How To De-Register Your Child From School to Homeschool or Worldschool
- Fletch
- Jan 4
- 10 min read
Updated: Jan 5
this post has been updated to include a free version of the letter for you to copy / paste.
If you want to start worldschooling your child or start home schooling your children, you’ll need to follow similar steps to what we did below. Because our kids where both in UK education and school already, we had to go through a process to de-register them from mainstream education. This blog covers our personal experience of de-registration with our kids school and the Local Education Authority, as well as your legal requirements that you need to take as Mum and Dad. Steps to Follow and what to do if you encounter resistance by school or LEA along the way (which btw they are not allowed to if you follow the steps below).
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Looking to De-Register your children or child from school to start the adventure of homeschooling or worldschooling? You’re in the right place… This post explains briefly what homeschooling / worldschooling is and how you can homeschool or worldschool your child legally in the UK and the reasons Why we choose to do so ourselves.
We recently shared our expertise over on the BBC Bitesize Worldschooling website about our own experiences of worldschooling our 2 children and also share everything on our blog.
And created this kit with letter templates PDFs, Journals and Everything that helped us on our own homeschooling journey to inspire other Mums and Parents that it's possible to have thriving homeschooled kids from the get go. As well as share our de-registration letter templates in our homeschool / worldschool pack to start you on your way.
What are the Rules to Homeschooling in the UK?
If your child has attended school already, you will have to de-register them from school and ensure they are removed from the register. This is a legal requirement for students to be legally home educated in the UK.
And that's where we were at. If you don't do this the right way, the child will be classed as missing from education and you can get into trouble. So doing it the right way - is the best way. Our kids were in Class 3 (age 7) and Year 10 (age 15) and both attending different schools in the UK. So, if your child is attending a mainstream school in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you can simply de-register with a letter to the Head Teacher of their school.
Step By Step How To De-Register My Child From School UK
Send letter of de-registration to the headteacher (use my template)
Get proof or posting and send tracked if posting or hand in personally
Do Nothing else. School will inform the LEA and because you as parent put your letter in writing, the LEA must remove your child from the register
And it really is as simple as that.
To deregister a child from a UK school, write a clear letter/email to the Headteacher stating you are withdrawing your child to home educate under the Education Act 1996, Section 7, including their name, DOB, and date of withdrawal, and get confirmation. The school must then inform the LEA who must remove. I include a few different letter templates in my worldschool kit, but feel free to copy the below FREE de-registration letter to include everything that you need:
FORMAL LETTER to send to the school: SEND TO THE SCHOOL ONLY
Your Name
Address
Date
School Name
School Address
Dear [Head’s name]
Re – Name of child .
Date of birth.
It is after very careful consideration and discussion that we have now decided to take full responsibility for providing for our son/daughter’s education by Home Educating them in accordance with section 7 of the 1996 Education Act.
We therefore instruct school to delete [child’s name] from the school register with immediate effect, in accordance with Regulation 9(1)(f) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024.
We will ensure that our son/daughter is provided with an efficient full-time education suitable to his/her age, ability, aptitude and to any special educational needs.
For the avoidance of doubt [childs name] last day attending school is [**insert date] and deregistration must be actioned as soon as this day has passed.
Yours sincerely
You do not need to explain WHY you are going to home educate your child. Instead, you can explain other arrangements are being made for your Childs education. I include a copy of my De-Registration Blank Template Letter in The Worldschoolers Kit below. For Scotland I know different rules apply so please check with your LEA.
If you are sending this letter via post, we would recommend a trackable postal method and also save a copy of the de-registration letter for your own records to prove your compliance with law if it’s ever required. The school will inform the LEA (Local Education Authority), so you do not have to contact them personally.
The school may also want to set up a meeting with you to discuss your decision, but this is not something that you are under any obligation to attend, although you may wish to maintain a relationship with the school going forwards and so, it might be in your interest to meet briefly with them.
We personally didn’t get asked to do anything like this and also if we had, we knew that we didn't need to explain ourselves or our decision.
If you’re asked directly where the children will go to school, you can answer or just inform them that you’ve made other arrangements for their education.
Many parents feel as though they must tell and justify their decision to a school or LEA. You do not! The education of YOUR children is up to YOURSELF as a their living Mother or Father.
Some educators are not knowledgable about the laws concerning home education and may provide resistance to your decision. But it’s really important here as Mum and Dad to remember your rights and try to educate the individuals that are giving you any resistance.
The school does not need to ‘approve’ your home educating plans or education programme.
You do not have to show your qualifications or special training to do so.
Education in the UK is compulsory, however schooling is not.
And as parents it's up to us to decide what a an appropriate education is.
It's a fundamental parental right to home educate your own children.
You do not have to submit your work for approval etc although you may want to keep a record of it for memories and future proof for school or college.
According to the UK Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(1)(d), a school-age pupils name must be deleted from the admissions register if they have ceased to attend the school and the school has received written notification from the parent that the pupil is receiving education somewhere other than than at school. Which means that If you use my De-Registering Letter Template this means they must quickly de-register your child (the pupil) if you request in writing.
My Awesome Worldschoolers Kit includes everything that you will need to de-register your child as well as other tools to make your transition seamless. So you remove the fear and doubt and thrive from the very first day.
The De-Registering Letter Template inside the kit is a Sample Student De-Registration Letter for all school ages that covers all that is required to start your home education program in the UK.
Our letter was a little bit different to the sample letter in that we were not going to be home educating in the UK but rather world schooling instead. So, home educating but with travel and around the world. And so I've also included a template letter inside the kit if that's your plan also.
What Do I Do if I Encounter Resistance from the School?
In our situation, there was no resistance to our choice to home educate, but I do know some parents that have had difficulty and resistance. If you are worried about this possibly coming up when you de-register your child from school your can use the Follow Up Letter Template in the pack that addresses this in a polite, yet factual manner applying rules of the Law to support. But like I mentioned, we encountered some miffed off attitudes but no challenges.
You must remember that by de-registering your child from mainstream education, what you are essentially saying to the Teachers and the system they represent is that you don’t want your children in that system. For whatever your reasons are. We have 2 teachers in our close family and after speaking with them we understand that this can be how teachers may feel. It can feel really personal for Teachers as they dedicate their lives to this system, these rules and most truly believe the system they uphold works and is for the only good of children.
And for us, it wasn’t even that we were against the school system at the time. We were just ready for a challenge and an adventure with our kids whilst they were still young enough. We were sick of the rat race life. And we were sick of hardly seeing our own kids, handing them over every day to other people. Plus we had a full itinerary planned - our own varied and wide curriculum that we wanted the freedom to teach. And those were the main reasons for us. There were more and you can read in more detail about The 7 Reasons Why We Decided to Homeschool our Children. But overall it wasn’t some big rebellion against the system.
So whatever your reasons for wanting to homeschool or world school your children, then the reasons don't matter. What matters is that you banish the fear that society puts on us to follow our own life plan to live a life where we all thrive as families rather than shoe horning ourselves into a life, an identity, a system that doesn't fit all.
I hoped this post helped you.
I hope it's inspired and empowered you to take control of your own child's learning and education in a way that suits them and you. For some people school fits - and they could never dream of taking their kids out of school to home school them. But for us as a family, it just didn't. For other parents, they are simply not aware that home schooling or world schooling is even an option. And for so long we fell in this category - we had dreams of travel and a life where we educated the kids ourselves in world school hubs with likeminded families etc, but we were scared or didn't even know home schooling was even possible.
It wasn't until we started educating ourselves on the truths of reality and obligations / legalities of education that we started to think really seriously about taking that leap ourselves.
Whilst we're not experts, and honestly we're still learning as we go, I'm here to answer any questions you may have and help in any way I can. For us de-registering our kids from schools and embarking on this life adventure was one of the most rewarding experiences we've ever had as a family. We have come together in so many ways and it's something I'm proud myself and Si had the courage to see through. And I'm proud of how adaptable both kids have been in their own different ways.
And 2 years in on our worldschooling journey (with no desire to stop) I'm proof that you don't have to have it all figured out, nor be rich or born with a silver spoon - and that you can just take every step together, with your little people in a way that feels natural to you as their Mother. And I've created a kit that I wish I had when I started that can help you thrive in your own home schooling adventure.
The Awesome Worldschoolers Kit What's Inside?
If you want to grab The Awesome Homeschoolers Worldschoolers Kit here's what's included:
De-registration Letter Template PDF for deregistering your child from school (homeschool edition)
De-registration Letter Template PDF for deregistering your child from school (worldschool edition)
Follow Up Letter Template PDF - What to say if you come up against resistance from school or your local authority
Kids Digital Home School Planner
Digital Kids Reading Planner + Journal
And more...
Let me know in the comments below if you liked this post or if it helped you in your own home schooling or worldschooling journey. Let's thrive together!
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