News | Education


downsmail.co.uk Education’s ‘missing’ children


MORE than 2,000 children in Kent are being home-educated or have gone missing from the system“without trace”, according to an education expert.


Peter Read, founder of Kent In-


dependent Education Advice, made his revelations off the back of a report into the issuepublishedby the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield (pictured). In Kent in 2017/18, according to


Mr Read, 1,113 children left for home schooling by parents or car- ers and 950 have simply vanished fromthe system. He warns keeping tabs on chil-


dren in elective home education (EHE) can bedifficult tomonitor as the authorities have limited access to them. The 950who have gonemissing


can bemadeupof severaldifferent categories – Europeans who have left Britain; travellers; suspected abuse victims and thosewho have simply vanishedor beendeported. Most of the children are known to the authorities.


Day formums


SNODLANDCoE Primary School is holding a craft andactivity lunch on March 27 to celebrate Mother- ing Sunday. Head teacher Ashley Bentley


said: “Wewill be inviting all of our mums to spend time with their children and stay for lunch. “Mums will be invited in at


10.30am to complete a craft activ- itywith their child.” The event ends at 12.45pm. If


mum is unable to come along, a grandmotherwill bewelcome.


Boxing bout


HOLMESDALE School boxer Courtney Seager is raising funds for children with profound learn- ing disabilities. She was due to take part in a


charity bout, run by Terry Had- away andNicolaToms fromMaid- stone Boxing Club, at


the


Maidstone Leisure Centre as DownsMailwent to press. Courtney aims to raise £250 for


the pupils at Five Acre Wood school in Boughton Lane, Maid- stone. She can be sponsored at www.justgiving.com/crowdfund- ing/danielle-seager.


Touch screens


WEST Malling CoE Primary has had interactive touch screens in- stalled in each classroom. The one- form entry school is part of the Tenax Schools’ Trust.


12 Malling March 2019


THEMalling School year nine rugby teamhas a newkit. The side, coached by PE teacher Jack Leech,wore it for the first time in a fixture against Oakwood Grammar School. Two local businesses – DSCL Networks Lts andMA Bright Electrical Ltd – were behind the sponsorship


of the light and dark blue strip kit.Mr Leech is keen to hear fromother local businesses keen to sponsor TMS. Contact jack.leech@themallingschool.kent.sch.uk.


Pupils get a taste of life in catering


AYLESFORD School sixth form- ers interested in catering spent a day in Folkestone learning about a career in the industry. The group toured the Grand


Burstin Hotel, which overlooks the harbour,with its head chef. The students then enjoyed an


informative tour of the high-end restaurant Rocksalt, run by for- mer Larkfield residentMark Ser- geant.Mr Sergeant spent 13 years working forGordon Ramsay. The party then enjoyed a walk along theHarbourArm.


Mr Read reports: “There is also


an unknown number who have never entered the education sys- tem, who are unknown to the au- thorities. This last group is certainly invisible.


“Untypical of the national pic-


ture, which is showing rapid growth in EHE, Kent’s figures are fairly similar to those in 2013/14.At that time, they were by some way thehighest inthe country butwith- out any national data, such as for exclusions, no one knows the cur- rent position.” MrsLongfieldOBE, in her report


published in February, notes that sometimes schools ... put pressure onparents to remove childrenwho don’t “fit in”. This practice, known as off-rolling, can amount to infor- mal, illegal exclusion. Nationally, the number of EHE


children stands at 80,000, some of whommay slip in and out of edu- cation during the school year. She adds: “Although the evi-


dence suggests a marked increase in children being home educated, there cannot be complete certainty


on the numbers due to the lack of formal registration – something that setsEnglandapart frommany otherEuropean countries inwhich home education is legal. “Parents are under no obligation


to register that they are home edu- cating their children, and local au- thorities have no duty to monitor the education these children are re- ceiving – only tomake informal en- quiries about thosewhomight not be receiving a suitable education. Thismeans that children can go for months or even yearswithout con- tactwith any professional. “Some parents claim that they


are home educating their children, when in reality they are sending them to unregistered and illegal schools (or ‘tuition centres’)where they receive a substandard educa- tion andwelfare standards are du- bious.”


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