The Right to an Education in a non-WiFi environment. (Please note -these pages are being developed)
From time to time, as more and more parents become aware of the risks to their children from wireless radiation (currently classed by the World Health Organisation / IARC as a 2b Carcinogen), they may decide that they do not wish their children to be educated in a Wi-Fi environment. If they are unable to find a non-WiFi school in their area, or reach an acceptable compromise with their children’s current school, they then often contact us for advice as to what to do next. At this point, many parents then investigate the possibility of home education. This is often an agonising choice for parents, to remove their children from a school where they have been happy and with which their parents have been otherwise happy. However, sometimes the choice is not a difficult one to make at all, but is driven from obvious necessity – for example, if the child is continually reporting symptoms of feeling unwell at school (exhibiting pallor, feeling nauseous, complaining of headaches etc.) but is well at home while in a wired, non-WiFi environment. Most of our parents have excellent provision at home for fully-wired internet and can then easily seek to provide their children with suitable on-line programmes within a varied and exciting curriculum. Parents report to us very successful outcomes from their decision to home educate, while continuing to feel bemused that they have had to forego their children’s statutory right to a state education for no other reason than that they feel compelled to have to exercise their parental responsibility in caring for and safeguarding their children’s health, well-being and, as they see it, their optimum cognitive development.
The choice of options available will often depend on the family’s particular circumstances. If both parents must work, then home educating is probably not an option. Many of our parents make adaptations to their own lives, with perhaps one parent deciding to work from home and often working late into the night, after the school day and parenting duties are completed. The introduction of Wi-Fi into a school, without the informed consent of these parents, often puts a huge strain on family finances and on the organisation of daily life within the family. Parents are asking: ” Why shouldn’t this cost be passed on to the local authority or to the school itself? If it were not for the decision made by these others, our children would otherwise continue to enjoy the right to a free state education.”
For those parents looking for a non-WiFi school or hoping to achieve a compromise with a school that they are happy with, we have set up this section below. However, we cannot guarantee at any time that the information is currently accurate and parents must make their own investigations.
London area:
1. London Acorn School: www.thelondonacornschool.co.uk ( Rated by Ofsted as Outstanding (2014)
The London Acorn School is a WiFi free, progressive Independent School set in the beautiful National Trust estate of Morden Hall Park. Pupils’ outstanding achievement is the result of an outstanding curriculum, outstanding teaching, and a holistic approach to learning and personal development that is centred on pupils’ physical and emotional well-being and their moral and spiritual development. Despite not having been opened for very long, this school was awarded an ‘Outstanding’ classification by Ofsted in 2014. As well as being a WiFi free environment the school has restrictions on computer and internet use, media devices, television and cinema, and seeks to provide the optimum environment and support for all its children.
2. Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship – List of Schools
We hope shortly to provide more information on which of these schools have either no WiFi at all, or only have limited WiFi-for example, in their sixth forms only.
Resources and support:
Education Otherwise – | Education is Compulsory – School is …
Many suitable Workbooks and Activity Books geared to the National Curriculum and suitable from pre-school upwards can easily be purchased from a variety of retailers and also from educational catalogues, along with exciting and motivating educational aids and equipment. “Science days” and other educational activities, as well as an opportunity to meet and work with other children can often be enjoyed and benefited from.