UK home education guide

The Children Not in School register explained, plainly

Updated · 2 min read

The register has produced more misinformation than any other topic in UK home education. It is worth reading what the law actually does before deciding how worried to be.

Bans. Permission slips. Home inspections. None of that is in the text.

Two years of research before my daughter's old enough for school — so this one I did properly.

Rumour 1: "They're banning home education"

No. The Children's Wellbeing & Schools Act creates a register of children not in school.

  • A register is a list, not a licence
  • Your right to home educate is untouched
  • Nothing about the decision changes

Whoever told you otherwise hasn't read it.

Rumour 2: "You'll need permission to take your child out"

For most families, deregistration works exactly as it does today. The Act adds a consent step for a child under a child protection enquiry or plan, and that part is not in force yet.

  • One letter to the head teacher
  • Child off the roll once the day you name has passed
  • No panel. No approval process.

So what actually changes — and when?

The register timeline

Act passed
2026
Guidance written
in progress
Registers begin
~2027

Nothing is in force yet. Ignore any post that says it's happening 'now'.

The bit nobody quotes

When registers begin, your local authority can ask for:

  • Your child's name and address
  • Details of the education you provide

That's ten minutes of admin — if you can show a plan.

Being able to describe your provision is the whole of what is being talked about. Your child's details, and an account of the education you provide. Not an inspection, not a curriculum audit, not an exam.

How to be ready before it's even law

  • Know the position: register, not ban
  • Keep a simple record of what you teach
  • Be able to show a plan for the year
  • Ignore the Facebook lawyers

Getting ahead of it

Nothing here is in force yet, so there is nothing to comply with today. The sensible move is to be ready anyway.

Know the position, keep a light record of what you teach, and be able to show a plan for the year. Families who can do those three will experience the change as paperwork. Families who cannot will experience it as stress, and which one you get is almost entirely within your control.

The planning is the part that does not solve itself

StudyDen plans the year so your evenings stop going on deciding what comes next. Years 1 to 6 are live, sequenced week by week on Oak National Academy’s lessons, with a record the parent can actually show. Music is the one national curriculum subject this plan does not carry. Everything else runs Year 1 to Year 6, apart from critical thinking, which starts in Year 2, and computing and French, which start in Year 3.

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The two longer guides

Deregistering from school sets out the law, the timing and a letter you can copy. For the sceptic at your table answers the relative who thinks you are winging it. Neither needs an account.

Written for families in England unless stated otherwise. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules, and a child at a special school follows a different process. Nothing here is legal advice.