Do you get any money for home educating in England?

No. Home educating families receive no funding and no equivalent of the per-pupil grant a school gets. Some councils help with exam fees, but it is discretionary and varies by authority.

Is home education cheaper than private school?

Almost always, because the teaching resources are free and the main cost is a parent's time rather than fees.

What is the one cost you cannot avoid?

Exam entry, and only if your child sits formal exams. A private candidate pays the centre per subject, and fees differ a lot between centres.

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How much does home education cost in the UK?

Checked 16 September 2026

Home education can cost nothing at all, and for the first year many families spend close to it. The national curriculum is published free, the lessons to teach it are published free, and the library card you already have covers the reading.

Nobody in England collects the average, because no home educating family is required to report what they spend. So rather than repeat a figure with no source behind it, here is every line a family actually pays, and what each one is worth.

What is genuinely free

This is not a stripped-down version of home education. A child taught only from the list below is taught the full national curriculum by subject specialists.

The lessons. Oak National Academy publishes every national curriculum subject from Reception to Year 11, with slides, worksheets and quizzes. It is funded by the Department for Education and has no paid tier.
BBC Bitesize. Every key stage, free, and strong on the subjects a parent feels least confident teaching.
The national curriculum itself. Published on gov.uk, subject by subject, year by year. It is what schools work from.
Your library. Reading, reference, and in most authorities free access to online resources with the card.
Exam specifications. Every board publishes the full syllabus and past papers at no cost, years before anybody sits anything.
Museums and galleries. Most national collections in the UK are free, and many run home education sessions.

What families choose to pay for, and why

Everything below is optional. Each one buys back a specific thing, usually time or confidence, and it is worth knowing which before spending anything.

What	What it actually buys
A planned curriculum	Somebody else decides the order and keeps the record. Buys back planning time, which is the thing most families run out of first.
Tutoring	Subject expertise for one or two subjects, usually maths or a language, and usually from Year 9 upwards.
Group sessions and clubs	Other children, a fixed point in the week, and a subject you would rather not teach at the kitchen table, like science practicals.
Exam entry	A private candidate place at a centre. This is the one unavoidable cost if your child sits GCSEs, and it is charged per subject.
Printing	A laser printer pays for itself quickly against a home education worksheet habit.
Trips and memberships	A year's membership at one place you will return to often usually beats six single visits.

Prices vary widely by provider and region, so check before you commit rather than trusting any figure you read on a blog, including this one.

The one cost that genuinely cannot be avoided is exam entry, and only if your child takes formal exams. Fees are set per subject by the centre rather than by the board, and they differ a great deal between centres, so ring two or three in the year before.

The cost nobody puts in the list

It is not the resources. It is the earnings of whichever parent stops working, or drops to part time, to be at home in the mornings.

That is the real budget question, and it is the one worth answering before buying anything. Many families make it work around shift patterns, self-employment or a compressed week, precisely because a home education morning is about three hours rather than six.

Home educating families in England receive no funding from the local authority and no equivalent of the per-pupil grant a school gets. A council may offer help with exam fees, but it is discretionary, it varies between authorities, and it is worth asking rather than assuming.

Where a subscription fits

StudyDen is £29.99 a month for every child in the family, and what it replaces is the planning, not the lessons. The lessons are Oak's and they are free with or without us.

That is a straight trade and it is worth weighing honestly. If you have the time to sequence a year, keep a record of what was done and mark the work, do it for nothing. If the planning is the part that is beating you, that is what the subscription buys back.

Teach the first lesson free

StudyDen plans a full UK primary curriculum for Years 1 to 6, using Oak National Academy's teacher-written lessons. The first lesson needs no card. After that it is £29.99 a month for the whole family, with 7 days free.

Start the first lesson free

Common questions

How much does home education cost in the UK?: It can cost nothing. The curriculum, the lessons to teach it and the library are all free. Families who add tutoring, clubs or exam entry pay more, and no official average exists because nobody is required to report what they spend.
Do you get any money for home educating in England?: No. Home educating families receive no funding and no equivalent of the per-pupil grant a school gets. Some councils help with exam fees, but it is discretionary and varies by authority.
Is home education cheaper than private school?: Almost always, because the teaching resources are free and the main cost is a parent's time rather than fees.
What is the one cost you cannot avoid?: Exam entry, and only if your child sits formal exams. A private candidate pays the centre per subject, and fees differ a lot between centres.