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.