England1 page
Deregistration letter — England (mainstream school)
The written notice that legally removes your child from a mainstream school in England.
Free templates · 41 and growing
Everything you need on paper, free to download and genuinely editable — deregistration and Local Authority letters, flexible planners, record-keeping sheets and step-by-step checklists. Written for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and checked against the official guidance.
Notify a school, request consent, or respond to the local authority — worded carefully and correct for your nation.
The written notice that legally removes your child from a mainstream school in England.
Written notice to remove your child from a mainstream school in Wales (no LA consent needed).
Written notice to the school principal in NI — deregistration takes effect immediately, no consent needed.
Scotland is different: you must get the council’s consent BEFORE withdrawing a child from a public school.
For a child at an LA-arranged special school — you must ask the LA to consent to deregistration.
A calm, structured written reply showing your child receives a suitable education.
A polite, firm letter offering a written report and samples in place of a home visit.
Tell the LA you are electing to home educate a child with an EHC plan at a mainstream school.
Apply to the LA to revoke a School Attendance Order on the basis of suitable education at home.
A short follow-up asking the school to confirm the date your child was removed from the register.
Flexible planners that fit how home education really works — no rigid hours required.
Plan a week by morning / afternoon / evening blocks — no fixed hours required.
A single-day plan-and-log hybrid for families who like a daily shape.
Plan a topic or unit study across several subjects, with resources, trips and outcomes.
Track coverage against National Curriculum subjects — only if you choose to use it.
Plan and observe activities for under-5s across the seven EYFS areas of learning.
A one-pager to choose and record the framework your family follows — or your own.
Map terms, breaks, trips, exams and milestones across a whole year.
A gentle log for the decompression period when you first start home educating.
Light, sustainable ways to show breadth and progress over time.
The core dated record of what your child did and learned — great LA evidence and a lovely keepsake.
The written description of your approach that LAs often ask for — editable and reusable.
Track every book read with, to and by your child.
Catalogue stored samples of your child’s work as portfolio evidence.
Record trips, museums, nature, groups and hands-on learning.
Log the external provision and people supporting your child’s learning.
Show progress over time per skill — exactly what a "suitable education" should evidence.
If you wish, quantify the time spent educating — there is no required number of hours.
Step-by-step lists so nothing gets missed, with the right path for your nation.
The decision-to-start checklist, with the right path for your nation.
Everything to do, in order, to deregister from a mainstream school.
The Scotland-specific steps — check the exceptions, get consent, never withdraw early.
The consent steps for a child at an LA-arranged special school.
Know your rights and get organised before responding to the local authority.
Plan GCSE / IGCSE entries as a private candidate, with the gotchas baked in.
Set up light, sustainable records from day one.
Print-and-keep explainers of the law, the curriculum and exams.
The four nations side by side — duty, consent rules, school age and curriculum.
One page: which route applies to your situation in England.
The s.35 consent rule explained — when it applies, the exceptions, timescales and reviews.
The legal test, the case law, and the long list of things you are NOT required to do.
Ages, year groups, key stages and subjects — an optional reference, not a requirement.
A neutral one-line guide to the main styles of home education.
How GCSEs, IGCSEs and Functional Skills work for home-educated children.
The most common myths about home educating in the UK, corrected.
These templates are general information to help you organise your home education — they are not legal advice. Home-education law differs across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and can change. Always check the current official guidance for your nation, and for anything involving SEND, an EHC plan, a special school or a School Attendance Order, seek specialist advice before acting. For the full picture, our free home education guides walk through the law, deregistration, the LA relationship, exams and more.
Questions, answered
Yes. Every template on this page is completely free to download and use. There’s no sign-up, no paywall and no watermark — they’re our gift to the UK home-ed community.
Both. The PDFs are interactive: you can type into the lines and boxes and tick the checkboxes on screen in most PDF readers, then save. You can also print them and fill them in by hand. For the letters, there’s a “Copy text” button so you can paste the wording straight into an email or document and change the details in brackets.
In most cases, no. The parent’s duty is to secure a suitable education “by regular attendance at school or otherwise” (Education Act 1996, s.7 in England & Wales, with equivalents in Scotland and NI). The exceptions: in Scotland you need the council’s consent to withdraw a child already at a public school, and everywhere you need the local authority’s consent for a child at an LA-arranged special school.
Give the head teacher written notice that your child will be educated otherwise than at school from a stated date. Once that day passes (and no School Attendance Order names the school), the school must remove your child from the admission register (School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, reg 9(1)(f)). Use our England deregistration letter.
Yes — Scotland is the key exception. If your child already attends a public (council) school, you must get the education authority’s consent before withdrawing them, and withdrawing without consent is a criminal offence (Education (Scotland) Act 1980, s.35). Six exceptions apply. Use our Scotland consent-request letter and checklist.
No. Home educators are not required to follow the National Curriculum, keep to school hours, give formal lessons or keep records. Keeping a light record — a learning journal, work samples and a short philosophy statement — is good practice that makes it easy to show a suitable education if the local authority asks.
No. Local authorities in England, Wales and NI have no automatic right of entry to your home and cannot insist on seeing your child. They may make informal enquiries, which you can answer in writing — our LA-enquiry response and “decline a visit” letter help with exactly that.
Not yet. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 will introduce a mandatory “Children Not in School” register in England and Wales, but those provisions are not yet in force and await commencement regulations. We’ll update these resources when the rules change.
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