Home Education is when parents take personal responsibility for their children’s education rather than sending their children to school.
The ways in which families home-educate are as varied as the families themselves.
If your child is in school, you must formally deregister your child from the school before you can begin to home-educate. Parents in England & Wales do not need consent to remove their child from a mainstream state school. Local Authority consent must be sought if the child attends a special school.
The law in Scotland and Northern Ireland is different.
Deregistration is generally straightforward for the majority of people. A school is obliged to remove your child/ren’s name from the roll, as soon as is practicable. Parents do not need to separately notify the local authority – that is the duty of the school.
If your child has never been to school (in England & Wales) then parents are under no obligation to inform the Local Authority.
The government guidelines for Home Education may be downloaded here.