HE Badman Consultation – please respond

It is entirely ironic that while the mainstream world continues to chart its disatisfaction with schools, schooling and learning that it continues to mercilessly hound the home-educated communities. The appalling fall out and casualties of the schooling system are documented daily and report after report tell us all is far from well. Yet can they not see that the passion the HE communities have for their way of life and learning is an outcome of just how satisfied they are with it? They (parents and children / young people) know they have something good, safe and successful. Without the funding, bureacracy and policing they are the good news! HE in all its various manifestations works. Its track record in producing well-balanced, educated, healthy, idependent, active citizens who contribute to society is to its credit. The part it plays in supporting strong families and vital communities is exemplary. Rather than attacking it politicians should be looking to HE for how it can inform better learning sysytems for all. In CPE-PEN we’ve always taken this stance and have been prepared to look at HE and how learning works. This has helped us envision a personalised educational landscape based on a wide variety of alternatives and invitational learning settings and where schools would be recycled into invitational, all-age, community learning centres.

When the Badman review was published Ed Balls immediately launched a consultation on how they could implement the recommendations. That consultation closes on Monday 19th October and it’s really important that as many people as possible respond to it. Because it’s a proper consultation and not a ‘review’ they have to make public all the responses they receive.

Please respond to the consultation at http://tiny.cc/ANuuh