| 1) Background:
Education will be provided by B's parents:
PH, Minister of Religion,
SH, Sculptor/Painter, working from home/church premises.
at XXXXXXXXXX
B attended xxxx Primary School from 1998 to March 2003, when we
decided to deregister him from the school and educate him at home.
The primary reason for the decision was his increasing emotional
distress with the rigidity of the requirements of the class curriculum,
especially written elements. He also expressed distress at the behaviour
of other children towards his "different" intelligence
and social style, and at exposure to the forceful disciplining of
other pupils. Also he found that all the mathematical, scientific,
design, IT and logic elements of the curriculum were taught at too
slow a pace for his interest to be retained.
B's parents are members of Education Otherwise and HEAS home education
support organizations. They have read widely in the field of home
education and autonomous learning, especially the work of John Holt,
John Gatto, and Roland Meighan. They have experience of home educating
B's older sisters for 2 years.
2) General Educational Philosophy - Autonomous Learning
B clearly found the standard structure of the national curriculum
unsuited to his natural learning skills. The main opportunity presented
by home education therefore, is to allow the learning process to
be modified to fit his learning styles. The experience of the home
education community is that with children like B who are reactive
to imposed curriculum structures, the adoption of autonomous learning
processes results in much faster progress. This means that the child
is encouraged to explore and study whatever areas of knowledge or
skills interest them. I will not elaborate at length as the study
of autonomous learning is a whole area of expertise in itself, and
the literature is readily available, but in summary the educational
philosophy revolves around the concept that people learn much faster
and retain more if they learn things that they are interested in,
in a way that they find natural. The role of the parent is primarily
that of a facilitator, providing opportunities, resources, and explanations
as required. A degree of directive input as to the overall balance
of learning is provided by ensuring that attractive opportunities
are presented across an appropriate range of areas. However the
concept of curriculum areas features little in this educational
philosophy, as autonomous learning tends to lead naturally to an
exploration from one area to others linked to it, resulting in a
natural covering of the range of areas to which to the pupils aptitudes
and abilities are suited.
No structured timetable will be used.
No formal record will be made of work completed as this idea conflicts
with the concept of autonomous education. Progress is easily assessed
informally in a one to one learning environment by constant exposure
to the understanding or lack of it of the child. Exposure to relevant
resources will be provided to compensate for weak areas of development.
Formal written work will not be a priority at this time, as B has
shown an aversion to it, and the experience of autonomous educators
is that written skills balance over time. Any written work done
is B's property and will only be made available for discussion with
his agreement. Short to medium term objectives will include development
of reasoning, logic, and discussion skills, evaluation of arguments,
exploration and experimentation, verification, assessment of risk
and likelihood (probability) etc. Review of written academic capability,
structured report and essay writing will be a medium to long term
objective. Key Stage textbooks will be made available relevant to
the year B would be in school, but if he does not find them of interest
no pressure will be given for him to work from them. More often
specialist areas of interest within subjects are likely to be studied
until an understanding is built up piecemeal. We hold no inherent
preference for home education over school education, and will explore
with B at any stages, if his school aversion wanes, whether school
education would offer him advantages (peer activities, group games,
science, DT, language facilities etc) for which he wishes to return
to school. The transition to secondary school is a natural opportunity
that will be considered, as is the entry to GCSE years.
A record of typical projects /activities and key learning outcomes
from them will be kept.
3) Specific Strategies / Resources.
Religion:
B's father is associate pastor of a local non-conformist congregation
at WG Church. B will be exposed to religious practice, spiritual
and moral teaching, at home and at church meetings. He will also
attend Sunday School with the other children in the church. As "questioning"
believers, we will also explore other faiths and philosophies with
him. His older sister is not a member of the church and will help
provide an additional point of reference for discussion of secular
viewpoints.
Physical Education:
B goes roller blading, and plays football with his father. In the
summer he sails on the Welsh Harp with another family. We will explore
the opportunities for additional activities such as Aikido, Karate
and Swimming.
Music:
The house music collection includes 400 CD's of rock, jazz and classical.
B 's father leads the music in church meetings singing, on piano,
guitar and bass. B's sister plays guitar, bass, drums, and sings.
The family owns numerous instruments and 16 track digital recording
studio equipment. 3 PC' s in the house are configured for midi,
MP3, and wav playback, and multimedia streaming. 2 keyboards can
be configured for PC recording and playback. There are several radios
in the house.
IT:
3 PC's are available. One of these is being reorganized to be available
for B's exclusive use. An internet unlimited use connection is available.
Monitoring of the appropriateness of web use will be constant observation
and discussion, reviewing file history, and the use of Weblocker
software should any problems develop. Word processor, database,
spreadsheet, presentation, and graphics software are installed on
the PC's. A number of educational CD's have been used by our older
children including encyclopedias, science, history and language
CD's. However we recognize that to date many of these CD's are expensive
and have limited educational depth and that books and the internet
frequently offer greater range, and depth, of material, and offer
better value.
Art:
B's mother is a sculptor, painter, graphics and textiles artist.
(B's older sister is doing GNVQ Art and Design at City of Westminster
college). Extensive materials therefore exist around the house for
graphic, textile and modeling work and opportunities will be provided
for projects.
Design and Technology:
B's father, until recently had a career as a control systems engineer.
At present Bs technical interests are primarily in robot technology.
We are building the Real Robots fortnightly magazine robot kit.
We will explore relevant areas of mechanical and electrical principles,
materials, tools and fabrication and construction processes as the
project progresses.
English, Maths, Science, Language, History, Geography:
The primary resources in these areas are two parents with degree
education in science - Engineering Science and arts - Philosophy
and Psychology, and A levels across a range or sciences, arts and
languages. In addition our house is full of books of all kinds from
childrens books, through light novels to classics, and study and
specialist books in a wide range of areas. In a household with a
philosophy that learning continues at any age, B is constantly naturally
drawn into enquiry into many areas of learning by others in the
house. Use will be made where appropriate of the local library.
Radio, TV and Video Recording are available. These subject areas
will be explored on a project / activity basis, ranging from reading
and watching educational TV programs, to going out to museums and
educational locations, to making field trips to specific places
of interest. Over time we will seek to ensure that B's knowledge
and skills across these subject areas is sufficient for him to take
GCSE's in these subjects either in school or at home, at the usual
age. Use of relevant national curriculum books will be made if B
is keen to access that material to confirm his level of knowledge,
or to develop his academic understanding of an area. We will also
ensure that his ability to express himself orally and in written
or typed work is sufficient to enable him to make full use his abilities.
Socialisation:
Our households involvement in the church leads naturally to much
contact with other people of all ages, both in our house and elsewhere.
The other pastors children have been B's best friends for many years
and he spends much time at their house. We will also seek to ensure
from time to time B has contact through peer age activities with
children outside our immediate circle.
Citizenship, Health, Sex Education, Cultural education etc:
These areas are probably much more naturally dealt with in the family
/ church / community context than in school. Through B's fathers
work in the church there will be much opportunity for social consciousness
to develop. Contact with a wide age range of persons in the community
tend to allow home educated children to develop advanced communication
skills, social awareness, and sense of responsibility. Cultural
education will be exposure to different ethnic and social groups
within the community, and through books and other media.
Curriculum balance, relevance and differentiation:
Relevance and differentiation are natural consequences of autonomous
learning. Balance will be provided by ensuring the range of opportunities
and resources is broad, and offered in such a way as to compensate
for Bs natural preferences.
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