Home education in Cornwall

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

The Isles of Scilly are a separate council. If you're unsure which one covers you, put your postcode into find your local council on GOV.UK.

After you deregister

You write to the head teacher. The school takes your child off its register and tells the council, which then registers your child as home educated (if you decide to home educate). The council's bitesize guide (August 2024) says it will send you a home education pack and contact you about the work you're planning. You can meet face to face or reply by phone, email or in writing. It gives no timescale. For a letter to copy and the steps in general, see how to deregister your child from school.

If your child has never been to school, the council would appreciate being told, though the guide says you're under no legal obligation to register. Either parent with parental responsibility can send the deregistration letter, unless a court order says otherwise.

Cornwall's educating your child at home page says you'll need its permission first if your child attends a special school or an alternative provider. It recommends talking to the Statutory SEN Team before you deregister, since some SEND support services become limited once a child is off roll. For a child with an EHC plan, the council's SEND and home education page suggests an early or interim annual review first. The national rule today is about special school places the council arranged. SEND and home education has the detail, and what changes once the 2026 Act starts.

When the council gets in touch

If what you send satisfies it, the council then contacts you once a year for an update, and to check you're still home educating and that it has your details right. That contact could be a home visit, a phone call, a video call or email, depending on your circumstances and preferences (our responsibilities). The bitesize guide calls all informal contact voluntary.

You can report through the online EHE record, or send records in your own format to eheadmin@cornwall.gov.uk. The council's page on education reports says parents aren't legally obliged to provide information, and that a statement of intent isn't enough unless you've only just started. Its suitable education statement (June 2026) calls the record a template you don't have to use.

Two Cornwall documents put numbers on the week. The SEND page recommends at least 15 hours a week on maths, English and sciences. The bitesize guide offers a school's 22 to 25 hours a week as a guide, while saying there's no requirement to match it. The DfE's guidance for local authorities says there's no legal definition of full-time (9.8), and that councils shouldn't set rigid criteria such as the subjects to be followed (9.4). On visits, the guidance for parents says education law doesn't oblige you to agree to a meeting (5.4). How to reply to the council and what to look for in a council policy cover replying in writing and reading a policy against the guidance.

Exams

The council's educational support page says Cornwall College offers home-educated learners entry to AQA GCSE maths and English exams. Email eheadmin@cornwall.gov.uk for the application form. For other subjects, you arrange and pay for entries yourself with an exam centre. The bitesize guide says there are no grants to help, and the costs may include travel out of Cornwall. Exam centres for private candidates explains how to find a centre.

The same page says young people who'd be in Year 11 in the coming September can apply for pre-16 programmes at Cornwall College and Truro and Penwith College.

Support the council lists

• Educational support: work experience, careers advice and resource lists by age.
• Other support for home educating: health, child employment, safeguarding, national and regional home education groups, and a private Facebook group the council runs.
• SEND Local Offer.

Contacting the home education team

• Home education team: eheadmin@cornwall.gov.uk.
• Education Welfare Service: 01872 324298 (9am to 4:45pm, Monday to Friday, term time only) or educationwelfare@cornwall.gov.uk.
• Statutory SEN Team, for questions about an EHC plan before you deregister: statutorysen@cornwall.gov.uk.