Inform the future of home education
Do you want to help inform the future of home education through your own…
Educational Freedom is a non-profit organisation providing Home Education information and support. Our primary purpose is ensuring all Home Educators have access to FREE information and support. We aim to provide everything you could ever need to know about Home Education.
A great way of ensuring your Home Education journey goes smoothly is to read all of this website. The menu at the top will help you navigate each section.
Making the decision to Home Educate can be daunting. But be assured that there is plenty of support out there! There are lots of families that have been in your situation, and we have supported tens of thousands of them.
Read through all of our website to learn all about Home Education. Use the menu to navigate through all of our pages especially the WHAT TO DO FIRST page for your country. Navigating through each page in turn really will help you understand everything you need to do. Then move on to the dealing with the LA section.
PLEASE NOTE: MOST PAGES SHOULD NOT BE READ AS A STAND ALONE PAGE, ENSURE YOU READ THE INFO IN OTHER MENTIONED PAGES TOO.
Where to find us after you've read our website.
These are articles and news updates, to be read as extra to the rest of our site.
Here’s a sneak peak at our public FB page feed where we share factual info as well as fun memes. Join our closed group for advice and to chat to other home educators.
Local authorities can make informal enquiries — but many families don’t realise why. Identifying children who are genuinely missing education is part of their statutory duty, and it’s usually the EHE team who carry this out. If you’re home educating, or thinking about it, it helps to know what these enquiries are (and aren’t), what you’re expected to provide, and how to respond confidently without feeling pressured. We’ve put together straightforward guidance, real‑world examples, and supportive resources to help you navigate LA contact with clarity and calm. Visit Educational Freedom for more on your rights, responsibilities, and how to handle enquiries.
One of the first things that becomes obvious when you step into the home education world is just how different it can look from one family to the next. There isn’t one version of it. No single approach that everyone is quietly following
How to respond to LA enquiries about Home Ed, and what to expect from the LA. This is a very simplified version so please do give our site a good read to fully understand it all. The LA (usually EHE team) can make informal enquiries. It is their job to identify children missing education. Their informal enquiries might ask for a visit, a phone call, for you to fill in their forms or provide a report. You can choose how to respond, we advise providing information in a report. You have a paper trail then. The guide on our website talks you through the information the LA needs and what it doesn’t. If you don’t provide suitable information the LA will ask for more, they may do it nicely, they may threaten an SAO. Either way you must respond. But you never have to provide photos or samples. Just a suitably written report with written examples. If after being asked for more info you fail to provide adequate detail, the LA can start formal proceedings with a request for info within 15 days, if that fails they will serve and SAO.
After deregistration, some local authorities may make informal contact to ask about your educational provision. It is important to understand that parents are not legally required to accept home visits. Communication can take place in writing. Providing a clear and concise written overview of your educational approach is often sufficient. Responding politely and calmly is usually the most effective approach. Being informed about your rights significantly reduces stress during these interactions
We have many decades of hands on Home Education experience between us and many years as a professional support service.
Our team is made up of people from all walks of life, and all styles of Home Education.
We never have, nor will we ever, charge Home Educators a fee to access our website, personal support or anything else.
However, we do have costs such as web hosting, so feel free to donate.
Our aim is that our website contains everything you should need to know.
Beyond that we have a Facebook Page where you can connect with other Home Educators and our amazing admin team. We also have the option to contact us, for those times where you don’t have Facebook.
Staffordshire website design and website SEO by Fellowship Studios.
