Curriculum for Wales Homeschool: Do Home Educators Have to Follow It?

When families in Wales first start researching home education, the Curriculum for Wales comes up quickly. It is everywhere in Welsh education policy — the Welsh Government has put considerable effort into promoting the "Four Purposes" framework and the six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). A natural assumption is that home educators must follow it.

They do not. The legal position is clear, and understanding it matters both for how you plan your home education and for how you respond if a local authority officer implies otherwise.

The Legal Position: Curriculum for Wales Is Not Mandatory for Home Educators

The Education Act 1996, specifically Section 7, states that the parent of every child of compulsory school age must cause them to receive "efficient full-time education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude." The mechanism allowed is: "by regular attendance at school or otherwise."

The Curriculum for Wales is a curriculum framework mandated for maintained schools in Wales. It does not apply to home-educated children.

The Welsh Government's own 2023 Elective Home Education Guidance makes this explicit. It instructs local authorities that they must base any assessment of a home-educated child's provision on the specific educational approach chosen by the parents. Local authorities must not base their decision on whether the education conforms to the Curriculum for Wales.

This is not a grey area or a matter of interpretation. It is stated directly in the statutory guidance that governs how local authorities should approach elective home education.

What "Efficient and Suitable" Actually Means

If the Curriculum for Wales is not the measure, what is?

The legal test comes from established case law — primarily the Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson judgment. The court held that:

• Education is efficient if it achieves what it sets out to achieve
• Education is suitable if it prepares the child for life in a modern, civilised society, enables them to achieve their full potential, and allows them to function as an independent citizen

Notice that this definition is deliberately non-prescriptive. It does not specify subjects, timetables, or pedagogical methods. An education delivered through classical texts, project-based learning, outdoor education, structured online courses, or any combination of approaches can satisfy this test — provided it is genuinely preparing the child for life and fulfilling their potential.

Home educators in Wales are therefore free to:

• Choose any curriculum or no packaged curriculum at all
• Educate through Welsh, English, or both
• Follow school hours and terms, or set their own schedule
• Pursue subjects that align with the child's interests and strengths
• Use approaches such as unschooling, Charlotte Mason, classical education, or eclectic methods

None of this requires conformity to the four purposes of the Curriculum for Wales, the six AoLEs, the literacy and numeracy frameworks, or the mandatory Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) code that has prompted some families to withdraw from maintained schools.

What Local Authorities Can Ask

While home educators are not required to follow the Curriculum for Wales, local authorities do retain a statutory duty under Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 to identify children in their area who are not receiving a suitable education.

If a local authority has reasonable grounds to suspect a child is not receiving a suitable education, it can make a formal enquiry under Section 437(1) of the Act. In response to such an enquiry, parents can demonstrate their educational provision — but they are demonstrating against the "efficient and suitable" standard described above, not against the Curriculum for Wales.

A local authority officer who asks whether your provision covers the six AoLEs, or who suggests your child must be taught in accordance with the Curriculum for Wales, is misrepresenting the legal position. The Welsh Government's 2023 guidance explicitly corrects this tendency.

Record-keeping is not legally required in Wales. However, maintaining a portfolio — a selection of work, a reading log, notes on projects and activities — is practical. If a local authority ever initiates an enquiry, a well-organised portfolio demonstrates provision clearly and quickly, with no need for the conversation to escalate further.

The RSE Code: Why This Matters Particularly in Wales

One of the reasons the non-mandatory nature of the Curriculum for Wales matters strongly right now is the mandatory Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) code, which came into effect in Welsh maintained schools and sparked significant controversy among some families. Parents of children in maintained Welsh schools have no right to withdraw their child from RSE under the new framework.

Home educators are entirely exempt. Because the Curriculum for Wales does not apply to home-educated children, the RSE code does not apply either. This has been a direct driver of home education growth in Wales — Welsh Government data shows a sustained increase in the proportion of older primary and secondary-age children moving to EHE, and parental objections to specific curriculum elements are consistently cited as one of the contributing factors.

Incoming Legislation and What It Changes

The legislative landscape is shifting. In March 2026, the Senedd agreed to adopt the "children not in school" register provisions from the UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will create a mandatory register for home-educated children and require parents to provide certain information to their local authority.

What it does not change is the curriculum position. The incoming register is about safeguarding and oversight, not about mandating curriculum content. Home educators in Wales will still not be required to follow the Curriculum for Wales once the mandatory register is in place. The "efficient and suitable" standard remains the applicable legal test.

Getting the Withdrawal Right

Understanding what you are — and are not — required to do as a home educator in Wales starts with correctly exiting the maintained school system. Deregistration in Wales is governed by the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010, which differs from the English equivalent. Using a generic UK or England-specific deregistration letter can signal to your local authority that you are unfamiliar with Welsh law, inviting unnecessary scrutiny.

The Wales Legal Withdrawal Blueprint provides the correct Welsh legal templates and step-by-step withdrawal guidance — so that your home education begins on solid legal ground, not a generic template that was never designed for Wales.

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