Appendix B
‘Atleastasregularlyandwell’
The following is intended to help you to understand how the Ministry of Education views section 21 (1) (b) of the Education Act 1989, which states that the child must be “taught at least as regularly and well as in a registered school” or “in the case of a person who would otherwise be likely to need special education, will be taught at least as regularly and well as in a special class or clinic or by a special service”.
- A homeschooling situation can provide an opportunity for a more flexible approach to organisation than that which is likely to operate in the average school. Nevertheless, the Act requires you to teach your child “at least as regularly ... as in a registered school.” Homeschooling applications should, therefore, provide evidence of a commitment to certain routines appropriate to the maturity level and abilities of the child and should outline these. Regularity should extend to the treatment of elements within your stated curriculum. It would be helpful to provide a specific timetable for a typical week, or you may describe your organisational routines in sufficient detail to enable the Ministry to assess the regularity of your programme. However, unsupported statements such as “John will let us know what he wants to study” will not assist an application. Section 35C of the Act (which deals with the registration of private schools) says that one of the elements necessary to ensure registration is the existence of “a curriculum for teaching, learning, and assessment” and has “suitable tuition standards”. To indicate that you will teach your child “at least as well as in a registered school” you must, therefore,communicate to the Ministry something of your curriculum vision for teaching, learning and assessment. Your statement should be more than an overview - it should give some indication of what you will intend to cover in different areas of your stated curriculum.
- Many children and young people have special education needs. This can include learners with learning difficulties, communication, emotional or behaviour difficulties, or intellectual, sensory or physical impairments. If your child has special education needs you must be able to satisfy the Ministry that your child will be taught “at least as regularly and well as in a special class or clinic or by a special service”. Special education means the provision of extra help, adapted programmes or learning environments, specialised equipment or materials to support children and young people with accessing the curriculum, support them with their learning and help them participate in education. The Ministry needs to be confident that your child will be taught as well they would be in a school which provides appropriate special education assistance. An assessment report from the Ministry of Education’s Special Education team (SE) would be helpful (especially for a new entrant 6-year-old). This should ascertain the child’s level of needs and assist the Ministry in establishing your ability to teach “at least as regularly and well” as in a school that would provide appropriate special education assistance.
- Some people will want to use a commercially prepared course of some kind. There is no problem with this but it is likely to be insufficient if your application simply says, “We will be following such and such a course.” You will need to show that you at least know where the course is taking you. It is not possible, of course, for the Ministry to judge the quality of your teaching (the standard of tuition) in advance, but Ministry officers will look for some evidence that you have the confidenceand knowledge to provide tuition in a planned and balanced way that could be expected in any registered school.