September 25, 2023

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Nationwide contact for home education enquiries

Contact details: 

Craig and Barbara Smith
Phone: 357-4399
Free Phone: 0800 100 692
email: barbara@hef.org.nz or craig@hef.org.nz
Greetings all,
There have been a couple of requests lately for people willing to give exemption advice and encouragement.
Just a reminder that this is precisely what we at the Home Education Foundation are here for!
We help with preparing for exemptions and ERO reviews, how to understand and answer the exemption questions, we sit in on ERO Reviews with people, and I’ve even been a witness at a court case involving home education and socialisation. We have tons of material on socialisation, research results in both academic and social areas, ideas on curriculum development and getting into university and links to other information that we send out for free. We have 22 years of experience in teaching our own 8 children aged 28 down to 3 (yes, we’re still at it) and running conferences and speaking in nearly every corner of the country. Barbara just talked a mum who was full of panic through her ERO review preparation, and the mum passed with flying colours! I just wrote a letter to the Hamilton office of the MoE about what I thought was unfair treatment in an exemption application…the mum emailed today to say the exemption just came through!
Being a charitable trust, we do not charge for anything we send out or for our advice, even though most phone calls last between a half hour to a full hour or more. We trust the Lord to move people to make donations as they see fit and to subscribe to Keystone https://hef.org.nz/category/keystone-magazine/ and TEACH Bulletin https://hef.org.nz/category/teach-bulletin/. Although we personally are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Home Education Foundation is committed to rescuing ANY children out of state schooling institutions and to giving as much help and encouragement as we can to any and all parents and grandparents wanting to have a go at home education.
So don’t hesitate to get people to ring us or send an email. We don’t have an 0800 number but if people ring us on a landline, we can ring them back so we pay for the call since it costs us next to nothing.

Applying for an Exemption to Home School

in New Zealand

 

Here are two very helpful  links

The first is a cut down version of the exemption application, showing you exactly which comments the Ministry of Education (MoE) expects you to reply to:

https://hef.org.nz/2010/making-an-application-for-exemption-from-enrolment-and-attendance-at-a-school/

The second is a lengthy letter giving all kinds of tips on how to answer the comments:

https://hef.org.nz/2010/a-collection-of-exemption-tips-and-ideas/

I’d suggest reading those two, having a go at answering the questions, then giving Craig a ring at (06) 357-4399 or emailing Craig your phone number and he will ring you (email him at craig@hef.org.nz) or email him the draft of your exemption answers and he will comment on them.

It seems complicated at first, but it really isn’t that bad at all. We can talk you through it. All free of charge. That’s why we’re here.

Websites and blogs:

If you have a website or blog then please feel free to repost this on your website or blog and/or to link to these pages on your website or blog.