Category Archives: Home Education

Federal Government Funding Initiatives 2020 Blog Series #2

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This is the second blog on Federal Government Funding Initiatives. See here for a list of other blogs in this series as they are published:

Any support for home educators in Australia is useful. Over a few posts Ed Consult will list a series of Federal Government policy changes that may be of use to home educators if we ask. It is also worth noting what is denied to the home educated student compared to their schooled peers.

Here are a few excerpts from the Australian Government Department for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development for 2020.

Increase HELP loan limit for Aviation Courses

“The Australian Government will amend the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to increase the combined Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loan limit to $150,000 (indexed by CPI) for eligible students undertaking aviation courses at a VET Student Loans approved provider from 1 January 2020. The increased limit recognises that existing loan limits are insufficient to obtain the licences and ratings required for most practical commercial aviation employment. The increase will improve accessibility to courses and better support students and the commercial aviation sector.”

Those home educators looking into aviation as a course for their students should enquire further.

Strengthening Higher Education in Regional Australia—additional support for students and universities

” The Australian Government is providing $134.8 million over four years from 2018‑19 to strengthen higher education enrolment in regional Australia by funding additional study places, scholarships and enhanced facilities to increase accessibility. The measure includes $92.5 million over four years from 2018‑19 to support more students at five regionally focused universities: the University of the Sunshine Coast, James Cook University, the University of Newcastle, Central Queensland University and Federation University Australia. The measure also includes $42.3 million over four years from 2018‑19 to provide:

  • an additional 1,955 scholarships in 2019, valued at up to $18,000 each, for students undertaking Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Health and Agriculture tertiary qualifications—more than doubling the 1,200 scholarships previously available under the Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships announced in the 2017-18 Budget to provide $24.0 million over four years from 2017-18 to 2020-21 as part of the Australian Government’s 2016 election commitments;
  • support for additional Regional Study Hubs, for a total 16 Hubs across 22 locations to improve access to higher education for students from rural and remote Australia. This builds on the Regional Study Hubs announced in the 2017-18 Budget, which provided $16.7 million from 2018-19 to 2021‑22 to improve access to higher education for students from rural and remote Australia by supporting the establishment and operation of regional study hubs. Such hubs typically support regional students to study courses locally delivered by distance from any Australian university by providing greater access to study support and infrastructure; and
  • support for the development of a National Regional, Rural and Remote Higher Education Strategy, as part of the Government’s response to Emeritus Professor John Halsey’s Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education.

This builds on the Australian Government’s existing commitment of $123.6 million from 2017‑18 to 2021-22 for additional Commonwealth supported places to support expansion into regional areas. The University of the Sunshine Coast will receive funding for an additional 1,200 ongoing bachelor places in 2020, growing to 3,600 ongoing places in 2022, at a new campus in Moreton Bay. The University of Tasmania will receive funding for 1,000 ongoing places from 2019 to support the Northern Tasmanian Transformation Project. Southern Cross University will receive funding for an additional 105 ongoing places in 2019 and 210 ongoing places in 2020. These places, which are expected to grow to 315 ongoing places by 2021, will be utilised in allied health courses at a new campus in Coffs Harbour.”

Australian Apprenticeships—increased support

” The Australian Government has increased support for Australian Apprenticeships, with $27.6 million over four years from 2018‑19 to extend eligibility for the Support for Adult Australian Apprentices Incentive to apprentices aged 21 years and over (the current eligible age is 25 years and over). Extending eligibility to include apprentices aged 21 to 24 increases the support available for all Adult Australian Apprentices and provides a stronger incentive for employers to engage more adult apprentices in areas of skills needs.

To find out more about apprenticeships in Australia, click here.

Follow this blog to find out about other initiatives that are being rolled out by the Federal Government in 2020. Perhaps it is time to start asking for a piece of the pie?

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Time for a Bush Fire Unit Study?

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Is Your Family Prepared? What can you learn together today to help you in the future?

In the summer of 2019/2020, Australia is in the midst of some of the worst fire conditions with low humidity, high winds, and large fuel loads on the ground. Every other bush fire victim who has lost everything say, “you never think it will happen to you”.

Here are a list of resources and suggestions on what we should all know about bush fires and how to be prepared. Use these resources to create a unit study appropriate for your family’s circumstances. There are so many home educating families who have already lost their homes or are in the path of oncoming fire grounds. The Ed Consult family is in the same position. Ed Consult has decided to learn what we need to know so that we can make the difficult decisions; do we stay and defend or do we evacuate and is evacuation even possible?

We can all use this summer period to teach our children what we all need to know to be able to cope with the harsh Australian environment.

Where to find information

Education Resources

  • ABC BTN (Behind The News) has created an Australian Curriculum linked activity called “Bushfire Escape”.
  • This page by the NSW Rural Fire Service has a wealth of links for fire related information.
  • Click here to find youtube videos for education again provided by the NSW Rural Fire Service.
  • Here is a page to create a bushfire survival plan by the Rural Fire Service NSW that can be used by all Australians.
  • The Bushfire CRC has produced an ebook for parents on how to talk to children about bushfire preparation and safety. The ebook, “Making a bushfire plan? Involve your kids!” is based on the PhD research of Briony Towers from RMIT University. Here is a link to it’s download page:
  • ABC Education has a wide range of materials.
  • A Resource for younger children
  • From Victorian bushfire education

What if we do choose to stay and defend our home? What does that look like?

Firstly, make sure you have a radio with batteries and take some cash out of the ATM. There are large areas of the south coast of NSW that are without power and will remain so for the foreseeable future which has meant no internet, and no EFTPOS to purchase supplies without cash. If you no longer have access to mobile wifi internet, tune into your local ABC radio channel to keep up to date with the local information. See here for a link to your local ABC frequency.

Below is an excerpt from Joan Webster OMA Essential Bush Fire Safety Tips

“Although data states that 2/3 of Black Saturday [2009] fatalities died while sheltering in or near their house, research by bushfire scientists revealed that they did not die BECAUSE they were sheltering. They died because they did not know how to shelter safely.

SO WHEN THE BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY MESSAGE IS “It is too Late to Leave, You Should Take Shelter and Stay Indoors”.

WHAT SHOULD YOU ACTUALLY DO IF YOU CANNOT SHELTER IN A BUILDING?

  • Shelter behind a wall; beside a large fire resistant tree (that has no flammable undergrowth); in or beside a car; in a dam (if no vegetation is near either), in a ditch, (cover yourself with earth or blanket); crouch beneath a blankets (must be PURE WOOL) on bare ground or an already burnt area.
  • people have withstood the most catastrophic conditions.

IF YOU CAN SHELTER IN A BUILDING – Before you go inside:

  • Shut off gas and electricity at the mains.
  • Put pets inside: dogs on leash, cats in covered cages.
  • Take in outdoor furniture, doormats, hanging baskets, plastic pot plants.
  • When you are inside:
  • Make sure all doors and windows are securely shut.
  • Turn off air conditioners; cover their internal vents.
  • If windows are unshuttered, cover with blankets (must be PURE WOOL), heavy quality quilts, foil or wet towels.
  • Move flammable furniture away from windows.
  • Close internal doors to limit fire spread if embers enter and ignite inside.
  • Put on protective clothing and nose mask and drink often.
  • Keep blankets (must be PURE WOOL) handy.
  • Cool off when possible.
  • Watch the conditions outside if possible through a small window or peephole. Do not open a door or window to look outside.
  • When you are sure flaring shrubs have blackened, it’s safe to go out again. (Burning tree trunks do not generally emit killing radiant heat.)

PASSIVE SHELTERERS – This is what the children should be doing.

  • DO NOT SHELTER IN AN INNER ROOM. Not in the hallway. Not in the bath. If you shelter in ANY kind of inner room – no matter how many doors it has – you could be trapped. Embers may have ignited sub-floor or wall cavities or rafters in the ceiling space,. Flaming walls or ceiling could collapse on you. Toxic fumes from smouldering furnishings, synthetic furniture or wall linings could overcome you.
  • STAY BY A DOOR THAT EXITS TO OUTSIDE in protective clothing and with blankets (must be PURE WOOL).
  • It is vital for passive shelterers to exit as soon as the potentially killing radiant heat from flames has died down.

ACTIVE SHELTERERS – These are the people defending their property.

  • Take hose, sprayers and ladder inside with you.
  • Fill bath & troughs with water, immerse towels, roll up and place at door gaps and window ledges. Plug keyholes with play dough, blue-tack or soap.
  • Fill containers (e.g. garden sprayers) with water; put these, with dippers, mops etc, in each room.
  • Watch for invading embers. Particularly in the ceiling space, through windows, gaps under doors. Spray or hit with wet mop any sparks, embers or smouldering furnishings.
  • If any ignition cannot be extinguished, close the door of that room.
  • Maintain easy access to an exit door.
  • Never go outside during a flame front to douse an outside ignition.

EXITING

  • Exit with great care, preferably from a door that is sheltered from the wind.
  • Wear protective clothing & nose cover, cover yourself with your blanket (must be PURE WOOL), crouch, lower your eyelids and open the door gradually.
  • The quintessential bushfire survival resource is a HEAVY DUTY PURE WOOL BLANKET.
  • Covered with their blanket and with a flask of water people have withstood the most catastrophic conditions.”

You can follow Joan Webster on Facebook. Extracted from Essential Bushfire Safety Tips (CSIRO 2012), www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6969.htm (If you can’t afford to buy it – most libraries have a copy.)

Let’s prepare our children now for when they grow up and are defending their own families in the future. Take care.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Need Work Experience Insurance?

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One of the big challenges for non school based work experience in Australia, some internships or voluntary work, is the need for insurance cover to participate in the work place to see what job type may fit.

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If your child has their eye set on a future profession or else wants to cultivate more experience trying different work environments, there can be the barrier of needing insurance cover. If the student is attending a school, the school will provide the insurance cover for the limited few weeks during school term. However home educated children are freer to explore their future of work as long as the insurance is attainable.

But what if your student is home educated, or your schooled child wants more experience during the holidays? What if your student is no longer registered as a student at all? What if you are a home educator? What then?

There are three options for work experience or Volunteer Worker’s Insurance:

  • Purchase insurance once off for the particular work experience, however, this can be in the many hundreds of dollars.
  • Whether a home educator or not, you can purchase a membership with the Home Education Network (HEN) for cover excluding Western Australia and Queensland for only $25. HEWA (formerly HBLN) for Western Australia cannot source work experience insurance and that continues to be a challenge there. HEN and HBLN are the only home education associations that have earned the trust of the home educating community to service home educator’s needs as an association for insurance purposes.
  • Some registering bodies also offer work insurance to home educating students, so be sure to contact your state registration body first to enquire if they can help you. Click here for a link to each body throughout Australia.
  • Or you can call your house and contents insurer and see if there is any provision for your student’s work experience to be included with your current package.

For further information on work experience in each state or territory, check out the Home Education Network’s page for helpful advice and links.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

What We Do Daily – Cross Curricular Teaching

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As home educators, it is almost impossible not to be teaching our children in a cross curricular way naturally throughout our daily lives together making the learning stick.

The Australian Curriculum as Cross-curriculum

The Australian curriculum and institutional schooling is usually organised into Knowledge Learning Areas (KLA’s) with a political and educational authority imposed hierarchy of knowledge with the key focuses of numeracy and literacy.

What do schools do?

Too often in schools and especially high school, knowledge silos are imbedded in the daily routine with time barriers and department divisions making multi-disciplinary learning just too hard to coordinate. One teacher’s timetable will clash with a teacher in another department or the grades won’t match up together on the same day. These divisions miss a major factor in the education of our children.

Research by the NSW DET as far back as 2003 demonstrated that the significance of knowledge to students was a key factor in the students’ development and understanding. Significance of knowledge to a student is only derived in psychological and the socio-cultural basis of how the student lives in order for them to be able to create meaning from the knowledge.

What do home educators do?

Here is where home educators excel. Unlike an institutional educational setting, as home educators there is no division between the students everyday lives and culture and their learning environments.

Home educators use the cross curriculum approach everyday effortlessly without knowing they are even doing it, in a way professional teachers could never achieve. If you are reading a novel series out loud to your children of different age groups, you are exploring, English, Music (I always like to play the orchestral sound tracks to the books we are reading such as Harry Potter or the The Lord of the Rings), Maths, Geography, History, Food Technology, Science, Industrial Design, critical thinking, Civics, Languages, creative problem solving, PDHPE, Art all across the curriculum. One significant novel read aloud to the whole family can tick the vast majority of the curriculum in one sitting. The learning is then extended into our everyday lives through the home educator weaving elements of the narrative through reminding the child of how Bilbo used his thinking skill of riddles or how Professor Snape managed his terrible dilemmas while cooking the dinner together.

This is highly significant for helping our children make the learning stick and for that learning to snowball into understanding, and the ability to extend themselves into more complex and creative problem solvers. A value that cannot be underestimated. Home educated children have a fertile educational environment that an institutional school cannot match. It is learning within the child’s personal culture that makes the knowledge significant and concrete.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Federal Government Funding Initiatives 2020 Blog Series #1

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Any support for home educators in Australia is useful. Over a few posts Ed Consult will list a series of Federal Government policy changes that may be of use to home educators if we ask. It is also worth noting what is denied to the home educated student compared to their schooled peers.

Here are a few excerpts from the Australian Government Department for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development for 2020.

Extension of Preschool Funding Arrangements

“The Australian Government has committed a further $453.1 million to provide universal access to 15 hours of quality preschool a week in the year before school, through to the end of 2020, and to undertake the related National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection. This builds on the previous decision to provide Commonwealth support for preschool until the end of 2019 and will benefit around 350,000 children throughout Australia, 100,000 of whom are estimated to live in regional Australia.

The Smith Family School Student Support

An additional $1.4 million will be invested to fund work by The Smith Family to work with state and territory governments and disadvantaged communities on strategies to further improve preschool participation, particularly for families in regional and remote communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.”

It is worth testing if the Smith Family initiative will also support home educators in need. https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/

Arts Education

“The Australian Government will invest $3.3 million in three school-based arts education programs: Music Australia’s Music Count Us In, the Song Room’s Transformational Learning through Creativity, and Bell Shakespeare’s National Education Program. Together, the three programs cover all five elements of the Arts learning area of the Australian Curriculum—music, drama, dance, visual arts and media arts – and will promote student engagement and support students’ social and emotional wellbeing.

This funding will benefit an estimated 786,000 students and teachers in Australian schools and support delivery of these arts programs throughout Australia, with a focus on improving access to arts education for disadvantaged schools in regional and remote areas or low socio-economic areas.”

This is another initiative that may be useful for home education cooperatives. Contact your home education regulatory body in your state or territory to see if your local coop can be part of this scheme. You won’t know unless you ask.

Follow this blog to find out about other initiatives that are being rolled out by the Federal Government. Perhaps it is time to start asking for a piece of the pie.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Is Home Education Legal In Australia?

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Yes. Home Education is legal to practice in Australia.

There is provision in the Education Act of each state and territory in Australia for parents or guardians of children between the ages 5-6 to a registration period including over 17 years of age.

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Here is a list of all the legislation and regulations that determine your rights as a home educator.

Australian Capital Territory (ACT)

New South Wales (NSW)

Queensland (QLD)

Victoria (VIC)

  • Education Act 2006
  • Home schooling – as form of compulsory attendance at school 2.1.1 – disclosure of information regarding 4.9.4 – information for school attendance officers 5.8.5 – protection of details of students registered for 4.9.1- registration of students for 4.3.9 – review of decisions regarding 4.8.1

Tasmania (TAS)

South Australia (SA)

Western Australia (WA)

Northern Territory (NT)

There is an academic resource by Glenda Jackson and Sonia Allan, published 2010 which discusses issues of registration and legislation in Australia on home education.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Step 1. Home Education Across the Australian Curriculum

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But what do I teach my child? How will I know? Is there a road map or GPS? Relax, there is quite a lot of information provided by each registration jurisdiction across Australia to help you get started with the paper work and road map.

Start with the Australian Curriculum

In all states and territories across Australia, there are links to the State or Territory version of the Australian Curriculum on the state or territory home education pages. When registering you generally refer to your state or territories’ version of the Australian Curriculum however in Tasmania for example you only need to develop a plan that includes subject areas and how you will cover those areas. Go to the registration body in each area to find out more:

Click through the links to find the link of each curriculum and learn the broad areas you are required to have in your Individual Learning Plan (ILP) for each child. This ILP may be over different stages and not all within a single “grade” level. The joy of home education is that the learning plan can adjust to where your child is, rather than what grade their age may place them if in a school.

In general, focus on reading, writing and arithmetic for the primary education years, and then in secondary levels with elective subjects to focus on their interests and special skills to help them develop those skills further. English is a focus for the whole of the child’s education, with maths, geography/history, and science as the core subjects. The other subject areas are at the child and educators’ discretion within the rules for choosing elective subjects of your education region.

For the more stringent home ed registration states in Australia, generally, a cut and paste of each Key Learning Area (KLA) stage statements into a word document with a list of resources or strategies you intend to use for the next registration period, will suffice for the learning plan prior to the home visit in the states and territories where they have them.

In South Australia, when applying for home education, it isn’t called registration due to differences in the Education Act. In SA you need to apply for exemption from school after you register your child at your local school as a student. This process is managed by the principal of the school.

If you have not registered for home education, and somehow the Government becomes aware of this, they will simply contact you and ask you to register or apply for exemption. There are no direct penalties for not registering your child for home education across Australia. If you persist with not registering your child for home education against the directions of the registering body, then the most drastic scenario is that you could be charged with educational neglect. However, this is very rare in Australia with regards to home education.

There is no registration body, that will try to match the ILP with the parent written report upon re-registration the next time. Life happens and learning needs change. The learning that occurred may resemble in a very limited way the learning plan you were initially registered under. Just keep some basic records as you go across the curriculum areas of your child’s educational experiences and the re-registration process will be successful. 

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

Supporting Home Educators Across Australia

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The journey begins at home

There has never been more access to information about home education or curriculum or methodologies. But this also means there is a huge onus on us to be able to sift through the vast stores of information in order to make sense of the world and what is available to us and to help our children grow up to be the best people they can be.

Collective Intelligence (CI) is the capacity of human collectives to engage in intellectual cooperation in order to create, innovate and invent.

Pierre Levy

Ed Consult is there to help you learn all you need to know about Home Education across Australia. Follow the Ed Consult blog and Youtube Channel here in order to become fully informed about what home education is, what part governments play, when there are benefits to home educators and their families, and when you should be informed of challenges facing our diverse community.

In truth, it has never been easier to home educate your child than today. With access to reliable internet, a library card, some energy and enthusiasm, you have the power to create, innovate and invent the most exclusive and individually tailored education, better than the most expensive and exclusive private schools in Australia.

The blog and video series will clarify your rights, your understanding and help give you the tools and language to deal with:

  • Managing doubt from your families, the community or even yourself about your own home education journey.
  • Registration issues,
  • Home visits in states and territories that have them,
  • Helping students transition to tertiary education pathways 
  • Explore alternative education to the mainstream institutional classroom learning.

The blog and videos will also explain:

  •  Financial assistance that is available to some families depending on their circumstances,
  • Any benefits such as discounts for museums and galleries, remote and regional internet access, group online subscriptions not available to individuals, and discounts at some stores in Australia,
  • Insurances: for home educators organising events, and for students’ work experience needs,

But more importantly

To keep the Australian community up to date on issues affecting lobbying efforts with governments at all levels that affect you, the home educator or parent or guardian of young people.  And to help educate the Australian community as a whole; Clearing up any misunderstandings or confusion as to what alternative education pathways look like for our children.

Ed Consult has the support of some of the most respected home educators across Australia. They have been there and done that, and who have generously provided support and fact checking to help make this resource accurate and reliable to help you make critical decisions with confidence on your child’s journey from Primary to tertiary education, and beyond to the work force and a happy and fulfilled future adulthood.

You can play a part

You can contribute in the comments section with questions you need answered, or you can utilise the blogs and soon to come, letter writing section of this website to support you in your interactions with greater Australia in relation to your right to home educate your child. We all need support from time to time, and Ed Consult is here for you.

“An informed parent or caregiver becomes empowered, and empowerment can lead to the best care for our children.’

Charisse Montgomery

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators Across Australia.

4. Alternative Pathways to Tertiary Education

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This is the fourth and final blog in this special series on alternative pathways for entry into Tertiary education. To get the full story, click on this link here.

Many universities offer alternative pathways courses, allowing a student to begin studying at the University of their choice, while gaining admission to their chosen degree through enrolling in single subjects first.

For some degree courses with higher ATAR entry requirements such as medicine of Vet science, it is possible to transfer from a different degree. By choosing appropriate courses in the first semester, and achieving good results, transferring is not difficult. Contacting the institution for advice is recommended.

Since January 2020, both RMIT and UNE have make a policy preventing students under 16 years of age from applying for courses. This change is new and without any justification provided. Subscribe to Ed Consult to keep up to date with changes such as these.

A good investigation into which university to choose should also include a look into feedback from student experience, graduate employment, Graduate Satisfaction and Employer Satisfaction. Some students will just have to use the local university, but if you can choose, than choose with confidence through Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching. Simply type in the course and institution and see what others have to say.

When applying, do also include evidence of any paid or unpaid work experience that is related to the field of study the student is applying for. This could be a letter of reference from the employer or evidence of a period of working in a particular industry through payslips.

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Apprenticeships are another pathway, combining TAFE study with paid practical work in order to complete the qualification. Apply directly for an apprenticeship through 1300 Apprenticeship online or apply through an employer such as a local hairdresser or electrician for example. Any certificate IV course is considered as the same level as the final year of high school and is a clear pathway to study at university.

Also, remember to apply for any scholarships or fee reduction opportunities. These are often found on the website of the institution. There are so many opportunities out there, however you may need to ask a lot of questions in order to find out about them.

Home educated students can begin in their early teens to explore careers, and pathways to further education to help them to fulfill their personal talents and aspirations. Non-year 12 certified students can access a wide variety of pathways to enter tertiary education, and to gain qualifications towards any career they choose, and anyone who suggests otherwise is simply wrong.

Ed Consult. Supporting Home Educators and Parents Across Australia.