Homeschooling Blog

In a former life, or so it seems, I ran a blog hosting business. Swamped by Chinese spammers selling trainers and sunglasses, I gave up the unequal struggle. There were more of them than me!

One of the other new start blog hosting companies was what is now called http://mollygreen.com/ which has survived.

Homeschooling now seems to play a smaller part in their repetoire, but might be a useful source.
 http://mollygreen.com/blog/category/homeschooling-3/homeschooling-101/

£60 fines if children are late to school

• The Daily Mail, and other newspapers are reporting that Thousands of parents to be hit by £60 school fines if their children are repeatedly late for class
• Councils have issued warnings to parents to be punctual or face penalty
• Fines double to £120 if not paid within 21 days or parents face prosecution
• Almost 500 schools in Hampshire will implement rule from this September 
• Council will impose fines if a child is late more than 10 times in one term 

In the latest crackdown on school attendance, councils have begun issuing warnings to parents to be punctual - or face a financial penalty.

The fines will double to £120 if not paid within 21 days and parents could even face prison if they fail to pay.

Headteachers have had the power to impose financial penalties on the parents of regular truants since 2003 - but now schools are targeting pupils who regularly miss registration.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3075419/Thousands-parents-hit-60-school-fines-children-repeatedly-late-class.html

Long time - no write

My jottings in the blog normally follow a news item regarding School Refusal, so when I realised that I had not written anything for quite some time, it came to me that School Refusal has been out of the news for some time.

Now, why should that have been?

Can there be fewer cases of children and young people unable to attend school because of a 'phobia'?

Or is it just no longer newsworthy?

Writing in the USA, Carol Dweck says 'Young children are developing school phobia in epic numbers and are dropping out in favour of home schooling'.  Surely there cannot be a significant difference in the UK?

When her daughter suddenly refused to go to school, Anni Bartle was at a loss as to what to do until she discovered a little understood phobia was to blame. She told her story to the daily Express in April: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/475422/School-phobia-How-fear-of-the-classroom-made-one-teenager-ill

We need more articles like this to keep awareness alive so that parents can receive the help and support they and their children need and deserve.