Organic Education

Are you a home educator in the West Midlands with an interest in Religion & Worldviews Education?

“We are looking for two home educators in the West Midlands region to join a grants panel for new Religion & Worldviews Home Educators’ Fund launching this year

Three grant-making trusts have joined forces to launch a pilot Religion & Worldviews Home Educators’ Fund in the West Midlands region this year. Home educating parents or guardians in 6 counties will be able to apply for small grants of between £200-£1500 for projects that allow them to explore, experiment, and adapt their religion and worldviews teaching methods. The fund is a partnership between Culham St Gabriel’s, St Peter’s Saltley Trust and All Saints Educational Trust.

The fund will be open for applications in September 2024, with grants distributed by early December. Anyone that is actively home educating in the following counties will be eligible to apply: Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, or West Midlands.

The fund has been co-designed with home educating parents in the West Midlands region. We are now forming a small ‘community panel’ who will assess and make decisions on which projects will be supported through the fund.

Expected time commitment for panel members: Up to 2 hours per month between July-December, with approximately 1 day in October to assess applications & take part in the panel decision-making meeting. Meetings will take place online in the early evening. You will be reimbursed for your time. Please be aware that panel members will not be eligible to apply for a grant themselves.

If you are a home educating parent or guardian in the West Midlands region and are interested in joining this pilot project as a panel member, or would like to have a chat to find out more, please contact Julia Minnear – [email protected]”

(Teacher) “Kate (not her real name) worries the atmosphere in these schools will produce a generation of fearful, anxiety-stricken children with severe communication issues.”

Can we not collectively imagine better for our children?
As I said in my talk at Learn Free last week, every idea begins in somebody’s imagination.

Teachers speak of 'fear' at Astrea schools in Cambridgeshire Teachers speak out anonymously about standards enforced by a trust at four of its secondary schools.

It is 15 years since my eldest son took his SATs in Year 2, and this experience had an impact on our decision to home educate.
As the manifesto below states:
“The high stakes nature of SATs … creates:
narrowing of the curriculum;
teaching to the test;
constraints on children’s love of learning, natural curiosity and self-motivation;
damage to wellbeing and mental health for children and teachers;
declining retention rates for teachers;
unwarranted pressure on children, teachers and families and,
in recent years, 41% of children being labelled as failures immediately before starting secondary school.”
41%! How can that be right?
All our children are more than a score.
15 years on, the calls for change continue.

SATs week is over for another year. There’s never been a better time to call for change.

Hundreds of school leaders and leading figures in education have signed the SATs: Manifesto for Change.

Add your name today tinyurl.com/SATsManifesto

Embrace the mess!

Innovation Doesn’t Come in a Kit (8 Better Options) 8 cheap, easy, playful ways to raise Makers

The more children opt out, the more schools will have to change.
All schools should be offering this, including (or perhaps especially) secondaries.
This school is by no means the first, but let’s hope flexi-schooling becomes widespread and normalised. A far better approach than penalising children and parents over attendance.

Primary school to offer 'tailored' schooling

A decade or so ago, I was chatting to a builder friend who was working at our house and he told me he had only read his first book the previous year, and only then because his wife had suggested it to him on holiday. It actually shook me up, because I realised my husband is not a reader, either, and nor were my sons. And yet, all these people are functional and fine adults.

I found it hard because I love reading, and always have. As a child, I could lose myself in books, had a stack on the go beside my bed and would read late into the night. As an adult, I still love to immerse myself in good fiction. I believe with all my heart that books enrich my life, that they broaden my worldview and develop empathy. And it is because I believe these things, and love reading so much, that I wanted to share this with my sons.

We shared a lot of books when they were small, and I read to them daily into their teens. It was a lovely part of our home education. We chose books they were interested in and enjoyed, and many lively conversations and much imaginative play emerged from our reading together.

There were books they enjoyed reading independently, different books for each child that saw them really become independent readers at around age 8 or 9. For my eldest, it was Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon books and Haynes car manuals; for my second son, The Spiderwick Chronicles and Tin Tin. My third son enjoyed David Walliams and Michael Morpurgo; for my youngest it’s been the Phoenix comic and the Tom Gates stories.

Yet, reading isn’t something my grown sons currently love in the way that I do. They can read, but it’s not something they choose to do for pleasure. Just as they have different interests, passions, ways of learning and deepening their knowledge and understanding which they share with me, so I continue to share my love of books and reading with them.

But one way isn’t superior to any other. We can all be different and the richer for it. And, believe it or not, you can live, learn, grow, play and work without reading for pleasure. It was a shock to me - but it’s true!

So I love this graphic which popped into my feed today. What do you think? Are you a reader? How about your children?

SPEAKER PROFILE: ALICE KHIMASIA
We are delighted to have as a speaker at Learn Free Home Educators Conference again this year! 😁 Alice has been unschooling herself alongside her four sons since the beginning of 2010, and shares their journey on her page, Organic Education. She has featured in several news articles, a BBC documentary and a TEDx talk, and shares her knowledge and passion to encourage and empower parents to co-create learning journeys with their children which reflect diverse needs and interests. She recently completed her Masters in Childhood in Society at the University of Warwick. Sign up for our virtual conference now at learnfree.org.uk to be inspired by Alice!

My young musician and I are enjoying this book, and learning a lot.

Haven’t forgotten about organising some webinars to share my recent research. Will sort that for you soon if you’re still interested. Sorry for the delay.

This will be my final appearance at Learn Free, an event I have spoken at for many years.
Hope some of you might join me virtually.
Tickets here: https://learnfree.org.uk/

“Everyone talks about peace but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When educating to cooperate and owe each other solidarity, that day we will be educating for peace.”
(Maria Montessori)

"No human right, except the right to life itself, is more fundamental than this. A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us."

~John Holt

Bit of soldering today with biggest bro.

Woodcarving today with Tom Jennings Woodcarver.

I have always described my eldest son’s lights going out when I talk about the start of our home education journey. I saw it happen, and was not prepared to accept it. As his parent, I needed to take action.

Lights on / Lights off - Such a simple metric by which to gauge engagement. We see it in their eyes.

Our family had so much fun with Lights On learning over lockdown, and my friend, Julia, is currently offering a free 30 day introduction to her supportive programme, especially recommended if you are concerned about a child’s disengagement from learning.

Check it out:

Get on the list for a family of happy engaged self-led learners. Register to be first to hear when the application are available for our 30 Day FREEPASS

Z and I are enjoying exploring Lyfta, an online learning platform which encourages global citizenship.

Usually only available to schools, my friends, Jo and Fabienne, at the Streams Learning Hub in Bristol, are offering this collaborative learning opportunity to the home ed community.

Check it out. Cost is £5 a month until June and you can find more information and booking info here:

Online learning Lyfta | Streams Learning Hub Explore the world with Lyfta’s immersive learning platform. Watch and listen to Serdar (the founder) share more about the journey. Each month we will release new stories and resources linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG):

This is tonight. Not too late to join.

Overcoming burn-out in home education Join our online "Overcoming burn-out in home education" on 18 March 2024 at 19:30 GMT+1 to hear how to tackle burn-out when home educating.

I have long loved this hope-fuelled model of systems change from The Berkana Institute. With dominant systems in decline, what new systems are we pioneering for the future, and how might we link up as pioneers to form communities of practice?

Berkana Two Loop Model: A quick introduction to an accessible model for systems change A short video with a description of the Berkana Two Loop Model - and questions to ask as you use it

We made a cake.
It has been a favourite creative outlet for me over the years to craft birthday cakes for my four children. I like the challenge of shaping sweet treats to resemble a current interest or theme.
My eldest used to enjoy setting me an annual cake challenge, which culminated in a radio controlled cake for his 18th. He built the Lego chassis, and the car cake I made sat on top! A blending of passions.
Nowadays, smallest helps me. I hope it’s a family tradition the boys might continue. But maybe not. It’s something I enjoy doing.
What creative outlets do you have for yourself?
I’d love to hear.

We buried one of our guinea pigs yesterday. It was not the morning I had planned, and I feel daft having such a soft spot for the small creatures of the world, whilst bombs fall on innocent children.

Yet it keeps our hearts soft, doesn’t it, to love and to grieve? We cried for our little furry friend, and thought of all the loss in the world and the importance of being tender hearted.

Came across this video on YouTube of a talk I gave a few years ago, and thought it might be worth sharing here, especially for those newer to organic education.

Co Creating an Education - Alice Khimasia

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/13/children-failed-why-more-english-parents-home-educating

‘Children are being failed’: why more English parents are home educating Fines, health needs and a poor learning environment are among the reasons for the rise in children taken out of school

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/858720214277?aff=oddtdtcreator

Overcoming burn-out in home education Join our online "Overcoming burn-out in home education" on 18 March 2024 at 19:30 GMT+1 to hear how to tackle burn-out when home educating.

For the new folks here, I gave a TEDx talk at Warwick Uni in 2016. It’s a while ago now, and my boys are grown, but I stand by all I said.

Maybe you know someone who could do with hearing this?

I hope it can be an encouragement to many who still do not know that schools do not have a monopoly on learning.

Unschooling | Alice Khimasia | TEDxWarwickSalon Alice's talk focuses on alternative ideas on how her children should be educated. Alice has been unschooling her four sons for the past seven years. This jou...

I am thinking of doing a Facebook live about my recent MA research project on Child-Led Learning in Home Education.
If that would be of interest, do give this post a like.
Thank you.