Equipment and Financial Support
If you educate your child at home, you will not get any financial help from us.
You will need to pay for:
- all educational resources (such as books or computer)
- tuition fees
- exam fees
- You will not receive any money for free school meals.
If your child is of compulsory school age (between 5 and 16 years old) and you want to educate them at home, we would like you to contact us at EHE@leeds.gov.uk
What you need to do
If your child is of pre-school age then there is nothing you need to do, although the Local Authority would prefer that you send a letter to outline your intentions to EHE@leeds.gov.uk. Without this, you may continue to receive letters and contact from the LA asking you to apply for a school place or asking you to outline what education your child is receiving.
If you are withdrawing your child from school and he/she is of compulsory school age, you should write to your child’s school stating your intention to educate your child at home. The school has a duty under Section 12 (3) of “The Education (Pupil Registration) Regulations 2006” to inform the Local Authority that your child will be removed from the school registers. The school will take your child off the school roll and have no further responsibility for your child’s education. At this point, you assume full financial responsibility for your child’s education including funding for any formal assessments or examinations.
Leeds is a child friendly city, and we feel that in the interests of all children it is important that we maintain a dialogue with you about the education you are providing for your child.
What we need to do
As part of the Local Authorities informal enquiries, we would like to arrange to visit you at home, but if you prefer, we can meet somewhere else that suits you, hold a meeting online, or you can send us Information using our learning information form (LIF), or in a different form of your choice.
If we have any queries about your child’s education, we will write and let you know. You will always have the opportunity to work with us to resolve any issues.
As a Local Authority, we want to work with parents through our informal process to gather information about the education being provided so that we understand whether your child is in receipt of a suitable education. If the local authority receives little or no response to the request for information, we may assume that a child is not receiving suitable education, and where appropriate we will consider the legal options available to us to ensure your child returns to education as quickly as possible.