decides an opinion and passes it on to other professionals and they automatically believe it without question.  It goes on records left, right and centre, without your knowledge.  Until someone makes you wake up to what they are like and you get copies of your records and see what lies and unsubstantiated rubbish they have been recording about you and your children.  These are people who are supposed to be autism aware and are not, judge by neurotypical standards and make their moves based on those misjudgements.

Hi there,

I was so saddened to hear about your experiences - it's that kind of response that I worried so much about when we needed to refer (we went via a health visitor who knew our family really well, so a GP wasn't involved) - worrying about whether we would encounter someone who was prejudiced against homeschoolers.  As a Homeschooler you're the one who has to refer for everything, from more serious stuff to normal school-based stuff like hearing tests - so they definitely shouldn't be making us afraid to approach them when we need help, for fear of being reported just for home educating.

I'm also a private tutor - and the difference in the general perception, and the level of having to prove I'm capable -  between teaching other people's children for money to teaching my own children more basic primary school skills for free seems very, very odd to me.

I'm glad it's been such a positive experience for you.  It was for us (other than the challenges of my youngest's behaviour), until I got my children referred for autism assessments (both since diagnosed).  But in seeking assessments for their autism, I encountered a lot of strange and obstructive behaviour from services, (despite having a fully LA-endorsed provision) and I have since found out that our ignorant GP made a secret and unwarranted referral to social services behind our backs purely on the basis that we were home-educating!  It's unbelievable.  Such ignorance about home-educating in a professional is not something you expect.  He wrongly assumed they had no contact with anyone and accused me of having an obsession with them having autism (implying emotional harm) and I have been proven to be right as they were diagnosed.  Yet another example of GPs being ignorant about autism - and it might be an idea if they were made to be educated on home-education as well!

Hello there :)

Apologies for the late reply - busy week! :)  I shall try and be as open and helpful as I can.

Sadly, we get absolutely no funding for the academic side of the homeschooling for our older two children.  A few people have mentioned possible funding, but I've not heard of anyone successfully getting this yet.  If they are worried about people just spending the money on holidays or such, I wouldn't mind if the funds came in the form of vouchers that could only be spent on school stuff!

We homeschooled happily "off radar" entirely on our own for years until our 3rd son needed professional support - which brought our family into contact with a whole team of LA and NHS specialists.  This was pretty bewildering when we were used to it just being us.

We have been supported as homeschoolers with autism specialists (home school support worker, special needs education support, autism outreach staff, educational psychologist, speech therapist) coming to our house, where they would normally visit a child in nursery.  Between them have provided us hours of advice, lessons for our son and also with a few resources, mainly speech therapy worksheets, sign language sets etc.

However, our son has gone from being utterly locked into his own world, stimming and unresponsive at age 3 to a happy, joining-in 4 and a half year old, so this support is now going to consist of speech therapy only as we start to officially homeschool him in a few months at age 5.

I had many sleepless nights worrying after hearing horror stories about how homeschoolers can be treated, but we lucked out - the LA has been really supportive of our choice.  Apparantly we're the first in our area to HS an autistic child from the start (rather than after something has gone wrong with state schooling) - so we've been called something of a test case - and in return I'm trying to be really open and welcoming with the LA, so that they can see how well HS can work for aspergers children.  It definitely helped to have two older boys that they could see were thriving, both academically and socially.

I completely agree with your remarks on knowing your rights.  Very occassionally I've come across LA staff who have been cautious about homeschooling and very pro-special schools for autism and whilst I'm working to change their opinion :) it's reassuring to know that you know your child better than anyone and it's your choice, not theirs.

kind regards

everso

Hello everso.

When you say "with the support of the LA homeschooling department" what does this entail?

I ask because as an ex-home-educator I chose not to have their visits (there being no legal requirement) and instead sent them annual reports (also optional).  Some parents choose not to have anything to do with the LA.  I just wondered whether you meant their EOTAS department visits to check your provision, or that you have a dedicated support department that assist you in some way (many families find their visits an interference but don't know their rights!).  If so, your LA is unusual, because as you know, parents that home-educate aren't even given any funding for resources (despite saving the LA the going rate for their child being in school (upwards of £6k p.a.)