Choosing home education

Most families make a pro-active decision to home educate. These families usually provide an extremely high standard of education for their children. However, some families feel backed into a corner and that home education is the only available option when it feels like school issues cannot be resolved, or where attending school regularly is a struggle.

Pressure should never be put on parents by a school to home educate and remove a child from a school to avoid a permanent exclusion, or because a child is having difficulty attending. This practice is called off-rolling and is unacceptable.

Parents should be fully aware of the expectations and implications of home educating before committing to making this important decision. Cumberland Council recommends parents are signposted to the government guidance for parents and seek advice from the Elective Home Education team, before formally asking the school to remove the child from the school roll.