To start homeschooling in the UK, you need to do three things: confirm you're legally allowed to home educate where you live (you almost certainly are), formally notify your child's current school in writing if they're enrolled at one, and start providing a suitable full-time education to your child. There's no permission to apply for, no qualification to obtain, no curriculum to register, and no minimum number of hours to log. The legal framework is genuinely permissive. What it asks in return is that you take real responsibility for your child's education. This article walks through the legal steps, the practical first decisions, and what realistically happens in the first few weeks and months once you've made the decision.
For many families, the gap between deciding to home educate and actually starting is filled with confusion about what's allowed, what's required, and what to do first. The legal picture is more straightforward than parents often expect.
The Legal Position in England
In England, the legal framework rests on a single short paragraph in Section 7 of the Education Act 1996: "The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." The phrase "or otherwise" is the legal foundation of home education in England, and that single line has remained essentially unchanged since 1944.
What this means in practice. The duty is on the parent, not the state. The education must be efficient (genuinely educational), full-time (broadly comparable to what the child would get at school), and suitable to the individual child. There's no requirement to follow the National Curriculum, sit any particular exams, teach during school hours, or follow school terms.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have equivalent provisions with some procedural variations. The high-level position is the same across all four nations: parents can home educate, but they take on the legal duty for the education themselves.
Compulsory school age runs from the term after a child's fifth birthday to the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16. Outside this range, home education isn't legally required because school attendance isn't legally required either.
Step One: Decide Whether You Need to Deregister
The first practical question is whether your child is currently a registered pupil at a school. If they aren't, you don't need to deregister, and you can simply begin home education. This applies to children who have never attended a UK school, including children moving to home education from a school abroad, children of nursery age, and children whose families have just moved into England without a school place yet.
If your child is on the roll of a state school in England, you need to formally deregister them. The way you do this matters. Write a letter (or email) to the headteacher saying clearly that you are withdrawing your child from the school because you have decided to home educate them, give the date of withdrawal, and ask the school to remove your child from the admission register. Keep a copy of what you send. The school is required to remove the child from the roll on receipt of your notification, and to notify the local authority that you're now home educating. They are not entitled to refuse, delay, or require permission for this decision.
The notable exception is if your child is currently subject to a school attendance order, which is unusual and only applies in specific circumstances where a court has been involved. Children attending a special school by arrangement of the local authority also have an additional step: the local authority must agree to the deregistration. For the vast majority of families this doesn't apply.
Private school deregistration follows the school's own procedures, set out in the parent contract. There's usually a notice period (often a term). Once the notice period ends, the school removes the child from its roll just as a state school would.
Step Two: Understand What Local Authorities Can and Cannot Do
Once you begin home educating, your local authority may contact you. Their statutory duty is to identify children who aren't receiving a suitable education, and they typically discharge this by writing to known home-educating families to ask for information about the education being provided.
What local authorities can do: they can ask you to provide information about what you're doing. They can serve a school attendance order if they genuinely believe a child isn't receiving a suitable education and you don't respond to their reasonable enquiries.
What they cannot do: they cannot legally insist on home visits. They cannot require a particular curriculum. They cannot require evidence of formal qualifications, set hours, or particular teaching methods. They cannot demand to interview the child without parental consent. Many local authorities offer visits as a service to home educators rather than as an inspection, and some families find these helpful; others prefer to respond in writing only, which is entirely their right.
The response most home educators send is usually a written summary of the educational philosophy, the broad approach being taken, examples of resources and activities, and (where the child is older) any qualifications being worked towards. There's no required format. Some families write a paragraph; some write several pages with photographs and samples of work. Either approach satisfies the legal duty if the education being described is genuinely suitable.
Step Three: Decide Your Educational Approach
This is where most families spend their planning time, and reasonably so. The legal framework gives you freedom; the practical question is what you'll actually do with it.
The simplest decision tree starts with how much structure you want. If you want a school-like programme with timetables, set subjects, qualified teachers, and recognised qualifications, an online school delivers that with the family providing the daily oversight rather than acting as the primary educator. If you want a structured curriculum but want to teach it yourself, you can buy or follow a published curriculum from a provider that supplies textbooks, lesson plans, and assessments. If you want more flexibility, you can mix and match resources, follow your child's interests, and build a more individualised approach.
For most new home educators, a useful first move is to take it slowly. The transition from school to home learning often goes better when families spend the first few weeks deliberately not trying to replicate school: visiting museums, going for walks, reading widely, talking, baking. This is sometimes called "deschooling," and it lets both child and parent reset their assumptions about what learning has to look like before settling into a longer-term approach. By a few weeks in, most families have a clearer sense of what their child responds to.
Step Four: Connect With Other Home Educators
The single most useful thing new home-educating families can do in their first months is meet other home educators. Most areas have active home education networks that organise meet-ups, group activities, sports sessions, museum trips, and shared classes. These groups are typically open to all home-educating families regardless of approach, and the social and practical value of being in them is hard to overstate.
Many parents who were anxious about homeschooling in the abstract relax substantially once they meet other families doing it. Practical questions about exam centres, curriculum choices, and dealing with the local authority become much easier to answer when there are experienced families to ask. Children make friends with other home-educated children who share the same daily rhythm.
Online communities (Facebook groups, forums) also provide useful informal support, particularly for families in more remote areas. Plenty of guidance exists on choosing the right approach for homeschooling in the UK, and reading widely in the first weeks helps families settle on an approach that fits.
FAQs
How quickly can I start homeschooling once I've decided?
In practice, very quickly. If your child has never been at a school, you can start the day you decide. If your child is at a state school, you can deregister immediately by writing to the headteacher; the school is required to remove your child from the roll on receipt of your notification. There is no waiting period. Some families take their child out on a Friday and start home educating on the Monday. That said, most families benefit from a few weeks of preparation: thinking through their broad approach, gathering some initial resources, connecting with local home ed groups, and adjusting to the idea. If your child is at a private school, your notice period is set by the school contract and is usually one term, so timing depends on when in the school year you decide.
Do I need to keep records of what I teach?
There's no legal requirement to keep records in England. You don't have to maintain a register of lessons, log hours, or document what you cover. That said, most home-educating families find some form of record-keeping useful for their own purposes: tracking what's been covered, identifying gaps, and being able to demonstrate the education being provided if the local authority asks. The records don't need to be formal. Some parents keep a simple notebook listing topics covered each week. Some keep a folder of completed work. Some take photographs of activities and visits. The level of detail is entirely up to you, and the purpose is your own peace of mind rather than meeting an external requirement.
What if my local authority becomes difficult?
Most local authorities deal with home educators reasonably, but a minority adopt a more interventionist approach than the law actually permits. If you're being asked for things the local authority isn't entitled to require, such as compulsory home visits, particular curricula, or formal qualifications, you don't have to comply. A polite written response explaining what you're doing and pointing to the relevant guidance is usually enough. The Department for Education's published guidance for parents is generally helpful for clarifying what authorities can and can't require. Home education charities including Education Otherwise and IPSEA (for special educational needs cases) offer free advice if you're getting pressure that feels disproportionate. The legal position is generally on the parent's side, but it's much easier to assert that calmly with a written record than in a heated phone call.
