Deciding to home educate

If you home educate your child, you will be responsible for all costs including:

• Books
• Equipment
• Home education groups and additional activities
• Tuition and subscriptions to online providers
• Exam fees

If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) please be aware that the funding a school receives to support your child will not transfer to you.  However, you will still be expected to meet the outcomes identified in your child’s EHCP.

• A responsible adult should be available to support and oversee a home educated child during the day, even if they are teenagers and otherwise seen as old enough to be left on their own.
  

• Consider how your child will engage in social activities and have contact with other children
• Consider how you will support your child’s physical and mental health

If your child is already at school, we recommend speaking to the school to ensure you have all the information you need before informing them in writing of your intention to take responsibility for your child’s education.

If there is a school-based issue which has prompted your decision to consider home education, we strongly advise you not to withdraw your child from school until you have explored all the options with the school.

The School Admissions Team, the EHE Team and/or the Education Welfare Service may be able to assist you or help you to find another school more suitable to your child’s needs without having to deregister them from their current school.

Sometimes a reduced school timetable can be arranged for a short period of time to support an anxious or worried child to have a successful return to school.

The decision to electively home educate should be taken solely by parents. You should never be pressurised to remove your child from a school to:

• avoid a suspension or permanent exclusion, or
• because your child is having difficulty with learning, behaviour or attendance

This practice, sometimes called ‘off-rolling’, is unacceptable, and if pressure of this sort is put on you, you must let us know.

For various reasons you may decide that your child should return to school.  Please note that your child will not have an automatic right of admission to their previous school and our secondary schools are currently full in several year groups.

We are often asked how home educated pupils can access college provision.  There is limited part-time provision for some home educated pupils in Year 10 and/or Year 11 but only if home education has been assessed by the local authority as suitable for at least 12 months before the start of the course in September. 

This is not an alternative to school, as provision is part-time and only a limited number of places and qualifications are available. This is unlikely to be a suitable option for students with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) as funding for additional support is not available.

You must write to or email the Headteacher and inform them of your decision to electively home educate. Your letter or email should include:

• Date of letter
• Parent/s name and address
• Child’s name and date of birth
• Confirmation that the child will be electively home educated
• Date that elective home education will take effect

The Headteacher will then remove your child from the school roll and is required to inform the Local Authority.

It is recommended that both parents (who hold parental responsibility) agree to home education. Ideally both parents should sign the letter prior to sending it to the school. If both parents (with parental responsibility) do not agree with the decision to home educate, the EHE Team will accept the decision of the parent with whom the child resides for the majority of the time unless there is a Court order already in place.

This school will be named in your child's Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

You must inform the Headteacher in writing that you would like to home educate your child and also contact the Isle of Wight Local Authority SEN Team to ensure appropriate procedures are followed and suitable advice is given. 

The Isle of Wight Team can be contacted by email: EHCP.general@iow.gov.uk

Your child will remain on the register of that special school until the SEN Team are satisfied that the educational provision you have made for your child meets their special educational needs, whereupon your child’s Education, Health and Care Plan will be adjusted accordingly.

If your child is not on roll at a school and you intend to educate your child at home, you are under no specific duty to inform the Isle of Wight Local Authority of your decision.  However, we do recommend that you inform the EHE Team 

Email: electivehomeeducation@iow.gov.uk 

The local authority has a specific responsibility to identify children missing education (Section 436A of the Education Act 1996) so it is also very helpful for parents to inform the local authority about children who are being home educated and who have never been registered at a school, as we will not then deem them as ‘missing education’.

In addition, if we are aware that you are home educating your child, we can send you appropriate information regarding access to child health vaccinations/exams/college opportunities, as applicable.

The Isle of Wight Council, with general responsibility for education in the area, recognises that home education is a key aspect of parental choice.

It is equal, in law, to education provided in school.

1. We take the lead role in working with home educators and the young people who are being electively home educated on the Island.
2. We are able to advise and guide home educators, where requested, through consultation and online guidance materials.

Once the Local Authority has been advised by the school of your intention to home educate, we will register your child and email you an information pack asking you to share your initial plans for home educating your child.  This is usually done by completing the form that we email you.  Completing the form also allows us to record how you prefer to be communicated with and how you wish to provide your home education report to the local authority.

The local authority is responsible for ensuring the education being provided at home is suitable.  This will usually be established by the EHE Team asking you to provide a report to us within 3 months of your child becoming home educated.  If the education being provided has been assessed as suitable, we will ask you to submit an annual report thereafter.

Further information about providing evidence of suitable education can be found on our webpage ‘Evidence of Education’

For various reasons you may decide that your child should return to school.  Please note that your child will not have an automatic right of admission to their previous school and our secondary schools are currently full in several year groups.

You may wish to contact the EHE Team explaining that you have been home educating your child but no longer wish to do so and seek information and advice on returning your child to school.

You can also contact the School Admissions Team for information regarding school place availability and the process to make an application for a school place.