Getting Started, The Law, Know Your Rights: FAQ’s ‘Shorts’ and interviews are available to view on YouTube @EmmaHardyOfficial you can also find me on X @EmmaHardy196290 and hidden behind a ‘sensitive content warning’!
- Introduction
- The Law and Parental Responsibility
- The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
- Our Home Education Story
- Why Catholic?
- Resources/Links
Introduction
In the UK, educating your children is compulsory but sending them to School is not. From the ages of 5-16 years children are legally required to receive an efficient, full time education which is suitable to their age, ability and aptitude. The vast majority of children in the UK receive a school education, however, recent data collated from Freedom of Information Requests show in the last 4 years alone, Home Education notifications have more than doubled.
The number of pupils moving to Home Education has risen by 22% in the past year. UK councils received at least 49,819 notifications in 2022-23 from families wanting to Home Educate a child. This is the highest level since 2020-2021, when there were at least 49,851 new notifications.
As well as providing some persuasive arguments for considering Home Education, our aim is to provide practical advice for those looking to create your own bespoke education.
Home Education is often conflated with the term ‘Home Schooling’ (as it is known in the U.S.) – or perhaps you were frighten off by the ’emergency measures’ e.g. Google classroom put in place during ‘Lockdown’. Once you understand the difference many of the barriers to Home Ed fade away e.g. Ofsted Inspections, National Curriculum, GCSE exams, ridgid timetables or logging onto a screen to complete compulsory online homework etc.
We welcome feedback and questions from anyone interested in supporting Home Education. Whilst we encourage and support parents wishing to take responsibility for their children’s education – we appreciate that not everyone will currently be in a position where this is practically possible. For those of you who are curious, we hope this page will help inspire you to take the leap into Home Education.
These pages will be updated and reviewed on a regular basis and we look forward to hearing from you and sharing your experiences. If you have any questions about Home Education please do get in touch.
The Law
The Education Act 1996 Section 7
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/contents
Section 7 Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age:
https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/school-starting-age
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs [F1(in the case of a child who is in the area of a local authority in England) or additional learning needs (in the case of a child who is in the area of a local authority in Wales)] he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.
Parental Responsibility “All mothers and most fathers have legal rights and responsibilities as a parent – known as ‘parental responsibility’” https://www.gov.uk/parental-rights-responsibilities
An ‘efficient’ and ‘suitable’ education is a broad legal definition and sounds daunting, however put simply, parents are entitled to reject the standard ‘one size fits all education’ on offer in most school settings. Home Educators are not required to follow a set curriculum including the National Curriculum. Your child is not required to sit any examinations (such as GCSE and A levels), but many choose to.
You are not subject to Ofsted inspections. The local authorities have no legal duty to monitor and supervise your home education, however they do have a duty to identity children not receiving an education and may want to know what educational provision is being made for your child.
If you choose to Home Educate you will not be eligible to access your child’s educational funding – the funds which are allocated to state schools per child. This means you are free to educate as you see fit. The local authority will want to know if you are providing a ‘suitable education’ and this is likely to include submitting an annual education report, as has been our experience. If your child has been attending a special school under arrangements made by the local authority, the local authority’s consent is needed for the child’s name to be removed from the school roll. Consent is requested in writing and may not be withheld unreasonably by the local authority, but it is important that the parent includes in their application details of how they will meet the child’s special needs. The local authority can refuse consent, but must give reasons for any refusal, which the parent can challenge.
Children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, or families seeking additional support for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) may qualify for additional support from the local authority, this will be subject to terms and conditions laid out by the local authority. To date, my experience with the local education authority has been ‘hands off’ although the future freedoms of Home Educators remains uncertain. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0177/240177.pdf
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Just as we have seen an unprecedented raid on parental freedoms and finances through the introduction of a tax on education, so we now also see the trajectory of an increasingly invasive socialist state into the private lives of Home Educating parents under the guise of safety and welfare. In general, are parents or local authority monitors better placed to decide on children’s wellbeing? What should the law legislate for, on pain of fines or imprisonment for those who don’t comply?
Our Home Education Story
Several years ago whilst our children were in the local Primary School our friend Mr Bloom tried to warn my husband and I about the current state of mainstream education. Honestly I didnt really want to hear it, our daughters were happy enough and we couldn’t afford public school fees. Nevertheless, the seed was sown and the idea of Home Education began to grow.
The New Normal
During lockdown, kind and seemingly sensible Teachers no longer welcomed our children into class with a cheery smile and a “Good Morning”. This was replaced with masked faces demanding that children line up outside to wash their ‘dirty’ hands before entering the classroom. This routine could be repeated up to several times a day according to the guidance from DfE at the time.
The new hygiene measures also included the use of chemical alcohol gels, this was to save time from all the hand washing. Consequently thousands of children suffered sore and irritated skin, as was the case with our youngest daughter. These chemicals were applied to our children without parental knowledge, schools no longer bothered with asking for ‘parental consent’.
School safeguarding and common sense went out of the window and was replaced with the ‘new normal’. Concerned teachers who are brave enough to question nonsensical policies or raise safeguarding concerns often face harassment and are hounded out of their jobs.
When our eldest daughter said she wanted to start Secondary School in 2021 I decided to become a Lunchtime Supervisor (aka a Dinner Lady) which led to becoming a Teaching Assistant working in classrooms.
Violent behaviour is a major problem in our schools. A 2019 survey conducted by a teaching union found that 1 in 4 teachers had experienced physical violence towards them on a weekly basis.
Nine in ten said that they had received some form of verbal or physical abuse in the past year.
LGBTQIA+ and Gender Ideology
Lockdown opened the floodgates for a whole range of new and experimental educational tools and edtech solutions and external providers. The DfE states that schools: ‘should take extreme caution when working with external providers and must not promote extreme political positions’. ‘Gender Identity’ was officially incorporated into mandatory curriculum in September 2020 as a part of Anti Bullying under Relationships and Sex Education and many resorted to using external providers. It seems that the majority of state schools now contain some resources and materials containing explicit sexualised themes and promote gender ideology.
As far back as 2017, Nigel and Sally Rowe were among the first to courageously challenge trans-affirming school policies after being told that their son ‘misgendering’ a child could be considered a form of bullying. Nigel and Sally, were successful in their case against the Department for Education and went on to Home Educate their two children.
https://christianconcern.com/comment/victories-in-education-looking-back-looking-forward
As part of a schools inclusive approach their libraries now have whole sections dedicated to the genre of LGBTQIA+. Once again schools are outsourcing their responsibility to check their teaching resources are age appropriate or suitable and are relying on ‘trusted book suppliers’ – resulting in dire book choices. This was the case for our youngest daughter who after just 3 months after starting secondary school (Year 7) brought home a book containing a chapter titled: ‘Wank Fantasy’ with links to online sexuality forums for her to discuss her sexuality or ‘Asexuality’ with strangers. She had just turned12. https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1790812654640185568
In 2024 the school gave me a ‘SLAPP’ – Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation. This is just one example of how UK schools are attempting to intimidate or silence parents (and employees) from exposing what goes on in school, including giving children access to unchecked, sexually inappropriate library books. During the BBC interview I explained how staff were unclear about school rules; whether boys were allowed to access the girls toilets on account of gender identity or “being born in the wrong body”. The solicitors firm acting on behalf of the school, were reported by the BBC to the Solicitors Regulation Authority ‘SRA’ for attempting to silence those speaking out on issues of public interest. https://youtu.be/xDwIzGxAXIU?si=B9MtcWHGNkPiLgrH
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and Subject Access Requests (SAR)
Parents are entitled to see any of their childrens teaching materials upon request. The new (2025) RSHE guidance now confirms that this is the case:
‘Engagement and transparency with parents. Schools should engage with parents on the content of RSHE and be transparent with parents about all materials used in RSHE. All materials should be available to parents, as described in the section on openness with parents on page 28. Parents have a right to request that their children are withdrawn from sex education (pupils can opt back in from three terms before they turn 16) schools should ensure parents are aware of sex education content within lessons in advance.’
Books in the school library?
If you ask school for a list of books available to your child whilst they are at school you should be provided with one. However, you can make a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) to obtain a list of specific titles e.g. LGBTQIA+ themed books available in the school library. When a request for information is made (this can be via email or even via social media), public authorities should respond within 20 working days, either providing the information or explaining why it cannot be disclosed (with a valid exemption). It is unlawful to withhold information subject to FOI (without a valid exemption, or if information is deliberately concealed or destroyed after a request is made). Heavy handed or sweeping exemptions should be challenged, you should be provided with an explanation for why an exemption has been applied and be given an opportunity to challenge this via an internal review. Evidence of organisations failing in their duty to respond to a lawful request can then be submitted to the Information Commissioners Office for external investigation. This can result in the following sanctions; warnings, reprimands, fines or even prosecution and reputational damage.
As part of your child’s education you can explore situations where they might want to make a Subject Access Request or exercise their Data Subject Rights under General Data Protection Regs ‘GDPR’. As well as obtaining school records I would recommend following this process for obtaining data held by your NHS GP surgery. From the age of 13+ children are generally considered by the UK Government to be competent to consent to accessing their own medical records. For children under 13 parental consent is usually required. You may find that your NHS GP or ‘Caldicott Guardian’ is reluctant to disclose medical records for children 13+. They may insist on meeting your child to determine their ‘capacity’. This behaviour is unlawful, evidence of a legitimate basis is needed to challenge this request. This is another example of State overreach into parental responsibility. Online access to GP services, surgeries may now set an automatic ‘cut-off age’ from 11(!) meaning that parent/guardian access to their child’s data is stopped, the reason given for this by the NHS is: ‘to protect an older child’s confidentiality’.
Digital Grooming and Data Harvesting
Since the pandemic ‘Remote Learning’ has now been accepted as a normal part of education in our Schools. Whilst sold as a time saving solution for busy teachers, self regulating Edtech platforms may also pose a threat to data security and interfere with healthy child development. Teachers using digital solutions often have very little understanding of how this technology can also be used for harvesting children’s data. This includes collecting ‘special category data’ such as biometrics, finger prints, facial scanning and can be used to implement behavioural nudging e.g. “Digital Grooming” in order to normalise and familiarise the next generation into accepting increased surveillance and measures such as a Digital ID.
In 2015 a group of dedicated volunteers led by Jen Persson began researching the National Pupil Database and exposed how the DfE were giving national pupil data to the Home Office for immigration enforcement https://defenddigitalme.org/my-school-records/national-pupil-data/ In 2017 ‘Defend Digital Me’ was formally incorporated to advocate for safe, fair and transparent data in education. By putting in place processes and tools to give parents and learners ways to exercise their rights around their personal data, to help restore autonomy and agency. Families should understand how their children’s data is collected – and what schools, the State, and any contracted third parties do with it. https://defenddigitalme.org/
Pippa is the Director of ‘Biometrics-in-Schools’ and has campaigned for over ten years in the sector. She was instrumental in the introduction in the relevant sections of the Protection of Freedoms Act, passed in May 2012, which requires schools to gain written consent from children and guardians before processing biometric data in schools. She is active at Defend Digital Me in global horizon scanning and developing technologies in education. Pippa was my first introduction to Home Ed and I’m extremely grateful to her for opening my eyes to the threat of biometric data harvesting in school. Pippa continues to campaign for privacy and civil liberties with the use of biometrics in schools https://youtu.be/9K2gzRit7Ag?si=VUhhTkNNdytZTEft
Sleepwalking into a Surveillance state Pippa King
https://youtu.be/Y_W-lA4r6JA
https://pippaking.blogspot.com/p/about.html
Richard Vobes Digital Grooming! with Emma Hardy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEuhzHxq6lY&t=2s
- N.B correction – According to responses to my Freedom of Information Requests the majority *not all* State Primary Schools in York were using external providers for RSE in 2023 – with the exception of Catholic faith schools.
Why Catholic?
To much surprise and joy, this Home Educating path has also brought us to our Catholic faith. On St Wilfrids Day 2026 at York Oratory (St Wilfrids Church) my husband and I had our civil marriage brought into the Catholic Church through the process of Convalidation, our teenage daughters acted as our two witnesses.
I would encourage everyone and particularly those looking to Home Educate to contact your local Catholic Church to enquire about their Catechism classes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is the official reference book in the foundational truths, core beliefs, doctrine and moral teachings of faith. In addition to this, your local diocese may also be aware of local groups and opportunities for support and points of connection. In York we are indeed blessed to have access to the wisdom and instruction of The York Oratorians https://www.yorkoratory.com/
Resources:
Education Otherwise was founded in 1977 and is the foremost Charity across England and Wales promoting the right of parents/guardians to home educate their children. They offer a targeted range of services, resources and research. They liaise and work directly with individuals, public and private organisations and Government bodies. Their name comes from the Education Act, which states that parents are responsible for their children’s education, ‘either by regular attendance at school or otherwise’; the fact is that education is compulsory, but schooling is not.
Wendy Charles-Warner – co-Chair of Education Otherwise:
https://www.educationotherwise.org/starting-out/
Christian Concern (founded by Andrea Williams in 2004) uphold the central role of parents in raising the next generation, and highlight that good education is built upon a Christian worldview, especially in the areas of relationships and religion. They regularly connect with those involved in home-education and those who lead home-education organisations. This can include providing legal advice to those looking to start home school cooperatives, and those looking to keep their schooling entity within the law but outside of inspection. Christian Concern have supported dozens of courageous parents and teachers and provide legal advice for those taking action against harmful gender ideology in our schools.
Steve Beegoo – Head of Education at Christian Concern:
https://education.christianconcern.com
Another Way to Learn by Molly Ashton https://www.anotherwaytolearn.co.uk/
‘Over the past century the role of parents in the education of children has changed dramatically. This timely book, written by an experienced group of UK home educators, is a call for parents to take back this role, a battle cry to defend our right to do so and a vision for the restoration of family within our nation. It is a handbook to equip and empower families in the daily rhythms and choices of home education. This book will inspire those who are curious and encourage those already on the journey. Packed with practical advice, it is an irresistible call to bring education right back to the heart and hearth of the family.’ Molly kindly walks us through the chapters of her book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IC6Li9sCJc
Universalis Publishing was started in 1995 with the aim of harnessing computer technology to help in enriching the spiritual life of Christians, specifically by making the liturgical and devotional resources of the Catholic Church available on the new electronic media. Martin Kochanski is the founder of Universalis. Educated by the Benedictines of Downside Abbey, England, he is a computer software publisher and a writer. His book The Creed in Slow Motion was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2022. He olds an MA in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford. For the last twenty-five years he has been creating, editing and expanding Universalis, a web site and set of apps which bring the prayers, psalms and readings of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Catholic Church into everyone’s reach. Across the world tens of thousands of people, from all denominations, use it daily.
God Bless.