UK Homeschooling Resources
Image Credit: Roman Mager
There are many reasons why you may be considering homeschooling your child. You may prefer the freedom to teach your child at a speed that suits them, maybe your child has endured bullying, has been excluded from school or has special needs.
Whatever your reason for home education, you will need as much support as you can.
Here are the best resources for those home educating and homeschooling children in the UK, with information about Key Stages 1 to 4, GCSEs, iGCSEs and A-Level study at home, as well as how to organise the home school day and the legal aspects of home education.
Homeschooling - Where To Begin
- GOV.UK If you are considering homeschooling your child the very first place that you should go is the UK government website, which outlines your legal responsibilities with regard to homeschooling your child. It also includes lots of advice on the national curriculum and any help that you can recieve from your local council.
- The Home Schooling Association is a community of home educators which provides home school families with opportunities to network, share experiences, and give them a voice to shape the future of alternative education.
- Schoolhouse is Scotland’s national home education charity, dedicated to supporting learning outside the school system, supporting home educators and potential home educators, and ensuring that they receive fair, consistent and equal treatment in their dealings with local authorities and other services.
- Education Otherwise is a membership organisation that provides support and information for families whose children are being educated outside school. It also supports families who wish to take direct responsibility for the education of their children.
Primary Education Resources
- EdPlace is a subscription based app which covers English, Maths and Science across the National Curriculum in Key Stages 1 to 4 (age 5-16). They blend the best online tools with leading resources, which are 100% aligned to the National Curriculum and created by qualified teachers.
- SparkleBox has a huge collection of useful downloadable resources which is completely FREE to download. They are aimed at younger children.
- Lonely Planet Publications have a collection of free resources for lessons on geography, citizenship and travel, as well as creative art and craft activities.
- @school is a subscription based service which is a child friendly website organised around the UK National Curriculum Key Stage 1 and 2 with online tests, interactive exercises, worksheets, pictures and much more.
- Teacher's Pet has unique and engaging classroom content and everything a teacher or homeschooling parent could need all under one roof, with masses of content that matches the National Curriculum and Early Years guidelines.
- Science Museum Group has learning resources to support KS1, KS2 and KS3, with contributions from all the museums in the group, which along with London' Science Museum also includes the Railway Museum in York and the Science and Media Museum in Bradford.
Secondary Education Resources
Secondary school is often the time where homeschooled children re-enter mainstream education as they approach GCSE and A-Levels, or their studies simply go beyond what parents can handle. However it is possible to study GCSEs and A-Levels online.
You might also find our extensive list of Free Revision Resources for GCSE, A-Level, SATs and 11+ useful as well.
- EdPlace is a subscription based app which covers KS3 studies as well as English Language & Literature, Maths, Biology, Physics and Chemistry up to GCSE level and is created by qualified teachers.
- Open Study College has over 650 distance learning courses. You can choose to study with a printed course pack or using our e-learning courses and enjoy tutor support throughout your course.
- Cloud Learn is a dedicated GCSE & A-Level online learning provider, whi will also arrange exams for students. Their philosopy involves harnessing emerging technologies, embedding social platforms and using digitised distance learning materials so you can learn in a format that suits you.
- ICSLearn offers GCSE, iGCSE and A-Level distance learning courses with tutor support.
- NEC The National Extension College offers online study for students aged 13 and over. School aged students recieve extra tutorial support. You can study GCSEs and A-Levels and some professional qualifications are also offered, as well as courses on creative topics.
- Oxford Learning College work with highly respected education partners to provide quality home study courses for A-Levels and Accredited Diplomas worldwide.
- Wolsey Hall Oxford have courses from Primary and Secondary and through to IGCSE and A Level to students in the UK and in over 100 countries around the world.
- Duolingo is a free language learning app which gives you the opportunity to learn dozens of languages. It won't prepare you for a GCSE, but is an excellent way of reinforcing language learning and widening your child's vocabulary outside of the narrow language curriculum.
- Gojimo Revision from The Telegraph is a popular revision app for GCSE and A Level students where you can access over 40,000 practice questions for free including 28 GCSE subjects (AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC), 20 A Level subjects (AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC) as well as 11+ and 13+ Common Entrance and SATs.
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Beyond The National Curriculum
- Smithsonian Learning Lab This US musuem organisation puts the treasures of the world's largest museum, education, and research complex within reach.It is a free, interactive platform for discovering digital resources to help you understand history, art, culture, and the sciences through inquiry and analysis.
- GoNoodle is a US based website which is designed especially for kids (age 4-10) to get moving using Dance, Sports, Exercise, How-tos, Yoga, Stretching, Deep breathing and Mindfulness. You can also download the GoNoodle App for Android.
- Scholastic Learn At Home is another US site from educational book publisher Scholastic, with stories, educational videos and craft activities.
- Storyline Online streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include big name celebrities such as Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.
- TED-Ed has hundreds of TED-Ed Animations and TED Talks designed to spark your child’s curiosity, along with thousands of other video-based lessons organized by age-level and subject.
Higher Level Resources
- OpenLearn the home of free learning from The Open University. Your child could find new topic to explore, or dig deeper into something that fascinates them, with a broad range of topics from history, sports, business, languages, the environment, politics and law as well as science, maths and technology.
- Class Central has a list of over 600 free online courses from universities around the world. If your child has a special interest in a subject and is beyond school level in their study level they may find something to challenge them here. They tend to be focussed on science, maths, computers and engineering topics, but there are also courses on art, music and social science as well.
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Homeschool Blogs
If you are considering homeschooling, you might be able to get a taste of what you are letting yourself in for with these homeschool bloggers who share their homeschooling journey.
- Freddies Mummy UK where she shares her homeschool journey, along with family life, world travel, and days out.
- Home Education in the UK was created by home educator Sue nearly 20 years ago and is still regularly updated with information about UK home education issues and advice.
- Free Homeschool Deals is a frugal living homeschool site with useful ideas for homeschool families throughout the world. As well as thousands of printables, it has articles about keeping the cost of homeschooling to a minimum.
- Simple Homeschool is a multi-contributor US homeschooling blog with articles on how to homeschool, organising your day as well as addressing some of the philosophical aspects of homeschooling.
- The Guardian News and topical articles about homeschooling.
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About eParenting: eParenting was started by Jacqui O'Brien in 2004. At the time her kids were 1 and 4 and kept her nice and busy. Now they are teenagers and still keeping her pretty busy!
