Scottish withdrawal letter

Your LA website should have information about Home Education and will tell you who to contact (via email or in writing).

• 1. You should request consent to withdraw your child from their school (provide child’s name and the name of their school).

  2. Attach your plans as a separate document, using the guide HERE to write them.

  3. You may wish to include a sentence requesting there be no data sharing, particularly with the school (note the updated guidelines are less clear on if the school should be involved in the process and some LAs will contact them).

  4. If your child will not be attending whilst you wait for consent, ie for their mental well-being, you can ask for consent to be processed quickly. Legally your child should stay in school until written consent is received, however guidelines state “the local authority should take a reasonable approach to attendance procedures and…have regard to any distress that the child may experience by continuing to attend school while awaiting the request”.

  5. You do NOT have to state your reasons for asking consent. We recommend not stating dissatisfaction, particularly with regards to unmet ASN, as this can unnecessarily delay the process.

  6. You may want to state if your child should/not have a Named Person within the LA (some councils still run an opt in/out Named Person scheme and your child’s head teacher may be their Named Person currently).

  7. You can read our joke template letters HERE as an example of how to write them. 

Remember that we do NOT deregister in Scotland, we withdraw. Using the phrase deregister highlights to the Local Authority that you may not fully understand the process and invite more questioning than necessary.

Your name and address.

Date

Local Authority name and address

Dear X

Re – (Child’s name – date of birth –School details )

I/we am writing to ask for consent to withdraw CHILD from XX SCHOOL to Home Educate them. I/we have given this decision very careful consideration and discussion and are aware of our legal duty to Home Educate them in accordance with section 30 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, ensuring they are provided a suitable education.

We have enclosed information about the proposed home education provision and expect that this is adequate information to support our request.

Yours sincerely