What should you do if you want to educate your child at home?

There are a number of steps you must take if you choose to educate your child at home.

How to start the process of educating your child at home

You must write to your child's school requesting that they remove your child's name from their school roll and advise the school that you will be educating your child at home. You should then send a copy of this letter to the elective home education officer at Newham Council.

If your child does not attend a school you should contact the elective home education officer at Newham Council in writing or by phone to advise them of your choice.

The local authority recommends that parents/carers wishing to home educate their child should complete and return a home education pupil information sheet. The pupil information sheet asks for educational objectives, proposed resources and the hours and organisation of learning.

Meeting with parents

After the request to home educate a child has been received, whether the parents/carers have provided the necessary information (i.e. by returning the home education pupil information sheet), or not, after a period of 15 days a meeting will be arranged for the parents to meet with the education officer responsible for elective home education.

The child must also be present at this meeting. This will enable the education officer to obtain both the child's and the parent/carer's views on home education.