THE number of children in Bournemouth being home-schooled has more than doubled in the last three years, council figures show.

Hundreds of youngsters in the borough are now being taught from home, most of whom have previously received a school education.

Mental health issues is the most common reason given by parents for withdrawing their children from school with “significant numbers” leaving during their GCSE years.

Nationally, the vast majority of local authorities have seen a rise in the number of youngsters being taught from home.

The trend is reflected in Poole and Dorset County Council areas, although the rise has been much steeper in Bournemouth.

In 2014, just over 100 children were registered as being home-schooled while almost 250 have been recorded this year with a rise of almost a quarter in the last 12 months.

A report to Bournemouth council’s children’s services scrutiny committee says that oversight of home education is “challenging” and admits “concerns” about the increase.

“The local authority figures indicate an increase of 23.7 per cent in the number of children known to be home-educated from October 2017 to October 2018,” the report says.

Councils have no powers to monitor home education and parents are not required to register or seek approval for the arrangement.

As a result, the council admits that oversight is “challenging” and that it is unaware of the true number of children in the borough being taught at home.

The most common reason given by parents for youngsters leaving school for home education is mental health issues.

However, teaching issues and bullying feature highly as explanations for the switch.

“It is becoming increasingly evident to many local authority teams that some parents are reporting that they had no choice but to home educate,” the report adds.

“Parents are reporting that their child’s needs are not being met at school and, in some cases, were exacerbated.

“Some have reported that their child needs extra support or had poor school attendance and was subject to the possibility of a penalty notice, that the school work was too hard, exam pressures and expectations were too high or that the child was subject to a possible permanent exclusion.”

The school year groups with the largest number of home-schooled children at the end of the 2017/18 school year were 10 and 11 while more than 20 youngsters in each of years 2, 7 and 8 were being taught at home.