Before educating your child at home
Educating your child at home is a big decision and will require a great deal of your time and energy, but when properly engaged in your child's education it can be a beneficial and satisfying experience for both parents and children.
You will not receive any financial assistance, so there will be expenses including:
- costs associated with teaching resources
- access to the internet
- learning materials
- the cost of taking exams if you want your child to gain qualifications.
It may be difficult for one person to teach a broad range of subjects so you may also need to consider if you will be paying for a tutor for some or all of the education.
Going to school is not simply about lessons and exams. There are the friendships, socialising with other people, development of communication skills and learning from a range of teachers sharing wide ranging interests and experiences which may be missed.
If you are home educating you should try to meet with other home educating families to see if there can be opportunities for children to socialise with other children their age. We would recommend you talk to your child about how they feel about home education in this wider context.
Read some examples sent to us by home educating families about their thoughts on educating their child at home:
- Case study for Child F (a younger child)
- Case study for Child J (a young person)
Or read the elective home education guidelines for local authorities on GOV.UK.
Next steps
Once you're happy to continue with the process of educating your child at home, see what to do next.