Council issues legal threat over Matilda star’s home schooling
THE parents of a child actress who played Matilda in the musical are in dispute with Westminster council over her home schooling.
Edward Hardy and Eileen Tracy may have to go to court if the council does not agree that their daughter is receiving a suitable education.
Their daughter Lilian, 12, who played the title role in the West End production for six months until last September, has been educated at home all her life.
Her parents have now been sent a school attendance order, which means they must enrol her at a local school within 15 days or prove that she is receiving an adequate education, otherwise they face prosecution or a fine.
They told The Guardian that they had sent evidence of her progress, including samples of her work and explanation about her studies, to the local authority, but the council said this was not enough.
The council only became aware of her situation when the Royal Shakespeare Company, which produces the show, applied for a child performance licence so Lilian could join the cast, said the report.
Ms Tracy told the newspaper: “Lilian has really thrived on being home-educated, in ways that have regularly surprised and delighted us and that have also clarified for me as an educator how children learn best – through being given freedom to follow their noses. “Through home education, parents exercise their right to let their child develop at their own pace and cherrypick their academic pursuits and other passions without confused outsiders breathing down their necks. “Local authorities have sufficient powers if they see a problem. But that ‘if ’ is key. It’s to do with the fundamental British concept of presumption of innocence, which is enshrined in UK law.
“If the state doesn’t have evidence of a problem, as in our case, then it’s really important that state officials don’t have the power to intervene, so that children and their families can be left in peace to work their own magic.” Home education has become an increasingly controversial topic as figures released last year showed that the number of home-educated children had doubled in six years.
Neil Carmichael, the former chairman of the Education Select Committee, told The Daily Telegraph at the time that he was “deeply concerned” by the data.
In November the Government said it was working on tougher guidance for home schooling that could increase councils’ powers to intervene. A spokesman for Westminster council said: “Local authorities have a statutory obligation to ensure that resident children receive a suitable education. We have explained to Mr Hardy and Ms Tracy that we cannot solely rely on samples of their child’s work to form a view about the suitability of their education.”