education is compulsory

Rather than spending weekdays competing with twenty-five other human beings of their own age, in a natural community children spend their daily lives with old people, babies, and everyone in between. They do not compete, but learn to search out the needs of others and to help them live and learn. Interacting in a mixed age group and the habit of teaching, learning from and helping others are natural to home education.

See our home 'Local Groups' page, listed in the main menu. Members of Education Otherwise are allocated an EO local contact, and receive a contact list of other EO members.

There is nothing in English law that says the parent is required to provide information on an annual basis, though the Welsh Guidelines recommend that the LA contacts the family annually with a request for updated information. The practice throughout England and Wales is extremely variable. However, many local authorities will wish to make annual visits to the family home or will ask the parents for a written report. See our pages on HE and the law for more information.

There is nothing in the law which mandates annual contact, but nor is it expressly disallowed by law. Please read our pages on Children Missing Education and School Attendance Orders for more background information on the local authority's duties in law.

No. In England and Wales you do NOT have to have your home education approved. Please read our page on deregistering a child from school, listed in the main menu. However, parents of children with special needs should read our SEN pages, since the local authority will have to give consent to removing a child from a special school.