Home education in Wakefield

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

After you deregister

Wakefield's elective home education page asks you to put your decision, and your reasons, in writing to the head teacher. The school then sends your letter and a referral form to the Education Welfare Service. The law doesn't require a reason, as our guide to leaving school for home education explains, so how much you say is up to you.

Under a voluntary agreement with the council, schools are asked to keep your child on roll for 10 days and offer you a meeting in that time. If you want your child taken off the roll straight away, say so in writing. Once that's done the place is gone, and the council warns there's no guarantee of getting back into the same school. Free school meals also stop.

The service then triages the referral, contacts you, and sends guidance, a welcome letter and a Plan of Education form. If your child has never been at school, you're asked to tell the service yourself at ehe@wakefield.gov.uk.

If your child has an EHC plan, tell the council's special educational needs assessment and review team, SENART (senart@wakefield.gov.uk). If your child attends a specialist provision the council arranged, they can't come off the roll without SENART's consent. At a mainstream school, the council asks that your plan of education shows how you'll meet the needs set out in the EHC plan. Our article on SEND and home education covers the national rules.

When the council gets in touch

The council's parents' guide says it will "primarily" gather your plan through a home visit but will accept the information in other ways. Its 2025 policy goes further for families who'd rather not have a visit: you can meet an officer at a library or family hub instead, or not meet at all, and the team will support you by other means.

If the plan looks suitable, the first informal enquiry comes about three months after home education starts, and the next about 12 months after that, or more often if you agree. Where the council has concerns, it sets them out in a letter and asks for more detail. If they can't be resolved, it may start the process towards a school attendance order.

Two lines in Wakefield's documents ask more than national guidance does. The guide says you're "expected to provide evidence" of a suitable education. The policy says case law lets the council judge the education unsuitable if you refuse to send samples of work or let your child be spoken to. The DfE's guidance for parents says education law doesn't oblige you to agree to a meeting or produce specific evidence, but that if you don't do enough to satisfy the council, it may conclude the education isn't suitable. Two of our guides help here: answering an informal enquiry and reading your council's policy.

Exams

Wakefield doesn't run exams itself. You find a centre that accepts external candidates and pay the entry fees, and the guide points out that schools and colleges don't have to take your child. Our guide to booking a private candidate centre explains the costs.

The council's own arrangement is with Heart of Yorkshire College, which has a limited number of part-time places in Year 11 for home-educated young people registered with the council. You fill in the college's application yourself, and places go on each young person's merit. Other colleges run courses too, some from Year 10, so ask them directly. A child on a college course stays registered as home educated.

Support the council lists

• Careers help from Connexions Wakefield for young people aged 13 and over, and from the council's Step Up (Young People) service for 15 to 24 year olds, which helps with CVs, interviews and finding training or work.
• The West Yorkshire Healthier Together school nursing service, on 01924 310130, for health questions and vaccinations.
• A one-page list of free remote learning resources, and in the guide, the Wakefield Local Offer and the WESAIL information and advice service for SEND.
• The council doesn't arrange work experience for home-educated children.

To go back to school, apply through School Admissions on 01924 306052 or at admissions@wakefield.gov.uk. The Education Welfare Service says it can help with the application.

Contacting the home education team

Email the Education Welfare Service at ehe@wakefield.gov.uk, or phone 01924 307451. Its address is Block C, Normanton Town Hall, High Street, Normanton WF6 2DZ.