Elective home education

Elective home education, also known as homeschooling, is when parents take on the full legal and financial responsibility for ensuring their child receives a suitable education. 

Elective home education applies to children who are of compulsory school age. 

It is different from home tuition, which is when the local authority provides support for children and young people who are unable to access mainstream education due to medical or psychological reasons.  

Your responsibilities 

Parents have a right to educate their children at home and we recognise that elective home education can be a valid choice. 

If you decide to home educate, you need to be sure you can provide a suitable education straight away.  

The home education you provide should be broad, balanced and should provide your child with experience in speaking and listening, literacy, numeracy and digital skills. It should also match their abilities and aptitude and be sufficiently challenging so that your child can show that progress is being made.  

If your child is in school, you should write to the headteacher notifying them of your intention to take responsibility for your child’s education and to remove them from the register.  

Both parents with parental responsibility need to agree to the decision to home educate. Schools should not accept an instruction to deregister if it is clear parents are not in agreement. 

For more information about elective home education, download the Welsh Government guide. 

The council’s responsibilities 

Our elective home education officer can offer advice and guidance and access to some educational resources including workshops, book tokens and subscriptions, where resources allow. However, it remains the parents’ responsibility to plan and provide their child's home education. 

We must check home educated children are receiving a suitable education, in line with Welsh Government guidance. 

We will make enquiries with you to establish details of the education you are providing. 

We will ask to meet with you and your child at least once a year to discuss and review evidence of their educational progress. We understand home education is different from school-based education, and we will consider individual circumstances when reaching a decision about suitability. 

If, after all reasonable attempts, we are not reassured that a child is receiving a suitable education, we will follow formal processes which may result in parents being issued with a School Attendance Order.

For more information, download the council’s Elective Home Education Policy. 

Or read the Welsh Government Elective home education guidance here.

For further advice and guidance about elective home education in Torfaen, or if you are currently home educating and would like guidance around your child returning to school,  contact the elective home education officer:  by emailing EWS@torfaen.gov.uk - putting EHE in the subject line.