The murder of Sara Sharif has rasied serious questions about who should be allowed to homeschool their children.
When jailing the 10-year-old’s father and stepmother, the judge outlined in harrowing detail the abuse they inflicted on Sara in the years leading up to her death. Sara was beaten repeatedly by Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool at their home in Surrey.
When her body was found she had dozens of injuries, including fractures to her spine. In her final months she had been hooded, burned and bitten.
Mr Justice Cavanagh described the abuse as “torture”, before turning his attention to the decision of Sharif to remove his daughter from school after teachers raised safeguarding concerns.
“The pretext of homeschooling was simply a ruse adopted for wholly selfish purposes, to cover up the abuse to which Sara was subject, and to continue with the abuse beyond the gaze of the authorities,” he told the court.
Sara’s murder has put the spotlight on the record number of children now being homeschooled in England.
During the last school year, 153,300 children were home educated at some stage, up from 126,100 in the previous academic year.
Among them is Calvin, 12, whose mother Jax Blunt has educated her children at their home in Felixstowe for two decades. She said many parents, particularly those who have children with special educational needs, feel they’re left with no choice.
“The reason that home education is so valuable is that it is an escape valve for the children failed by the education system,” she told Sky News.
“Home education in and of itself is not a safeguarding concern. But obviously if somebody is using home education as a smokescreen to avoid that kind of scrutiny, then that becomes a problem. But the government and social services already have an awful lot of powers.”
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New registers to be brought in
Under proposals put forward by the government there will be new registers of children not in school and local authorities could insist children at risk of abuse attend.
It means the automatic right of most families to home educate will be removed for parents of children who have protection plans, who will instead have to seek permission from their local authority.
Many headteachers believe schools play a critical role in protecting children.
‘Our primary role is to keep children safe’
Simon Kidwell is the principal of a primary school in Cheshire and a former president of the NaHT union for school leaders.
He said schools have a “key role” to play in protecting children.
“I think we often get confused because school is about education, about teaching children to read, write and count,” he said.
“However, our primary role is to keep children safe, and we have a key role in being the frontline in terms of safeguarding our children.”
Children’s commissioner calls for tightening of rules
The children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has been calling for a tightening of the rules around homeschooling.
She said: “I do the data every year and find the numbers of children who have fallen off school roles and disappeared – this register will mean we know where they are and we can check on them and I would say any child at risk of abuse must not be allowed to be educated at home.”
However, the proposals stop short of a ban, instead putting the responsibility to decide on local authorities, already under scrutiny for safeguarding decisions that have led to children like Sara slipping through the net that should be there to protect them.
