law – Home Education Scotland

29Oct 2020 by Home Education Scotland No Comments

LAs’ data protection policies come under the spotlight

We have published new research in collaboration with The Scottish Home Education Forum examining local authorities’ data protection policies and practices in relation to the withdrawal of children from school for elective home education. Taking Local Authorities to Task was undertaken to expand on one of 16 recommendations in a previous report, Home Truths, which we published jointly in March 2020. That report highlighted intrusive and unnecessary data collection and sharing by councils when parents elect to withdraw their children from state schools in order to home educate. You can read the latest full report here: Taking Local Authorities to Task: An investigation and critique of Local Authorities’ data protection policies and practices in relation to the withdrawal of children from school for elective home education in Scotland

Factchecking official home ed sites

In the first of an irregular series of posts entitled "When official websites get home education wrong", vice-convener Mark Nixon highlights legal inaccuracies on mygov.scot, Scotland's online public services portal. This website has been wrong for a long time, and despite repeated requests from home educators and home education organisations to correct the errors, they have failed to do so. In just seven substantive sentences, we can find a litany of errors, misinformation, and incorrect terminology. 1. “You have a right to teach your child at home rather than sending them to school.” PARTIALLY CORRECT You have a right to educate your child at home. Teaching is not mentioned in the law and guidance relating to home education. That’s what they do in schools. 2. “If you choose to do…

HES corrects misleading council info

Our attention was drawn to a newspaper report on July 24 in which the Falkirk Herald newspaper repeated inaccurate and misleading information provided to parents by David Mackay, Head of Education at Falkirk Council. HES Deputy Convenor Mark Nixon wrote to the Herald’s editor, offering a corrective.The report has now been removed from the Falkirk Herald’s website.We would like to encourage HES members and supporters to let us know about any inaccurate reporting on home education matters in Scotland’s press and broadcast media, so that we can submit corrections where necessary in order to help Scottish media outlets improve their coverage of home education and offer clear and accurate advice to their readers.The full text of Mark’s letter: Dear madam/sirIt is a shame that the Herald did not consult with…