General information about England, not legal or medical advice; it doesn't cover Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. The GOV.UK and NHS pages linked below are the ones to check before you rely on it.
What people mean by deschooling
"Deschooling" is a word you'll meet in home education groups and forums. It usually means the stretch after a child leaves school when the habits of the school day fall away and a family works out a different way of learning; some people use it of parents too. Online you'll find rules of thumb for how long it should last. None comes from the law or from government guidance.
The word has no legal meaning, and it lands differently depending on who hears it. In a group chat it can mean "we're taking it slowly". To a council officer it can sound like "we're not doing any education yet".
Is there a settling-in period?
Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 sets the duty with no start-up period: a parent must see that a child of compulsory school age gets an efficient, full-time education that suits their age, ability and aptitude and any special educational needs.
Councils work from the Department for Education's Elective home education guidance. It isn't law, but the version written for local authorities takes on the first weeks directly (paragraph 6.2):
- some families say they're entitled to a period of building up, or of "deschooling", and there is "no legal basis for such a position";
- a statement along those lines could be taken as a sign that the child isn't being properly educated;
- good home education develops with experience, and it would be unrealistic to judge it only a few days after it starts;
- families should still aim for satisfactory education from the outset, and a reasonable timescale should be agreed for them to develop it;
- there should be no significant period without suitable education, apart from reasonable holidays at appropriate points.
The parents' version tells you much the same (paragraph 5.5): early plans needn't be detailed, and you and the council should agree a reasonable time for showing your provision is in place, but there shouldn't be a significant break between the end of school and education at home. The local authority guidance also accepts that families may need a period of adjustment before finding the way of learning that suits them, and may change approach over time (paragraph 10.15). There's room to find your feet, then, and none for a gap in education.
What counts as full-time
The law doesn't define "full-time" education, at home or at school (parents' guidance, paragraph 2.7), and you don't need a timetable, set hours, or school days and terms (paragraph 2.8). You should still be able to give a rough idea of how much of your child's time it takes up. Education that "clearly is not occupying a significant proportion of a child's life" probably won't meet the requirement (paragraph 2.9).
Informal learning counts. Under the local authority guidance, autonomous and self-directed approaches are judged on their outcomes (paragraph 2.4), and councils shouldn't lay down rigid rules about how a day runs or which subjects are followed (paragraph 9.4).
Squaring the law with a child who needs to recover
Many children come out of school after a hard time. The parents' guidance lists bullying and health, particularly mental health, among the reasons families choose home education. A child in that state may not manage worksheets for a while, and nothing says they have to.
It helps to treat the first weeks as a lighter, slower kind of education rather than a break from it. Read together. Go somewhere, and talk afterwards about what you saw. Let them chase something they care about, and keep a note of it all. That's easier on a tired child, and you can describe it honestly if anyone asks.
When you do describe it, say what your child is doing and learning, not what the period is called. "We read for an hour most days and spent Tuesday at the local museum" tells a council far more than "we're deschooling", and it doesn't invite the reading the guidance warns about.
First-week activities that leave a record
| Activity | What to jot down |
|---|---|
| Reading, alone or aloud | Titles, pages or chapters, what you talked about |
| A trip to a museum, library or park | Where, what they looked at, a photo or a drawing after |
| A project they choose | The question, what they found out, anything they made |
| Cooking, shopping or planning a budget | The maths in it: weighing, totals, change, timings |
| Documentaries, podcasts, conversations | The topic, and one thing they could explain afterwards |
| A short daily routine | What fills it, even if it's only an hour or two at first |
None of these needs to look like school, but they do need to happen, and you need to be able to show that they did. Add a little structure or time as your child steadies.
Keep a simple log from day one
One line a day is enough: the date, what your child did, roughly how long, and anything they made or said that showed what they'd learned. Add photos and dated pieces of work as they come.
A notebook will do, or a note on your phone. Once things settle, home education records covers the fuller version. For the question of time, the free hours calculator does the sums for a typical week, and the education record builder helps you write it all up for a council, with no account needed.
An early letter from the council
When a school takes a child off its roll for home education, it tells the council, so a letter or email may follow, perhaps within weeks, perhaps months later. Most often it's an informal enquiry asking what education you're providing. The steps for leaving school are in how to deregister your child from school.
Strictly, you needn't reply. If you don't, though, the council can conclude from your silence that your child doesn't seem to be getting a suitable education (parents' guidance, paragraph 5.3). A written reply is usually the simplest course, and for a family only a few weeks in it can cover:
- when your child left school and that you've started home education;
- what they've been doing so far, with a few examples from your log;
- what you plan to add over the coming weeks and months;
- that you're happy to agree a reasonable timescale for the rest of your provision, as the guidance describes.
You can turn down a visit or a meeting. What a fuller reply looks like, and what happens if a council isn't satisfied, is in when your council asks about home education.
When it starts, the Children Not in School register will oblige you to send your council some details. It hasn't yet: on 23 October 2026, legislation.gov.uk showed the new section 436B in force only for making regulations. Our guide to the register has what's known so far.
If your child's mental health is a worry
If your child is struggling, that comes before any council letter. Without a teacher or school nurse to ask, a GP is usually the first person to talk to. The NHS says you can speak to a GP with or on behalf of your child. The GP can tell you what's available locally and refer your child to children and young people's mental health services. A parent or carer can also refer a child to those services directly, and your local service's website explains how.
If you need help urgently, the NHS page on where to get urgent help for mental health says to use 111 online, or call 111 and choose the mental health option. If someone's life is at risk, call 999 or go to A&E.
Further reading
- Educating your child at home, GOV.UK's short summary of the rules.
- Elective home education, the DfE guidance quoted above, in both its versions.
- Mental health for children, teenagers and young adults on the NHS website.