Educating your child at home (elective home education)

What should I consider before I decide to home educate?

Families who elect to home educate do so for a variety of reasons. The decision to home educate should not be taken lightly. It can be very rewarding to educate your child at home but it does require a serious time commitment, patience, energy and the ability to provide appropriate motivation, resources and equipment. You will need to decide if you have the skills and ability to educate your child or if you will need to purchase services to help you do this e.g. online learning packages or tutors. Please keep in mind there is no financial support available when you home educate. 

From the start be sure you are doing what is right for your child. Discuss it with him/her and with the school, if your child is on roll at one. You could also speak to someone at the LA, ask for the Elective Home Education Coordinator who can talk you through what home education entails. 

You must be able to provide the following:

• A suitable education 
• A full-time education 
• An efficient education

You will also need to consider the following as a part of planning for home education:

• Opportunities to socialise with other children and build friendships. This could be done through social activities or clubs based on your child's hobbies and interests.
• A space at home where learning can take place
• The time, parents who are in employment will have to determine if they can accommodate a full-time education as well as work commitments.
• What are your child's aspirations? Will your home education take steps towards achieving this?
• Does your child want to sit any examinations? This can be done but it can be costly as a private pupil.
• If you want to home educate keep in mind once you come off the roll of a school, your place will be allocated to someone on the waiting list. If you want to go back into schools you will need to apply through the admissions process. Please be aware, that there may not be places available at the school you apply for so you may not get the school of your choice.

You should not consider home education purely to avoid sending your child to school or to avoid exclusions or attendance fines. Electing to home educate will not stop these processes.