Marianne Tomlinson from Parent Power reports from her attendance at one of the recent rallies against the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
On Saturday the 8th of March home educators from around the country met for rallies in London, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Exeter. We went to Exeter for the day and had a great time raising awareness about the problematic Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. We had many interesting conversations with curious onlookers who supported the rights of families to home educate.
Protestors represented a diverse range of backgrounds and educational approaches, demonstrating that there is no one reason that families choose home education and there is not just one way to go about it.
‘Thriving Not Hiding’ was one of the big themes of the day as it has been regularly implied that home educated children are hidden from society. Most home educated children are very visible to a range of people and communities.
Some Christian home educators came to defend their right to educate their children in their faith tradition, something which is challenged in paragraph 161 of the Human Rights Memorandum.
Ultimately, the issue with the Bill is that it undermines parental rights in favour of the state. Parents are rightly concerned that their children will be sent to school at the whim of local authority workers who believe that school is best for all children. Parents just want to retain the right to make decisions in the best interests of their children.
You can see my report on the rally here.
ParentPower Team
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