Technical question about registering my 3.8yo for reception this September.

[Callisto]

I'm in the process (against my better judgement) of registering my dd for primary school - there is a school in the area I would send her to if I absolutely had to or if she decided that she wants to go to school. However, does this mean that I would have to deregister and send a letter to the school if she doesn't actually start in Sept with all of the LEA involvement that this might entail?

I assume you mean what would you do if you were offered a place, you didn't want. I think you could get away with just telephoning the school and saying you don't want the place. They might ask why you don't want the place and you could just say you've accepted a place at another school.

I think you should talk to the admissions team in your area. If you have had a registration pack from them she is obviously already on their list of children due to start school and they will be chasing you up anyway.

If you are home schooling I think you have to be prepared for a certain level of LEA involvement, they have to be sure you are actually educating your child, not just keeping them out of school. Its probably better to be proactive and them them you are home schooling, rather than wait for them to chase you up.

To deregister from a school it's just a quick letter to the school saying that you will be homeschooling instead & they notify the admissions team.

If you are sure that you really do not want a place at school, it seems a waste of everyones time applying & it could deny a family who really do want the place. However from your message, you still sound a bit unsure, so you might want to apply anyway.

Thanks for the replies. Personally I'm very sure that I don't want dd starting reception in Sept, but unfortuately my partner and his family don't agree. I still need to thrash the details out with him and need to be sure that if it comes to it, I can send her to this school as the other primary is awful. I do take your point about denying another family a place though.

I'm not sure if you technically would have to send a letter to deregister her if you've accepted a place but she hasn't actually attended school, but if/when you decide you definitely don't want the place then you should certainly let them know in writing to keep everything clear.

You would only have to tell them that you will not be taking up the place, not specifically that you have decided to Home educate, though they may then get back in touch to ask where she will be getting educated.

Please don't follow Icantfinda freenickname's advice, but take advice from people with experience of Home Education

As far as I can tell from people I know IRL and online, LA involvement is a hassle and very very rarely something Home Educators find valuable for themselves in any way.

"they have to be sure you are actually educating your child, not just keeping them out of school.". No. They don't. THe legal responsibility for educating a child rests with its parents, who may choose to exercise that responsibility either by sending them to school OR OTHERWISE. If LAs have reason to believe that an education suitable to the age, aptitude, ability and any SEN of the child is NOT taking place, then they have a legal responsibility to investigate. But they have no legal remit to assess, regularly or otherwise, the educational provision offered to every child (which is a damn good thing for the mainstream, or there'd be a hell of a lot of schools facing prosecution for failing in their duty).

Callisto - I think lots of people apply to more than one school, and then when they get a place at the preferred one, they turn down the place at the non-preferred one. Or they decide to go private instead. All you would need to do would be to write to them saying "gosh, thank you for the place but we have decided to make private arrangements for our child's education". Bam. And no need for anyone to know whether that means you're going private or HEing or... exercising your legal right not to be educating your child at all until the term after they become 5 (obviously, you'll need to keep them locked in a cupboard 24/7 to actually stop them learning like a little sponge, but I'm sure you could manage it if you really worked at it). Even if you are on a list, the LA have no business being in touch with you in any way until the term after they become 5, and if they try to get in touch, you can tell them where to shove it. Politely.

(I'm feeling really agressive today. Third trimester-itis)

Agree with Onward.
Disagree with ICantFindAFreeNickName
After eight years of home educating and dealing with the LA on my own behalf and that of others, I suggest that if you don't have to be known to them, you should consider staying that way as long as possible.
IMHO and experience, there is nothing that the LA can give me that I can get quicker/better/faster from the home ed community

AS I understand it, since the rules changed around registration of schools, as soon as your child is put down for a place in a particular school, he does in effect become a registered pupil.
If you choose then not to send him after all, you will have to write a deregistration letter-even if he has never set foot in the place.

hth

Thanks for that Julie, makes me feel much better about sending her details off. Especially after reading some of the stuff about the govt's increasingly negative attitude to HE.

Hi Callisto, I was in this position last year. I don't know if all LEAs are the same, but when I got a letter saying that my ds had a place at xxx primary school it came with a form to send back to the LEA accepting or declining the place. I declined it but didn't write a separate letter to the school.
There was a space which said something like ' what alternative provision have you made for your child's education ' & I put Home Ed - maybe I could have put ' private arangement ' or ' waiting until age 5 to arrange education ' or something else, but I decided to put HE as by then we had definately decided to give it a go.
So far I have heard nothing from the LEA but maybe I will after ds is 5.

hi

i am in the same situation, we have had to choose a school for my daughter to start sept 09, i am keen on HE, but have faced lots of negative comments from family. we have put her name down at a school but i am sure i want to HE, even family have come round to the idea a bit now. I am now worried about what i need to tell to LA as we probably won't want her place. I am worried in case to LEA will have to come round to our house and inspect and then say no, sometimes i am not strong against people in authority and feel i will pushed into sending her to school.

i have spoke to LEA and they said to look at schools and can put name down but can change mind up until she starts school or even after, if i find HE is not working i can still send her to a school, may not be our first choice but will wait. can anyone tell me if this is correct.

Hi pinkkoala, please don't worry about the LEA inspecting you and saying no - they sometimes make it sound like they can do that, but in fact that's not how it works. You have the right to home educate your child if that's what you want to do. You don't have to ask them for permission (I'm assuming you're in England, Scotland is a bit different).

If they have reason to think that you're not giving her a suitable education (that ought to be because someone has raised concerns, but some LEAs assume it about everyone who decides to HE) then they can ask you to give them details of how you are educating her. They might send you a long questionnaire to fill out, or say they are going to visit you, but you don't have to agree to either of those things if you don't want to. You can write back to them and tell them about how you are making sure she gets an education, in whatever way you want to describe that.

There are people on here and on other forums who can help you if you find it hard to describe what you're doing on paper.

If you want to put her name down for a school and think about it more, then you can - and you could then turn down the place later, or take her out of school. It depends how sure you are that it's what you want to do - if you're not sure, then better to get a place at the school you want and turn it down later, rather than not have a school place and try to get one after they've been given out.