Local Authority Links
Wednesday, 17th March 2010 | Home Ed in the News | Law & Policy | Research | SchoolhouseSchoolhouse is in the process of updating its local authority links and has contacted all 32 Scottish Local Authorities seeking updated information on their home education policies, information for parents and contact details for staff members with responsibility for home education. We have sought the following information : Link url to the council’s elective home education policy Link url to the council’s information for parents re elective home education Details of the council’s named home education contact with telephone number and email address Since parents often report difficulty in locating the relevant information on some council websites, we decided to place all the details on our own website for ease of…
Schoolhouse Beecraigs camping weekend, 14-16 May 2010
Wednesday, 10th March 2010 | Events & Activities | Home Ed in the News | SchoolhouseFollowing on from the success of the residential weekend at New Lanark and due to popular demand, Schoolhouse is organising another weekend event for families, this time camping at Beecraigs Country Park. Beecraigs is located 3.2km. (2 miles) south of historic Linlithgow town, midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, in the scenic Bathgate Hills. It has a dedicated camping area that we have booked the sole use of for Friday 14th May from 2pm to Sunday 16th May at 11am. The cost for the weekend will be £20 per family and should be paid at time of booking. There will be a limited…
Parents under undue pressure to register under fives
Tuesday, 2nd March 2010 | Home Ed in the News | Media | SchoolhouseFor immediate release, 2 March 2010 Parents under undue pressure to register under fives for schooling Scotland’s national home education charity Schoolhouse is calling on the Scottish Government to remind local authorities of the parameters of “compulsory education age” after receiving numerous reports from parents of three and four year olds who are coming under intense pressure to “register” their children for school or risk losing a nursery place for the year until their child reaches statutory school age. Schoolhouse convener Sheila Struthers said: “A child does not reach compulsory education age in Scotland until the August after the child’s fifth birthday, but parents are…
Glasgow Steiner School Open Day
Sunday, 28th February 2010 | Events & Activities | Home Ed in the NewsGeorgina Ritchie from the Glasgow Steiner School has asked us to let home educators know about the school’s Open Day on Saturday 6 March, between 11am and 4pm. All welcome!
Glasgow Steiner School , 52 Lumsden Street, Yorkhill, Glasgow G3 8RH.
Scottish Parliament visit
Monday, 15th February 2010 | Events & Activities | Home Ed in the News | SchoolhouseTwo tours of the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh have been booked for Wednesday 31 March at 10.40am (places still available) and 11.40am (now full) . Participants should arrive 15 minutes prior to the starting times to clear security. The tour is free and hopefully the start times will allow families to make use of the cheap railcard deals. The one hour tour goes from the Main Hall to the Garden Lobby then the floor of the Chamber to see where the MSPs meet to debate. We will also visit a Committee Room and explore further into the building, to allow views of…
Pressure to register children under “school age”
Monday, 18th January 2010 | Home Ed in the News | Law & Policy | SchoolhouseSchoolhouse has been receiving reports of parents being pressurised into “registering” children for school when they have not reached statutory “school age”. Some have been informed that this is a legal requirement when that is not the case. We have also been concerned to hear from parents who have been misinformed about the necessity to obtain council consent to withdraw their children from state provided nursery education when the children have not attained statutory school age, are not attending a primary school and are therefore exempt from any such requirement (which applies only to school age children who are attending a…
New Lanark weekend
Sunday, 17th January 2010 | Events & Activities | Home Ed in the News | SchoolhouseThanks to all the families who came to New Lanark for the home ed weekend and a big thank you to Karen Sneddon for taking on the job of organising it on behalf of Schoolhouse. Caitlin has written a short report and posted some pictures of the weekend here. Meanwhile, the following comments have been received from some of other attendees: “A big thank you to Karen for organising this. We could only manage over for a few hours but it was lovely to see everyone.” “What a great venue – YHs never used to have en suites in my young days.” “What a fantastic weekend we…
Happy New Year!
Thursday, 31st December 2009 | Home Ed in the News | SchoolhouseSchoolhouse would like to wish all its members, friends and supporters a very happy and prosperous New Year.
2010 will be a year of exciting changes and developments for us as we redouble our efforts and refocus our resources to support families in Scotland who wish to retain direct responsibility for the upbringing and education of their children.
Virtual assistance for Schoolhouse
Wednesday, 9th December 2009 | Home Ed in the News | SchoolhouseSchoolhouse is delighted to welcome Theresia Piggott from Angus Business Support as its new ‘virtual’ administration assistant. As part of the reorganisation we have recently been undertaking in order to streamline our services, Theresia will be assuming responsibility for Schoolhouse memberships and other administrative tasks in the new year. This will take some of the strain from our hard pressed volunteers who will be continuing to deal directly with all the home education and media enquiries. Visitors to the Schoolhouse website may have noticed some changes afoot, but the site is still a work in progress and will be relaunching early in 2010 with a design makeover and a host of…
Schoolhouse welcomes Mike Russell appointment
Tuesday, 1st December 2009 | Home Ed in the News | Media | SchoolhouseMichael Russell has today been announced as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government. Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, said: “It is appropriate that a fresh look is taken … to break the impasse for the benefit of parents, teachers and children. I believe that Michael Russell can bring new thinking to this tough task.” Commenting on the appointment, Schoolhouse Convener Sheila Struthers said: “In his capacity as Shadow Education Minister in the first Scottish Parliament from 1999 to 2003, Michael Russell demonstrated a willingness to listen to those involved in education, both inside and outside…