Getting Started with Homeschooling
Practical Considerations for Parents of School-Aged Children
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Registering Your Intention to Home School with The Local Educational Authority
(continued)
In most states attendance at a registered school is compulsory for children aged between six and fifteen. Educational authorities generally see their roles as one of ‘granting permission’ through a process of registration and review of home schooling families. You may have a very different perspective on this process. Consider this: Are you asking‘permission’? Or are you serving ‘notice’ of your intent to undertake a home schooling program for your children? Are you seeking ‘exemption from school attendance’? Or is your understanding of the process one of ‘registering’ as a home schooling family? Each of these differs slightly in the intention.
You have the power to define your role in this process - understanding exactly what you want from the authority is one way of maintaining confidence in your negotiations, regardless of how they define and understand the meaning of the process.
It is worth remembering that you are only really seeking to change the ‘place’ where most of your children's education happens. Governments have an obligation to the Australian population to ensure all young people have access to an education, and to fulfil this they generally enforce compulsory attendance laws. It is always useful to consider your home as an educational institution on par with a school.
As a home educating parent you are taking on a role equivalent to teachers in schools. It is essential to consider yourself thus at all times, especially when talking to teachers, bureaucrats, friends or family. This demonstrates your level of confidence and competence. You may not have ‘professional’ teaching qualifications, but as your children’s educational facilitator you will be acting professionally each day, developing and perfecting techniques to enhance their learning in the same way school teachers should do.
First contact with educational authorities is often by telephone. This is generally to the local or regional education office. At this stage you will be requesting information on the procedure required to legally home school. Usually some documentation is sent to you, detailing what is needed to obtain approval as a home school. Always ask for written details, to confirm telephone conversations. Take notes, but insist of them sending details in a letter.
Alternatively, you could make your initial contact by mail, although this necessarily delays the process. Remember to keep all correspondence, dated and filed for safe keeping.
Always ask for the full name of the person you speak to whenever you contact the office, and politely ask for the correct spelling. People are always more attentive if they are addressed by name, and tend to be more accurate if they are being held accountable for their words. Don’t rely on your memory. It pays to remember you are only one of many people the other person has to deal with in a day. A written record may be useful later on, if you run into any problems which need clarification. It may save you time to take details of office titles and telephone extension numbers when talking to people.
Usually authorities respond relatively promptly to requests for information, generally supplying a list of requirements home schooling families need to meet. These will probably be stated in educational jargon. In order not to be intimidated by this jargon it is important to ask for clarification of any terms you don’t understand or are not sure of, either from the author of the letter, or from other home educating families. Break large words down into root words to seek their meaning, and simplify them. For example‘methodology’ refers to how something is done, the method used.
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Excerpt from Getting Started with Homeschooling, Practical Considerations
© Beverley Paine, 1997
