UK home education guide

Answering the questions relatives ask about home education

Updated · 1 min read

The questions arrive within a week of telling anybody. They are usually worry wearing a costume, and calm answers work far better than arguments.

Mention home ed once and the questions arrive on schedule. Here are the calm answers.

The 4 questions every relative will ask when you mention home education — and the calm answers that end the conversation nicely. Save for the next family dinner.

Question #1

'But what about socialisation?'

Clubs, sport, libraries, other home-ed families — 126,000 children in England are home educated. They meet more mixed ages in a week than a classroom offers in a term.

Socialisation comes first because it is the only one most people have a mental picture for. The honest answer is that a home-educated child usually meets more different ages in a week than a classroom offers in a term, because the week is chosen rather than allocated.

Question #2

'Are you qualified for that?'

The law asks for a suitable education, not a teaching degree. No qualification check exists — and one-to-one forgives a lot.

Question #3

'What about GCSEs?'

Home-educated kids sit them as private candidates at exam centres, often exactly when they're ready rather than when the year group is.

Question #4

'Is that even legal?'

Completely. Education is compulsory in the UK — school isn't. One letter to the headteacher and it's done properly.

The question they don't ask

'Who plans all of it?'

That's the real one. 11 subjects, 36 weeks — the answers above are easy; the planning is the actual work.

How to end the conversation kindly

Answer once, warmly, then change the subject. You are not obliged to run a seminar at Sunday lunch.

The relative asking is usually frightened for your child rather than critical of you, and six months of a visibly happy child will do more than any argument you could win. Buy yourself those six months with a short answer and a smile.

The planning is the part that does not solve itself

StudyDen plans the year so your evenings stop going on deciding what comes next. Years 1 to 6 are live, sequenced week by week on Oak National Academy’s lessons, with a record the parent can actually show. Music is the one national curriculum subject this plan does not carry. Everything else runs Year 1 to Year 6, apart from critical thinking, which starts in Year 2, and computing and French, which start in Year 3.

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Read next

How to plan a home education curriculum without burning out

The difference between calm home ed and 11pm chaos is rarely the child. It's the plan.

How to reply to your local authority about home education

After you deregister, the local authority may make informal enquiries. Here's the calm way through. (England.)

Home education UK: 7 things worth knowing before you start

From a dad two years deep in the research — before my daughter even starts school.

The two longer guides

Deregistering from school sets out the law, the timing and a letter you can copy. For the sceptic at your table answers the relative who thinks you are winging it. Neither needs an account.

Written for families in England unless stated otherwise. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules, and a child at a special school follows a different process. Nothing here is legal advice.