If you choose to home educate
You don’t need permission to home educate (unless your child is registered at a special school) and you do not need to have formal qualifications yourself. National tests, such as SATs, do not apply to elective home education and you do not need to follow the National Curriculum, although it may be a useful reference. What you do need is the desire to help your child(ren) to learn, which may sometimes involve learning with them. What learning opportunities you provide and how your child learns is up to you providing that the education you provide is “full-time”, “suitable” and “efficient” for your child’s abilities.
Parents do not have to:
- have specific qualifications
- have premises equipped to any particular standard
- aim for the child to acquire any specific qualifications
- teach the National Curriculum
- provide a ‘broad and balanced’ curriculum
- make detailed lesson plans in advance
- give formal lessons
- mark work done by the child
- formally assess progress, or set development objectives
- have school type peer group social opportunities
- match school-based, age-specific standards or complete SATs tests
Some parents choose to work in this way, especially if their child is likely to attend school at some point in the future or when working towards examinations such as GCSEs.
Home-educated young people often find that access to further and higher education or to employment is more flexible than generally supposed. It is useful to check what qualification requirements there may be for a particular career path, but it is possible to access further and higher education through other means, for example by providing a portfolio of work at interview with a college. Cumberland offer free access to U-explore.org, an online independent advice, careers and guidance tool.
Find further information about accessing exams.
Children's rights
The UK has ratified Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which provides a right for children to express their view in accordance with age and maturity. The decision to educate a child at home or at school is a matter for the parents. When making a choice parents should consider family circumstances and whether your child will be happy to be educated in this way.
How much it costs to home educate
When making a decision to provide education at home for your family you will need to recognise you will have to meet the full cost, including books and all other resources, exam and course fees.
Neither local authorities nor central government provide any financial assistance to home educators, so inevitably parents and carers will incur some expense. There are many sources of help and information available these days, especially via the internet. Internet access and many other resources are available at libraries and community facilities throughout the county. If you can afford them, an extensive range of educational publications and online courses for a monthly fee are available. Some suppliers and venues will offer discounts to home educators.
On the other hand, home educators do not have to buy school uniforms, pay bus fares to and from school, or the other incidental expenses connected with school, currently estimated at around an average of £1,000 plus per year, and home educators can also link-up with other families to share resources. There is a wide range of informative public broadcasting, some wonderful free internet resources and much can be learned from everyday experiences and projects that cost very little.