Home education in Calderdale

Covers Calderdale Council (Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council), England. General information, not legal advice. Checked against the council's own pages on 2 November 2026.

After you deregister

To take your child out of school, you write to the head teacher with the date you want them off roll and say you intend to home educate. The school sends your letter and other paperwork on to the council, which then contacts you to talk through your choice (education at home). Our guide to deregistering has a letter you can adapt.

The council's guide for parents and carers (2026) says there's no legal requirement to tell it if your child has never been to school or you've just moved to Calderdale. Its web page still asks you to email the team with your child's name, date of birth and address if they've never attended. Its policy, dated March 2024, says each child is allocated a named officer.

If your child goes to a special school named in an EHC plan, the council has to consent before they come off roll. For any child with a plan, the home education team works with the SEND team on a review, and the guide warns that parts of the plan are likely to change and funding named in it could be withdrawn. Home education and SEND explains what the council still owes your child.

When the council gets in touch

The first meeting is meant to let you show progress, so the guide says it usually comes a few months in. Where a family needs help urgently, an officer may visit within the first few days. After that, contact is normally once a year, as a home visit or an informal meeting elsewhere, and the policy says the officer will look at your child's progress since the last contact.

You don't have to accept a visit. The DfE's guidance for parents says education law doesn't oblige you to agree to a meeting (paragraph 5.4), and Calderdale's own policy accepts that its safeguarding duty gives it no power to enter your home to monitor home education. A written report fits both, and how to reply to the council shows what goes in one.

If the council isn't satisfied, it makes informal enquiries first: more requests for visits or reports, phone or email contact, or suggestions for improving the provision. At that stage, the policy says, it also runs a benefits check to confirm your child still lives at the address. Only then comes a formal notice under section 437, giving you at least 15 days to respond. For how the policy measures up against national guidance, see reading your council's policy.

Exams

You arrange and pay for any exams your child takes. The council's education at home page points to two places for private candidates: Beacon Lights School and Tutors and Exams. The guide adds that some schools take external candidates and that the home education officer can advise. Finding an exam centre covers the rest.

For 14 to 16 courses, the council says Calderdale College expects a student to have been home educated for at least 12 months, with evidence of a suitable education in that time. Keeping in touch with your Education Welfare Officer is one way to show it, since the officer liaises with the college. Students still apply and have an interview, and courses start in September.

Support the council lists

• A drop-in at Customer First, 19 Horton Street, Halifax HX1 1QE, on Fridays in term time from 10am to 1pm, with no appointment.
• A careers officer for home-educated young people from C+K Careers. In Years 10 and 11 they can join the home education officer on an optional home visit to talk about post-16 options.
• The council's Play Development Service, for open access clubs.
• Calderdale SENDIASS, on 01422 266141, listed in the policy.
• For a return to school, an in-year transfer. Your child's old school isn't guaranteed.
• The council's complaints procedure.

Contacting the home education team

Email EHE@calderdale.gov.uk, or go to the Friday drop-in in Halifax.