TreeHouse welcomes the government’s review of home education

TreeHouse welcomes the acknowledgement within the government’s review of home education that children with special educational needs (SEN) are disproportionately represented among the population of children who are educated at home.

A TreeHouse survey of parents in 2008 found that almost 1 in 4 children with autism are educated, at least in part, at home.

Whilst the government respects the choice of parents to educate their children at home and is working to improve support for these families, it is notable that many families of children with SEN educate their children at home as a last resort.

Ian Wylie, TreeHouse Chief Executive, said: “Too often, families choose to home educate children with autism following negative experiences at school. 40% of children with autism have been bullied at school, 27% of children with autism have been excluded from school, and children with SEN are nine times more likely to be excluded than children without.

“I am delighted that the government is finally paying attention to home educators and have realised that children with SEN, including autism, are over-represented in this group. It is our vision at TreeHouse that all children with autism can access a world-class education which responds to their needs and offers a broad curriculum to support their overall development.

“As well as improving the support for families who choose to educate their children at home, we believe the Government should focus on reducing bullying and exclusions of children with autism in school and supporting teachers to develop learning programmes with parents that really support children to learn. We want to ensure that home education is a choice, not a last resort.”

Here we go again. Another organisation set up to support children with ASD with an anti home ed attitude.

I think most of the larger and more prominent organisations set up to support children with ASD strongly favour inclusion in state schools rather than HE. Another noteworthy point is that they generally deal with traditional or low functioning autism rather than AS or high functioning autism. Organisations catering for people with AS and high functioning autism are generally small in size and many are local rather than national. This is despite the number of people diagnosed with these conditions increasing faster than that of traditional or low functioning autism.

I was at an ASD meeting and got talking to a spokesman from the NAS. He told me he strongly believed in inclusion and considered HE a last resort only available with the authorisation of LA officials who are convinced that all aspects of SEN will be supported outside of the system. Next he rambled on about how he spent many years of his life fighting for the rights of all children with ASD to have full access to the NC. I personally don't think he understood AS or how the NC does not do justice to the many talents people with AS have.

I was discussing with a friend a few years ago the way in which many ASD organisations are biased towards school reforms and don't think highly of home education. This conversation led to him coining the term "Asperger overlords" to describe (mainly NT) people who (claim to) support and stand up for people with AS. Examples of these "Asperger overlords" include members of national organisations such as the NAS; leaders of local AS support groups; various people in the media; LA authority staff dealing with SEN; educational psychologists; and moderators of AS discussion forums. My friend told me about how quite a lot of "Asperger overlords" hold the attitude that children with AS should go to school in order that they learn NC stuff, achieve GCSEs, mix with children of their own age, and develop social skills. Then he mentioned about how "Asperger overlords" who are highly critical of the state school system and believe that HE and community educational groups are the best way to go are few and far between although they do exist if you know where to look. Another concern my friend had was that many "Asperger overlords" hold certain viewpoints and beliefs that are out of line with the viewpoints and beliefs of many adults with AS.

The discussion eventually culminated in a conclusion that some infrastructure needs to be established to promote the virtues of HE to parents of children with AS rather than trying to reform the state school system. The HE community already had an established support network at the time, but did not appear to have much knowledge or experience of AS - or indeed SEN. Co-operation between the HE community and the AS community was also very patchy. This is what led to the creation of the Asperger Home Education forum.