Home education strategy to support county’s youngsters

A STRATEGY to encourage home educated children back into school and to support those who don’t return is being developed for Ceredigion.

The county council’s team leader from the education inclusion service Catrin Petche gave members of the learning communities overview and scrutiny committee an update.

Ceredigion has the highest number of home educated pupils in Wales - “The number of compulsory school age pupils currently known to be electively home educated within Ceredigion is 186,” a council spokesman said.

The authority wants to reduce that and 10 have gone back to school since September.

Ms Petche said: “We firmly believe that the educational needs of children within Ceredigion can be met within the school provision available but also respect the rights of parents who wish to home educate.”

This is conditional on children being provided a standard of education in accordance with their “age, aptitude and ability.”

The strategy is currently being consulted on with stakeholders, the committee was told, and it aims to better support and engage with families enrolling their children back in school as well as those who wish to remain at home.

She added that early intervention was important to avoid a situation where parents felt their only option was to home educate.

There is a register of pupils taken out of school and the reasons why, added Ms Petche, and the service wants to increase visits to such families.

Performance is also not measured and this was an issue for councillor Mark Strong but he was told that warnings had been given to parents recently that the education being provided was not of a quality to meet the child’s needs.

“I believe it’s dangerous that there’s some children in our county that are losing out like this, it’s a huge loophole,” he said, adding representations must continue to be made to Welsh Government.

“My concern is that we have to be reactive not proactive,” said councillor Alun Lloyd Jones.