Home education in Birmingham

Covers Birmingham City Council, England. General information, not legal advice. Checked against the council's own pages on 2 November 2026.

After you deregister

You don't need permission to home educate, but if your child is on a school roll you must tell the school in writing, and the school then tells the council. The council also asks you to email its team yourself, and its home education page offers referral forms for parents, professionals and schools (home education, Birmingham City Council). It advises schools to hold a place for 10 days so problems can be looked at with the council's help.

If your child left school after an exclusion, the guidance says a return to school would be to the City of Birmingham School or a different mainstream school, not the one they left.

Before you deregister, the council asks you to think a few things through: whether a problem at school can be fixed first, what each subject will involve, and what it will cost, since there's no funding for home educators. It also warns that once your child's name comes off the register, another place at that school may be hard to get back, and says it's happy to help you find a school place if you change your mind (what to consider).

For the steps themselves, and when someone else has to agree first, see how to deregister from school in England.

When the council gets in touch

The council's guidance for parents, updated in December 2025, sets out what happens. You're allocated an EHE advisor, who will make contact within 10 days for an initial discussion about your plans: the resources you'll use, how you'll check progress, how English, maths and science fit in, any exams, and any special educational needs. Your first education review comes in week 12, and if the advisor has no reason to think the education isn't suitable, reviews after that are at least once a year. You get a signed copy of each outcome.

The advisor agrees with you how to assess the education, which can be a written report or a visit at home or somewhere you choose. The guidance itself says you aren't legally required to let anyone into your home or to agree to your child being seen. It does ask about noise and space at home, which goes further than the DfE's guidance; our guides on replying to the council and reading your council's policy explain what a reply needs and what a policy can't require.

If the education is judged unsuitable, the advisor explains what to improve and gives you 7 days to respond. After that the council can serve a notice asking for information within 15 days, and then a school attendance order.

Exams

The council doesn't arrange exams. Its qualifications page says you pay for and organise any qualification yourself, that GCSEs and IGCSEs can be taken at any age, and that some schools may help former pupils, especially if they were still on the register during Key Stage 4. It also mentions ASDAN and other qualifications as alternatives to GCSEs.

For 14 to 16 year olds, the council's page names a home education programme at Bournville College; contact the college to ask about places (Elected Home Education in Birmingham). To find a centre that takes private candidates, see our guide to exam centres.

Support the council lists

• National organisations, from Education Otherwise and the Home Education Advisory Service to IPSEA, the Scouts and BBC Bitesize (further help and support).
• District drop-in sessions across the city's ten districts, where you can meet your EHE advisor alongside health, youth and Family Hub services and home education groups.
• An invitation to home-educating groups in the city to join a working group with the council on how it supports families.
• FOLIO Sutton Coldfield, a residents' group that wants to hear from home educators about activities they'd like at Sutton Coldfield library.
• Health services open to home-educated children: the school health texting service for 11s and over, a virtual school nurse drop-in on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and Forward Thinking Birmingham for mental health (Birmingham School Health Support Service).

Contacting the home education team

Elective Home Education, Birmingham City Council, Lancaster Circus, Birmingham B4 7DJ. Phone 0121 464 7215, or email home.education@birmingham.gov.uk.