Home schoolers protest against report (From Oxford Mail)

Home schoolers protest against report

8:09pm Wednesday 16th September 2009

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HOME-SCHOOLED children and their parents came to the centre of Oxford to protest against a Government review they said threatens to burst their bubble. Home educators in the county were reacting to Graham Badman’s Review of Elective Home Education in England, which recommends a compulsory national registration scheme, home visits from the local authority — including private interviews with children — and assessment of parents’ suitability to teach their children. Mr Badman was chief education officer at Oxfordshire County Council until 2001. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, which commissioned the report, asked whether home education could be used as a “cover for child abuse”. But campaigners yesterday said the review called for unnecessary interference. Sam Martell, who has home taught her daughter Jaz, 13, was one of the parents at the Cornmarket Street gathering. She is pictured with Jaz, right, and Daisy Draper, 13, left. She said: “They say it’s a protection issue, but if your own parents cannot protect you, who can? There’s no evidence to suggest our children are more liable to be hurt or abused.” Jaz, who got a C, a B, two As and an A* in the International GCSE, said: “I like being individual and being able to find out who I am.”

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