Murmurs of discontent are growing about Education Otherwise; oldest of the home education support groups in this country. Part of the problem is that they are allowing some pretty strange types to get their feet under the table and these people are behaving in ways that do not bring any credit at all upon the organisation.
Take, for example, Cheryl Moy, who claims to be Education Otherwise’s social services liason officer. It is not clear just what this post entails, but there is concern that Cheryl is using this supposed position to bully parents. Indeed, she has been known to threaten that home educating parents who do not do as she tells them will be reported to social services. She is also rather aggressive to people generally and runs a large national face book group for home educators as her personal domain; deleting comments and members if there is any opposition to her views.
Cheryl Moy is of course Alison Sauer’s best friend and they run together an odd group called HE Angels. Alison Sauer also has a position with Education Otherwise, as does another of her close friends; Wendy Charles-Warner. People find that raising concerns about one of these people soon brings down the wrath of various others and the result is that although unhappy with the conduct of Cheryl Moy, a lot of parents are reluctant to speak out about her and Alison Sauer.
It might be no bad thing if Education Otherwise were to specify the roles that these women hold in the group and perhaps tell everybody just what their remit is. If the present situation is allowed to continue, it is unlikely to do the reputation of EO much good.