For the sceptic at your table

“But who's actually teaching them?”

Teachers wrote most of them. English, maths, science, history, geography, art, design and technology, PE, religious education, computing and French come from Oak National Academy, the government-funded body whose lessons are written by practising teachers and used in schools across England, in Oak's own order, year by year. Computing and French start in Year 3. Islamic studies, PSHE and critical thinking are written here rather than by Oak. Critical thinking starts in Year 2. The parent isn't inventing a curriculum at the kitchen table; they're walking a professional one at their child's pace.

“How do you know they're learning anything?”

Because every lesson ends with the child answering real questions and, regularly, explaining the idea back in their own words, recorded, dated and kept. Ask to see the ledger: every claim in it cites actual work. The law asks a maintained school in England for one written report to parents a year, before the end of the summer term. This family can show you what was learned this morning.

“What about gaps?”

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. Within that, nothing falls out when life happens: a lost day is absorbed and the sequence re-flows, and an idea a child wobbles on comes back as practice until it holds. That's a tighter watch than a class of thirty allows.

“And friends?”

Socialisation doesn't come from an app and never did. It comes from clubs, sport, mosque or church, cousins, the park, and the home-ed groups that meet in every town. Home-educated children get their mornings back to do more of exactly that. The question to ask isn't “where are the other children?” It's “is this child spoken to, listened to, and busy?” Come round and see.

“Is this even legal?”

Completely. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 requires every child of compulsory school age to receive “efficient full-time education” suitable to their age, ability and aptitude, “either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”. Home education is the “or otherwise”, and it has been there from the start. The deregistration guide covers the mechanics.