Families had an opportunity to enjoy the facilities on offer at the centre before the meeting at which the Schoolhouse annual report and accounts were presented and two new members of the committee duly elected.

After the formal business was concluded, there was a question and answer session about the latest activities undertaken by Schoolhouse and various developments since the end of the reported year, and some lively discussion ensued about some of the issues facing home educators in Scotland.

Thank you to all those who attended and participated on the day.  Schoolhouse  now moves into its 15^th year  as Scotland’s national home education support organisation and is grateful for the continuing support of its members and the wider community.

By steadfastly refusing to apologise for his inappropriate, insensitive and politically motivated attack on a minority group in  the wake of the Riggi family tragedy, and now  seemingly redoubling his efforts to hog headlines over the issue,  he is clearly  intent on squeezing every last drop of political capital out of a desperately sad  human tragedy. Anyone who watched Pasquale Riggi’s dignified  interview last week in which he paid tribute to his murdered children could not have failed to be moved by the man’s loss, and Schoolhouse deplores the unseemly  behaviour of Mr McNeil whose  propriety  appears to have deserted him entirely.

Mr McNeil claims not to have received any communication from Schoolhouse, but we can confirm that a letter was  sent to him on 9 August 2010. To date no acknowledgment has been received and in view of his continuing attack on a law abiding group for no reason other than personal prejudice  and  ignorance of the law, a complaint will now be made to the Scottish Parliament which has a duty to investigate inappropriate and discriminatory conduct on the part of its elected members.

The text of the letter sent by Schoolhouse to Duncan McNeil is reproduced below:

Mr Duncan McNeil MSP

The Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh

EH99 1SP

Dear Mr McNeil

I write with reference to an article published in the Sunday Post on 8 August 2010 in which you are attributed with making deeply offensive, insensitive and entirely inappropriate remarks about home education in the wake of the recent Riggi tragedy, and in which you further sought to mislead the public regarding the law relating to elective home education in both England and Scotland.

At the request of Schoolhouse members, I invite you to retract your remarks in full and issue a public apology for causing immense distress to the Scottish home education community and, most especially, to the friends and family of the children who have died in such appalling circumstances. In seeking to make political capital out of this tragedy, we believe you have engaged in conduct most unbecoming of an elected member of the Scottish Parliament and, in the absence of a full and public apology, we are minded to make a formal complaint via the presiding officer.

Your contention that tighter regulation and monitoring of home education might have prevented this tragedy is frankly astonishing. It would therefore be useful if you could enlighten the home education community as to what sort of draconian measures you would wish to see exclusively imposed on this minority group of law abiding citizens, and how, exactly, such measures might have changed the outcome in this sad and profoundly shocking case.

I further invite you to publish a statement of apology for issuing false information about the law pertaining to home education in England. May I remind you that no changes were made to the English legislation following recommendations in the Badman report, all of which were thrown out prior to the May election. The contents of that flawed report, including the ‘statistics’ you have so cynically misused to smear a minority community, have been discredited by professional analysts and were roundly rejected by the UK Parliament.

You should be aware that it is parents, not the state, who have the legal duty to provide their children with a suitable education, and that statutory guidance issued by the Scottish Government sets out the responsibilities of local authorities in relation to home education. If you wish to familiarise yourself with the law and guidance, you will find the relevant information on the Schoolhouse website.

Schoolhouse encourages Scottish local authorities to provide us with up to date information about their policies on home education and we have created a dedicated web page for each council, but we have so far been unable to elicit any such information from Inverclyde Council which serves your own home educating constituents. Perhaps you would be good enough to look into this on their behalf?

I look forward to your response in early course.

Yours sincerely

Schoolhouse Secretary

The charity will now consider making a formal complaint about his conduct via the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament.

A Schoolhouse spokesperson said: “We find it deeply disturbing that Duncan McNeil has seen fit to use the deaths of three innocent children in Edinburgh last week to peddle vile personal prejudice and score cheap political points at the expense of a minority community of law abiding citizens.

“The fact that the Riggi children were home educated is no more relevant than the fact that they were Americans, and McNeil’s hysterical remarks have caused deep distress and offence to Scotland’s home educating community who have just lost three young members in tragic circumstance.

“He has not only indulged in conduct unbecoming of an MSP, he cannot even get his facts straight. The law in England has not changed and the Badman recommendations were thrown out before the May election.

“Schoolhouse will be writing to McNeil’s office demanding an apology on behalf of our members and asking him to enlighten us as to how, exactly, draconian regulation of home education might have saved these poor children. In the absence of an apology and retraction, we will consider lodging a formal complaint with the Scottish Parliament over his disgraceful conduct .”

We are anticipating that whilst the AGM itself will be brief, members will take the opportunity to meet other home educators and make the day a social event. As such we have negotiated discounted rates for entry to the Park itself, so families can arrive from 10am onwards and enjoy the various activities that the Park has to offer.

The Scottish Deer Centre has over 140 deer – nine species from around the world. There are regular Bird of Prey Demonstrations in the outdoor theatre and a spectacular Wolf Wood where you can watch feeding time at 3pm. You can meet Stobo the Black Highland Cow, come face to face with native Red Foxes and rare breed Soay Sheep. Other activities include regular guided tours with the Rangers, trailer rides around the Park, a Treetop Walkway where you might be lucky enough to see the resident red squirrels, and children’s indoor and outdoor Adventure Play Areas.

The discounted admission fees are Adults £5.45, children £3.95, Concessions £4.45, children under 3 free. Please advise staff at the payment desk that you are members of Schoolhouse to ensure that you receive this discounted group rate.

Please visit www.tsdc.co.uk. for more information or telephone 01337 81039. There is a coffee shop on site an also facilities for enjoying a picnic.

We look forward to seeing you then!

Schoolhouse has been asked to post details of this upcoming event. 

Conference on Christian Education

St Quivox Church of Scotland, Dallmilling Road, Ayr

Saturday 5th June 2010,  10am-4pm

Sponsored by Home Service

The Schoolhouse  Did You Know?  A5 leaflet is now available for downloading here.

Please print as many copies as you like and circulate to spread the word about home education.

News from Gillian Naysmith:

I have been asked by Author/Director, Rupert Isaacson, to screen his movie ‘The Horse Boy’ about his autistic son Rowan and his incredible relationship with horses, and the family’s amazing adventure in travelling to Mongolia to see the Shaman people in search for help for Rowan. This is to be a  fundraising event for his new charity The Horse Boy Foundation UK which will help fund places for families of autistic children to attend Horse Boy Camps throughout the UK.  I went to the Scottish camp in January and it was incredible.  Details of my own son’s progress can be found on the news page of my website.  

Rupert is in no way claiming that his son was cured but is very sure that some of his traits were healed. But what was it that healed them ?  Why not come to the movie screening and judge for yourself?

I am screening the movie at Castlecary Hotel, near Cumbernauld, on Monday 7th June at 7pm.  We hope to hook up with Rupert, live at his home in Texas by skype for a Q&A session after the screening. This may also be done by phone, or if Rupert is unavailable, I am fully equipped to carry out the Q&A on his behalf.  Signed copies of Rupert’s book will be on sale on the evening, as will my own.  I would be grateful if you would pass this information to anyone who may be interested.

Tickets are £5.50 and are available by contacting me  by email  horseboy@gilliannaysmith.com or call 07934 628326. Why not make an evening of it and have dinner at the hotel prior to the screening.? £10 for a 3 course dinner, available from 5pm with last orders in time for the film by 6.15pm.

Tickets are selling fast so please book early to avoid disappointment. 

Meanwhile, the school also has a couple of events coming up which may interest home educators:

School Open Day

Saturday May 22nd, 11 am – 4 pm

 
Summer Fayre

Saturday 12th June, 11 am – 4 pm.

Lots of events, talks, music and stuff for kids to do!

Schoolhouse 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 access. We will also be including comments from local families on each local authority page, which we believe will be a useful service for our members and other home educating consumers.

Some of our council pages  already contain relevant information, which service providers and service users may amend or update by contacting us. We are grateful to our volunteer researchers who have trawled websites and/or offered feedback on their own experience for (anonymised) publication and hope that local authorities will be able to provide the missing links.