Nick Gibb M.P(Minister of State for Schools)

We have received a letter from Mr Nick Gibb M.P(Minister of State for Schools)  i wonder why schools minister is writing to us? we did not get the email from officials and it looks like Penny Jones is  still upset

Dear Mr and Mrs Williams and Peter

I am replying to the letters that Mr Damien Hinds M.P sent to the Secretary of State on 23 September and 26th October 2010 on your behalf.Mr Hinds asked for a response to be sent directly to you.I am replying as the Minster of State for Schools.I am very sorry for the long delay.

When you sent your email to Mr Hinds on 22 September 2010 you stated you had not received a reply to the email you sent directly to the Secretary of State on 1 September 2010,in which you asked whether there were any plans to bring in new laws on home education.The Department receives a large amount of correspondence and the Secretary of State is unable to responds personally to all letters and emails.I understand that officials replied to you by email  and i am enclosing a copy of that reply,in case you did not receive it.

The Government supports home educators and recognise that many deliver a good quality education for their children.The position on funding is that a parents who are home educating their children take on the full financial responsibility for doing so.However local councils can draw down funding where they provide significant support for home educated children with special educational needs,or to enable a home educated child to attend a college or further education.This might include attending college to study for GCSEs.Local councils have discretion to decide whether to provide such funding.

The Secretary of State announced on 13 December 2010 that Government is not proposing to make any changes to these funding arrangements.Our priority is to target all available funding at schools.Tight fiscal restraints mean it is not possible for the Government to provide additional support for home educators at this time.

In your email to Mr Hinds,you raise the concerns that the Secretary of State is being advised on matters relating to home education by an official,Ms Penny Jones,who you allege appears hostile to home education.I understand that comments have also been voiced on various blogs/websites and that you have tried to encourage others to raise FOIs about Ms Jones.

An Officials role is to serve the government of the day and the Civil Service Code sets out the framework within which all civil servants must work.The code can be found at the following link
http://www.civil service.gov.uk/about/values/cscode/index.aspx

The Secretary of State considers it is unacceptable for civil servants to face criticism as a consequence of carrying out their official duties.It is important that civil servants are able to carry out their duties in accordance with the policies agreed with Minister.These duties may change from time to time particularly when there is a change following a General Election.

Yours sincerely

Nick Gibb


We sent a complaint back to him and copy to our M.P Mr Damian Hinds what do people think of the letter from Mr Gibb M.P?  share this letter with other home educators please

Damain Hind M.P and at last we will get a reply!

We have been told by our M.P Mr  Damain Hind that we will get a reply to our email of 1/9/2010 about home education  sent to Mr Gove M.P (Education Sectary)  see his email to us.It can not be right that you have  to wait so long for a reply? I will post the full letter when it arrives! here is our reply to Mr Hinds

Dear Damian Hind M.P

Thank you for your email.

Lets hope its  is a reply that makes sense and not just civil service speak! Having over the last few years had letters from the old Children's Department it often appeared that a few select civil servants where running the policy on all aspects of education!

Lets hope Mr Gove M.P who we rather like he a  very good speaker in the house does not have the wool pulled over his eyes over home education by a civil servant called Penny Jones! Or Chris Foster! 

One  should also not have to wait so long to get a reply I thought the department had to reply with in 20 days? We are  way over that time limit makes you wonder if some one was not playing cricket with us!

I don't blame you your new and learning the ropes I guess! how is life as an M.P is the job how you expected it to be?

One good thing for the  conservative party is Ed Balls being made shadow chancellor you should be able to tie him up with the public debt he helped run up and  he  still refuses to acknowledge   this! The public are not fools!

Best regards

Peter Carol Peter

From: HINDS, Damian

Date: 27/01/2011 17:09

To: 'Carol Williams'

Subject: RE: Home Education

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams and Peter,

I have been informed today that a reply from the Department is now on its way to you.  I hope this will soon come to hand.

Best wishes,

Damian Hinds 

No answer still from M Gove M.P Education Secretary

We have still had no answer from M Gove M.P Education Secretary over our concerns about his views on home education We first wrote to him on the 1st of September 2010 and so far we have not had a reply!.We contacted our M.P Mr Damian Hind who said on 23 9 2010 that he would follow this up but so far no word from Mr Gove M.P see the emails that have gone between us and Mr Hind M.P.

Any news?  Or has the snow held up an answer? Or is some one taking the "Mickey" out of all of us?   

Peter Carol Peter

-------Original Message-------

From: HINDS, Damian

Date: 23/11/2010 17:22

To: Carol Williams

Subject: RE: Home Education

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams and Peter,

My office has checked today with the Department and we are told a reply is in hand and we should hear quite soon now.

No doubt apologies will be offered for the long delay.

Yours sincerely,

Damian Hinds  

From: Carol Williams [mailto:carol@williams4939.freeserve.co.uk]
Sent: 23 November 2010 16:01
To: HINDS, Damian
Subject: RE: Home Education

Any news? Or is it a state secret?( we have almost forgotten what we wrote to Mr Gove M.P) Peter Carol Peter   -------Original Message------- From: HINDS, Damian Date: 25/10/2010 11:06 To: Carol Williams Subject: RE: Home Education I am afraid I have not yet heard from Mr. Gove but I will send a reminder. From: Carol Williams [mailto:carol@williams4939.freeserve.co.uk] Sent: 25 October 2010 10:02 To: HINDS, Damian Subject: RE: Home Education Have you had a response from Mr Gove?  -------Original Message------- From: HINDS, Damian Date: 23/09/2010 15:39 To: carol@williams4939.freeserve.co.uk Subject: RE: Home Education Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams and Peter, Thank you for your message.  I am sorry you have not yet had any response from Michael Gove but I will follow this up. You ask for my view, which hasn’t changed since I visited you at your home some time ago:  namely that I believe in a right to home educate subject to certain safeguards.  Although most home educating families don’t need safeguards, some do.. I would not worry about Mr. Gove being led astray by some adviser or other.  He is one of the brightest people in public life today and will certainly make up his own mind, having considered the full breadth of evidence and opinion. Yours sincerely, Damian Hinds ___________________________________________ Damian Hinds MP for East Hampshire House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA 0207 219 7057  //  01420 84122 damian.hinds.mp@parliament.uk From: Carol Williams [mailto:carol@williams4939.freeserve.co.uk] Sent: 22 September 2010 11:50 To: Damian Hinds Subject: Fw: Home Education Dear Mr Damian Hind M.P Can you help we have had no reply to our email to Mr M.Gove M.P over home education policy see email below sent on 1st of September  to  Mr Gove  M.P  he should answer within  20 days but so far he has not and we are quite surprised by this.We understand he is a very busy man but he did show a real interest in home education and appeared to grasp it! I.e. That we do not need any more new laws the last Labour government brought in far to may laws which I belive David Cameron made a point of saying last week at PM question time.Which we fully support! We also concerned Mr Gove is being briefed about home education by a Penny Jones who works for the education department she appears hostile to home education ! We like your view to? Best Regards Peter Carol Peter -------Original Message------- From: Carol Williams Date: 01/09/2010 12:00 To: ministers@education.gsi.gov.uk Cc: govem@parliament.uk Subject: Home Education Dear Mr Gove M.P We very concerned because Lord Soley has been writing that the house will return again to this subject! You appeared to have a good understanding of home education you where very helpful to home educators last year  so  we don't want  you getting the wrong advice from people who do not understand home education. Yours sincerely Mr Peter Williams Mrs Carol Williams Master Peter A Williams A Home Educating Family

Guernsey Chess International

We had a very nice time in Guernsey it is a really nice place and because Guernsey is so small you can drive to the sea and the beautiful beeches with in minutes.So it was really nice to drive along the coast line before going to play chess.some days we did not want to go in to play chess the weather was so nice and the beeches are really nice so clean great for sandcastles! Peter grandad and granmother came  to watch Peter and me play.I never won anything! I have to get Peter to coach me!

Peter won the Junior prize of 60 pounds in the open section of the event all of Peter opponents where adults.Peter played very strong chess and also increased his FIDE chess rating by 14 points.this system is what all players use to measure how strong a player is http://ratings.fide.com/ you can search Peter rating on this link or any other chess player who has a FIDE rating not all chess players get a FIDE rating has you have to score wins or draws against a FIDE rated player.Peter new rating will be 2178 when it come out on 1st of November.The ratings come out every 3 months'

We made many new friends at Guernsey and caught up with some old chess friends to.The Guernsey chess federation puts in a lot of work over the year to make this event happen.The Guernsey chess players are really nice and  friendly.It is the best chess event of the year.So we want to thank all of the people in Guernsey who make this lovely tournament happen.
I should mention that Peter chess coach Mr Nick Pert Grandmaster won the tournament.Nick is a really fine chess player i dont know how he does it.hats off to you Nick your the champ!

Guernsey Chess International

Peter Playing in the Guernsey chess International starting on Sunday 17th of October you can follow his progress on the Guernsey chess web site  http://www.guernseychessclub.org.gg/festival/festival.aspx  This tournament is a very strong event with a number  of grandmaster in it including Peter coach Nick Pert(GM) Peter hoping to improve his international chess rating at the moment it is 2132 .Peter is the 49 best under 14 in the whole of the world! 2nd best under 14 in  the United Kingdom.We really looking forward to the trip to Guernsey Peter Grandad and Gran mother are also going to come to give support.Some of the chess games can last over 5 hours! You have to do a lot of traveling to improve your international chess rating as not all chess events in England are international rated!.  We hope   to be able to blog  to let you know how Peter is doing while we are out in Guernsey.If you got any questions about this tournament please do send us a comment we will do our best to answer you.We hope to do a blog on why ALL children should learn to play chess.We would also like to help encourage home educated children to learn chess.So if any parent of a home educated child wants advice about chess do please ask!.

New Hamsters/Tortoises

This Sunday we brought 2 new hamsters for Peter to go along with the 4 tortoises we have and the one Guinea pig! We did have 3 other Guinea pigs but they died.We have 2 leapord tortoises which come from South Africa and realy like very warm weather and will grow quite big in time.You need to be able to keep these tortoise indoors for part of the year or when it is cold but yesterday the Leapords where out enjoying the sun.We also have 2 russian tortoises these are easy to keep and are quite hardy!.Peter enjoys looking after his pets and helps to feed and clean out the encloses of all the pets.Leapord Tortoises can create a fair bit of mess! We think it is a good idea for children to have pets but of course not everyone has the room or time to look after Leapord tortoises!  We would recomend hamstesr the ones we have can live in groups ours are russian  hamsters but most hamster live on they own.Hamster are easy to look after need a small cage some bedding sawdust and of course hamster food! Over time you can train them to come to you and take food from your hand.Peter said the hamster where up in the night eating and playing.Here is a picture of the hamsters

Peter not given them a name yet but im sure he soon will!  Here is a picture of Frosty the Guinea pig he is now over 5 years of age which is quite old for a Guinea pig

Peter will put Frosty out this afternoon to enjoy the fine sunshine.Let us know of any pets you all have and hope you enjoy reading our blog!

No answer from Michael Gove M.P over Home education

We sent Mr Gove M.P sectary of state for education an email about home education on 1/9/2010 so far we have had no reply! We also have  asked our own M.P Mr D.Hinds to look into this which he has said he will. We find it very strange that just when we been hearing that maybe new wording or change in the  guidance is on the table  for home education Mr Gove M.P  has not answered last year he was very quick to reply to us and was very helpful  any way see email below.

: 01/09/2010 12:00

To: ministers@education.gsi.gov.uk

Cc: govem@parliament.uk

Subject: Home Education

Dear Mr Gove M.P

Can you confirm that you have no plans to bring in news laws on home education  for this parliament?  Can you also confirm you fully support a parents right to home educate by giving the child a full time suitable education?

We very concerned because Lord Soley has been writing that the house will return again to this subject!

You appeared to have a good understanding of home education you where very helpful to home educators last year  so  we don't want  you getting the wrong advice from people who do not understand home education.

Yours sincerely

Mr Peter Williams Mrs Carol Williams Master Peter A Williams

A Home Educating Family

Had reply from our M.P Mr D Hinds  who has said he follow it up but so far no word from Mr Gove  M.P

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams and Peter,

Thank you for your message.  I am sorry you have not yet had any response from Michael Gove but I will follow this up.

You ask for my view, which hasn’t changed since I visited you at your home some time ago:  namely that I believe in a right to home educate subject to certain safeguards.  Although most home educating families don’t need safeguards, some do.

I would not worry about Mr. Gove being led astray by some adviser or other.  He is one of the brightest people in public life today and will certainly make up his own mind, having considered the full breadth of evidence and opinion.

Yours sincerely,

Damian Hinds

Above  picture is of Peter with England Junior chess squad taking in Montenegro when Peter played for England in european junior chess championships.