Education: Hey, Badman, leave our kids alone

Lucy Moreton from Surrey chose to home educate after her daughter Rowan was so badly bullied that her school admitted they could no longer keep her safe. "Rowan couldn't be challenged enough in the state system so we moved her to a private school where she knocked a popular girl out of the top set," recalls Moreton. "Over the course of a year, she was beaten, stoned and had her cross snatched from around her neck. We could have put her back in the state system but we felt very strongly that she would not be encouraged to progress academically."

So impressed was Moreton with how well her daughter was doing that she decided to home educate her throughout primary education. Now aged 10, Rowan is planning to carry on through to GCSEs with a structured form of home education using distance learning material. "She can go at her own pace, she can motivate herself and she can find out what really interests her," says Moreton. "Academically she is doing very well. The only thing she misses out on is the forced element of playtime when she had to socialise with kids who beat her up."