Home Education in Wandsworth

Elective Home Education

The 1996 Education Act states that it is the duty of parents to secure an appropriate full-time education for their children. Most parents carry out this duty by ensuring that their child attends a school. A small minority of parents decide to educate their children at home. 

According to recent DFE Guidance (April 2019), the Local Authority must be satisfied that home educated children are receiving ‘a suitable,  efficient full-time education’, and may issue a School Attendance Order if parents/carers do not provide evidence of this.

Elective Home Education and SEN

If you decide to home educate and your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you must ensure that the education you are providing for your child is suitable to any special educational needs identified in the plan.  If your child attends an SEN (Special ) school, permission from the Local Authority will be required in order to remove the child from school roll. 

A home education programme for a child with an EHCP should be designed to enable the child to progress towards the outcomes set out in the EHCP. These outcomes will be set and reviewed regularly in a network meeting involving parents, professionals and the home educated child/young person.

First steps

If your child is already enrolled at a school, you must give written notification to the Headteacher and governors of the school, stating that you intend to provide home education for your child. Please do not hesitate to discuss your decision beforehand if it would be helpful, either with school or with the Wandsworth Elective Home Education Lead, Biddy Macintyre.

School will notify the Education Welfare Service that you are planning to home educate your child. A member of school staff or the Education Welfare Team will then contact you in order to arrange a TAC (Team Around the Child) meeting. The meeting is for the purpose of sharing information, ensuring that parents/carers have made an informed decision, and helping to achieve the best possible outcomes for your child.

If the decision to home educate is confirmed once the meeting has taken place, your child’s name will be removed from the school roll.