Please Help - Home Schooling in the UK

[SummersD]

Hi, I'm interested in learning more about homeschooling my children.
With the rising costs of education in the UK and the global recession, I honestly don't know where to start.

If you could provide me with any information that helped you in your journey as a homeschool parent, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, I'm looking into enrolling my kids into a virtual school; do you have any recommendations?

Note: Recently migrated to the UK

Education Otherwise is the website that can help you.
Then join local groups via facebook and get out in the field and see what it's like.

You can always try it then do school, you can always deregister and try again etc. etc.

It's called home education in the UK rather than home schooling.

The Education Otherwise and Educational Freedom websites both have lots of information.
Also the Home Ed Exams Wiki if you have children of secondary age.

Rising costs of education? I think home schooling would cost significantly more than a state school.

I'd also find the local Home Educators Facebook site.

Thank you I'll be sure to look into your suggestions.

State education in uk is free until 19. Not sure what costs you are referring to.

I want to provide them with the best possible resources, but I'm worried about the cost of specialist teachers. A friend told me that local state schools are known not to be great with kids with special needs.

Thank you for providing that information @cyncope what is the difference of home schooling and home education in the UK? Isn't it the same thing?

Do you have any recommendations for an online school that can cater to my kids with special needs?

Better to go visit and find out for yourself than rely on hearsay.

You should also seek a EHCP which if successful will mean your child gets specialist help and you get to choose the school.

Not sure anyone can recommend providers given you haven't said what your child's SN are...

Yes home Ed and home school are the same, but generally called home Ed in the UK (note Uk is four nations and education policy is devolved - it is not usually possible to HE in Scotland for example).

@SummersD some state schools are excellent for children with special educational needs (SEN). There are some excellent SEN schools or SEN facilities within a mainstream state school.
There are obviously also bad schools. You need to find out exactly what schools are available and what they offer in the area you will be living.
Don’t rely on “my friend said” because it’s often wrong or based only on their experiences which can be completely different to another person’s experience.

I'm just heading out so will answer in full later, but I wanted to say Please bear in mind education otherwise is quite a political organisation. They have helped many people but they do so with an agenda that may not actually be beneficial to you. Eg very many home edd-ers do send work and meet their representatives, even at home as this is generally the quickest easiest way through the system.

Hi @Icedlatteplease I'll be sure to keep this in mind. looking forward to more insights from you.

Appreciate the response @titchy saving that information for future reference.

We use Wolsey Hall online school and it’s going really well. It’s not cheap though (about £500 per subject for the academic year). They go all the way up to A levels too.

For us, it just takes the pressure off to make sure that we’re covering the curriculum. Also they do regular marked assignments which help us to gauge DC’s progress.

Then we use local clubs for things like art and we do cookery and languages ourselves.

We love home education. For some children, school is the best environment, for others it isn’t.

Aside from home schooling/education I'm also considering Virtual School for my child who is 6 years old diagnosed with ADHD.

I've been doing some research and compiling suggestions from different websites. I found different online schools. Does anyone have any recommendations or experience with them besides the two I mentioned?

Kings Interhigh
UK Virtual School

Looking forward to your insights and suggestions. I'm considering to schedule a meeting with them. @Needmorelego

There aren't many online schools with programmes for children as young as six. It's difficult for children that age to sit and focus on remote learning, as parents discovered during the pandemic when schools asked parents to try to get kids to sit and do Zoom lessons! That might be even harder with a child who has ADHD.

Most young kids who are home educated in this country do so mainly via informal, hands-on learning facilitated by their parents. If you go along to a local home ed group, you can chat with the other families there about how they do it. You can also find out what is on offer in terms of activities in the area and friends for you and your child.

For example, in my area six year olds could do regular home ed sessions for sport, bushcraft, drama, swimming, craft, Lego, and free play. They might do occasional workshops at the natural history museum or art museum or living history museum. Some families might add in a short daily session of reading and maths, but many find even that is not appropriate for their child's developmental stage.

Older children may start to do some more formal lessons, but equally there are families like mine who stick with a child-led approach even with teens. Some teens learn better by doing rather than reading and listening.

The best way to find people in your area who are home educating is on Facebook. Go to the Facebook search bar and type "home education" followed by the name of your town or county or nearest big town. That should turn up some groups. If you struggle to find anything, post on this board and someone should be able to help.

The usual advice when starting home ed is not to jump into any programme which requires much financial commitment. You may discover it doesn't really suit your child or that you find something you like better, and if you've invested ££ you will feel shackled to it even if it's wrong for your child. Not only is that a waste of money, but it makes you and your child unhappy. Learning should be enjoyable.

You could instead start out by taking some time to settle into your new home, do some outings to interesting places, meet local home ed families, and observe how they do it so you can decide what to try with your children. It's normal to need to experiment quite a lot to find what works best. Unlike a school, you don't have to have everything planned out far in advance. You can be flexible and adapt to your children's individual needs as you get to know them. There's no risk of "falling behind" when the child doesn't have to learn the same things at the same time in the same way as the rest of the class.

I've done home-, school-, and mixed-education, and they all come with expenses. I 100% agree with Saracen that putting in a significant financial cost to an on-going programme is not recommended.

Virtual schools are an expensive option. I would not recommend a virtual school for a 6 year old, even less for one that's neurodivergent. I used one for a year for a teenager for one exam, and they have their uses, but it takes a particular personality I think to make that a large part of the learning. There are a growing number of places that do one-off classes, very mixed in quality, but can be a useful option.

For 6 year olds, I focused on communication & improving literacy and oracy, health and wellbeing, and life skills and knowledge including numeracy and just being out in the world and hands-on art alongside their interests. There are free and low cost resources for most academics at this age depending on current abilities.

what is the difference of home schooling and home education in the UK? Isn't it the same thing?

Yes and no. In common discussion they're used interchangeably though home education is more often used and can be helpful in googling to separate UK from the US resources, but there is at times an important difference.

Elective Home Education is what you are suggesting where the child is not enrolled in any school and the parents have full responsibility. This is very different to Education Otherwise Than At School/EOTAS, occasionally called home schooling, where the child is still on a school's register and the LA is meant to have an obligation in providing resources to school at home, but for usually significant medical reasons and part of their Education, Health, and Care Plan, the child isn't attending school.

Education Otherwise Than At School/EOTAS… where the child is still on a school's register

With EOTAS via an EHCP if a school is not to be attended at all the child or young person is not still on a school’s roll, section I of the EHCP is blank.