Parents - Elective home education guidance
Parents are legally responsible for ensuring that their children receive a suitable education.
Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states:
“The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient fulltime education suitable –
- to his age, ability, aptitude, and
- to any special educational needs he may have either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”.
Parents who choose to home educate are not required to register or seek approval/agreement of the Local Authority to educate their children at home. However, if a child has previously been registered at a school, parents must follow the deregistration process and the school is required to notify the Local Authority.
Home educating is often a learning process for parents as well as their children. Children who have been to school may benefit from a period of ‘de-schooling’; time to transition to being educated differently e.g. maybe having greater say in their activities or styles of learning and not needing to know the learning outcomes of every activity before they start. Parents often take longer to adjust than their children. Many parents will have completed their own education at school and therefore it can be difficult in the beginning to see how their child is learning, when the learning doesn’t look like traditional schooling.
“Take your time; be gentle on yourself and your child”.
Every big life change takes time to settle into, home educating is no different. There are very many gatherings and activities arranged within the home education community around the County (some local groups can be found on the Internet). Support and interaction with other home educators is often just as important for parents as it is for their children.
The type of educational activity can be varied and flexible. It is felt by the home education community that home educating parents may offer a more personalised curriculum as they are not required to:
- teach the National Curriculum
- have a timetable
- have premises equipped to any particular standard
- set hours during which education will take place
- have any specific qualifications
- make detailed plans in advance
- observe school hours, days or terms
- give formal lesson
- mark work done by their child
- formally assess progress or set development objectives
- reproduce school type peer group socialisation
- match school-based, age-specific standards
Parents are entitled to, and often do, make use of the services of private tutors. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that any tutors they use are suitable to have access to their children. The LA can offer support/signposting for parents wanting to carry out Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, see section 7 for further details.
