The “Are You Listening Now” campaign:
Join In: Digital Protest – 28th February
Join In: 8 Days of Action – 1st March – 8th March
Join In: In person Regional Rallys – 8th March
Join In: My School Story & Home Ed Alumni – Ongoing
Governments, councils and schools make decisions for children every day – they talk about the child’s voice – but do they ever listen?
Over 100,000 young people and families will be impacted by the introduction of a Children Not in School register and associated legislation. It will effect education providers too, who are already considering removing their services.
The Labour party are using tragic cases of multiagency safeguarding failure (as a result of ongoing Government underfunding) to push through undemocratic legislation, to remove parental rights, to “grab data” and to try and push young people back into the schools that failed them.
Every child in the country will be impacted by the proposed “Unique Identifier” – having not learnt from the Horizon scandal – they are planning on using AI to manage our childrens private data. How long will it be before the wrong families are investigated and young adults are finding their data has been leaked, impacting their credit rating and ability to get a job – or worse.
Whilst this time and money is being wasted – the Government refuse to acknowledge or act, on the failings of our mainstream schooling system, which is the biggest safeguarding risk to children.
Parents and carers have watched Sure Start centres close (which had multiple proven positive impacts on wellbeing and education for young people), austerity measures, the cost of living and now they are the ones left with a mental health crisis in young people to navigate.
Our Government is at a fork in the road. They continue as they have been, forcing more and younger children into childcare, blaming parents for their failings and tightening the vice of mainstream education.
Or they stop. They hold back on any further legislation and they look to others within the UK and beyond, for a better way.
It is at this time that we all need to ask ourselves – what is the point of 9 GCSE’s passed, if it has destroyed a childs mental health in the process?
We demand the Government do better.
What are we protesting against?
1. Government policy that fails to hear and act upon the voice of its stakeholders (children and families).
2. The refusal to notice, acknowledge and rectify the failings of a schooling system, that routinely causes harm to young people and staff.
Failings include, but are not limited to:
- Mental, physicial and emotional abuse
- One-Size-Fits-All methodology
- Subject hierarchy (promoting academia above the arts, sport, engineering & life skills)
- Draconian behaviour “management” approaches
#AreYouListening is for any child, parent, professional, organisation or individual and especially those who might be:
- Impacted by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
- Frustrated by the fact that it doesn’t deal with Children’s Wellbeing IN School
- Impacted by the VAT added to independent fee-paying schools
- Against fines for non-school attendance
What do we want to achieve?
1. Local media to support children & families by sharing their stories – or the story of this protest.
2. National media to give us the same platform afforded to headteachers and policy makers.
3. For the voices of children and families to reach the 835 members of the House of Lords.
Primary Goal
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to be throroughly scrutinised and for the register of Children Not in School and the Unique Identifier policy to be removed, until it can be fully investigated and researched, with an impact assessment that engages broad stakeholder input.
Secondary Goal:
An full independent review of our mainstream schooling system with the purpose of building a strategic plan for how we can instigate meaningful reform – working with innovative organisations and individuals and looking to Scandinavia for insight into wellbeing and education.
We also support the following outcomes:
– Removal of the school fine system.
– Reversal of VAT on fee paying independent schools.
– Bridget Philipson MP being held accountable for her anti-family rhetoric.
My School Story
My school story collects evidence of “school causing harm” and gives the opportunity for adults, parents and professionals to recount their experiences, giving them the voice that they have been denied.
We want to increase understanding and demonstrate that we need to “Do Education Differently”.
If the story finishes with deregistration from school, there is the opportunity to add “what happened next”.
Child’s Voice
My school story collects evidence of what children think and feel, their experiences and what makes them happy.
We want to increase understanding and demonstrate that we need to “Do Education Differently”.
Anyone under 19 years old can share, they are also welcome to include art work.
Home Education Alumni
Home Ed Alumni profiles a wide range of adults who were home educated as children. It displays evidence that home education is an effective form of education and that young people are not “hidden”. Their pictures tell a story of “education done differently” and give a short snippet of what their home education experience meant to them.
These diverse and capable individuals, dispel the myths that home education is sunstandard, limiting or only for certain sections of society. Some are now home educating parents themselves – but all of them want to protect the rights and freedoms of home education for future generations.
United we stand.
The “Are You Listening Now?” campaign is supported by:
