Welcome to the 2025 HEWA AGM! In July, it will be 35 years since the first families came together to form what is now HEWA. Their very first meeting was 12th July 1990, and on the same day, one of those parents initiated contact with the Department of Education regarding the policy on home education which the department was then in the process of drafting.
Thirty-five years later, HEWA maintains a good working relationship with the WA Department of Education, and has recently been asked to increase the frequency of the meetings between HEWA representatives and the senior DoE staff responsible for home education. These meetings (now about once per school term) provide an opportunity for HEWA to advise the Department of any issues being faced by home educators (particularly any relating to moderation or other interactions with Department staff); to provide input from the perspective of home educators on any changes being considered to Department of Education policy; and ultimately aim for us to work together for the benefit of home-educated children.
HEWA also continues to maintain and build relationships with our counterparts in other states. We have a particularly strong and long-standing relationship with the Home Education Network (HEN) in Victoria, as well as involvement in a new group of admin representatives from state and territory home-education bodies around Australia.
In October 2024, we wrote a submission to the School Education Act Review Panel, relating to their Discussion Paper on potential amendments to improve access to, and inclusion in, education for children with disability. This review was prompted by the recent Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. HEWA’s submission supported suggestions aiming to improve accessibility and equity of families’ preferred educational options – avoiding students with disability being forced into home education as a result of schools failing to provide suitable learning environments; but equally avoiding students with disability being barred from home education by well-intentioned but impracticable reporting requirements. HEWA also supported reasonable adjustments being available to both schooled and home-educated students, with or without any formal diagnosis.
The HEWA Teen Ball and Year 6 Graduation remain highlights of the year, ever-popular with our community. The 2024 Teen Ball returned to AQWA for a wonderful night, and the Year 6 Graduation was again celebrated at Tompkins, in Alfred Cove. We look forward to both returning for 2025.
As a volunteer organisation, we cannot operate without the input of our wonderful committee members and non-committee volunteers. I would like to express a huge thank you to our existing committee and also to Melissa for all the work she does to maintain and improve our website. We still particularly need a volunteer Treasurer to take on our bookkeeping and financial reporting. We also need more general committee members to ensure we consider the perspectives of our diverse community; and for succession planning to ensure HEWA can keep serving that community long into the future. Non-committee volunteers are also invaluable in helping with specific tasks, like calling companies to request HEWA discounts, or helping organise a particular event.
I cannot stress enough how important membership is to HEWA. The more members we have (and particularly the higher the proportion of West Australian home educators who are HEWA members), the more seriously we are taken by the government bodies and other organisations we interact with on behalf of the community. Membership is also by far our main source of the funds we need to operate. Membership subscriptions start at just $30/year, and every subscription really does strengthen our voice in representing our community, and help enable us to continue to support the home-educating families of Western Australia.
Thankyou! 😊