Contents:
Getting Started, The Law, Know Your Rights: FAQ’s ‘Shorts’ and interviews are available to view on YouTube @EmmaHardyOfficial and you can follow me on X @EmmaHardy196290
- Introduction, About Me
- The Law and Parental Responsibility
- Why I Home Educate
- Attack on Independent Schools
- Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
- Education Otherwise – Excellent tips for getting started
- Family Education Trust – Research
- Christian Concern
- Resources, Books, 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 and custom made education.
Home Education is often confused with the term ‘Home Schooling’ – or worse, the appalling ’emergency measures’ put in place by Schools during ‘Lockdown’. Once you understand that these are very different and often conflicting concepts, the opportunities to learn are endless.
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 interested but uncertain, we hope this information will help to remove some barriers, empowering families to act in the best interests of your children.
These pages will be updated and reviewed on a regular basis and we look forward to hearing from you and sharing your experiences.
About Me
I’m a wife and mum of two teenage daughters in North Yorkshire. My husband has spent over 40 years teaching personal safety and physical intervention skills. In 1995 he founded a specialist training company in preventing and managing work related violence and continues to develop and provide training solutions internationally. I joined in 1998 as a physical skills trainer and then became office manager, leaving to start our family in 2009.
Both our children attended Playgroup and State funded Primary School (as did my husband and I) without incident until March 2020. I was able to have some involvement in their early education by volunteering with reading, cooking, school fundraising events, trips etc. However by 2022 it became apparent that School(s) were unfit for purpose. Basic safeguarding and the standard of education were both well below what we considered a ‘suitable education’.
Prior to Lockdown my husband and I had never considered Home Education. We didn’t know anybody who had been Home Educated and thought precisely what we had been told to think e.g. ‘Home Schooling is for weirdos’. Thankfully we’ve had our eyes well and truly opened and we don’t think that anymore!
Emma Hardy
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
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. It has my experience that the local authority has been supportive, not intrusive, however this isn’t the case for everyone and obviously both policies and staff can change.
My Home Ed Story – “School isn’t for everyone”
It took a considerable amount of time for us to find the courage and take the leap into Home Education. Several years ago (whilst our children were still at Primary School) my good friend Godfrey Bloom took me aside and very gently tried to warn me about the state of education in both State and some independent Schools/Universities. To be perfectly honest I wasn’t really in the mood to hear it, however the seeds of doubt were sown and he was of course, right on the money.
Justifying your decision to reject the expectation of a School Education to concerned or curious family and friends can be testing. When you reject the standard ‘norms’ you can expect others to feel threatened, often feeling the need to defend and justify their own position. It is uncomfortable to be confronted with the realisation that you may not have given enough thought to who or what is influencing and shaping your children. I know that’s how I felt during Godfreys annoying little chat! Sometimes people will just need you to be wrong in order for them to feel better, a sensible compromise in this situation might be to say that: “School isn’t for everyone”.
During Lockdown Schools went into panic mode. Otherwise seemingly kind and sensible Teachers no longer welcomed our children into class with a cheery smile and a “Good Morning”. This was replaced with masked faces demanding children line up outside to wash their hands before entering the classroom. This routine could be repeated up to several times a day according to 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’ – something ‘Us For Them’ reported on at the time.
School safeguarding and common sense went out of the (open) 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.
Us For Them campaign on issues of national and international significance, to shape the future we bequeath to our children.
www.usforthem.co.uk
The Hero’s Voice – Finding the Courage to Speak Out by Mike Fairclough www.fisherkingpublishing.co.uk
When our eldest daughter decided that she wanted to start Secondary School in 2021 I decided to become a Lunchtime Supervisor (aka a Dinner Lady) and then progressed to a Teaching Assistant which meant working in the classrooms. Secondary Schools are always recruiting ‘TA’s’ due to the high levels staff turn over, often as a result of experiencing high levels of challenging behaviour e.g from verbal abuse and threats to physical assaults and the growing trend of children carrying knives. In 2024, The Independent reported that ‘Schools are facing a knife crime “emergency” with four attacks on children or teachers each week’: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/knife-crime-attacks-schools-election-b2561071.html
https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2024/02/Violence-towards-Tas-report.pdf
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/assaults-in-schools-soar-by-72-in-four-years/
Lockdown opened the floodgates for a whole range of new and experimental educational tools and ‘solutions’. The DfE states that schools: ‘should take extreme caution when working with external providers and must not promote extreme political positions’. Many Schools clearly felt under pressure to to teach ‘Gender Identity’ under PHSE and RSE and resorted to using external providers, influenced by lobbying groups. It is likely that the majority of schools in UK now contain some resources and materials containing highly sexualised themes and politically partisan Ideologies such as Gender Identity.
Kevin Lister You can follow Kevin’s story #Fired for not Affirming on X @KevsTribulation
Transgender Trend is the leading organisation in the call for evidence-based healthcare for children and young people suffering gender dysphoria and for factual, science-based teaching in schools. For resources and advice visit: www.transgendertrend.com
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 that these teaching resources are age appropriate or suitable by relying on ‘trusted book suppliers’ – resulting in some very questionable 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 potential ‘Asexuality’ with strangers online. https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1790812654640185568
All parents are entitled to see any teaching materials upon request. Furthermore you can make a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) to obtain a list of LGBTQIA+ themed titles available in the school library. This is very straightforward, just send an email to the school stating this is a ‘FOI’, this will ensure you receive the information promptly, usually within 20 working days.
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.
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.
As a result of these experiences and in addition to advocating for Home Education I am involved in campaigning for women’s sex based rights and child safeguarding. I am currently involved in bringing a legal fight against Europe’s largest ‘family friendly’ Health club for secretly allowing men (who identify otherwise) to access ‘female’ signposted locker rooms with my daughters (then aged 11 and 13). You can read more about my case at Democracy 3.0 https://democracythree.org/help-emma-sue-david-lloyd
New Culture Forum Interview with Peter Whittle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU5pVvz9FTI
Independent Schools Under Attack – 1st January 2025
From 1st January 2025 the UK Government removed the Independent Schools 20% VAT exemption. The Government claim that the money raised will go towards funding public services, including propping up struggling state funded education. No other European country imposes VAT on private education. Greece tried a 23% VAT increase in 2015, which lead to school closures, teachers being made redundant and an overwhelmed state sector. This experiment was a utter failure with the Greek Government being forced to reverse its decision within that same year.
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/11/01/vat-private-schools-everything-you-need-to-know/
Approximately 6–7% of pupils in the UK are educated in independent schools.[3] This equates to around 560,000 to 570,000 pupils. Fees range from less than £10,000 to over £30,000 per year.[7]
Average annual fees, excluding boarding costs, were £15,200 net of bursaries and scholarships in 2022–23.[8] This was 90% more than average state school spending per pupil, which was £8,000. Three quarters of the children attending independent schools come from families in the top three income deciles, and most of these from the top decile.[9]
A poll conducted for the Telegraph found that “almost three quarters of private schools fear they would be forced to close in the next five years if a Labour government introduced VAT”
In August 2024, two independent schools in Scotland announced they would be closing in 2024.[58] Both schools cited the possible impact of incoming VAT changes as a factor in their decision.
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/independent-schools-proposed-vat-changes/
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – 2025
UK Government has announced that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was a “landmark” children’s bill “which will seek to keep children safe”. Home Education is being conflated with safeguarding risk – despite there being no evidence that home education represents a risk to children.
The rise in Home Education is being driven by parents not choosing to home educate but in response to schools failing to meet the needs of their children. Despite their abysmal track record the UK Government are of course seeking to control Home Ed.
In the 2023/24 academic year, the Government reports that 153,300 children were home educated at some point – out of this number 1.4% were issued with a School Attendance Order ‘SAO’.
Out of the 24,453 state schools in England, 267 (1.1%) were in special measures. To put this in context, in 2023, 10% of Ofsted inspected state schools in England were found to be inadequate or to require improvement.
N.B In 2023, 1.4% of cases where home education provision was found to be unsuitable and a School Attendance Order ‘SAO’ issued, compared to 10% of cases where schools were found to be ‘inadequate’ or ‘require improvement’ (with 1.1% in special measures).
The data shows that children are not better off in school in a great many cases, rather, they are being removed from schools because schools are not fit for purpose. This Bill, along with our Schools needs to be reformed.
Education Otherwise
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. Whilst starting out I personally benefited from the resources available at Education Otherwise, for which I am grateful.
https://www.educationotherwise.org/starting-out/
Family Education Trust
Family Education Trust was founded in 1971 and is committed to researching the causes and consequences of family breakdown and promoting the welfare of children and young people. As an evidence-based organisation Family Education Trust does not make its appeal to any religious text or creed, but presents the findings of sound academic research. As the primary educators and natural protectors of their children, it is vital that parents should always be involved in decisions about their welfare, other than in the most exceptional cases.
http://www.familyeducationtrust.org.uk
Christian Concern
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.
https://christianconcern.com/ccissues/education/
Resources: Books, Groups and Online Courses
It is our right and privilege to provide our children with a ‘tailor made’ education, completely personal to their individual needs. Educating children is often challenging but it isn’t rocket science. We hope you enjoy finding your own path.
Books
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.’
Visual thinking and Autism: Different Kinds of Minds: A Guide to Your Brain by Temple Grandin
https://www.templegrandin.com/
Nurture by Nature: Understand Your Childs Personality Type and Become a Better Parent by Paul D Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger – used copies available online.
The New Culture Forum: ‘State of Emergency‘, explores and explains the current situation and provides the reasoning behind it. Ideas include a root and branch reform of the education and teacher training systems, etc.
https://www.newcultureforum.org.uk/publications
Groups:
Christian Home Education Support Service (CHESS) – CHESS is a network of home educating families in the UK which provides a place where you can find others to link up with, ask advice from, and be encouraged in your home educating journey. They offer opportunities to meet other like-minded families by running day conferences and an annual member holiday.
Classical Conversations – Provides compelling, influential Christian leadership in the home-centred, classical education movement. They Provide weekly classical, Christian communities that hone students’ academic and classical skills of recitation, logical thinking, and persuasive rhetoric. Provide Parent Practicums across the United Kingdom that empower parents to teach any academic subject classically.
Streams – aims to encourage, equip and connect Home Educators and have a large number of Christians involved.
Christian Education Europe – Provides resources and curriculum for home educators and schools.
Immanuel Online School – Provides a model of online schooling that blends traditional schooling and home education. Students can work at home (or any suitable location) but are taught and assessed by teachers with subject expertise, via flexible personal study and timetabled small group tutorials.
We wish you every success with your Home Education!
Interview With Education Otherwise