Providing a full-time education
Parents are required to provide an efficient, full-time education suitable to the age, ability and aptitude of the child. There is currently no legal definition of "full-time". Children normally attend school for between 22 and 25 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, but this measurement of "contact time" is not relevant to EHE where there is often almost continuous one-to-one contact and education may take place outside normal "school hours."
The type of educational activity can be varied and flexible. Home educating parents are not required to:
- Have a timetable
- Set hours during which education will take place
- Observe school hours, days or terms
The question of whether an education for a specific child is full-time will depend on the facts of each case; but parents should at least be able to quantify and demonstrate the amount of time for which your child is being educated. Education which clearly is not occupying a significant proportion of a child’s life (making due allowance for holiday periods) will probably not meet the s.7 requirement.
We recognise that there are many, equally valid, approaches to an educational provision. We will, therefore, consider a wide range of information from home educating parents, in a range of formats. The information may be in the form of specific examples of learning e.g. pictures/paintings/models, diaries of educational activity, projects, assessments, samples of work, books, educational visits etc.
As per current government guidelines in our consideration of parents' provision of education at home, we may reasonably expect the provision to include the following characteristics:
- consistent involvement of parents or other significant carers - it is expected that parents or significant carers would play a substantial role, although not necessarily constantly or actively involved in providing education
- recognition of the child's needs, attitudes and aspirations
- opportunities for the child to be stimulated by their learning experiences
- access to resources/materials required to provide home education for the child - such as paper and pens, books and libraries, arts and crafts materials, physical activity, ICT and the opportunity for appropriate interaction with other children and other adults.
If we consider that a suitable education is not being provided, then we will write to parents informing them of this. If we are not satisfied that a suitable education is being provided, and the parents, having been given a reasonable opportunity to address the identified concerns and report back to us have not done so, we will consider sending a formal notice to the parents under section 437 before moving on, if needed, to the issuing of a school attendance order (section 437(1)). See paragraphs above.