Educating your child at home

The Education Act 1996 gives parents the right to educate their child at home. They must provide an education suitable for the age, ability, aptitude and any special educational need of the child.

You do not need to be a qualified teacher to educate your child at home but you may employ other professionally qualified adults. There is no financial assistance or access to materials (such as books) available from the Council for parents or guardians who choose to educate their children at home.

The Council acting as the Local Education Authority (LEA) has a legal responsibility to monitor the education of children whose parents or guardians have chosen to educate them at home. If the LEA believed that a child is not being provided with a suitable education at home it can take legal action to enforce a School Attendance Order (SAO).

Educating your child at home - the first steps

Write to your child’s school, telling them that you wish to teach your child at home. If your child is not on roll at a Plymouth school please write to the Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS) Team, Department for Lifelong Learning, staff in the EOTAS Team will be in touch in due course. Arrangements will then be made for a Home Education Officer to visit you and discuss your plans. If you change your address or wish to educate another child you must contact the EOTAS Team.

Teaching time and the curriculum

The Department for Education and Skills have recommended that the weekly teaching hours are as follows:

• 21 hours for 5 to 7 year olds
• 23.5 hours for 8 to 11 year olds
• 24 hours for 12 to 16 year olds.

If you are educating your child at home you are not required to follow the National Curriculum, but it provides a useful guide. A copy of the National Curriculum is available from the National Curriculum website.

Returning to school

If you wish your child to return to school please contact the LEA School Admissions Team on 01752 307469.

Further information

Further information on educating your child at home can be found in the Council's guidance booklet Home based education - education other than at school by parents which can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

	Home based education - education other than at school by parents - a booklet for parents giving information and advice on all aspects of educating your child at home. File Format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 1.5MB
	Form HE/1 - this form should be completed for any child who has been withdrawn from or has never attended school and is being educated at home by their parent/carer. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 21.7KB

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