Educational Philosophies/
Statements of Educational Provision

Example 5

Re: ************* Age 13

Since our last report on our provision for E’s education we have had to make some changes to our plans. These are still evolving as we learn what is best for E.

We have found that when we move away from learning for interest and pleasure towards more structured plans with a view to exams, E becomes stressed and miserable, retains little of what we attempt to teach and stops being interested in things for their own sake.

We have given this much thought and decided there is little point in attempting to reproduce ‘school at home’. The ‘schooling’ that E has received over the years has failed in many ways to educate her, but mainly because it relies on written language and this is not a tool that E finds easy to use.

We feel that E learns best through what we would call ‘conversational learning’. She asks a lot of questions about many different things and we do our best to answer them using books, the internet, (which we rely on heavily) and TV programs. Many of her questions are generated by watching documentary style programs, current affairs programs and the news. We encourage her to read short newspaper articles on subjects of interest to her. She reads magazines aimed at her age group and also very much enjoys reading books. She still reads slowly but is managing to complete about one book per month. We also borrow non-fiction books from the library and she is beginning to look through these as well.

This does leave us with the problem of providing ‘evidence’ that E is learning. We do not fill exercise books with written work. I do try to keep a rough diary of topics covered but find it is not possible to record the range of subjects we might discuss in a day. I have attached a copy of a few questions asked over the course of a day although I am sure there were others that I have forgotten. This gives an idea of the way in which E learns best.

We have been attempting to cover the GCSE Foundation Maths syllabus but E has found this difficult and sees little point in many of the topics covered. (Algebra for instance). With this in mind we have made some enquiries and discovered that City and Guilds offer a Numeracy Certificate. This involves completing a portfolio of work based on practical tasks involving number. There is no exam at the end. This seems much more suited to E needs and we hope to begin this in the near future.

Although E does little written work she does seem to be improving. We have just started to use an on-line spelling course suitable for dyslexics and we hope that this will help her. She has also started to learn to touch type. Our first attempts with software aimed at adults were not successful but we now found an on-line course which is aimed at dyslexic children and progresses in very small steps. She is enjoying this so far. When E first left school she was unable to provide written answers to short pieces of text from her books. She is now able to do this. She was also unable to follow simple written instructions but is now also able to do this, for example, to follow a recipe. We are considering the possibility of her working through IGCSE English with a home educated friend, beginning in September. Perhaps meeting once or twice weekly to work together. Until then we will continue to encourage E to read although will not be pressurising her to produce written work until she feels ready.

We continue to attend weekly meetings of Education Otherwise for socialisation and E has become much more confident about speaking with both the other children and the adults. We have been asked if we would set up a pre-school group for the younger children and this is giving E an opportunity to find out how children learn through play. She has helped me to put together a list of all the necessary items for the group and we have talked about the different areas of children’s development and how we would provide for these within the group.

We have recently purchased a camera for E and she has begun to learn how to use it. We hope that she will be able to attend the GCSE Photography course in September.

She has continued with making jewellery and now sells a small amount to enable her to buy new materials. We encourage her to work out her costs and price items in order to make a profit. She has agreed to start keeping simple accounts to improve her everyday number skills.

We hope to start an art or craft class for the Summer Term having had little success with finding one for the Spring Term.

We have made enquiries regarding a GNVQ in Health and Social Care. E is interested in this as a way of accessing the Child Care course which she wishes she do when she is 16. Unfortunately none of the correspondence colleges seem to offer GNVQ’s. We enquired at *** College but were refused. We have found an internet based course but it is expensive so we are still considering this.

We have also made some enquiries regarding a private tutor for literacy skills but have not yet found anyone willing to take E. Perhaps because she is not educated at school.

Overall we feel we are providing E with an education suited to her age, ability, aptitudes and special needs. It bears little resemblance to the type of education she would be receiving at school and for this reason appears to be working well. It suits her particular style of learning. She is happy and regaining her confidence and we feel this is the most important thing of all.

EXAMPLE OF QUESTIONS ASKED OVER THE COURSE OF A DAY.

Does cigarette smoke damage the ozone layer?

To answer this we had to find out exactly what the ozone layer was and what kind of things damage it. We used the internet for this and concluded that the answer was no. We talked about why we need the ozone layer and whether life on earth would be able to survive if it were destroyed completely. Would we all be able to survive underground? Earlier we had watched an item on the news about the rising pile of refrigerators which could not be safely disposed of because of harmful gases used in their manufacture which damage the ozone layer so this tied in quite well. E asked if the moon had an ozone layer and we discussed the fact that the moon has no atmosphere. She asked what kind of atmosphere the other planets have and this is something we will find out. She asked why we couldn’t run huge oxygen pipes to the moon from earth so that we could live there and I pointed out that we were spinning in space at something like 4000 miles per hour so they might get a little tangled up!

Later we watched a schools programme about children in India who are chewing tobacco. It is sold to them like sweets. We discussed the health issues involved with tobacco. E asked why it isn’t banned in this country if it is so harmful to health. We talked about how we have freedom of choice to smoke or not to smoke and whether children had this right taken away if their parents chose to smoke. We talked about how the government benefits from the sale of tobacco through taxes and whether that was cancelled out by extra costs to the National Health Service through smoking related illness. We discussed the effect on the economies of other countries who grow tobacco if we were to ban smoking in this country. Would banning it stop people smoking or would they just carry on secretly as with other drugs and the government would lose the tax revenue. She learns from these discussions that there is rarely a black or white answer to a question and there are lots of complicated issues to think about.

She asked what hemp is. I explained and told her why it isn’t grown in this country anymore although I will have to research this a little more as I am not sure when it stopped being grown or what replaced it. This might be quite an interesting history lesson as rope making was once quite a big industry. E might look this up herself. She is becoming very good at using the internet to find out the things she wants to know.

We watched another schools programme which read old letters sent home from soldiers during the First World War, while showing old film. We talked about the letters and how cheerful they were. Have people changed so much? We found a unit of work on poetry of the first World War on the internet and E will probably read some of these and find out something about the authors, Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sasson. What happened to them and did they survive the war? We might get a book from the library with pictures.

This is just an idea of the questions E asks during a day and the things that she learns from the answers. One of the most important things she finds out is that I don’t have all the answers but we can find them together! And so she is learning to find things out for herself more and more.