and the Problem scoping survey: Problem_scoping-1

There are many reasons why a lot of home educators are not wanting to fill out this survey – and in the old days I would have been one of them. But I believe that we can look optimistically towards the future and I say this based on my experiences with the National Office of the MoE since July 2014.

Here is the background for those who have not read these links yet.

In April I wrote two letters  to the MoE and Jim Greening answered them both (dated 30 June). Please read my two letters and Jim’s reply. https://hef.org.nz/2014/moeero-issues/.  The good news from these letters is that we have been able to address these issues with the MoE in two meetings of 15 and 28 July. Other home educating groups have been meeting with the MoE and discussed similar issues with them. Some of the issues have been resolved and others are still ongoing. I will explain shortly.

July 1 the MoE had some major changes. Those involved with home education in the MoE: Hon Hekia Parata (Minister of Education); Peter Hughes (Secretary of Education); Jim Greening (Group Manager, Schools and Student Support); Sonya Logan (Manager, Student Engagement) and Lucy Ambrose (Senior Advisor, Learner Engagement). Red Tape Cluster Buster team Megan Reid (Senior Project Manager) and Mireille Consalvey (Project Coordinator) for the Change Team, which is a part of Sector Enablement and Support.

July 15 I had a Scoping meeting with the Jim Greening, Sonya Logan and Lucy Ambrose: https://hef.org.nz/2014/moe-meetings-1st-meeting-15-july-2014-getting-to-know-you/. This meeting was for the new staff in the MoE National Office to find out what home education was all about from home educators. There was a second aim to find out who they would like to have on a team for ongoing discussions – more on this soon. At this meeting we talked at length about a family who had failed their ERO review and were declined a second ERO review. We talked about the issues and policies surrounding all of this which resulted in the failed ERO review and why there was no second ERO review. Jim, Sonya and Lucy agreed that there needs to be changes. The good news from all of this is that this family now have new exemptions (third letter in link) signed by Jim himself. Another issue that was dealt with was the need to keep records and it is not about keeping records at all, but preparing when we need to for either the “ERO, further education or training”. See more here: https://hef.org.nz/2014/record-of-progress-and-achievement/

July 28 Red Tape Cluster Buster Meeting; https://hef.org.nz/2014/moe-meetings-2nd-meeting-28-july-2014-red-tape-cluster-buster-meeting/. Please read this link to see that these new people dealing with home educators have our best interests at heart. I talked with Megan about those with the Natural Learning philosophy having trouble getting their applications being approved when they were written throughly from that approach. Read what she said to us under “Use of the Exemption Application”.  We talked a lot about truancy while applying for an exemption form and Megan outlined her understanding of Justified and Unjustified Absence. I had never heard of those terms before – read about this in the meeting notes and here: Truancy and the Home Schooler/Home Educator. The Red Tape Cluster Buster team are still meeting with people – if your home educating group would like to meet with them then please contact them or me.

More recently I have written to the MoE National Office about the Lower Hutt MoE local office concerning the difficulties home educators have in getting exemptions. Some of these exemption applications have now been approved which we are thankful for and trust that another one will be soon. We trust that it will be easier to get exemptions from the Lower Hutt local MoE office in the future. There is a new manager for home education, Andrea, in the Lower Hutt local office of the MoE.

Some Concerns people have with filling out the Problem Scoping Survey. I will try to answer some of these concerns from my perspective:

“I have received an email from the MoE and I find it a bit strange. It doesn’t say how the information will be used.”

Something those who have been home educating for a long time can do is mention the “success” of those who have finished being home educated. This is an interesting survey by Jenny Barkley (2013) where she received answers to her survey from 162 people who had finished being home educated  https://hef.org.nz/2013/beyond-homeschooling-nz-2013

Success means different things to different people and it is widely applied in the home education movement. It is not all about academics for many of the different philosophies.

Update just received from Lucy:  The term “successes” to us means what’s working well for people or what they would like to see change in regarding to home education.

“The actual form is not user friendly or clear.  I am not even sure where to start with it.”

I agree. I am tempted to come up with our own form. There is a skill in answering media questions. Craig was good at it and tried to help others who were about to be questioned about home education. First you work out what you would like to tell the media or would like your audience to hear. Then you make sure that you get those points made early in the interview. So if an interviewer asks you a question you ignore the question for a start and say “first you would like to make three points” and go for it. By the time you have finished your three points the interviewer has gone past his first question and has lots more from the points you have made. I think we can apply this to the Scoping Survey. Think about what you would like the MoE to know about the problems that are there at the moment and in the past (especially if they have been personal for you) and get that into the Survey somehow. Then think about the best scenario you can think of for the law and policy of home education in New Zealand and get that into the survey. Don’t just look at the Survey and answer the questions – that is an extremely hard way to go about it.

Update just received this from Lucy: The feedback sheet is intended as a guide; people can submit their feedback in any form they like either by emailing us or writing to us. We are interested to hear in what is working well, and what home educators would like to see improved or changed with regards to home education.