The formal steps for taking a child out of school are set out on GOV.UK, and they differ depending on the kind of school and on your child's circumstances. This article is not about those steps. It is about what happens in your house once they are done.
The first week: do less than you think
Most children who leave school, especially when it has been hard, need a period of nothing. Not a curriculum, not a timetable, not a plan you found online at 1am. Sleep, food, walks, being at home without dread. A week of that is not lost time. It is the ground you will build on.
If your child left because of anxiety or refusal, this period may need to be longer. That is normal, and it is not a sign that home education is failing.
Weeks two and three: notice, don't teach
Watch what your child does when nobody is directing them. What do they reach for? What do they avoid? When are they at their best? You are gathering information you could not get in a school, and it is the information an individual plan is built from.
Read together every day. That is the one thing worth doing from the start, whatever the age. It costs nothing and it is the foundation of everything else.
Week four: a light baseline
Before you plan anything, find out where your child actually is. Not where the year group says they should be. Where they are. Reading, maths fluency, writing, and how they feel about each one. Keep it gentle. This is a starting point, not a test.
You will probably find they are ahead in something and behind in something else. That is what children look like when nobody is averaging them.
What to avoid in the first month
- Recreating school. Six subjects, a bell, a register. It did not work there and it will not work at your kitchen table.
- Buying a whole curriculum. You do not yet know what your child needs. Wait.
- Comparing. Other home educating families on the internet are mostly showing you their best day.
- Deciding forever. You have not committed to home educating until eighteen. You have committed to this term. That is enough.
Start a record, lightly
A line a day. What you did, what you read, what was hard. It will feel pointless for a fortnight and indispensable by half term. There is more on this in what records to keep.
When you are ready for a plan
A plan built for your child, at their pace, subject by subject, with someone qualified to check it is working. That is what the Education Director does. It starts with telling him what your week looked like.