Is Homeschooling Legal in the UK?
One of the most popular ways of having your child in full-time education is that you keep them in homeschooling. It is the system in which you keep your kids at home and they study sitting at home. This is the best way of keeping your child in education if you are not satisfied with the school curriculum. However, you may not be sure whether it is legal to keep your child in homeschooling or not.
Quick Takeaways
However, you must read till the end so that you get a better understanding of if homeschooling is legal or not in the UK.
Is it legal to give your child homeschooling?
In the UK, teaching your children at home, whether part-time or full-time, is legally allowed by the government and it is referred to as elective home education. Before starting your homeschooling plans, you should let the school know if your child is already studying in a school.
It is important, as the school must accept your decision if you are completely pulling your child out of the school. Whereas it may refuse it if you want to send your child to school part-time. You must also initially get the council’s approval if your child is liable for a school attendance order. Homeschooling is the one way of teaching students if they are not willing to go to school.
What are the requirements for homeschooling in the UK?
There are generally no specific requirements to get homeschooled in the UK. As the government had made it compulsory to keep your child in education, you must give them full-time education at home itself. Giving them full-time education does not mean that you have to stick with the school hours. When your child is taking homeschooling, you may also not need to follow the national curriculum. All you need to take care of is that they are getting a suitable fu time education.
When did homeschooling become legal in the UK?
It became legal to teach your child at home in 1996. It was protected by human rights legislation and was mentioned under the education act 1996. This law states that every parent in the UK can give the students home education without any interference from the state. However, after 2009 it was made compulsory to register the students who are taking home education. This was done to safeguard the students who were at risk of being abused at the home.
Can you homeschool in the UK for free?
Yes, you can homeschool your child for free in the UK. With each passing year, there is an increase in the number of parents who are taking homeschooling. You can find a lot of free resources to help your child to study at home. Some of the most common free resources for homeschooling are BBC Bitesize, BBC Teach, Oxford Owl, etc.
Do parents get paid for homeschooling UK?
No, you will not get paid for teaching your kids at home. You are treated like all the other parents who are sending their students to school. Thus how many universal credits you will get will be based on a similar manner to the other students.
Can you claim benefits if you homeschool your child in the UK?
You get child benefits for each of your kids. The benefit you get for the first kid is generally higher than the benefits that you get for the second kid. Similarly, the benefits that you will get for the third kid will be lower than the other kids. When you are homeschooling your kids, it is officially listed in the education system. Thus it will not stop you from getting the child benefits.
What are the benefits of homeschooling?
Following are some of the benefits of homeschooling your child-
- It will help you to get safe from the huge tuition fees. As your child is not going to the educational institution, you will et save from giving the huge amount of tuition fees.
- You can help to promote the skills and talent of your kids.
- Not every kid is comfortable studying during school hours. Thus it will give you the flexibility to teach them according to their time.
- You can also teach them through Zentangle for increasing their creativity level in them.
- As your child is studying at home, they will not get any homework. It means you will not need to take the tension for completing the homework.
- You can enrol your child in other extracurricular activities.
- There is no requirement of taking GCSEs during homeschooling.
What are the drawbacks of homeschooling?
Following are some of the drawbacks of homeschooling your child-
- When your child is in school or any educational institution, they get to participate in various fun activities. This is not the case during homeschooling.
- The subjects in which your child is interested, may not be a cup of coffee for you. And thus you may not be able to teach them properly.
- You have to manage everything for your kids, due to which you may feel stressed.
- If you are already a working parent, then it will be a big problem for you to manage the work and teach your kids.
Conclusion
Homeschooling is one of the legal and most popular ways of keeping your child in education. You can do homeschooling both part-time and full-time. When you homeschool your child, it does not affect you from claiming the child’s benefits. Though if your child is already studying in the school, then you will have to make sure that you are informing the school about your decision. This is because they have the choice to disagree with the decision of sending their child to school part-time.
