British homeschool curriculum: How to build one that works

There isn't a "British homeschool curriculum" you can buy off the shelf. It's a search phrase, not a product. What UK homeschool families really do is stitch together a working scheme from three or four sources – some free, some paid – and adapt it as the child grows.

That's not a fault of the system, it's a feature. When you build your own, you get to weight subjects around what your child cares about, drop what isn't working, and slot in exam prep when it makes sense rather than when a scheme of work says so.

What you do need is a structure. "Making it up as you go" sounds free-spirited until you hit Year 8 and realise nobody has done any formal writing for six months. This is a practical framework for building a curriculum that holds together in practice, from Reception to Year 11, based on how UK families do it in 2026.

If you do nothing else, protect five things. Every week, your child should be doing formal work on:

1. Reading. Independent reading of decent-quality books. Charlotte Mason called them "living books" – narrative, well-written, written by someone who cared about the subject. Not textbook summaries.

2. Writing. Not just typing – putting sentences and paragraphs on paper (or screen) with feedback. This is the single area where home-educated children most often have gaps at 16.

3. Maths. A proper structured programme, done regularly. Miss six weeks of Year 8 algebra and you're paying for it in Year 10.

4. One science. Doesn't have to be all three. Biology at KS3 is fine as your only formal science until Year 9 or so, provided your child is doing plenty of curious poking-around outside that.

5. One humanities subject. History or geography, done with real texts and real writing. This is where reading and writing get their subject-matter workout.

Everything else – languages, arts, sport, computing, second sciences – is bonus. Get the core five right and you can add anything on top. Get them wrong and adding Spanish later won't make up for a shaky core.

At this age, three hours of formal work a day is plenty. Some families do less. Reading, writing and maths daily; everything else is real-world learning – outdoor time, cooking, making things, being read aloud to.

Use phonics for reading. Read Write Inc, Jolly Phonics and Reading Eggs are all sensible options. Handwriting takes patience – nothing to worry about if it lags a year behind school peers.

For maths, don't skip White Rose, Numicon or a similar concrete-then-abstract approach. Free structure at this stage: Oak National Academy has the whole KS1 curriculum in lesson sequences; BBC Bitesize KS1 is a good topic-level reference.

Don't do formal science. Do outdoor observation, mixing, making, growing seeds, poking dead insects. This is real science education – you can add the textbook framing later. Same for history: read stories, visit places, listen to podcasts. No worksheets required.

This is the stage where a lot of families over-formalise. Resist it. Three to four hours of focused work a day is still plenty. What changes is that writing steps up – short paragraphs become short essays, and by Year 6 your child should be able to structure a page-length piece with a beginning, middle and end.

Maths continues formally. Now is when you either commit to a programme (White Rose remains the strongest free option; CGP workbooks are excellent cheap paper-based practice) or accept that you'll have to fix gaps at KS3.

For science and humanities, start building in a light structured element alongside the exploration. BBC Bitesize KS2 or Oak National's science lessons are enough for the science content. For history and geography, real books beat textbooks: Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World is used by lots of UK home educators despite being American-authored.

At this stage, add a modern foreign language if your child is interested – Duolingo is fine as a starting point, though it's not enough on its own for GCSE-level fluency later. Add music, art, sport as much as feels sustainable.

KS3 is the sneakiest stage. There's no external exam pressure, so it feels safe to drift. Then Year 10 arrives and you realise you don't have a scheme of work.

My view: use KS3 to broaden across subjects but keep the pace civilised. Maths and English continue formally. Add all three sciences separately from Year 7 or 8 – you can use Oak National, Cognito's KS3 science content (free video lessons and notes across Biology, Chemistry and Physics), or a proper textbook such as CGP KS3 Science. History and geography should each have a strand.

By the end of Year 8, start narrowing towards exam subjects. This is when many families start looking at iGCSE Foundations early, gently pacing towards a Year 10 or 11 exam entry.

If you've been eclectic up to now, KS3 is when the eclectic approach starts to show its cracks. Written English in particular needs a structured focus. If you can't teach it yourself, this is a sensible place to bring in a tutor or a paid course. Wolsey Hall Oxford and Oxford Home Schooling both offer KS3 courses; expect a few hundred pounds per subject per year. Verify current fees directly.

Now the exam stops being hypothetical. Most UK homeschool families sit iGCSE rather than domestic GCSE because most iGCSE syllabuses are 100% written exams – no coursework, no lab work, no fieldwork. Sciences use an Alternative to Practical written paper. That removes the biggest logistical headache of the domestic GCSE route.

A typical homeschool GCSE profile is five to nine subjects, sat over two years. The core almost always includes: Maths, English Language, English Literature, at least one science, and one humanities subject. Everything else depends on your child.

Book your exam centre by early autumn of Year 11 – earlier if you can. Tutors & Exams, Exam Centre London and David Game College are commonly used private candidate centres. Standard entry deadline for the June series is usually early February. Late entry roughly doubles the fee; high late roughly triples it.

Exam entry fees are typically £215 to £290 per subject at a mainstream London centre. Six iGCSEs is around £1,300 to £1,700 in fees alone. Verify with your chosen centre before committing.

What to use for teaching: Cognito for GCSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Combined Science and Maths, and iGCSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths, plus notes and questions for English Language, English Literature, History, Geography, Religious Studies, Economics, Computer Science and modern foreign languages. BBC Bitesize for topic-level introductions. PMT and Save My Exams for wider notes and past papers. Corbett Maths and Dr Frost Maths for maths worked examples. Past papers directly from the exam board site.

Three A-Levels is the standard UK university route. Some homeschool families do four; some sit two A-Levels alongside another qualification such as an Extended Project.

The practical problem at A-Level is the same one as at GCSE, only sharper: A-Level Sciences require Common Practical Assessment Criteria (CPAC) practical endorsement, which the centre has to supervise. The University of Cambridge, among others, requires science applicants to pass the practical endorsement. Cambridge International A-Level instead assesses practical skills through a written paper. Options: find a centre that will host the practicals (rare and often expensive), go Cambridge International A-Level which uses a written practical paper instead, or pick homeschool-friendly A-Level subjects that don't have the practical constraint – Maths, Further Maths, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, History, English Literature, Philosophy, Politics.

An alternative worth knowing about is the Open University. The vast majority of OU undergraduate courses have no formal entry requirements – no A-Levels needed. Or the Access to Higher Education Diploma, a QAA-regulated Level 3 qualification treated as A-Level equivalent for university applications.

Whatever the choice, plan the sixth-form stage from the start of Year 11 or earlier. Late decisions about A-Level route mean missing university-application deadlines.

Most families end up mixing. A common pattern is a free-first stack through KS3, then a paid provider for one or two subjects in KS4 where the parent can't teach the material. Wolsey Hall Oxford (bundle-priced by number of courses, verify the current fee schedule), Oxford Home Schooling (£375 per GCSE subject), Minerva's Virtual Academy (£9,365 a year all-in for 2026/27, including a £930 deposit and £95 subscription), Cambridge Home School Online (£10,950 a year above primary) and King's InterHigh (published in ranges) are among the most commonly used paid providers. Verify current fees directly – online-school pricing changes annually.

Over-buying at the start. New home-ed families buy three curricula, six workbooks and two subscriptions before their child has done a single lesson. Most of it goes unused. Pick one thing per subject, use it for a term, adjust.

Under-planning maths. Every other subject is more forgiving than maths. Pick a structured programme and stick with it.

Copying school. Home education isn't school in a smaller room. A 9-to-3 timetable with bells is exhausting and misses the point. Most families cover a school day's content in three morning hours.

Ignoring writing. Written English is the single area where home-educated children most often show gaps at 16. If your child is under 10, this isn't urgent. If they're 12 and not doing weekly extended writing with feedback, it is.

Not planning for exam entry. By Year 9 you should know where your child will sit exams, on which specification, and what the deadlines are. Leaving it until Year 11 means late-entry fees and, sometimes, missing the series entirely.

That's a full six-iGCSE profile for well under £2,000 all in, using free tools for teaching and paying only for exam entry. It's a realistic setup, and one a lot of families use in 2026.

The reason we built Cognito is precisely so a family building their own curriculum can slot us in without a big budget conversation. Videos and notes are free across all covered subjects; the flashcards, topic-tagged question bank and custom quiz builder are free with a weekly limit, and unlimited on the paid Cognito Pro tier.

For GCSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Combined Science and Maths, and iGCSE Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths, we cover the full syllabus with short video lessons, notes, questions, flashcards and quizzes. For English Language, English Literature, History, Geography, Religious Studies, Economics, Computer Science and modern foreign languages we have notes, flashcards and questions – best used on top of another explainer resource, since video coverage is deepest in sciences and maths. We also cover KS3 and A-Level, with IB support.

That covers the sciences and maths block of a self-built KS4 curriculum with a single tool at low or no cost. The rest of your curriculum – deeper English, humanities, languages, arts – you'll build around it with the resources above.