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Educating Your Child At Home

Section 7 of The Education Act 1996 stipulates that it is a parent/carer's legal responsibility to ensure their child receives an efficient, full-time education suitable to their age, ability, aptitude and to any special educational needs they may have, in school or otherwise.

Parents/Carers may wish to educate their child at home. Haringey would like to support families, where possible, to achieve this.

You may wish to consider the following points:

It takes a great deal of commitment and motivation to home educate.
Unfortunately the local authority is unable to support you financially, consider the cost of resources, text books, events/field trips and exams etc.
Children and young people do not have to be socially isolated when being home educated. We would advise you to research local events and clubs specifically set up for the home educating community, which you and your children may wish to join.
Try and speak with other parents who home educate about their experience, we may be able to assist you to do this.
There are home education study groups within the local area. Often children learn from each other and stimulate each others methods of learning.
Consider encouraging your child to join hobby and sports groups (football, swimming, youth clubs etc), purely social activities with peers will ensure a child does not become isolated.
If you feel that your child would benefit from returning to a school, this does not mean you have 'failed'. It may be that your child finds it easier to be taught by someone who they do not have an emotional tie with or their own needs and views have changed as they grow older.
You may wish to engage professional tutors. Please remember that it is your responsibility to ensure they are suitable and/or qualified and you will have to meet the cost.
If you are considering home educating because there has been a disagreement with your child's current school and you feel it cannot be resolved, please write to the school governors and/or discuss the situation with officers from this service, we may be able to identify other options for you to consider.
Most parents and children who have decided to enter into home education find it a very satisfying and constructive experience. We would urge you however, to fully research the process and discuss the matter with this service first as sometimes the reality of home education has shocked families.
On occasions a family has decided to re-enter their child into the school system, both this service and our school admissions will be happy to assist you with this.
Finally, we would like to wish you well and encourage you to stay in contact with this service for support (where possible) and advice.