Schoolhouse Home Education Association, more commonly referred to as Schoolhouse, is a charity based in Scotland which provides support and information to parents about home education in Scotland. [1]
Schoolhouse was set up in Dundee in 1996 by parents who identified the shortage of clear, accurate information on home educating in Scotland where the law and practices in relation to Home Education differ significantly from the other nations within the United Kingdom.
Schoolhouse works in close cooperation with its counterpart support organisation Action for Home Education (AHEd) which operates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Home education in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is often termed "elective home education" ("EHE") to signify the independent nature of practice from state provisions such as education for children with ill-health provided by the local authority in the family home. EHE is a collective term used in the UK to describe education provided other than through the schooling system. Parents have a duty to ensure their children are educated but the education legislation in England and Wales does not differentiate between school attendance or education otherwise than at school. Scots education legislation on the other hand differentiates between public (state) school provision and education "by other means", which includes both private schooling and home education. The numbers of families retaining direct responsibility for the education of their children has steadily increased since the late 1970s. This increase has coincided with the formation of support groups such as Education Otherwise. Home education may involve an informal style of education described as unschooling, informal learning, natural or autonomous learning. Others prefer to retain a structured school at home approach sometimes referred to as homeschooling although the terms are often interchanged.
A parent–teacher association/organization (PTA/PTO), parent–teacher–friend association (PTFA), or parent–teacher–student association (PTSA) is a formal organization comprising parents, teachers and staff that is intended to facilitate parental participation in a school.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity founded as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC) by Thomas Agnew on 19 April 1883. The NSPCC lobbies the government on issues relating to child welfare, and creates child abuse public awareness campaigns. Since the 1980s, the charity has had statutory powers allowing it to apply for help on behalf of children at risk. In the 1990s, the charity's publication, Satanic Indicators, fueled panic in social workers who went and accused parents and removed children from homes when they should not have. It operates a help line. The Paddington Bear character has partnered with the charity to raise funds for the charity. NSPCC operates telephone helplines.
Action for Children is a UK children's charity created to help vulnerable children and young people and their families in the UK. The charity has 7,000 staff and volunteers who operate over 475 services in the UK. They served a total of 671,275 children in 2021 and 2022. Action for Children's national headquarters is in Watford, and it is a registered charity under English and Scottish law. In 2017/2018, it had a gross income of £151 million.
One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. In most rural and small town schools, all of the students met in a single room. There, a single teacher taught academic basics to several grade levels of elementary-age children. While in many areas one-room schools are no longer used, some remain in developing nations and rural or remote areas where scarce students or teachers complicate organizing the educational process differently.
Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (FFLAG) is a voluntary organisation and registered charity in the United Kingdom which offers support to parents and their lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender children. They have a national telephone helpline as well as several parent support groups and are a support group recognised by the UK Government. FFLAG also works outside the UK with other LGBT family support organisations particularly in Europe.
Education Otherwise (EO) is a registered charity based in England, which aims to provide support and information for families whose children are being educated outside school. Education Otherwise is the foremost Charity across England and Wales that promotes and supports the right of a parent or guardian to home educate their child should they wish to do so. EO is in fact the largest home education charity in the United Kingdom. The organisation derived its name from section 36 of the Education Act 1944, which stated that parents are responsible for the education of their children, "either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." This clause has been retained in subsequent Education Acts, and remains a clear acceptance of the parity and validity afforded an education otherwise than by schooling.
Teachers Building Society is a mutual British financial institution founded in 1966 by the National Union of Teachers. It is a member of the Building Societies Association.
Gingerbread says it is the leading British charity working with single parent families. The National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, founded in 1918, changed its name to the National Council for One Parent Families in the early 1970s and in 2007 merged with Gingerbread, a self-help organisation founded in 1970. After briefly being known as One Parent Families|Gingerbread, it relaunched as Gingerbread in January 2009.
Cornerstone, formerly known as Cornerstone Community Care, is a Scottish charity and social enterprise that provides care and support for people with learning disabilities, autism and complex care needs. It was founded in 1980 in Aberdeen and, since obtaining charitable status in 1981[1], Cornerstone has grown to become one of the largest charities in Scotland[2].
Voluntary Service Aberdeen (VSA) Since the charity was first established in 1870, Aberdeen Association of Social Services (VSA) has helped thousands of the most vulnerable people and their families living in communities across the North East of Scotland. Its chief executive is Sue Freeth, who assumed the role in 2023.
The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) is an independent national American association of parents of children with disabilities, attorneys, advocates, and related professionals who protect the legal and civil rights of students with disabilities and their families. COPAA has a 22-member Board of Directors who run the organization. Board members are selected to be representative of diversity of COPAA's peer-to-peer network and have significant experience in various aspects of COPAA's work. Currently COPAA has more than 3400 members in all states, the District of Columbia and several territories. Over 90% of all of its members, including professionals, are people with disabilities or parents and family members of people with disabilities. COPAA accomplishes its mission largely through the work of its network of volunteers, who are supported by the staff of the organization.
Education Support is a UK charity "dedicated to improving the mental health and wellbeing of the education workforce".
Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children who require different education provision to the mainstream system.
Getting it right for every child is the Scottish Government's approach to supporting children and young people. It is intended as a framework that will allow organisations who work on behalf of the country's children and their families to provide a consistent, supportive approach for all. It is best known for the controversial "Named Person" requirement, referred to as a "state guardian" in some media.
Parents Against Child Exploitation (Pace) is a charitable organisation in England and Wales that works with parents of children who have been, or are at risk of being, sexually or criminally exploited. The charity was founded in 1996 as the Coalition for the Removal of Pimping (CROP) by Irene Ivison and other affected parents following the murder of Ivison's 17-year-old daughter Fiona in Doncaster.
The Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) is a registered Scottish charity which represents the independent school sector in Scotland. Its membership includes mainstream fee-paying independent schools and a range of schools for young people with complex additional support needs.
Capability Scotland is a Scottish charity founded in 1946. Based in Edinburgh with operations across Scotland, it provides care, support, and education for disabled people. The charity offers residential care homes, care at home, housing support, and specialised education through two schools.
A two-room schoolhouse is a larger version of the one-room schoolhouse, with many of the same characteristics, providing the facility for primary and secondary education in a small community or rural area. While providing the same function as a contemporary primary school or secondary school building, a small multi-room school house is more similar to a one-room schoolhouse, both being architecturally very simple structures. While once very common in rural areas of many countries, one and two-room schools have largely been replaced although some are still operating. Having a second classroom allowed for two teachers to operate at the school, serving a larger number of schoolchildren and/or more grade levels. Architecturally, they could be slightly more complex, but were still usually very simple. In some areas, a two-room school indicated the village or town was more prosperous.
The Reports on the Education of the Lower Orders were published between 1816 and 1819 by a select committee of the House of Commons under the chairmanship of Henry Brougham. The committee made only the second ever government inquiry into education, as it comprehensively investigated the provision of education for poor working class children in Great Britain during the early 19th century. The reports exposed the inadequate provision of schooling and the maladministration of charitable funds given for educating the poor. It was eventually used to justify the first state intervention into English and Welsh education in 1833 when the Treasury started to help fund the badly needed construction of new school-houses through an annual grant. It also started a parliamentary commission of inquiry into improving charitable foundations which eventually led to formation of present-day charities commission.