A national internet based “Free School” for home educated students?

May 9, 2011 - PRLog -- London based Internet education provider, Periplus Home Education is mounting a radical bid to challenge education orthodoxy in the UK.  Using the new government legislation allowing charities and other groups to set up “Free Schools”.  They are submitting an application to develop the first state funded, full time, over the internet school.

Aimed primarily at the home educating community, who currently fund all the resources they use for themselves, they will inevitably sacrifice some of their flexibility, but will gain access to great teaching and outstanding resources without losing many of the benefits of home educating their children.

So novel is the concept, that that the legislation does not seem to explicitly cater for the idea, but at the same time it doesn’t bar it either. John Edwards, Principal of Periplus Home Education, said “The vision set out by the government for its Free School programme is to raise standards by encouraging new providers to innovate and deliver new approaches, provide value for money solutions and provide greater choice” he added, “Our proposal hits the button on all of these counts, so we see no reason why our proposal cannot be taken forward to the next stage, we are very serious about this – it is undoubtedly the way of the future”.

So whilst traditionalists might struggle with the idea, young people will probably take to it like ducks to water such is their love affair with the internet and all things electronic. Mr Edwards confirmed that they had anticipated many of the obvious questions that would be asked, especially about socialisation, practical subjects and pastoral care and they had very innovative solutions to all of these. He also suggested that other parents with children currently at regular school might look very seriously at the proposal, where there is virtually no opportunity for bullying and disruptive children can simply be muted instantly by the on-line teacher. He was very clear however that admission criteria would need to be set to guarantee that children had an adult present at home to ensure they were engaging. He said “this will not be a solution for schools to offload their difficult children or for any parent who might see it as a means to get the truancy officer off their back”.

They have many hurdles to cross before the idea can become reality however and the first of these is the challenge of gaining enough parental backing for the idea.  They have just 3 weeks to demonstrate the demand and without an obvious local community to canvass, they need home educators from across the UK to sign up to the proposal. By visiting www.periplus.org.uk/free-school   anyone, particularly those with children currently aged  9-15  can find a link to further information and an expression of interest form which needs to be filled in as soon as possible.  Although the proposal in its current form is targeted to open in September 2013 for 11-16 year old students.  If you are interested in a primary version of such a school or wish to continue post 16 you are also invited to express an interest.

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Not-for-profit provider of a range of high quality, accessible and affordable 21st century services & solutions for home educated students and anyone seeking to supplement, broaden or reinforce education beyond school. Distance learning available UK wide.