What it means to electively home educate
By choosing to home educate, you take full responsibility for your child's education. This includes the cost of resources, trips, tutors, courses, exams, and work placements.
Home education is a decision which requires thought and consideration. If you choose to home educate your child, you will need dedication, commitment, energy, and time.
The rights and responsibilities of parents
Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents must ensure their children receive a suitable, full-time education. This can be done by regular school attendance or other means.
Most children attend a school. Some families choose to take on the responsibility of home educating their children.
If your child has an Education, Health and Care (EHCP) plan you still have the right to home educate your child. You must provide an education that meets any special needs your child has. The local authority must review the EHCP annually, even if the child is home educated.
If your child attends a special school, the EHC panel will review your decision to home educate before amending your child's plan.
What to consider
Home education is a huge responsibility. It takes time, energy, and commitment. Before you make your decision, think very carefully and consider the following:
If your child has had problems at school, have you tried to resolve them?
You may wish to contact the school and speak to the teacher, the head or the governing body. You may also wish to consider looking at a change of school.
What do subject areas consist of?
For example, what does mathematics involve apart from number work? What else can you use to boost your child's learning at home?
What is the cost of home educating?
There is no funding available for families who home educate. You would cover the costs of books, equipment and other resources. You should also ensure your child has chances to socialise with peers.
It’s important to allow time for your child to socialise with other children. Your child may wish to keep in touch with friends from school or they may have friends living locally.
Contact with other home educating families can be very helpful. It provides advice and support. It also offers children a chance to socialise. You may also wish to encourage your child to attend local clubs or events happening in town.
Have you put a plan into place and carried out your research?
Removing your child from a school roll needs careful consideration. It can be difficult to find a school place if you change your mind. Research home education. Then, plan for your child's home education. Do this before removing their name from the school roll.
Reviewing options
Your child may need change throughout different stages of their education. Support and advice are available from the local authority should this be required. Details can be found in the contact section of our site.
Getting started and parents’ duty.
The internet has a lot of useful information on 'home schooling', 'education at home', 'education otherwise', and 'home education'. There is also a range of books and other publications that will offer help and support.
How to provide home education
There is no ‘right way’ to provide home education for your child.
Think about how your child learns best: is it by reading and answering questions in books? Do they like to listen and talk about things, or do they prefer to make things, draw things or do it themselves. Try to find out what might work best for them.
Giving feedback
Even if you don't mark your child's work, please discuss mistakes or misunderstandings. It’s equally important that your child know when they’re getting things right.
Checking progress
You should regularly review your child’s learning. This can help you to plan and could show if a particular teaching style or set of resources is working better than another.
The National Curriculum can help you to check your child’s progress. One way to do this is to use age-appropriate worksheets or tests. You could also borrow tests or worksheets from friends with school-aged children.
If your child is aiming to take an exam, try to get copies of past papers (and mark schemes). Exam board websites usually have copies that you can use.
Procedures
If your child has never been to school, you don't need permission to homeschool. You do not have to inform us. It is always helpful, however, if you do let us know that your child is being home educated.
If you are withdrawing your child from a mainstream school, please write to the school. State clearly that you will take full responsibility for your child's education at home. Your child can then be removed from the school roll. The school must inform us if a child is removed from a school roll to be home educated.
Once the school informs the local authority of your child's home education, we will email and post you a welcome pack. We will try and contact you on the telephone to discuss your decision. This call is to ensure the details we have been provided with are correct. You do not have to accept the offer of a visit, or you may wish to choose an alternative venue like a local library.
The forms ask you to provide details about the education you are intending to provide for your child. We know that, at first, you may not have firm plans for home education. Things may change as your home education develops.
If you choose not to meet, you can contact us via letter, email, or phone. All details are on the contact page. We would like parents to keep in touch, but we cannot insist on regular contact from you.
At a minimum, we will aim to contact you on an annual basis.