UK home education guide
How to deregister your child from school in England
Updated · 2 min read
The paperwork for leaving school in England is one letter. Everything that feels heavy about the decision sits either side of it, not inside it.
England, mainstream school. It's simpler than anyone tells you — here's the whole process.
Step 1
Write one letter to the headteacher
Email or paper. You're not asking permission — you're informing them. No meeting required, no reason required.
Dear [head], I am withdrawing [name] from school to home educate, effective [date]. Please remove them from the roll and confirm in writing. — [you]
Send it by email if you want a timestamp, and ask for written confirmation that your child has been taken off the roll. That reply is the only document the whole day produces, and it is the one worth keeping.
Step 2
The school must remove them from the roll
For a mainstream school in England they can't refuse, and they tell the council for you. (Special school or Scotland? Different rules — check first.)
Step 3
The council may say hello
The local authority can make informal enquiries about the education you're providing. A polite reply describing your plan is usually all it takes.
Step 4
Start. Your way
Your duty is a 'suitable, full-time education' — at your table, at your pace. 2–3 focused hours beats the 6-hour day.
The honest bit
The letter is easy. Week two isn't
What nobody warns you about is the planning — 11 subjects, 36 weeks, every single day, decided by you.
Monday: maths…? English…? Which maths? In what order? What did we miss? …and again Tuesday
After the letter
Once the roll entry is closed the school's part is finished, and the council's part is a routine enquiry you answer in writing. Neither of them is the hard bit.
What is left is the ordinary work: deciding what your child does on Monday, and on the Monday after that, for the rest of the year. Families who find deregistration calm are usually the ones who answered that question before they sent the letter.