page last updated 17th October, 2004UK-HOME-ED E-mail ListGeneral Frequently Asked Questions
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This page answers general questions about the list. For information on subscribing, contact information, information about available settings and searching of archives see the 'How do I ? FAQ'.
1. Who is this list for?A. It is intended that the list should remain open to everyone with a genuine interest in home education, irrespective of their beliefs, practices or ideologies. Debate is welcome providing it remains on topic and that arguments remain non-personal. We ask only that contributors are respectful of those with differing beliefs and practices, and do not provoke unnecessary arguments, bearing in mind the primary function of the list is support. You can ignore topics that you are uncomfortable with. 2. Who is this list NOT for?A. People whose interest in home education is merely through their employment, e.g. LEA officials, educational psychologists, etc. The presence of such people on the list would erode the confidence of list subscribers to seek mutual support, especially where they are in conflict with officialdom. If you joined this list only for professional reasons, please sign-off now. Any information which you may seek on home education can be obtained from web resources and books: e.g. see www.home-education.org.uk for details. If you wish to query this position, please contact the UK-HOME-ED-REQUEST@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>list-owners. If you are a researcher of any kind, please note that you fit into that professional category. Any use of messages posted to this list would be a breach of confidence. If you wish to ask for help (e.g. a questionnaire or contact with volunteer families), please contact the list-owners and we will send your message on to the list members. 3. What is this list NOT for?A. This list is intended to provide a supportive resource for home educating families, some of whom may already have experienced opposition and/or hostility. Therefore this list should not be used as a forum for adversarial debate between advocates of school-based education and home educators. 4. Why is the list specifically for the UK?A. The legal situation in the UK is, to the best of our knowledge, unique. There are other, non UK based, sources of information available but they cannot offer the practical and legal knowledge which may be helpful when dealing with Local Education Authorities. 5. Is home education allowed in the UK?A. Despite widespread ignorance about the legality of home education, it has always been the legal right of all parents in the UK, protected by legislation since the state first took primary responsibility for education in the 19th century. This right is protected in the current 1996 Education Act. Further information about the legal situation can be found on UK Home Education Web Site's legal page. 6. How common is home education in the UK?A. There are approximately 2,600 families with membership of Education Otherwise, a UK charity supporting home education/educators. Estimates of the number of home educators in the UK varies from 4,000 to 20,000 but the true figure, to date, remains unknown. 7. I am interested in home education but I am not resident in the UK. Can I still subscribe?A. Yes. Although designed primarily for UK home educators, there is a mutual benefit to be gained from sharing our experiences with home educators in other countries. 8. My children go to school but I am interested in their education and want to help them at home. Can this list offer anything to me?A. Yes. Constructive dialogue and questions are welcomed from any individual who is interested in home education - including parents who may be supplementing their children's school based learning. Much information about resources may be obtained by asking here. However this is primarily a support group and should not be used as a forum for adversarial debate between school advocates and home educators. 9. Is the "UK Home Education Support" LISTSERV list independent?A. This list is not intended to espouse any particular philosophy, ideology or practice of home education. It is not affiliated with, or representative of, any organisation. Everyone is welcome who has a positive interest in home education. 10. Who are the list owners?A. The credit for getting this list up and running through its first couple of years goes to Neil Taylor & Joyce Moore and latter by Alastair Dickson. The current list-owners are Jos Underhill, Barbara Stark and Shena Deuchars. We are active home educators and as 'official' 'list owners' it falls to us to maintain the list and keep it on topic, but mostly the list is self regulating through the collective responsibility of each individual subscriber. If anyone feels unhappy with the way they have been treated on the list, and doesn't wish to deal with this on the list we are here to be contacted, as we are for any reason, or for suggestions. 11. Is this list moderated?A. Subscription is open to anyone with a connection to the internet. Posts from new subscribers are moderated (checked by the list owner before being forwarded to the list) for a short period, after which both reading and posting of mail to the list is unmoderated. Only persistently offensive or irrelevant subscribers will be moderated or unsubscribed by the list owners if asking nicely fails, so don't fear instant wrath and excommunication if you err. In general the list is the friendly supportive place it is intended to be, albeit robust sometimes! 12. How safe, or private is this list?A. The email list of subscribers has been hidden from public access to ensure a measure of privacy for private email addresses. This means that until you post to the list your email address will not be revealed to anyone other than the listowners. Posting to the list reveals your address, but doesn't result in unwanted junk email. However, all email and posts to lists should be considered public, both in the sense that a message written on a postcard is capable of being read by anyone on route, but also in the sense that ANYONE may subscribe, lurk and read the posts whatever their sympathies. Only if someone reveals themselves as hostile in any way, will they be unsubscribed and blocked from resubscribing. This hasn't happened to date, and nothing so far persuades me that these risks aren't worth taking for the huge benefits to be gained from frank and open exchange. It probably makes sense only to reveal your postal address or telephone number to someone you know well enough through personal email, rather than to the whole list. It is a personal judgement! It is requested that 'v-cards'/business cards, or any type of attachment are turned off when e-mailing to the list. 13. What about 'flames'?A. The net phenomenon of the 'flame' is not welcome here and owes a lot to the instantaneous nature of the medium. If you feel in danger of flame throwing try leaving hitting the send button for a few hours or until the next day. 14. Can my children subscribe?A. Yes. Any involvement by children is welcome. There is no need for children to identify themselves as children, they may enjoy the same anonymity as adults if they prefer. Children may interact, not only with each other, but also with the adult subscribers, and may be encouraged to view this list as an educational resource. 15. A resource?A. The list subscribers possess, between them a vast amount of knowledge - some of which may be highly specialised. Adults and children may also share common fields of interest and hobbies. Children who need help or information can post questions to the list which can then be answered by whoever feels they can help. 16. How can children communicate with each other?A. In order to identify postings between children, it is suggested that the subject line should begin with KIDZONE: (please note - uppercase). Additional subject line information can be added following this. The list is also sometimes used by children seeking 1:1 email pals 17. How do I send mail to the list?A. If you are starting a new topic, then please use the "New Message" or "Compose" facility in your mail software. The "Reply to..." option is available to reply to earlier messages and preserves the same subject line(s) of the previous posts - thus maintaining a recognisable thread which can be followed by good email reading software. All email sent using the 'reply' function will be sent to the whole list. When replying to previous postings, it helps to quote enough passages from the original mail to give a meaningful context to your reply. Try not to quote too much though, as it can become very irritating to wade through whole chunks of original text again and again! For clarity, the convention is to place a > at the beginning of every quoted line > Like this. Using the 'reply' function should do this automatically. We also ask new subscribers, especially those using Microsoft Outlook Express, to discover how to turn off HTML rich text encoding of messages for the same reasons. Microsoft ship the software with the default set to produce this non-internet standard email. That option can be switched off, to send plain text messages to the list so that everyone can read them easily. If you need help with this check the How do I .....turn off HTML in Outlook Express or the How do I .....turn off HTML in Pegasus Mail questions on our How Do I ..... Frequently Asked Questions page. Write a concise (no more than half a line) descriptive reference to the contents in the SUBJECT line and then send your message to: IMPORTANT NOTE: Do NOT send your message to: This is the administrative address to which you send your subscription management commands. 18. Can I attach binary files or word processor files?A. No. As a result of the increasing number of viruses that spread themselves via e-mail attachments the LISTSERV software used to run the list now allows attachments to be blocked and we have chosen to activate this option. As a result, any files attached to e-mails sent to the list address will be removed though the message itself will still reach the list. It has always been preferable that any text be copied and pasted into an e-mail as it makes the information accessible to all list members (not all file types can be read by all subscribers). Another option is to create a web page and post a link to it on the list. This option will allow the material to be displayed in your choice of fonts, colours and layouts. 19. Can I forward/print out list messages to/for other people?A. This is a support list, so much of information which is posted here can be useful to other HE'ers who don't have net access. Obviously there are times when each of us can find it worthwhile to pass information on to these other people. That is to everyone's benefit. There is a grey area, though, where the content of a message was personal and where passing it on to others, especially out of the context of the original discussion, can create friction and thus be detrimental. So how can we tell when forwarding a message may be harmful? If the norm is to pass on the information without authorship details (deleting the From: line), that suggests a rule of thumb. If the author's name is essential to the reader of a message (e.g. if it is being passed on because X wrote it, or if the natural reaction of a reader will be to ask 'Who wrote this?'), the permission of the author should be sought before forwarding the message. Not to do so is to breach the trust on which this list is founded and which open discussion requires. 20. What is "on" or "off" topic?A. If in doubt, SEND. What does, or doesn't count, as "education" is extremely difficult to decide! However, if like many of us, you are new to the internet and finding your way around is sometimes baffling, you may want to ask 'technical' questions about the internet and/or your computer. This is not the place for that. There are many much better places, dedicated to these purposes. If you don't know WHERE to ask a question which is off topic, then please ask on the list for help finding a suitable place, and request any replies to be e-mailed to you privately. The reason for this request is that the unique focus of a list is lost or diluted if there is too much off topic. Please *DO NOT* post virus warnings to this list unless you have had them authenticated by a recognised virus monitoring site. Many hoax virus warnings circulate, often claiming to originate from the likes of IBM or the Pentagon! Recommended sites are: Hoaxbusters and and Hoaxkill. Our goal is to facilitate a high quality list which serves a unique community, but please don't feel intimidated at the thought of sending to the list because you are new, or feel an outsider. There is room for everyone here! :-) If you do send an off topic post to the list, begin the subject line with OT: as this allows subscribers to filter the post out if they have chosen to use the OT topic filter (the colon after OT is essential). For further information on how to filter out off topic posts see the 'how do I filter out off topic posts' question on the How do I...? FAQ page. Top
The http://www.home-education.org.uk/ Webmaster is Mike Fortune-Wood |