Homeschooling temporarily during term-time?

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Hi all. Due to COVID and other factors, my SIL has re-booked her wedding for Oct 2024, just after my LOs start back at school. She lives in NZ and we are in England.

Is it legal to ‘temporarily’ home-school children, whilst also taking them on holiday - during term time?

We would likely go for 3-4 weeks. With primary aged children, and no major exams, I think it would be an excellent trip for them. And I obviously wouldn’t want my SIL to have to rearrange anything just for us. So we will either have to decline invite, or ‘homeschool temporarily’ is that’s even a thing?!

Any advice welcome!

Does your school have a waiting list?

I’m assuming your kids go to a state school in England here….

you can deregister the kids and homeschool them for as long as you like. However, their places won’t be held for them so they may not be able to go back to the same school / class on return

Yes, you can home educate for any length of time and for any reason, and of course you can take your children abroad whenever you want.

Their school places will not be kept open for them. If their school is oversubscribed upon your return, you might have to send them to a different school, or join a waiting list to get them back in to their old school and carry on home educating in hopes a place will become available there. However, there's no guarantee that will happen.

Perhaps discuss with the school, they might be prepared to not make you pay fines, or at least minimise what they can if you're upfront. Yes you can home ed at any point but as others have said you could easily loose your place and it could be a lot of hassle, I'd probably rather just pay the fines and factor them into your holiday costs!

Contact the head, ask permission. If no permission given, take it as unauthorised leave and pay the fines. Check your local authority for the amount (?) before committing to that though?

The issue is that after 2 weeks in theory the school can take them off the roll - you can't then guarantee to get a space on your return. Talk to the school and see if you can compromise

I think it will depend on the school. Mine allows home Ed mixed with forest school for 1-2 days a week for a kid in my DD's class. It works well for that kid. I've heard of other schools getting heavy if a family has an issue with sending their child in with a contagious infection. Good luck.

Home ed isn't a workaround for taking a holiday.

Decline the invite?

That isn't quite right.

If the OP deregisters to home educate, the school must remove the children from roll immediately, not after two weeks. If there is a child on the waiting list, they will be given the school place. In fact, if the school is oversubscribed, it's possible to lose a school place immediately upon deregistration even if no one else is waiting for it: if the school was already over its numbers, then the departure of the OP's child doesn't create a vacancy.

If you're referring to leaving the children on roll while going on an unauthorised holiday for a few weeks, they can't lose their place in just two weeks. The school can deregister them after 20 continuous school days absent, but only if the school and LA have tried and failed to locate the child - which wouldn't apply if the OP made sure to tell the school of her plans. She and her partner could certainly get fined though, and probably would be.

You won’t be allowed to temporarily switch to elective home education.

If you don’t deregister beforehand, the school can only delete a pupil from the school roll if they have been absent for 20 days unauthorised, and then they need to make reasonable enquiries. It is only 10 days when the absence follows a leave of absence. See 8(f) and 8(h).

By won’t be allowed to temporarily switch to EHE, I mean whilst holding on to the school place. Of course you could try EHE and then reapply for a school place.

But you won’t be home educating you will be on holiday.

You can request leave which will be unauthorised, and then if you get fined you pay it. You can’t officially home school just for a few weeks if you want to keep your school place because you would need to deregister your children and then their places will probably be given to someone else.

Just make your decision and own it, don’t try and bend the rules to fit in with your wants and conveniences.

Talk to the school. I know of several families who have taken their children out for a month and not lost their school places, usually to travel to their "home" country.

Thank you to all those who replied with helpful comments and suggestions. I would hate to miss out on my SILs wedding, but it seems a risk to de-register. I will discuss openly with school and go from there.

I have considered home-schooling in the past, but I’m not able to fully with my current job role.

I think such an exciting country as Australia, and plans to see the Reef, the Harbour Bridge, new animals, walks, zoo’s etc would be fantastic for the children - but I do understand the need for our education system and regulations. I wouldn’t be considering it if it was going to be a beach/pool type holiday.

It may be that my DH goes (as it’s his sister) and we can hopefully visit over a summer holiday. X

I would be home educating - just not in my UK home. I would be at my SILs home, but I don’t think that makes a difference. Yes, there would be the wedding day, but aside from that, many resources encourage a mixture of experiences and educational material. I have lots of resources already regarding home education whilst travelling, and how to structure it into your days.

I'd check if the school has a waiting list/are full. And if it's not a risk you won't get back in then de register.

You should look up the difference between homeschool and home education. Us home edders get a bit frustrated with the term homeschooling- that's when a child is still on school roll and school set the work. You may actually find school will consent to this- ask about flexi schooling. Home education is where the parent is responsible for the education not a school. And while I'm personally not an unschooler there is a large part of the home Ed community who don't do structured learning and their kids turn out ok. How you describe the trip sounds very educational already! Just get some English workbooks and keep up with their reading and maths practice and you will be fine.