August 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the August 2011 edition of Primary Home Education UK News. Our monthly newsletter lets you know news from within Primary Home Education UK together with wider issues affecting home-educating families.

Primary Home Education UK

We have had another successful month at PHE UK with our band of teachers continuing to mark assessments and feedback to parents as many families end their Summer term material and a large number of our families are receiving their material for the coming academic year to commence work in September 2011.  

Other families are just starting their home education journey with us, including a number of families who are taking "gap years"  and we send them our best wishes and continued support as they embark on this new stage in their lives.

During this month we have continued to send out material to families worldwide as well as many in the United Kingdom. 

Local Education Authority websites

There continues to be a wide spectrum of information available to home educating families in the UK from various Local Education Authorities on their websites. It is generally accepted that Milton Keynes LEA has a well put together policy on their website and this may be a place to look if your LEA seems unsure of the guidelines concerning home education in the UK.

Handwriting

There have been articles in the national press recently expressing concern about the quality and legibility of handwriting exhibited in schools in the UK and suggesting that additional focus is required in the school system in this area.

Primary Home Education UK’s material for Reception and Year 1 children includes regular activities on both letter formation and the positioning of words on the page using a line guide. In addition, from Year 2 onwards, we encourage the move to joined up handwriting and provide books to help children learn how to connect their letters to form legible handwriting.

We understand that in this technological age, there is less reliance on handwriting as the sole method of communicating ideas.  However, in examinations and in adult life, when writing letters to accompany CV’s etc, legible, well formed handwriting is still an asset and we believe it is worth spending the time to master this basic skill at a young age for the benefits later in life.

Further Information:

For further information and for a detailed information pack, please e-mail us at:

info@PrimaryHomeEducation.co.uk