New to Home Ed? Start Here!

New to Home Education or Considering It for Your Child? Start Here.

Introduction

Home education is legal throughout the UK, though with slightly different regulations in each of the separate countries. The parent’s responsibility broadly speaking stems from the Education Act of 1996 and is to provide an education suitable to age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs the child may have. This leads to lots of questions about what makes an education suitable, and how to work out what a child of a particular age should be doing when, but it doesn’t have to be a scripted curriculum, which is the sort of thing that worries people when they’re just getting started.

Home education has been rising steadily in popularity in the UK, particularly since the pandemic, when families received what was referred to as homeschooling (usually an American term) but was actually remote schooling, delivered virtually by teachers from schools.

The legal term in the UK is Elective Home Education, not to be confused with EOTAS (Education otherwise than at school) which is where the local authority still has responsibility to deliver/ pay for education that is happening not at school.

Table of Contents

• New to Home Ed? Start Here!
  • Introduction
    • • Understanding the Legal Framework
        • Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.
      • First Steps to Home Education
      • Choosing Your Home Education Style
      • Creating an Effective Learning Environment
      • Joining Home Education Communities
      • Planning Your Curriculum
      • Finding Resources and Materials
      • Dealing with Challenges
    • Top Tips for Starting Out Home Educating Your Child
      • FAQs Section
    • Where to Find Useful Resources
  • Really Helpful Posts
  • Really Helpful Posts
  • Latest Posts

Understanding the Legal Framework

This is a *very* short overview of the legal requirements for home education in the UK. Note – the requirements differ from country to country, and again when special schools are involved. This is not comprehensive legal advice – you will want to read up further, particularly if you’re not in England like I am – make sure you’ve fully understood your responsibilities! (That sounds intimidating – it’s not meant to. Basically, when you understand your rights and responsibilities, you’ll be much better placed to get stuck into home education with confidence!)

With that said, the legal reference for England is to the Education Act of 1996 Section 7, which looks like this:

Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.

The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—

(a)to his age, ability and aptitude, and

(b)to any special educational needs [F1(in the case of a child who is in the area of a local authority in England) or additional learning needs (in the case of a child who is in the area of a local authority in Wales)] he may have,

either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/7?view=plain

A full time education does not mean that you need to keep to school hours or terms, have a timetable, follow a curriculum or lesson plans. Government guidance recognises all of that, and it’s well worth reading the full document, available on gov.uk

What makes an education suitable in legal terms comes from case law, and is beyond the scope of this introductory article. In short though

Harrison and Harrison v Stevenson appeal 1981, Worcester Crown Court (unreported)

The Judge defined the outcomes of a suitable education as
to prepare the children for life in a modern civilised society; and
to enable them to achieve their full potential

R v Secretary of State for 35 Education, ex parte Talmud Torah Machzikei Hadass School Trust, judicial review 12 April 1985.

Mr Justice Woolf: Education is suitable if it primarily equips a child for life within the community of which he is a member, rather than the way of life in the wider country as a whole, as long as it does not foreclose the child’s options in later years to adopt some other form of life if he wishes to do so.

Further on all of this can be found on gov.scot (and still applies in England).

First Steps to Home Education

How to officially start home educating your child, including notifying the school and local authorities.

If your child is already in school, and it’s a mainstream school, you will need to deregister them. This is a reasonably simple process – you will need to inform the head teacher (the school proprietor) in writing that you wish your child to be removed from the register. Templates are widely available for example on Education Otherwise, the oldest and longest-running home education charity.

The government has guidelines for home educators and schools, also a useful thing to read. You can find them here. Note – the Pupil Registration Regulations are changing in August 2024 – details around this on EdYourself

If your child is in a special school in England, the process is slightly different. You need consent from the LA – take a full read up on EdYourself website.

The other situation in which things are different is if your child is currently subject to an SAO – school attendance order. If this applies, I strongly recommend getting expert legal advice – this is not an area I can advise on.

If your child has an EHCP – education and health care plan – you may be told that you can’t deregister – you can. You may be told that the plan will cease – it won’t, and should stay with your child while they are in education. You will, again, need more detailed advice beyond the scope of this article – there are a lot of facebook groups specialising in home educating children with special needs, for example Home Educating our special needs children: and also the HE Special mailing list, homepage here

For details on Scotland check the government site here and Wales here

Choosing Your Home Education Style

There are lots of ways to home educate, and you might find yourself picking and choosing, and very likely changing it up as time goes by. Some people want to stay structured (this is often referred to as homeschooling, particularly in the US) – perhaps the child or young person is very near to GCSE age and they are working towards recognised qualifications. At that point, following the relevant curriculum of the specific subjects and even exam boards is going to be necessary, although it still doesn’t have to be school hours, or a timetable broken up into lessons. Some families prefer to keep a routine or structure though even when qualifications aren’t an issue, and if that works for you, go for it! Do remember though that if your child is studying one-to-one with you or a tutor, they probably will not need as many hours as are commonly done in school – lots of school time is taken up with management of groups, movement round a building and so on, and small group or individual learning can be much more efficient.

Maybe though you’ve heard of autonomous education or unschooling and want to explore that approach. This is what we’ve tended to do over the years, and it’s all about finding your child’s interests and then giving them the time and space to get right into them. It can also be referred to as child-led, and sometimes people will talk about Montessori principles too. Note – you can be child-led and be structured if that is what your child prefers/ has chosen! Education doesn’t have to be broken up into subjects or only come out of books/ websites though, it can come through practical activities like crafts and cooking, maths can come out of a shopping trip, or even through playing a board or video game.

The likelihood is that you will find that you are more structured in some areas, and more relaxed in others. Many home educators like to make sure they are covering the literacy and numeracy that a child needs for day to day life in a reasonably formal way (this is also an area that the Local Authority will focus on) and there are lots of great (and cheap!) resources available for that. Other interests and topics may be a lot more free flow and there’s no harm in that at all. As long as what is being delivered hits those legal requirements we mentioned above, you can form a completely unique approach to your child’s education that is custom built for them.

Creating an Effective Learning Environment

You might find people will ask where are you going to learn, and you’ll see lots of pictures of children sitting around the kitchen table, particularly in articles about homeschooling. You don’t have to do this! It very much depends on how you want to approach education – see the notes on educational approaches above. If you want to have a dedicated area, go for it. Some folks have the space to dedicate an entire room to education, and that always looks great, but for me we’ve got resources all over the house stored in nooks and crannies, although each of us does have a computer and desk.

One thing though which can be important is making sure that you/ your kids have the space to switch off. Although learning can happen any time any place, particularly if you’re coming out of a school environment and feeling pressure to achieve, it can be difficult to set yourself boundaries. You do not need to make everything into an educational experience, it’s OK to just have fun too.

Basically, you need to work out how to create a balance – giving people time to focus and concentrate when they need it, giving people community, and relaxation at other points. Particularly if you have a big family you’ll have to come to an agreement on how to give different people the environment they need, and probably revisit that regularly.

Some children learn better (or feel they learn better) by separating out some of their education from the rest of the day, even if you’re going for a more child-led approach. What has worked for us in the past has been having a start to the day that involved doing a few more formal bits – maybe you’re using a curriculum or a website for maths and english for example, or perhaps you want to do some reading together. Having a routine where everyone knows what is expected from them will work well for this style.

If you don’t have space to keep your education stuff out, you could try having a tray or bag with educational bits in (this can be particularly good with younger children, having a learning basket with books, crafts and so on in).

Joining Home Education Communities

When we started home education, there were very few home education groups. Our main outlet was a Yahoo group, and there was a local monthly meet that frowned upon children younger than CSA (compulsory school age). Nowadays that picture has changed dramatically, and in some areas of the UK you will spoilt for choice, with multiple activities going on every day, from social groups to tutor sessions, casual meetings, sports groups and so on. It’s really important to find community particularly in the early days to help you with resources, approaches and understanding what your local authority’s attitude to home education is.

Facebook is a hub for many groups, there are huge national groups which is what many people find to begin with, but they can be overwhelming, and while I’d love to tell you that everyone is helpful, there are a lot of people very new to home education who aren’t handing out the most accurate advice. A really good idea is to find your local group by searching for home education + local authority name eg a search for “home education + south yorkshire” brings up a host of home ed groups (though interestingly, not actually one for south yorkshire.

Once you’ve found your local group, you can find out what activities are going on that are useful to you, and start meeting up with people. It’s important to build yourself a community for support – doing things differently to the mainstream can be very tiring. Spending time with other people going through the same things will recharge you and give you the confidence to take on the challenges of living a little outside the mainstream. You will also have the opportunity to find out how your local authority behaves towards home educators. You might also want to join national groups or special interest groups – so there are groups for home educating alongside special needs, or more structured groups if that’s what you’re interested in, and there are groups dedicated to different ages and stages, like the home education exames and alternatives group which runs the incredibly useful H.E. exams wiki

If you are neurodivergent and/or home educating neurodivergent children, I do have a small facebook group aimed at supporting parents, you can find that here.

You can also use the search term home schooling if you want to be sure you’ve covered all the bases, but be aware that will bring up US groups as well, so check the group info carefully before you join.

Planning Your Curriculum

When you first deregister, your Local Authority is likely to get in touch with a form asking what your educational plans are. At this stage it’s really tempting to want to know what your child would be covering in school, and to get a timetable set up and all of that. You don’t have to do this! You don’t need to follow the National Curriculum (or any other specific curriculum for that matter) but you can if you choose to.

Regardless, you may well want to set up some aims for yourself – and however flexible these are, this will form the basis of how you get started. I caution against the idea of overplanning, simply because it’s much easier to do more than you plan to, and it can feel really bad to do less, so give yourself some room for manoeuvre.

Start with covering the basics of literacy and numeracy – look at where your child is and where they want to be. Build in some life skills and something that meets their interests – we all learn much better when it’s focussed on something we enjoy. By all means keep notes, a blog or a spreadsheet, whatever floats your boat, but keep it flexible.

If you do want some kind of guide, the full National Curriculum is available online or there are alternatives, like perhaps the Core Curriculum books for primary age – I reviewed them a while ago here alongside some other suggestions.

Finding Resources and Materials

When we started home education, way back when, it was quite challenging to find suitable resources, and we often either bulk ordered, imported from the US or all ended up with the same thing. Nowadays, there are so many options it’s hard to choose.

For cheap workbooks and stationery, The Works is a fantastic resource.

During the pandemic, Oak National Academy provided a lot of online resources, and these are still available either on the original site or in archives , obviously this is very school oriented, but useful if you’re working towards qualifications or wanting your child to return to school at some stage.

There are lots of online systems and apps available, I have a dedicated section on this. Again, home education communities are the best place to find out about new resources or good deals, and I’d recommend getting connected as quickly as you can.

Dealing with Challenges

When you start home educating, you’ll discover everyone has an opinion, and everyone is ready to point out the difficulties and challenges. From socialisation, to qualifications, practical subject questions to life skills, people will fall over themselves to tell you why it can’t work.

But it can. Socialisation is a red herring – there’s no requirement to keep your child in the house (although some people will assume you’re supposed to during school hours, you absolutely don’t) and getting out and about, interacting with society generally, joining home ed groups or uniformed groups, taking swimming lessons, joining a sports clubs – there’s loads of opportunities for both socialising and socialisation (they’re two slightly different things. Socialising is meeting up with people for rest and relaxation or community, socialisation is learning how to be a member of society, and school is a very unnatural way of going about it. Where else do you spend all your time in a room with 30 people within six months or so of your age and only from your locality? It doesn’t happen at work that’s for sure. Home educated children generally learn to interact with people of all ages and all backgrounds because that’s what they’re doing through life.)

Some subjects are difficult to achieve from home, but even things like practical science can be approached. For detailed questions about that though, I’ll need a dedicated post.

On things like time management, time to yourself and how to work around home educating, this is stepping up parenting challenges. Work can be a challenge, but there are work from home roles, or self employment, or shift work – there’s nothing to say that education needs to take place only during school hours so as long as your child is cared for adequately throughout, you can educate whenever.

Top Tips for Starting Out Home Educating Your Child

1. Start with a Plan: Before you begin, consider what you hope to achieve through home education. Set clear goals, with your child if at all possible, but remain flexible to adapt as you progress.
2. Understand the Law: Familiarize yourself with the legal aspects of home education in the UK, including the different processes of deregistering from school in the different countries and school types, and your responsibilities as a home educator.
3. Create a Learning Environment: Decide how you are going to manage learning within the home. Some people like to set up a dedicated space for learning that is comfortable and free of distractions, but if you don’t have the room to do this, it doesn’t matter. You make what you have work for you.
4. Connect with Others: Join home education forums, local groups, and online communities. These can be invaluable for support, advice, resources, and socializing opportunities for both you and your child.
5. Be Flexible: One of the biggest advantages of home education is the ability to tailor the learning experience to your child’s needs. Be prepared to adjust your approach as needed, and be aware it might have to be different for different children and at different times.
6. Incorporate Practical Life Skills: Beyond academic learning, home education offers a unique opportunity to teach practical life skills, from cooking to managing finances. If you run a business, your child can learn from that, or they might want to explore doing that for themselves.
7. Use a Broad Range of Resources: Don’t limit learning to textbooks alone. Use online resources, educational apps, community resources, museums, libraries, and the environment around you. And remember there’s learning in things that aren’t traditionally recognised as educational, like board or video games, all types of fiction and regular activities.
8. Schedule Regular Breaks: Like in traditional school settings, breaks are essential. Allow yourself and your child time to have fun! This helps maintain concentration and prevent burnout for both you and your child, and also, you deserve a break.
9. Document Your Journey: Keep records of your child’s progress, activities, and experiences. This can be useful for your own planning, as well as for meeting any local authority inquiries. This doesn’t have to be a formal document – some people take pictures, some keep a diary, some a blog or a private Instagram account. Just be aware at some point you might need the evidence.
10. Enjoy the Process: Home education is a journey with its own challenges and rewards. Embrace the unique opportunity to learn alongside your child, and enjoy the flexibility and personal growth it brings.

Conclusion

Choosing to home educate feels like a massive leap in the dark, going against the mainstream tide. It’s never easy to choose to do things differently, but you aren’t alone – there are lots of people on this journey with you. Find community support and it will make a massive difference to your experience. (This doesn’t have to be in person face to face groups if that doesn’t work for you or your family, online community or small meetups are just as valid.)

FAQs Section

Answers to commonly asked questions by parents new to home education:

What are the legal requirements for home educating my child in the UK?
In the section above, I’ve given a very brief overview of the legal requirements around home education

Do I need to follow the National Curriculum if I home educate?

Clarification on the flexibility of curriculum choice for home-educated children.

How can I remove my child from school to start home education?

Steps to formally deregister your child from their current school.

What resources and materials do I need for home education?

Suggestions for essential and helpful resources to start your home education journey.

How can I meet the social needs of my home-educated child?

Ideas for ensuring your child has ample social interaction and development opportunities outside the traditional school environment.

Can my child return to mainstream school after being home educated?

Information on re-entering the school system and what parents might need to consider.

What support is available for parents who choose home education?

Guidance on finding local groups, online communities, and educational resources.

How do I plan a home education curriculum?

Tips for structuring your curriculum, whether you’re following a formal curriculum or taking a more flexible approach.

What are the best practices for setting a daily routine in home education?

Advice on establishing a productive and sustainable daily routine that suits your family’s lifestyle and educational goals.

How do I assess my child’s progress in home education?

Options for monitoring and evaluating your child’s learning progress, including informal assessments and standardized tests.

Keywords: homeschooling FAQs UK, home education questions

Where to Find Useful Resources

Content and Curriculum Support:

GOV.UK: Provides guidance on home education and links to the National Curriculum if you choose to follow it closely.

Twinkl: Offers a wide range of educational resources and lesson plans for various subjects and levels.

Khan Academy: A free online resource with courses on many subjects for all age groups.

Forums and Online Communities:

Mumsnet Home Education Forum: A place for parents to share advice, experiences, and resources.

The Home Education Network (HEN): Offers advice, support, and resources for home-educating families.

Facebook Groups: Numerous groups exist for UK home educators, offering a platform to ask questions, share resources, and connect with others in your area.

Local User Groups and Support:

Education Otherwise: Provides a list of local home education groups across the UK.

Local Libraries: Often a hub for educational workshops, reading groups, and a resource for learning materials.

Meetup.com: Can be a great place to find or organize local home education meetups, activities, and educational outings.

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