General information about England, not legal advice. The other UK nations have their own rules, and the law on home education is changing, so check the official pages linked below before you act.
What flexi-schooling is
The Department for Education describes it as an arrangement where a child is mainly home educated but attends school for part of their education, by agreement with the school. Your child stays on the school's admission register. On school days they're a pupil like any other. On home days, their education is your responsibility.
The school decides. GOV.UK draws the line like this: a school must accept it when you take your child out completely, but it can refuse if you want your child in school only some of the time. Schools are under no obligation to agree, says the DfE's guidance for parents, though some are happy to.
Don't confuse it with a part-time timetable. Schools use those in very exceptional cases, when a pupil can't manage full-time school for a while. A flexi-schooled child still gets a full-time education, split between home and school.
How the home days are recorded
Schools take attendance under the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, which give each reason for absence its own code. The DfE's statutory guidance, Working together to improve school attendance, was updated in July 2026 and now has a paragraph on flexi-schooling. If the school has agreed the arrangement and authorised absence for the sessions your child isn't there, those sessions "should be recorded using code C".
Code C is leave of absence, and the guidance counts it as authorised absence in the statistics. Two other codes don't apply:
- C2, the part-time timetable code, must not be used for a pupil who gets a full-time education but is only part-time at that school. The guidance names flexi-schooling as an example.
- B, approved educational activity, doesn't fit either. As the DfE's home education guidance for councils explains, the school has no supervisory role in your child's education at home and no responsibility for their welfare there.
In a council-maintained school, regulation 11 allows this kind of leave only when a parent the child normally lives with has asked in advance and the person authorised to grant leave thinks the circumstances are exceptional enough to justify it. Academies and independent schools aren't bound by regulation 11, but they still use code C. Whichever kind of school it is, put your request in writing before the arrangement starts.
The home days will show on your child's record as authorised absence. Some schools have worried that this counts against them at inspection. According to the council guidance it doesn't, though the school should be ready to explain its arrangements to Ofsted.
Where the council comes in
Your council has no part in the decision; the DfE guidance leaves it to the school. Some councils publish their own advice to schools anyway (here is Coventry's), so look on your council's website.
The home part is where the council does come in. Its home education guidance applies to flexi-schooled children as much as to anyone else. You still have to make sure your child gets a suitable, full-time education (the time at school counts towards it), and the council can make an informal enquiry about the home days.
Records for the home days
Keep a light record of the home days, as you would for full-time home education: what was covered, a few dated pieces of work, a short progress note each term. That's enough to answer a council enquiry, and it gives you something to bring to the school's reviews. There's more in what to keep, and how much is enough. The free hours calculator puts a rough number on a typical week, and the education record builder lays your notes out as a document you can print.
How to ask
Start by checking whether the school has a flexi-schooling policy, as some publish one. If it doesn't, write to the head teacher. Keep the letter short and offer to meet.
Dear [head teacher's name],
I would like to ask whether the school would agree to a
flexi-schooling arrangement for my child, [full name,
date of birth, class].
I am proposing that they attend school on [days] and are
educated at home on [days], from [date]. On home days I
will be responsible for their education, and I am asking
the school to authorise those sessions as leave of absence.
I would welcome a meeting to talk about how this could
work, including a date to review it after [half a term /
a term].
Yours sincerely,
[your name]You don't have to give reasons, but a head weighing up an unusual request will want to see it has been thought through. If the head says no, you have no right to fall back on. What you can do is ask what would change the decision, try again later, or apply for a place at another school.
What to agree before you start
Put the arrangement in writing and have both you and the school sign it. Cover:
- The days: which ones, and how swaps work when a trip, test or event lands on a home day.
- Who's responsible for what. Teaching on school days is the school's, and inspection holds it to account for your child's results; home days are yours. Agree whether the school will share what the class is doing.
- When you'll review it. A first review after half a term or a term, then regular ones.
- How it ends: how much notice either side gives, and what happens next, whether that's a return to full-time school or taking your child off the roll to home educate full-time.
AltEd's timetables and calendar can show school days and home days side by side, though AltEd has no connection to your child's school.
Flexi-schooling and the Children Not in School register
Section 38 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, adds a new section 436B to the Education Act 1996, under which every council in England must keep a register of children not in school.
Children with no school place aren't the only ones who'd be on it. A child on a school's roll is eligible too if the school has arranged or agreed that they'll be educated somewhere other than a school, and will be absent for some or all of the time a full-time pupil would attend. On its wording, that describes flexi-schooling. Regulations can say when such a child is or isn't to be treated as eligible. None have been made.
If your child is within scope, the Act gives you 15 days from when they become eligible to tell the council. The details include estimates of how much time they spend being educated by you and by others, and the council must then check for changes at least once a year.
The register isn't running yet. Section 38 came into force at Royal Assent only for the power to make regulations, and so far no commencement regulations bring the register in. For the latest, see our guide to the register.
What you gain and what you give up
Your child keeps their place and their friends, and gets things that are hard to provide at home: labs, team sport, music, specialist teachers. It can be a gentle route into school or out of it. A state school costs nothing for the days your child attends. The council guidance also notes that a school attended part-time may meet exam costs, which would otherwise fall to you.
The catch is that it all rests on one school's goodwill. A new head or a change of policy can end it. Your child misses whatever the timetable puts on home days and may need help catching up. The home days still count as absence on their record, even though it's authorised, and you get no help from the school on those days. And once the register starts, you may owe the council information as well.