Schools and education

In this section

• What is Elective Home Education?
• Is EHE right for my child?
• Who should I notify about EHE
• The role of the local authority 
• Is efficient and suitable education being provided?
• How can I make arrangements for my child to sit an exam?
• Applying for a school place? 
• EHE parent survey
• Educational resources
• Useful education websites 

What is Elective Home Education?

Elective Home Education (EHE) is when a parent chooses not to send their child to school full-time but takes full responsibility for making sure their child receives a full-time education outside the school environment, which could be at home or elsewhere.

Parents have the right to choose to home educate their school-age child(ren), including those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). 

Is EHE right for my child?

Parents should give serious consideration whether to provide elective home education, as it is a large undertaking. We can provide advice for parents considering or undertaking elective home education; however, we can't provide:

• financial assistance
• curriculums
• venues 
• tutors. 

Who should I notify about EHE?

If you have a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan and they are attending a special school under arrangements made by us, additional permission is required from the SEN team before the child's name can be removed from the register. This is so we can ensure your child's needs continue to be met and reviewed on an annual basis.

If your child is currently in school and you want to begin EHE, you must write your child's school, informing them that you wish to remove your child from the school roll, as you will be taking responsibility for providing education at home. You need to do this, so that the school can legally remove your child from the register. 

If your child is not currently in school, you do not need to notify anyone of your intention to electively home educate but you can notify us by completing a parent self-referral form, and we can provide you with relevant advice and support.

Complete a parent self-referral form

We strongly recommend that you also tell your GP, and any health services you use, that your child is being educated at home. So that your child can continue to get the health checks and immunisations that they would have received through school.

Please note: While we encourage parents to maintain a dialogue with us, there is no requirement to do so.

If you are a professional or another local authority and have been made aware of a child(ren) who is being electively home educated, you can notify us by completing a professional EHE referral form.

Complete a professional EHE referral form

If you are a school outside of the borough of Hillingdon and have been made aware of a child(ren) who is being electively home educated within Hillingdon, you can notify us by completing a out of borough school's EHE referral form.

Complete a out of borough school's EHE referral form

The role of the council

Every local education authority has to have systems in place to identify all children of compulsory school age in their area who are not registered with a school, and who they can't confirm are receiving suitable education in some way other than at a school.

We can contact the parents to ask them to provide information on what provision is being made for the child or young person. There is no duty on the parent(s) to respond. However, if a parent ignores a request for information, we may conclude that suitable provision of education is not being made. 

• Government guidance elective home education

How we can support you 

Where we are aware of home-educated children within Hillingdon, we will:

• provide parents/guardians with information specific to the age of the child - this might include details of exam centres
• aim to contact parents/guardians on an yearly basis to provide the latest EHE information.

If you'd like to be updated on local services and activities that may be useful for your education planning, sign up to our EHE newsletter, which we aim to send out on a termly basis.

Sign up for our EHE newsletter

Statutory assessments

If you are educating your child at home and you think your child may have special educational needs, you can request a statutory assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan through us.

Request a statutory assessment

Is efficient and suitable education being provided?

If there is doubt on whether an efficient and suitable education is being provided, we will gather relevant information, including information from the parents/guardians about how they intend to provide a suitable education for their child(ren).

This will help us reach a properly informed judgement and, where appropriate, the parents/guardians will be given the opportunity to address any specific concerns that we have raised.

How can I make arrangements for my child to sit an exam? 

If you have chosen to home educate your child(ren), you are responsible for the cost of any exams that you would like your child(ren) to sit.

You have the flexibility to choose the examination board most suited to your child and can get a copy of the chosen board's examination syllabus.

You will need to find a centre that will allow the child to sit the examination.

The major examination boards for GCSEs/iGCSEs are; 

• Edexel
• AQA
• OCR.

For more information read our   useful websites and educational resource guide (PDF) [328KB]

Applying for a school place

If you are considering applying for a school place, please see our school admissions page for more information. 

Visit our school admissions page

Moving your child(ren) from home-schooling back into a school environment can be daunting; however, there are things you can do to support and prepare your child(ren) for the transition.

Read our  transitioning from home schooling to school guide for parents (PDF) [327KB]

EHE parent survey

Home education is becoming a popular choice for some parents across the country. We recognise your right to home educate your child using a broad range of approaches or philosophies that may or may not look like formal schooling.

At Hillingdon Council, we want to make sure that your views are listened to, so we can understand how best to support you. We also want to help EHE families learn from each other as much as possible, so we have prepared a short survey to help achieve that. 

We have created the survey in 2 parts - one for parents and one for your young people. We encourage you to send it to us and allow your children to do so too. We will use the findings to help share good practice between families who are choosing to provide home education. Any personal information you provide will be kept strictly confidential. Your responses will be completely anonymous unless you choose to provide your contact details. 

Complete a parent's survey 

Complete a child's survey 

Educational resources 

The following resources are available to parents, with guidance and support in transitioning your child(ren) into and out of home-schooling.

• EHE guidance for parents (PDF) [245KB]
• London Borough of Hillingdon Policy (PDF) [321KB]
• Primary teaching resources (PDF) [2MB]
• Secondary teaching resources (PDF) [2MB]
• Useful websites and educational resources (PDF) [328KB]
• Health and wellbeing resources (PDF) [136KB]
• Transitioning from home schooling to school guide for parents (PDF) [327KB]

Useful websites

• Education Otherwise - a charity supporting and advising home educating families in England and Wales.
• Home Education Advisory Service - a charity that offers advice and practical support to families who wish to educate their children at home.
• Keeping children safe online - support and tips from the NSPCC to help you keep your child(ren) safe online.
• National curriculum for England - to be taught in all local-authority-maintained schools.
• Oak National Academy - free lessons and resources covering lots of subjects, from early years to year 11.
• UK Parliament - free education services for schools, colleges, communities and home educators.