Education Otherwise is a registered charity based in England. From a modest start made by a small group of parents in 1977, Education Otherwise has grown to become a well respected and vibrant registered charity, supporting and advising home educating families in England and Wales. The name 'Education Otherwise' comes from the Education Act, which states that parents are responsible for their children's education, ‘either by regular attendance at school or otherwise’ and the Charity works to raise public awareness of the fact that education is compulsory, but school is not. Education Otherwise's aim is to support and promote parents’ rights to provide their children with the best education for each of them, as individuals.
Origins
In 1972, Royston Lambert, head of Dartington Hall School asked Dick Kitto, who had been working there since 1955, to set up a project in conjunction with Northcliffe School to provide education for a group of non-academic students who would have to take another year in school due to the pending raising of the school leaving age. Kitto established a free school or democratic school model for the running of the project and was impressed by the qualities of the students even though they had effectively unschooled themselves within the school system, where they were perceived as trouble makers. Kitto's school caught the attention of Stan Windass, who had been working for a children's rights centre in London, through which he had become aware of several families who were educating their own children. Windass had just taken the lease of Lower Shaw Farm and wanted to establish it as a centre to explore ideas for an alternative society. Windass asked Kitto to become the warden at Lower Shaw Farm after the Northcliffe School project ended. Kitto was familiar with ideas about unschooled education through reading John Holt and Joy Baker's Children in Chancery' in 1964, together with his experiences at the Northcliffe School project. He and Windass were able to contact several families who were educating otherwise and arranged an informal network and occasional meetings, during 1975 and 1976. During 1976, Granada Television made a programme about the group which resulted in around 200 enquiries and expanded the membership to over 50. In September 1976 the group was established on a more formal basis. In 1977, Kitto presented a BBC TVOpen Door'' programme about the ideas behind the organisation. This resulted in over 2,000 enquiries and increased the membership to around 250. The original logo was intended to represent a child breaking out of the confines of school, and pointing toward a different way. In recent years the logo has been the subject of criticism, as it is viewed as divisive and the meaning misconstrued. A modernisation and rebranding in 2020 has resulted in a new logo being designed through a design competition, which has a more modern and acceptable appearance.
