Free home education resources in the UK
Checked 16 September 2026
You can home educate a primary-age child to the full national curriculum without spending anything. The curriculum is published free, the lessons to teach it are published free, and your library card covers the reading.
The list below is short on purpose. Twenty bookmarks is how a first month gets lost; these are the ones families actually keep using after a term.
Start with these three
Between them these cover every national curriculum subject, and none of them has a paid tier at all.
- Oak National Academy. A full sequence from Reception to Year 11, written by subject specialists and funded by the Department for Education. Slides, worksheets, quizzes and answers, downloadable, no account. This is the closest thing to a complete curriculum that costs nothing.
- BBC Bitesize. Every key stage, and strongest exactly where a parent is least confident teaching. Short, well made, and a good second explanation when the first one did not land.
- The national curriculum itself, on gov.uk. Subject by subject, year by year. Worth reading once so you know what the sequence is before you decide which parts of it you want.
Subject by subject
| For | What | Free? |
|---|---|---|
| Maths | White Rose Education | Schemes of learning and some worksheets, free. Editable material and assessments are a subscription. |
| Maths | NRICH, from the University of Cambridge | Entirely free. Problem-solving rather than practice, and the best thing on this list for a child who finds maths easy. |
| Maths and more | Khan Academy | Entirely free, a registered non-profit. American in its ordering, so use it for a topic rather than as a spine. |
| Reading | Your local library | Free, including the online lending and often research databases with the same card. |
| Reading | Project Gutenberg | Free. Out-of-copyright books, which is most of what a primary child is asked to read anyway. |
| Computing | Scratch, from MIT | Entirely free, no account needed to start. |
| Everything | National museums and galleries | Most of the UK's national collections are free to enter, and many run sessions for home educating families. |
Where a service has a paid tier, the column says what the free part actually includes.
How to use a list like this without drowning
- Pick one spine and stick to it for a term. Oak is the obvious choice because it is sequenced. Switching spine every three weeks is the single most common first-year mistake.
- Use everything else as a second explanation. When something does not land, that is what Bitesize and Khan are for.
- Do not print everything. The urge to print is the urge to feel prepared. A term of worksheets in a folder is not a term of teaching.
- Write down what got done. A notebook is enough at first, and it is the thing you will be glad of when a letter arrives.
Where a paid thing fits, if at all
A family that uses the list above pays nothing and educates their child properly. That is a real sentence on a page published by a company that charges money, and it is true.
What the free list does not do is decide what your child does tomorrow, keep the record, or mark the work. That is the job StudyDen sells, at £29.99 a month for the whole family. Oak's own lessons stay free with or without us. If the planning is not the part beating you, do not buy it.
Start your 7-day free trial
StudyDen plans a full UK primary curriculum for Years 1 to 6, using Oak National Academy's teacher-written lessons. 7 days free, then £29.99 a month for the whole family.
Start your 7-day free trialCommon questions
- Can you home educate for free in the UK?
- Yes. The national curriculum, a full set of teacher-written lessons from Oak National Academy, BBC Bitesize and your library card cover a primary education at no cost.
- What is the best free home education curriculum in the UK?
- Oak National Academy. It is funded by the Department for Education, covers every national curriculum subject from Reception to Year 11, and is sequenced, which most free resources are not.
- Is White Rose Maths free?
- Partly. The schemes of learning and some worksheets are free; editable resources and assessments are a paid subscription.
- Do home educating families get free access to anything from the council?
- No funding and no equivalent of a school's per-pupil grant. Some councils help with exam fees, but it is discretionary and varies by authority.