We Want Safe, Happy, and Free Childhoods
Childhood cannot be standardised...
We all want Educational Equity, Freedom, and Justice.
We all want our children to thrive, not just survive, in an education system that truly serves them.
Across the UK, families, educators, and communities are feeling the deep fractures in education. Policies shaped in the name of “safeguarding” too often result in less choice, less freedom, and more control, while failing to protect the children most in need of care.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill, proposing a register for children not in school, is a direct threat to educational freedom. Surveillance and coercion are replacing trust and support for families. Home educators, in particular, would be subjected to invasive checks and controls that are not applied to families who send their children to mainstream schools. Home education has become a lifeline for children who are being failed by the traditional schooling system, whether due to bullying, mental health issues, or a mismatch between the child’s learning style and the rigid structure of mainstream education. Instead of looking at why these things are happening and resolving them, the government are taking the stance that home education needs to be controlled. Homes are places of safety, comfort, and personal expression. Forcing families to undergo home assessments strikes at the heart of family autonomy and privacy. This bill diverts resources away from meaningful interventions and support.
It is not a protection but a narrowing of possibilities. In all of the spin and propaganda around the bill, there is a harmful and stigmatising insistence that standardised mainstream schooling is the “gold standard.” Home Educating my children, I know this is not true first hand. I see the benefits of an individualised education every day.
Because our children are not standard. They are vibrant, evolving beings with unique needs and gifts. Their education must reflect that. Education should be about opening doors to opportunity. Education is supposed to set our kids up for their own future, not one that is pre-decided for them.
What if we, as a community; home-educating parents, schooling parents, grandparents, guardians, and alloparents united behind one vision that prioritises educational choice for our children? What if we demanded that vision together?
What if We Imagine an Education System That Serves Every Child?
A system that:
Honours diversity instead of suppressing it.
Empowers choice instead of punishing it.
Nurtures well-being instead of prioritising test scores.
Freedom in education does not mean chaos. It means meeting children where they are: in the schools, in the woods, in community spaces, in online classrooms, and at kitchen tables. It means trusting families and children to know what they need, while offering real support, not surveillance. It means ensuring the child’s voices are heard in decisions about their lives. This is a vision where children thrive in ways that honour their individuality and connection to the world around them.
What Could We Demand?
1. Equity and Representation
Free, mandatory training for educators on anti-racism, unconscious bias, SEND support, cultural competency, and transgender inclusivity.
Policies that centre every child and their rights, honouring their backgrounds, abilities, and needs.
2. Children’s Rights and Safeguarding
Schools must be held accountable for exclusion and bullying by publishing their safeguarding data publically and being subject to independent audits.
A consistent safeguarding framework across all educational spaces: schools, childcare, home education, and online environments, which sets the values and expectations of safeguarding.
Policies that explicitly address sexual harassment, assault, and online abuse within school communities, the fact that according to their own government report in 2021, 90% of girls and 50% of boys experience sexual abuse in school is unacceptable and should be addressed immediately.
Strong whistleblower protections and independent routes to report safeguarding issues within institutions.
Immediate bans on psychologically harmful punishments; smacking, isolation, and punitive measures at home and in schools. Backed by practical support for parents and educators to adopt non-violent tools and strategies.
4. Educational Choice
Advocate for equal treatment and funding of all forms of education, without bias or stigma.
Make free online education available to children who need it.
Expand pathways beyond mainstream schooling: home education, alternative provision, community hubs, and online schools. Create an educational ecosystem that prioritises choice.
5. Proper Funding for Children’s Mental Health
Increase funding for school-based mental health services.
Make services easily accessible to all children in and out of school. With and without parental support.
Reduce stress by moving away from high-stakes testing.
6. Well-being Over Standardisation
Ensure that education nurtures physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual development of each child, fostering resilience, creativity, and well-being. Ensure their consent and individuality are upheld as important values for their education.
Reform Ofsted inspections to:
Focus on values-based guidelines rather than academic achievement.
Assess inclusivity, respect for diversity, and well-being.
Centre on fostering critical thinking, curiosity, and personal growth.
7. Trust Over Coercion
End punitive measures like attendance fines, School Attendance Orders and surveillance registers. Abolish any measures that disproportionately impact the vulnerable.
Replace control with systems of collaboration and empowerment with the local authorities, properly fund them to be able to provide educational grants to community projects that expand the educational ecosystem.
What Can We Do?
The traditional model of education, with a one-size-fits-all approach, is not serving us. The change we seek is already sprouting and this is a part of the fear from the government. Families are walking different paths, home education is expanding and communities are holding each other up. Spaces are emerging where children’s unique needs are seen and met. That is why people are voting with their feet and exiting the school system in droves. They don’t have time to wait for the system to change, their kids are suffering the effects now. For many families, home education has become the most viable option for offering an education that honours their child's individuality and supports them in who they are. The change is happening anyway, it can happen slowly through failing many children until the system collapses, or it can happen fast, with intention.
Here’s ideas of how we can nurture this change:
1. Stand in Solidarity
Join peaceful protests. Organise school strikes. Let’s make our voices heard.
2. Support Each Other’s Choices
Hold space and advocate for choice and those choosing alternative paths.
Challenge the stigma and propaganda around home education. Point out when “safeguarding” is used to discredit and undermine home education as a valid educational choice.
Support those sending their kids to school to demand change from within the system.
3. Challenge Inequities
Speak out against racial and SEND disparities and systemic harm.
Advocate for policies that centre marginalised families and children.
4. Be Visible and Share Your Story
How has the system failed your child or family? Have alternatives allowed your children to thrive? Share your truth.
Our children cannot wait. They do not have a vote and their lives are being impacted right now. It is up to the adults to imagine something better and take action.
Let’s walk into this future together, no matter how we choose to educate our children.
Tell Me Your Story
What do you want to demand? How has the system impacted your family? Let’s share our experiences and amplify our voices. Let’s imagine a better way forward for all children.