Birmingham:
The Birmingham picnic was very enjoyable, a good turn out, with regulars from the Central Library meeting, plus many others ( I met quite a few people I hadn't met before which was nice), and the children all had a great time running about with the bubbles of course.
A number of people, and some of the children too, gave out leaflets, and engaged in conversation with passers by, and the response was generally frendly and interested.
Links:
The Stirrer
Blackpool:
The clouds didn't keep us away! We met outside the cafe in Stanley Park,Blackpool. 45 people were there! 14 came from far away to join us!
2:00 saw us doing bubbles under the clock in the Italian Garden.Bradford:
Our Picnic went well. The weather, though lovely in the morning, became a bit drizzly by the afternoon, but not enough to put a damper on anything.
Lots of bubbles were blown and picnics eaten. Those of us less hardy retired under the trees while our children ignored all damp and played on and around the equipment.
Brighton and Hove:
About 70 people turned out to Hove Park, where we had 2 great banners to declare ourselves with, giant Connect 4, plain home-made bunting to decorate, great play-park equipment and of course, bubbles.
Celia Barlow, MP for Hove and Portslade, turned up and seemed quite prepared to consider our points - she took away a copy of Dani's excellent briefing document and a flyer and said that she will arrange a small meeting with the Minister (!) when conference is on. Interesting!
A photographer from the local paper came and took photos of the bubble-blowing and I spoke to a (very sloppy!) BBC online local news reporter briefly.
It was a lovely afternoon, my favourite things were:- having a few good conversations with people either considering home-ed or
fairly new to it and feeling that we were making a difference there
- meeting people I'd only 'met' online
- seeing a few grandparents there, including my mum
- meeting old friends and hanging out happily together, but also seeing other
people meet up after not seeing each other for ages
- feeling all the positive energy of the group and event
- receiving lots of 'bubbles in ....' texts!
- seeing my daughter manage a zip wire on her own for the first time.
Links:
Local BBC online
Positive article in The Argus - not available online
Bristol:
We all had a lovely time! I have no idea how many of us there were - loads - maybe 20 or 30 families?
At last, the media coverage I'm seeing from everyone's picnics is putting our side of the story positively.
Links:
Bristol: indymedia pre-picnic publicity
Bristol: this is Bristol online news site
Buxton:
We had a remarkable turnout of 43 after a rather last minute organization (some 5 or so families were double booked, so there is potential for larger gatherings in future ... Next year?).
Bubbles drew interest from other parents in the park ... Who got the fliers and were already aware of home ed. The kids dispersed into the park and left the rest of us nattering and eating the picnics! Lots of updates were shared regarding the state of the review. Strategies were discussed and contingency plans begun.
We're making it a weekly Monday meeting In the park with swimming, so Buxton has a group meeting regularly again, formally, after a few years without.
Anyone living locally or visiting Buxton welcome. Contact us through the yahoo group Buxton Education Elsewhere.
We're going to submit photos and a short article to the local paper.
Cambridge:
In Cambridge on Wednesday, families from across the City met up at the new play area at Milton Country Park for a 'Not-back-to-school Picnic' to celebrate home-education. Both families who already home-educate and others who are interested in considering this as an option for their children, chatted while the children played and blew bubbles and made the most of being out of doors in the Autumn sunshine.
Chelmsford:
Chelmsford's picnic was a great success. We did not get any press there, though we did invite them, but like others have said, we will send them our pics and see if they will report on it.
We had about 30 parents/children and held our picnic in a park yet close to the High Street, so the park in that area is well used. We stuck our banner to the railings by the river so it was very prominent.
The children ran around playing most of the time and of course we all blew bubbles around 1.30 (couldn't wait!).
I know quite a few of us met new people.
I would definitely like to do this every year. It was so much fun!
Chesham:
Our Picnic went really well, we had 74 people of all ages attending, from babies to ex-home ed now university students.
Chichester:
What a great event! And what fun! Thanks to the weather we had a fantastic turnout from former home educators, to a family who took their children out of school for the day to support us.
We blew loads of bubbles, walked through the town with our banners held high, handed out over 700 leaflets, spoke to the public and the media(!), and then relaxed with a picnic on the Cathedral Green. The children worked together to hold (and make) banners, they spoke to people and handed out leaflets. It was an incredible team building day. The enthusiasm was so infectious it helped us go back home and finish our group's draft for the DCSF: Home Education - Registration & Monitoring Proposals Consultation!
So Big Thanks to you all, everyone, and what a fantastic lot we home- educators are! It is a privilege to be part of it all.
Links:
Chichester Observer
Spirit FM
Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire:
Links:
Evesham Journal
Evesham Observer
Ewell:
Ewell Not Back To School Picnic was held on 22nd September and went very well. We had around 18 families attending, the weather was lovely, we had a photographer along from our local paper and several new people to join our local group. All in all a successful day!
Links:
Epsom Guardian - see page 16 - before picnic took place - this is general home-ed coverage
Felixstowe:
Two families met up and had a lovely time picnicking on the beach - we blew bubbles at 2pm and thought of all our friends up and down the country.
Maybe next year we can get a few more ppl involved locally, but this was a lovely day out for us and I'm looking forward to hearing how it went everywhere else.
Godmanchester:
I think we had 8 families, with 20 children between us, so not a bad turnout :o)
At least two of the families were new to HE and another new to the area, so the picnic served a useful purpose in terms of making contacts and passing on information as well as having fun.
We had nice sun, but a little less wind would have eben good; the bubbles were whisked away almost before we could blow them!
Thanks to H for organising our picnic and for looking after my remaining children when I had to whisk some off to other activities!
and
We had a lovely time, and were surprised by the turnout of 10 families - would have been 11 except there was illness! we all had a lovely time. 3 of the families had deregged this term, and so I think the picnic was a friendly personal welcome from hopefully their future community, and 1 family was new to the area, so ditto really.
Links:
Patch of Puddles
Petits Haricots
Gravesend:
A massive thank you to C who organised this today, including talking to the media, getting permission from the council, buying balloons and bubble mixture for all the kids.
Several families met up at the station and spent 20 minutes on the high street handing out leaflets and red balloons to families out shopping. R then took the remainder of the leaflets and handed them out whilst the families went down to the park for their picnic.
In total, on my rough counting, we had 43 adults and children there. The children all had a great time, several families met up with others from their area for the first time, and several new home educators and "just looking" families had a great chance to mix and ask those all important questions.
The best highlight for us all for the day is that one parent who took a leaflet and balloon in the high street then came to the picnic and showed a great interest in home education and is now considering joining the group!
The local press were very lazy and all have offered to run the story with pictures - if we write the story and send it in with our own pictures!
All felt that it was a great day and I think we will be making this an annual event!
Guildford:
We had nearly 80 people at Stoke Park in Guildford.
It was a great afternoon; sunshine, hula hoops, parachute games and the children made full use of the playground and paddling pool!
We'd just given up on the photographer and decided to mass the children for bubble blowing and take some pictures of our own, then he appeared!
The last few people left at 5pm, so that's a good four hours of picnic fun!
and
It's been a really dark time for home ed since the Badman report came out, and the mood round here has been pretty sombre.
I think the picnics have been an incredible rallying point, and I know the whole experience of being involved has made me feel far more positive than I had since I first read those recommendations.
The mood at the Guildford picnic was amazing- it really felt like we were getting together to celebrate all that's great about home ed. It was a fantastic feeling knowing that so many others across the country were also out there championing home ed, especially at 2pm when we were blowing bubbles!
Many people came up to me and said we should make it an annual event.
Later in the radio show, when a few more home educators had phoned in, the guy who interviewed us said that we're obviously all united in our feelings about the review. It has rarely felt like that to me, with all the disagreements that have gone on, so for "an outsider" to get that impression is quite something!
This has been a really special thing to be part of.
Good luck to anyone who hasn't had their picnic yet, and it's been a pleasure hearing from everyone :o)
Coverage:
BBC Radio Surrey interview and top story on news!
Hereford:
It was FANTASTIC. So many people managed to make it, which is so impressive for such a rural situation. Iris and Geoff Harrison were there too, so loads of the next generation of HEors got to meet HE history. And the cathedral just looked so lovely with bubbles floating up it, and all the private school pupils walking past, reading our signs with such interesting and generally favorable expressions on their faces. Here's hoping they went home and said, "Hey mum, dad, I know how we could save you £10k a year and make me happy!" The press got there really, really early, so missed how big the group actually got, but they still got bubble pictures...
Links:
BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast interview - find it 39 minutes in
Isle of Wight:
We had over 80 people at today's picnic, unfortunately the local paper came early so we only had about 15-20 at that point but we've got lots more photos so we'll send in some to all the local papers.
We had a lovely time at the park with home educators old and new.
We handed out leaflets that were a mix of the picnic one and the bubbles one, with lots of the children and teens really keen to hand out leaflets.
The circus skills guy didn't turn up but plenty of the kids did their own poi, hair braiding, friendship bracelets, magic cards, playing in the playground, playing guitars and blowing bubbles.
The photographer agreed with me whole heartedly when I said that the children did lots of different activities but at their own pace and along their own interests, saying that was the best way, so hopefully we'll get a good write up.
It was so good I think we should do it every year!
Thanks everyone who organised this nationally and also to everyone who turned up locally. We had alot of fun and hopefully we got some of the message across to people in a fun way.
Links:
Wight Weirdoes
Wight Weirdoes
King's Lynn
We had around 30 people including adults and kids and the weather was pleasant.
Our picnic was held in the playground of a park. Every mum that brought a child into the playground was given the Bubbles leaflet and another leaflet that one of our members had made, and a red balloon. I didn't speak to any of them myself, but they seemed to look chatty and interested :)
The kids had a great time playing together, blowing bubbles and playing with the balloons. Some had baked bread rolls, cupcakes and brownies to share. Us mums did a lot of chatting!
One of our members had done an interview with the local radio KLFM and they played short soundbites throughout the day. They were apparently going to do a phone-in, but we were at the picnic so obviously didn't hear it! I don't know if it actually happened or not.
A woman and her daughter turned up after hearing about us on the radio, who apparently have been HE'ing for 10 years and didn't know there were so many of us in her area. They will now hopefully be coming along to our group sessions. I think we're all really pleased about this because that radio interview has helped a family to find new HE friends (so well done to P for doing the interview!)
We had a reporter and photographer from the EDP newspaper, who took lots of photos, spoke to a few adults and interviewed a couple of the kids. H did a phone interview with them, so the EDP should have a joint feature on both the Norwich and Kings Lynn picnics.
All in all it was a brilliant day and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! A big thank you to V for organising our picnic! Roll on next year!!! :)
Well done everyone!
and
Yesterday's NBTS picnic in the Walks, King's Lynn was a success. We had bubbles, balloons, banners and gave out leaflets and chatted to passersby. We had a reporter and photographer from the EDP who were very nice, and stayed for about an hour!
Looking forward to doing the same next year :-)
Links:
EDP Online news site
Norwich Evening News 24 online
Leicester:
Well the Leicester picnic went well, even though I was 20 mins late due to a traffic jam! The BBC spent 3 hours with us; a live feed at 1.40 and then a longer bit on the 6.30 news (East Midlands Today). Very nervewracking as I wasn't expecting that level of interest! I don't have a tv, so I'm waiting for it to come up on the website!
Around 50 kids and adults there I think? One amazing thing was that 2 young men arrived around 2; they'd seen the live feed on the news and come to see us! One was at teacher training college and was really interested in how home ed worked!
Glad to hear that others had fantastic picnics too.
Links:
East Midlands Today local BBC tv news show! Not available online now - hope somebody recorded it.
London:
We had a reasonable turn out for our picnic (70-80) despite terrible weather - torrential rain all afternoon! The kids had fun regardless and it was a good meet up for the adults too, as people came from across London whereas we usually meet in smaller, more local groups.
We got coverage in the Evening standard and on LBC radio which was good. The BBC (radio) called in the morning to show an interest and then didn’t bother call back. Maybe they thought we weren’t mad enough to go ahead!
We were hoping to do some street theatre and leaflet everyone who stopped to have their lunch in the park but the weather made that impossible. We still managed to hand out all of the general picnic leaflets along with quite a few of our own which are rather more scaremongering in tone! We’ve been using these over the past few months to try to persuade people to sign our postcards to their MPs, and have had a reasonable amount of success. Technology is not my strong point but I think the postcards have been uploaded into the badman yahoo group files, if anyone would like to have a look at them.
I was interviewed for an article in CYPNow last week and managed to persuade them that they should photograph us at the picnic. The photographer took a few shots of my family and then stayed for at least another hour taking shots of the picnic, protest banners etc so I hope they also do an article specifically about that! We did try to blow lots of bubbles but the weather was too blustery for a good visual impact.
Chelmsford:
Chelmsford's picnic was a great success. We did not get any press there, though we did invite them, but like others have said, we will send them our pics and see if they will report on it.
We had about 30 parents/children and held our picnic in a park yet close to the High Street, so the park in that area is well used. We stuck our banner to the railings by the river so it was very prominent.
The children ran around playing most of the time and of course we all blew bubbles around 1.30 (couldn't wait!).
I know quite a few of us met new people.
I would definitely like to do this every year. It was so much fun!
Chesham:
Our Picnic went really well, we had 74 people of all ages attending, from babies to ex-home ed now university students.
Chichester:
What a great event! And what fun! Thanks to the weather we had a fantastic turnout from former home educators, to a family who took their children out of school for the day to support us.
We blew loads of bubbles, walked through the town with our banners held high, handed out over 700 leaflets, spoke to the public and the media(!), and then relaxed with a picnic on the Cathedral Green. The children worked together to hold (and make) banners, they spoke to people and handed out leaflets. It was an incredible team building day. The enthusiasm was so infectious it helped us go back home and finish our group's draft for the DCSF: Home Education - Registration & Monitoring Proposals Consultation!
A picture will be in the Chichester Observer (our local newspaper) and throughout the day Spirit FM (96.6) had featured extracts from their interviews with us as part of their news features.
So Big Thanks to you all, everyone, and what a fantastic lot we home- educators are! It is a privilege to be part of it all.
Links:
Chichester Observer
Spirit FM
Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire:
The Notts Sheep picnic went ahead at Clumber, (as we were already there at an event). There were around 40 of us there, most wearing our Notts Sheep T-shirts saying "seen but not herded" on the back!
A good time was had by all, and we did manage to create a few BIG bubbles.
A mum from the group is sending a photo and written piece to the local newspapers.
It was great to be a part of this huge national initiative.
Cumbria:
We had our Picnic at the Westmorland County Show in Cumbria today and we're rather pleased with how it went. Getting there was a bit of a nightmare with the traffic - about an hour and a half for us to travel 12 miles! We were however blessed with beautiful weather. We sat down to our picnic under our HE banner watching a sheep show. At one point in the show the commentator made a joke about how you wouldn't be able to read if you didn't go to school (!) - he put that right later though after a quiet word from one of our party, giving us an opportunity to draw attention to ourselves.
The bubble blowing happened about an hour later than planned, largely due to children/families disappearing here there and everywhere with all the attractions! We hadn't booked a time with the press so it didn't matter. We turned up at the tent for a local radio station to see whether they were interested in talking to us about HE. The DJ said that he didn't have time to give us coverage and that we should contact their newteam to do a story. We then asked if he minded us blowing bubbles by his tent and he didn't so up went the banner out came the bubbles. The DJ then came out and announced what was happening by his stall and I got an opportunity to briefly say that we were home educators celebrating not having to go back to school, enjoying the weather, world is our classroom - all the positive stuff.
The DJ was just finishing as the local paper turned up saying 'we must get a photo of this' giving us another opportunity to explain the picnic, be photographed and to go into a bit more detail about why to the reporter. Although his remit was to cover the Show (big thing in these parts) he was very interested in doing a more in-depth story about this Review. I will send him some background info about it and hopefully we'll get some follow-up.
Links:
The Westmorland Gazette
Local radio at County Show
Dulverton, Somerset:
We did our picnic, just 2 families(!), and blew lots of bubbles - to the bemusement of the local duck population who were determined to share our picnic!! Had a lovely spot - perfect if we do a repeat performance next year and can organise it with more than 2 days notice lol!
Thinking of sending a post-picnic press release to the local papers, with a pic, more than anything to let folks know there is a HE group (allbeit small!) in this area, and maybe bring together any other HEers who are also around!
Evesham:
Despite the chilly weather we had a lovely day in Evesham today. My head-count is incomplete but there were in the region of a dozen families. We played parachute games and then after lunch we headed off to the shopping precinct and blew bubbles and handed out leaflets.
The local paper sent a photographer down. We all enjoyed ourselves and met some old friends and new ones too.
There's been such a positive feel to the whole thing and it's been a pleasure to be able to take part.
A good time was had by all, and we did manage to create a few BIG bubbles.
A mum from the group is sending a photo and written piece to the local newspapers.
It was great to be a part of this huge national initiative.
Cumbria:
We had our Picnic at the Westmorland County Show in Cumbria today and we're rather pleased with how it went. Getting there was a bit of a nightmare with the traffic - about an hour and a half for us to travel 12 miles! We were however blessed with beautiful weather. We sat down to our picnic under our HE banner watching a sheep show. At one point in the show the commentator made a joke about how you wouldn't be able to read if you didn't go to school (!) - he put that right later though after a quiet word from one of our party, giving us an opportunity to draw attention to ourselves.
The bubble blowing happened about an hour later than planned, largely due to children/families disappearing here there and everywhere with all the attractions! We hadn't booked a time with the press so it didn't matter. We turned up at the tent for a local radio station to see whether they were interested in talking to us about HE. The DJ said that he didn't have time to give us coverage and that we should contact their newteam to do a story. We then asked if he minded us blowing bubbles by his tent and he didn't so up went the banner out came the bubbles. The DJ then came out and announced what was happening by his stall and I got an opportunity to briefly say that we were home educators celebrating not having to go back to school, enjoying the weather, world is our classroom - all the positive stuff.
The DJ was just finishing as the local paper turned up saying 'we must get a photo of this' giving us another opportunity to explain the picnic, be photographed and to go into a bit more detail about why to the reporter. Although his remit was to cover the Show (big thing in these parts) he was very interested in doing a more in-depth story about this Review. I will send him some background info about it and hopefully we'll get some follow-up.
Links:
The Westmorland Gazette
Local radio at County Show
Dulverton, Somerset:
We did our picnic, just 2 families(!), and blew lots of bubbles - to the bemusement of the local duck population who were determined to share our picnic!! Had a lovely spot - perfect if we do a repeat performance next year and can organise it with more than 2 days notice lol!
Thinking of sending a post-picnic press release to the local papers, with a pic, more than anything to let folks know there is a HE group (allbeit small!) in this area, and maybe bring together any other HEers who are also around!
Evesham:
Despite the chilly weather we had a lovely day in Evesham today. My head-count is incomplete but there were in the region of a dozen families. We played parachute games and then after lunch we headed off to the shopping precinct and blew bubbles and handed out leaflets.
The local paper sent a photographer down. We all enjoyed ourselves and met some old friends and new ones too.
There's been such a positive feel to the whole thing and it's been a pleasure to be able to take part.
Links:
Evesham Journal
Evesham Observer
Ewell:
Ewell Not Back To School Picnic was held on 22nd September and went very well. We had around 18 families attending, the weather was lovely, we had a photographer along from our local paper and several new people to join our local group. All in all a successful day!
Links:
Epsom Guardian - see page 16 - before picnic took place - this is general home-ed coverage
Felixstowe:
Two families met up and had a lovely time picnicking on the beach - we blew bubbles at 2pm and thought of all our friends up and down the country.
Maybe next year we can get a few more ppl involved locally, but this was a lovely day out for us and I'm looking forward to hearing how it went everywhere else.
Godmanchester:
I think we had 8 families, with 20 children between us, so not a bad turnout :o)
At least two of the families were new to HE and another new to the area, so the picnic served a useful purpose in terms of making contacts and passing on information as well as having fun.
We had nice sun, but a little less wind would have eben good; the bubbles were whisked away almost before we could blow them!
Thanks to H for organising our picnic and for looking after my remaining children when I had to whisk some off to other activities!
and
We had a lovely time, and were surprised by the turnout of 10 families - would have been 11 except there was illness! we all had a lovely time. 3 of the families had deregged this term, and so I think the picnic was a friendly personal welcome from hopefully their future community, and 1 family was new to the area, so ditto really.
Links:
Patch of Puddles
Petits Haricots
Gravesend:
A massive thank you to C who organised this today, including talking to the media, getting permission from the council, buying balloons and bubble mixture for all the kids.
Several families met up at the station and spent 20 minutes on the high street handing out leaflets and red balloons to families out shopping. R then took the remainder of the leaflets and handed them out whilst the families went down to the park for their picnic.
In total, on my rough counting, we had 43 adults and children there. The children all had a great time, several families met up with others from their area for the first time, and several new home educators and "just looking" families had a great chance to mix and ask those all important questions.
The best highlight for us all for the day is that one parent who took a leaflet and balloon in the high street then came to the picnic and showed a great interest in home education and is now considering joining the group!
The local press were very lazy and all have offered to run the story with pictures - if we write the story and send it in with our own pictures!
All felt that it was a great day and I think we will be making this an annual event!
Guildford:
We had nearly 80 people at Stoke Park in Guildford.
It was a great afternoon; sunshine, hula hoops, parachute games and the children made full use of the playground and paddling pool!
We'd just given up on the photographer and decided to mass the children for bubble blowing and take some pictures of our own, then he appeared!
The last few people left at 5pm, so that's a good four hours of picnic fun!
and
It's been a really dark time for home ed since the Badman report came out, and the mood round here has been pretty sombre.
I think the picnics have been an incredible rallying point, and I know the whole experience of being involved has made me feel far more positive than I had since I first read those recommendations.
The mood at the Guildford picnic was amazing- it really felt like we were getting together to celebrate all that's great about home ed. It was a fantastic feeling knowing that so many others across the country were also out there championing home ed, especially at 2pm when we were blowing bubbles!
Many people came up to me and said we should make it an annual event.
Later in the radio show, when a few more home educators had phoned in, the guy who interviewed us said that we're obviously all united in our feelings about the review. It has rarely felt like that to me, with all the disagreements that have gone on, so for "an outsider" to get that impression is quite something!
This has been a really special thing to be part of.
Good luck to anyone who hasn't had their picnic yet, and it's been a pleasure hearing from everyone :o)
Coverage:
BBC Radio Surrey interview and top story on news!
Hereford:
It was FANTASTIC. So many people managed to make it, which is so impressive for such a rural situation. Iris and Geoff Harrison were there too, so loads of the next generation of HEors got to meet HE history. And the cathedral just looked so lovely with bubbles floating up it, and all the private school pupils walking past, reading our signs with such interesting and generally favorable expressions on their faces. Here's hoping they went home and said, "Hey mum, dad, I know how we could save you £10k a year and make me happy!" The press got there really, really early, so missed how big the group actually got, but they still got bubble pictures...
Links:
BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast interview - find it 39 minutes in
Isle of Wight:
We had over 80 people at today's picnic, unfortunately the local paper came early so we only had about 15-20 at that point but we've got lots more photos so we'll send in some to all the local papers.
We had a lovely time at the park with home educators old and new.
We handed out leaflets that were a mix of the picnic one and the bubbles one, with lots of the children and teens really keen to hand out leaflets.
The circus skills guy didn't turn up but plenty of the kids did their own poi, hair braiding, friendship bracelets, magic cards, playing in the playground, playing guitars and blowing bubbles.
The photographer agreed with me whole heartedly when I said that the children did lots of different activities but at their own pace and along their own interests, saying that was the best way, so hopefully we'll get a good write up.
It was so good I think we should do it every year!
Thanks everyone who organised this nationally and also to everyone who turned up locally. We had alot of fun and hopefully we got some of the message across to people in a fun way.
Links:
Wight Weirdoes
Wight Weirdoes
King's Lynn
We had around 30 people including adults and kids and the weather was pleasant.
Our picnic was held in the playground of a park. Every mum that brought a child into the playground was given the Bubbles leaflet and another leaflet that one of our members had made, and a red balloon. I didn't speak to any of them myself, but they seemed to look chatty and interested :)
The kids had a great time playing together, blowing bubbles and playing with the balloons. Some had baked bread rolls, cupcakes and brownies to share. Us mums did a lot of chatting!
One of our members had done an interview with the local radio KLFM and they played short soundbites throughout the day. They were apparently going to do a phone-in, but we were at the picnic so obviously didn't hear it! I don't know if it actually happened or not.
A woman and her daughter turned up after hearing about us on the radio, who apparently have been HE'ing for 10 years and didn't know there were so many of us in her area. They will now hopefully be coming along to our group sessions. I think we're all really pleased about this because that radio interview has helped a family to find new HE friends (so well done to P for doing the interview!)
We had a reporter and photographer from the EDP newspaper, who took lots of photos, spoke to a few adults and interviewed a couple of the kids. H did a phone interview with them, so the EDP should have a joint feature on both the Norwich and Kings Lynn picnics.
All in all it was a brilliant day and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves! A big thank you to V for organising our picnic! Roll on next year!!! :)
Well done everyone!
and
Yesterday's NBTS picnic in the Walks, King's Lynn was a success. We had bubbles, balloons, banners and gave out leaflets and chatted to passersby. We had a reporter and photographer from the EDP who were very nice, and stayed for about an hour!
Looking forward to doing the same next year :-)
Links:
EDP Online news site
Norwich Evening News 24 online
Leicester:
Well the Leicester picnic went well, even though I was 20 mins late due to a traffic jam! The BBC spent 3 hours with us; a live feed at 1.40 and then a longer bit on the 6.30 news (East Midlands Today). Very nervewracking as I wasn't expecting that level of interest! I don't have a tv, so I'm waiting for it to come up on the website!
Around 50 kids and adults there I think? One amazing thing was that 2 young men arrived around 2; they'd seen the live feed on the news and come to see us! One was at teacher training college and was really interested in how home ed worked!
Glad to hear that others had fantastic picnics too.
Links:
East Midlands Today local BBC tv news show! Not available online now - hope somebody recorded it.
London:
We had a reasonable turn out for our picnic (70-80) despite terrible weather - torrential rain all afternoon! The kids had fun regardless and it was a good meet up for the adults too, as people came from across London whereas we usually meet in smaller, more local groups.
We got coverage in the Evening standard and on LBC radio which was good. The BBC (radio) called in the morning to show an interest and then didn’t bother call back. Maybe they thought we weren’t mad enough to go ahead!
We were hoping to do some street theatre and leaflet everyone who stopped to have their lunch in the park but the weather made that impossible. We still managed to hand out all of the general picnic leaflets along with quite a few of our own which are rather more scaremongering in tone! We’ve been using these over the past few months to try to persuade people to sign our postcards to their MPs, and have had a reasonable amount of success. Technology is not my strong point but I think the postcards have been uploaded into the badman yahoo group files, if anyone would like to have a look at them.
I was interviewed for an article in CYPNow last week and managed to persuade them that they should photograph us at the picnic. The photographer took a few shots of my family and then stayed for at least another hour taking shots of the picnic, protest banners etc so I hope they also do an article specifically about that! We did try to blow lots of bubbles but the weather was too blustery for a good visual impact.
Links:
Evening Standard
LBC Jeni Barnett show 16th September - 2 extensive interviews and phone-in - requires subscription to listen again
Manchester:
The reporter from Granada Reports was very positive and will put together a piece for later in the week coupled with a bit filing a family at home doing whatever he families do...I tried telling him it was just like what he did with his family at the weekend but he didn't seem to believe me!
We had a bouncy castle and a bubble machine, skipping rope and conkers (banned in schools!), face painting and lots of general running round. And a Not Going Back To School Cake.
Didn't need the community centre as the weather was fine but it was handy for its toilets! Not many people passed. There was the odd person pushing a toddler in a pram but really very few people going past and we didn't have a banner so I suppose it wasn't obvious what we were doing, but hopefully that lack of publicity will be counteracted by the piece on the local news.
We had a bouncy castle and a bubble machine, skipping rope and conkers (banned in schools!), face painting and lots of general running round. And a Not Going Back To School Cake.
Didn't need the community centre as the weather was fine but it was handy for its toilets! Not many people passed. There was the odd person pushing a toddler in a pram but really very few people going past and we didn't have a banner so I suppose it wasn't obvious what we were doing, but hopefully that lack of publicity will be counteracted by the piece on the local news.
Links:
Granada Reports - any availability online, could someone let me know?
Newcastle:
Hello from Newcastle,
We met from 12 – 2 and had just over 30 turn up. We blew bubbles regularly throughout the picnic and gave out quite a few leaflets. No media turned up, but we’ve got a lot of photos.
The weather was overcast but warmish (some may disagree) and dry.
I played my harp a bit and my children played their violins. One of our mums, brought loads of food to share, juice in wine glasses and a vase of roses! We do it in style up here!
The children played really well together and their behaviour was exemplary – it usually is; we’ve a fantastic crowd of kids who interact so well. Now, I wonder why? I was particularly impressed when two of the children (10/11yo) took the initiative to go and speak to a couple of women sitting on a bench, explained what we were about and gave them leaflets and one of our teens quietly got on with giving out leaflets throughout the picnic.
So, a happy, successful event.
and
We recently returned from the Newcastle notbacktoschool picnic, we all had a great afternoon, plenty of bubbles. The children had a smashing time, our daughter enjoyed giving the leaflets out.
We totally agree that it should become a yearly event.
Northern Ireland:
We had a great time at our picnic today.
It was a small number but we were very happy. Great weather, kids didn't want to stop playing at 4pm even though we had met at the park at 11.30am. We were blowing bubbles and the older kids loved the nature quest, they found two live rats - lovely!
And our photo is going in our local paper to raise awareness of home ed.
Norwich:
We had about 40 children & adults, including 3 new families, had a lovely picnic - the sun even shone!! then onto the bandstand for some champion bubble blowing, we had from toddlers to teens and it was a really good vibe. Only trouble was trying to get everyone in one place for a group photo, bloomin free thinking home educators!!!!
Thanks for the fliers, which everyone thought were great, and we got an immediate enquiry from a passer by - result. We have a fair few left over which we will use as pre-event publicity for next year.
There is a piece in the Eastern Daily Press, they went to the Kings Lynn picnic and took some photos and then I did a phone interview re Badman and local groups. So all in all a successful day.
Links:
EDP Online news site
Norwich Evening News 24 online
Oxford:
Our day started with an early morning interview at BBC Radio Oxford - it was lots of fun and very positive (see link below).
We then went on to the Bubble blowing in a main street in Oxford City centre. I forgot to count but i'd say there were about 20 adults and about 40 children!
It was a magical sight, the children loved the bubbles and we kept having to dive into shops to replenish stocks. The photographer and interviewer from the Oxford Mail were fantastic and so positive. They were very impressed with the confidence and behaviour of the children !! and got lots of fab photos.
We then ' marched' with our banner and bubbles to a lovely spot outside what we call the ' Dinosaur museum ' and had a lovely picnic. There were more bubbles, lots of running around, face painting and general home ed fun. The sun shone all day !! and many of us finished in true home ed style by having a visit into the museum !
I hope that everyone had a fantastic day - well done to us all.
and
The Oxford Picnic was lots of fun, organized by S - she and her daughter did a great piece on the BBC Oxford radio station in the morning, and a good job with the local papers at the event. We blew bubbles on the main pedestrian street, than paraded to the University museum for our picnic and for the all important free-range wander round the museum at everyone's leisure. I thought the march over was in itself a modern day feat. We proved you can walk with 40 children for over half a mile without one single yellow safety jacket!!
Links:
BBC Radio Oxford - find it 30 mins in
Oxford mail online
Our Story So Far
Poole:
Just a quick post to say, we had a good time. We had approximately 15 families. Many of us had a good long chat with Annette Brooke (Select Committee). We have invited her to come along to our local group, I think it's been quite an eye opener for her and now the channels are open for us to enlighten her some more. In her opinion there wasn't very much in the way of evidence of consultation in the report, she would have liked to have seen more case studies and the grand total of one day which the committee will have together is not enough.
Our local paper didn't show so we will send them pics and will post pics here too. Glad we did it, we've all had a great time.
Reading:
We had a lovely time - the weather was kind to us, and we had (I think) 18 families, about 60 people. One family brought a small generator and a 'proper' (not toy) bubble machine, so we had constant bubbles for about an hour from that :) Plus lots of other bubble-blowing paraphernalia :)
A photographer from the Reading Post was there, and hopefully we should be in the paper on Friday. Will post a link as and when. The other local paper didn't come but said we should send them some photos.
My daughter has put some footage on YouTube (see below) and I'm going to send a snippet to BBC South Today.
I really enjoyed myself!
Links:
YouTube vid
Sheffield:
Terrific response to the picnic in Sheffield - 2 radio interviews. Local paper - journalist and photographer- unfortunately photographer came early when there were only about a dozen children but the journalist was able to see how big the group became.
Big thanks too to "new" people who came from as far as Holmfirth to support the event.
Links:
BBC Radio Sheffield: find it 1hr and 25 minutes in
Sheffield Telegraph - same story also in The Star
Blog of pies
Southampton:
It was a lovely sunshiney day here in Southampton and we had around 30 families (I think!) turn out for our picnic. One of our local MPs, Alan Whitehead, Southampton Test, came along and chatted to some of his constituents, which was great. We even got shots of him blowing bubbles with the children at 1.30pm! He said that he felt some of the Badman recommendations were too strict.
One of the dads is making a youtube video of the picnic, with interviews with a few of the parents. Some of us - kids and parents - had T-shirts designed by ourselves with various home ed messages.
The children participated in painting a jungle frieze for our upcoming Lion King production - directed by the children, of course! We had face painting and also a dance routine, organised by the older kids.
Oh yes, and the Daily Echo sent a photographer who seemed to take loads of pics, various poses! One of us was interviewed by their journalist on the phone for their Family Matters weekly feature page.
Well done to everyone everywhere who has taken part in all this - we shall definitely make this an annual event!
Links:
YouTube vid
Good coverage in Southampton Daily Echo, though not available online: a positive, well-researched piece headed "'Not Back To School Picnic' showcases opportunities for children who learn at home'"
On Portswood Community Website - great photo - MP blows bubbles with children at picnic
St. Albans
I didn't do a head count, but, despite the weather, there must have been around 30 to 40 Home Edders together at the St. Albans picnic, eating, chatting, making contacts. Children running around playing together with kites and bubbles, climbing trees, hide and seeking in dens between the bushes, and playing with balls and other fun things. My sons certainly thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Fantastic :-)
Luckily a lovely large tree shielded us all from the drizzle, and the breeze made for some epic bubble blowing!
The weather meant that there weren't really any passers by to hand out leaflets to, but some were left at the museum by one family.
We all had a great time, and there is a growing album of fabulous pictures of the day already on the HertsHE forum.
Telford:
and
Yes it was around 100 people...
We had a fabulous turn out at the picnic in Telford Today.
The weather was good. The children played energetically and I made some new contacts.
What a wonderful way to share and celebrate what we do
Well done everyone!!!!!
Links:
Chronicles of the Evans Clan
Hugsville Family
Totnes:
About 16 families picnicked and made new friends on Vire Island then gathered in Market Square for bubble blowing and talking to the press. Two local papers attended and lots of photos were taken to illustrate the interviews..hope we get a good write up! We were also supported by our Green Party councillor, and have had lots of requests for meetings by MPs who were unable to attend on the day!
We all had a lovely time.
Links:
this is South Devon online news site
Totnes Times (weekly) excellent front page coverage
Winchester:
We had around 60 people, excluding small children. all blowing bubbles and it was nice to put faces to names.
We distributed 50 general picnic leaflets to passersby including a policeman who came over to look. We had positive comments from all the members of the public we spoke to and 3 families wanted more information as they had children in school who were not happy.
It was a lovely day, albeit windy, and the children had a fabulous time blowing bubbles. Next year [and yes we will certainly be doing this again!] we have bigger and better plans.
Worthing:
We had 11 families (13 adults, 18 children) come along to the Worthing/Lancing picnic. The sun shone (although the wind tried to blow it away!) and we had bubbles, lots of freerange children going off together in a big group, plenty of adult chatting and I think everyone there met at least one new local contact.
We didn't attract attention and no media attended although I will be sending photos and a few words to the local paper in the hopes they mention it anyway. Our MP was invited but couldn't attend but again I will update him on the event.
Days like today always make me so very proud to be part of a bigger community and watching the children aged from 1 to 12 all running around together in the sunshine, rather than sat behind desks in a classroom just felt so heartwarmingly right. Long may we continue to do this!
Telford:
Had wonderful time at Telford, met loads of new people, all were very welcoming to us as a newbie family.
Not sure how many were there i'm not good at estimating numbers, but going on the premise that a full double decker bus has close to 100 people, i'd imagine including parents and kids it must have been getting close to the 100 mark (but i could be way off!) There were official figures taken I believe, so I'll wait to hear the official number :)
There were all sizes of bubbles! from huge to teeny, and having forgotten to take bubbles someone very generously provided my daughter with a bottle.
and
Yes it was around 100 people...
We had a fabulous turn out at the picnic in Telford Today.
The weather was good. The children played energetically and I made some new contacts.
I'm so grateful to everyone that came today, and I know some members of the general public stopped by to ask what was going on, so those leaflets came in very useful. I think this may be the start of a regular 'get together'
What a wonderful way to share and celebrate what we do
Well done everyone!!!!!
Links:
Chronicles of the Evans Clan
Hugsville Family
Totnes:
About 16 families picnicked and made new friends on Vire Island then gathered in Market Square for bubble blowing and talking to the press. Two local papers attended and lots of photos were taken to illustrate the interviews..hope we get a good write up! We were also supported by our Green Party councillor, and have had lots of requests for meetings by MPs who were unable to attend on the day!
We all had a lovely time.
Links:
this is South Devon online news site
Totnes Times (weekly) excellent front page coverage
Winchester:
We had around 60 people, excluding small children. all blowing bubbles and it was nice to put faces to names.
We distributed 50 general picnic leaflets to passersby including a policeman who came over to look. We had positive comments from all the members of the public we spoke to and 3 families wanted more information as they had children in school who were not happy.
It was a lovely day, albeit windy, and the children had a fabulous time blowing bubbles. Next year [and yes we will certainly be doing this again!] we have bigger and better plans.
Worthing:
We had 11 families (13 adults, 18 children) come along to the Worthing/Lancing picnic. The sun shone (although the wind tried to blow it away!) and we had bubbles, lots of freerange children going off together in a big group, plenty of adult chatting and I think everyone there met at least one new local contact.
We didn't attract attention and no media attended although I will be sending photos and a few words to the local paper in the hopes they mention it anyway. Our MP was invited but couldn't attend but again I will update him on the event.
Days like today always make me so very proud to be part of a bigger community and watching the children aged from 1 to 12 all running around together in the sunshine, rather than sat behind desks in a classroom just felt so heartwarmingly right. Long may we continue to do this!
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