It’s a perpetuated myth that successful home education means parents teaching their children and that those parents will be qualified teachers. Many parents who believe home education might be the best schooling model for their child are put off the idea due to feeling unqualified to teach an entire learning curriculum.
There is no legal or practical requirement for a teaching qualification in order to homeschool successfully. And, not only do you not need a teaching qualification to successfully home-educate your child*, you don’t actually have to teach your homeschooled child!
A home educator’s job is to facilitate their child’s education – how you do that, is up to you.
(For more information about the legalities of home education and the obligations of home educators in the UK, see this Home Education FAQ.)
*The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), an American non-profit dedicated to research on home education, collates academic studies & statistics related to homeschooling, and finds that ‘whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not notably related to their children’s academic achievement.’
Ways to Facilitate an Education at Home
Home Education: Parent = Teacher
If you want to teach your children, you absolutely can – regardless of your own educational background.
To teach your children at home, you need an educational plan to follow: A curriculum, resources and a homeschooling routine that ensures lessons are taught to meet the long-term goals of your homeschool.
Using scaffolded teaching materials (lesson plans and resources designed for teachers), as a home-educating teacher-parent, you can guide your children through a curriculum as a supply teacher would guide a class through a lesson in a subject that wasn’t their specialist subject: ie. a maths teacher teaching a history class.
For each student textbook, there’s an equivalent teacher’s textbook that offers guidance on teaching each lesson’s materials, structuring the lesson and extension tasks/topics that could be included. Using the guidance of the textbook, parents can guide home learners through the curriculum as a supply teacher would.
Of course, learning is more than simply following a textbook. To learn, we need to practice, so home educators need to supply extra practice materials. A simple way to do this is with a Twinkl subscription. There are many places to find online resources for teaching home-ed classes, but the easiest place to start would be Twinkl. For every topic covered in core curriculum subjects in UK schools*, there are matching resources to use as guided teaching materials.
*EBacc subjects – English (language/literature), Maths, Science, History, Geography..(read more about the EBacc)
If you plan to teach your child(ren), this Home-Ed Curriculum 101 breaks down planning a curriculum for your homeschool.
Home Education = Online Schools
Online schools offer pupils the same education they’d receive in a classroom just via the internet: Classes are led by teachers, pupils interact, homework is set and each student’s progress is monitored. For learners who thrive with a traditional learning routine but struggle with the physical and social aspects of being ‘in’ school, online schooling allows them to be in class whilst at home in an environment that supports their mental and physical health.
Two of the best online schools for home education in the UK are IWS and Oxford Homeschooling.
IWS Online School
IWS Online School is a Cambridge accredited online school which stands out for the different homeschool options it provides. With IWS, pupils can join a Mon-Fri school where all classes are taught live; choose a hybrid education option, with a blend of live classes and teacher-provided materials for students to study at their own pace; and an entirely self-paced education option, where the course materials and lessons are provided for students to study independently following a well-though-out curriculum.
IWS offers online schooling for Primary, Secondary (KS3), GCSE and A-level, making it a homeschooling option that can see your child through from learning to read to graduating from home-ed.
Oxford Home Schooling
Oxford Home Schooling offers individual course tuition for individual subjects allowing homeschoolers to tailor an educational plan that meets their academic needs and interests. All assignments are tutor-marked, making the online schooling provided by Oxford Home Schooling as comprehensive an education as in-school learning. Options for home education support start from KS3, through to A-level.
What makes Oxford Home Schooling unique is the option to complete courses using printed materials as an alternative to online lessons. For parents/pupils looking for a home education model that doesn’t involve a lot of screentime, Oxford Home Schooling is an excellent option.
Home Education = At Home Learning + Tutoring
One of the benefits of home education is the option to curate a hybrid model of learning for each child’s individual needs.
As a home educator, you may feel confident teaching certain subjects and out-of-your-depth teaching others. Likewise, a homeschooled child may feel confident working independently at a self-paced level through course materials for certain subjects, and require extra support for others.
Home education using a hybrid model of learning, with education provided either by the parent (as home educator), self-led learning by the child and additional tutoring can be an effective method of providing an education at home that meets the individual needs of the pupil.
Tutoring options for home education are varied and can be via online platforms or in-person support.
Reliable sources for finding in-person tutoring are UK Tutors, Superprof, and First Tutors. These sites connect parents with tutors specialised in their subject.
If online tutoring is a more suitable option for your homeschool, MyTutor, SuperProf and Preply offer affordable tutoring options. Homeschoolers can book ad-hoc lessons to problem-solve specific topics, or a block of lessons to learn via tutoring.
MyTutor connects pupils with a tutor – a university student or qualified teacher – and facilitates one-to-one lessons in an interactive classroom environment.
Superprof, which offers in-person tuition, also offers online tutoring via their learning platform.
Preply is a global tutoring site where again homeschoolers can connect with tutors online to receive single tutoring lessons to problem-solve a tricky concept, or receive tutoring to cover a full teaching programme for a curriculum subject.
For home educators with more budget flexibility looking for tutoring that falls between an online school and a tutor, Enjoy Education is the most specialised homeschooling tutoring option available.
Enjoy Education provide subject-focused tuition, tutoring for entrance exams (for families who plan to home-educate only for the primary school years), and can offer support with university preparation which is useful for home-educated university candidates who won’t receive university support from school/college. This tutoring service specialises in working with homeschooling families and can provide specialist support for homeschoolers with SEN.
Home Education = Unschooling
A popular method of homeschooling is an educational model called ‘unschooling’. Unschooling is an approach to learning that leaves the curriculum in the hands of the learner.
In an unschooling homeschool, parents don’t define the curriculum or subjects their child follows, rather the child engages in activities and learning opportunities that appeal to them. It is, in essence, a less structured version of interest-led learning, except the interests include core curriculum subjects too. With the unschooling approach, children learn to read only after they’ve expressed an interest in doing so, or learn science concepts when they come across the topic in real-life as opposed to in a teacher-led lesson.
Unschooling requires rethinking how we view education and trusting that a child’s natural curious instinct is to learn.
If you’re curious about unschooling works in practice, these posts might be of interest:
Pre-teens: a Montessori, Unschooling Approach
The key for home-educating parents/caregivers is to remember that your job role is to facilitate a suitable education for the child.
Whether you choose to teach your child, enroll them in a structured online school, or create a learning programme that combines parent-led lessons, independent learning and targeted tutoring, there is no right or wrong way to homeschool.
If your child is progressing academically and is happy, fulfilled and socially engaged, you’re succeeding in your job role – empowering your children to live their lives post-education.