Moving to England to have Home education, help

[hscroatia]

Hi,

We are parents who would like to homeschool our child. We currently live in Croatia where this is not legally possible. We really checked out all of the options and the only thing that we can do is to move out of Croatia.

Since we have a lot of friends in UK we thought that it would be good option to register our child in English school, and then do homeschooling.

We really checked out the benefits of homeschooling and think that it is really important that our child gets this chance in life.

We are both highly educated and ready and willing.

If there is anyone who went through similar situation, we would appreciate your suggestions, ideas, and anything that can help us go through this easier.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome!

I don't know anyone from Croatia, but I have met a few German families who have moved to the UK in order to home educate their children. I admire your dedication: it is a big leap to leave your home country in order to educate your child in the way you want.

The UK is a good choice for home education. The legal freedoms for home educating families are among the best in the world. Home ed is also a fairly popular option here, so if you want to get together with other families then you will be able to do that. Some areas have more home educated children than others. If that is important to you, then you may want to consider that in deciding where to live.

The educational laws are slightly different in the four countries of the UK, so be sure that you know the laws which apply to whichever country you will live in. For example, if you decide to move to Scotland instead of England then be sure to check out Scottish law on home education.

You don't have to register your child at a school in order to home educate. In fact, you cannot have your child registered at a school while home educating. When you arrive in the country, you do not have to inform the government, or anyone else, that you are home educating. No one is watching over your shoulder. The only legal requirement is that you must educate your child!

There are no required subjects. You do not have to do formal "schoolwork" unless you want to. You do not have to do a minimum number of hours, or use a schedule to educate your child at particular time of the day. You don't have to use English.

Good luck, and let us know if you have any questions!

Thank you for your quick reply.

This is all great information, but first we need to do some paperwork so we can come to the position where our child is set for Home School.

If we say that we are moving to UK for schooling (we need to give some reason to our Government), then we need to have the school or some other educational institution in which we are registering our child to. We can see that in UK you do not have to enroll your child to regular school if you plan to do Home Education, but we need some paper (for Croatian Governement) that is showing that our child is enrolled in some education system.

So my question is: Where can we get some paper that our child is enrolled in Education System in UK.

Best would be that this some institution, because this is how government operates here.

Thank you very much for your help. We really appreciate this.

Oh, I see! You have to get permission from the Croatian government in order to leave Croatia?? That surprises me. I didn't know that!

Will you need to continue to supply them with information about your child's education every year while you live abroad, or only once when you are leaving?

I don't understand how you can provide proof that your child is enrolled in a school abroad, before you have left Croatia. In England you can only enrol your child in a state school when you are already living here. I imagine many other countries have the same arrangement. That would be a problem for all Croatians moving to England, not just people who plan to home educate.

How do other people who are emigrating from Croatia (who do plan to send their children to school) solve this problem?

Sorry for all the questions! It's a new idea to me, that you might be subject to Croatian law on education while living in another country. I had assumed you would only have to comply with English law.

You cannot apply for a school in the UK unless you actually live here so you need to come first and then apply to your local Education Authority from a UK address. They will then allocate you a place at the nearest available school and you go from there.

I suppose you could register at a Private school and pays the deposit and the first terms fees, that might work.

Sorry, now I see that I didn't explain the situation very good.

So, since we are in EU we don't need permission to leave the country. We are not even emigrating, this is only the case when people are not from the EU let's say.
Our plan is like this. First we are going to move to UK, then enroll the child in some school (just to get the paper that the child is enrolled in school, or if we can get this paper from some association or some legal institution, then we wouldn't even enroll in regular UK school).

Then we will bring this papers to Croatian government, that we moved, with the reason of schooling and then show them the new address in the UK.

This is why it is important that we unregister our child from the Croatian address. This should be all done before local Croatian school sends us invitation for testing for school.

So really we just need some paperwork to satisfy the local police.

Other question is about certificates or paper that the child finished certain grade. I saw some online schools that send you certificates where you can enter subjects and grades. Even if it's not about grades for me and my wife, we still live in the world where people believe to the paper more than anything else. If you understand what I mean.

Sorry, now I see that I didn't explain the situation very good.

So, since we are in EU we don't need permission to leave the country. We are not even emigrating, this is only the case when people are not from the EU let's say.
Our plan is like this. First we are going to move to UK, then enroll the child in some school (just to get the paper that the child is enrolled in school, or if we can get this paper from some association or some legal institution, then we wouldn't even enroll in regular UK school).

Then we will bring this papers to Croatian government, that we moved, with the reason of schooling and then show them the new address in the UK.

This is why it is important that we unregister our child from the Croatian address. This should be all done before local Croatian school sends us invitation for testing for school.

So really we just need some paperwork to satisfy the local police.

Other question is about certificates or paper that the child finished certain grade. I saw some online schools that send you certificates where you can enter subjects and grades. Even if it's not about grades for me and my wife, we still live in the world where people believe to the paper more than anything else. If you understand what I mean.

You don't need permission to leave Croatia so why not give a different reason than "education".

There are educational organisations that cater specifically to the home education community - e.g. stoneburylearning.co.uk/small-school/ which you could register with?

The only papers that your child might need in later life are GCSE and A levels, which are public examinations which need to be sat in person (normally at age 16 or 18 but that's completely flexible). How your child prepares for that is up to you/them - you could formally teach yourself, child could self teach (at least for GCSE) from books or online, or you could go to a private tutor for certain subjects.

I think you could get a letter from the LA that says you are homeschooling. The link below is for my local council, they have an EHE-coordinator - ie someone who works for the council and advises parents on things like taking exams.

You may be charged for a letter but I don't see why an EHE coordinator couldn't write saying "these are the rules in England, and the child is registered to receive HE"

www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/article/3303/Educating-your-child-at-home

BTW, although the UK is one nation we are separate countries within that, the law in England can be quite different, Scotland has a different education system to England and Wales and NI may also have different rules. So pick your country within the EU.

Within the UK I mean not the EU

Do you just want to de-register from your address but remain in Croatia?

You are EU citizens and as such you are free to live and work anywhere in the EU. If you do come to the UK you follow the country's laws so you would be free to home educate your child.
You would need to find employment and somewhere to live, what area are you thinking off?

Wow, Croatia to the UK! :)

How old are your kids? The elephant in the room is that, if you're looking for a stable home-educating environment for more than a couple of years, the UK may not be the best choice in the EU? Because literally nobody knows what will happen when we're no longer members of the EU - it might mean the upheaval of another country move?

I'm still confused about proving to the Croatian government that your child is being educated abroad. Usually the laws of a country only apply to people who live there. (There are exceptions. For example, US citizens are subject to American taxation wherever they live, and Israelis have to do military service even if they live abroad.)

Why do you have to provide your government with any information about your child's education when you live in another country? What happens if you simply pack your things and leave?

You can enroll your child in any school after you have moved to the UK. Then you would need to deregister them in order to home educate in England.

Sorry but just to be clear - when I write "any school" I do mean that you would be allocated a local authority school place which you would have to accept in order to have your child registered in formal education. After that you can then de register for home education. This may be one way around your government's requirement for paper work.

You could also register at a fee paying school in order to do the same thing.

We travel a lot, but there is a period of at least 6 months in which we are in Croatia.

Let me explain the situation in Croatia. Then I will have to research little bit about LA and EHE coordinators and GCSE.

I just want to thank you all so much, I already saved a lot of time.

So our child is currently registered on Croatian address. Every year the Croatian local elementary schools get the list of all registered children in age from 6.5 in their area. Then they have to send invitation to this addresses for children to see psychiatrist and to see the doctor to check that the children are healthy and properly vaccinated, to prepare for the upcoming year.

So it kinda military style :)

This is why we have to get the new address, so when they check children in that area our child will not be there.

And the place where you change your address is police. So really first we need paper that he lives somewhere else (no matter the reason), then if in any reason they ask us where is your child going in school, then we sould be able to show them paper that our child is attending this or that school (this is why this should be some formal body that is educational institution).

I hope you can feel in what kind of situation we are.

So you aren't actually moving? Sorry I am a little confused :)

In our travel we spend 2-3 months in UK too. Mostly England.

We really travel a lot.
If this answers your question.

Have you already got a fixed address in the UK?

I'm reading it that the OP is temporarily coming to the uk. While she is here she wants to register here child with a UK school. When she returns to Croatia after 2-3 months in the UK she wants to show the authorities in Croatia a letter showing that her child is registered with a UK school.
This would allow her to HE her child in Croatia without the authorities questioning where the child is because they think the child is in a UK school.
The child will never actually attend a UK school.
That's how I read it. Apologies if I'm wrong OP.

Something to be aware of - if your child doesn't attend the UK school they are registered with, then you can be fined or struck off the register after a certain number of weeks. So if the Croatain police called or wrote to the UK school to check they may say that your child is not registered there, if they haven't been attending.

You kids are seen by a psychiatrist?