What is homeschooling? Meaning, methods and how it works in the UK
Homeschooling means a parent takes responsibility for their child's education outside the school system. In the UK, the more common legal term is "elective home education" (EHE), though most families use "homeschooling" or "home ed" in everyday conversation.
About 111,700 children were in elective home education in England at the autumn 2024 census, roughly 1.4% of the school-age population. Across the full 2023/24 academic year, 153,300 children spent at least part of the year home educated. So while it's a minority choice, it isn't unusual.
What the law says
The parental duty in England and Wales sits in Section 7 of the Education Act 1996: parents must make sure their child of compulsory school age receives an "efficient full-time education suitable to age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise".
Those last two words – "or otherwise" – are the foundation of home education in law. Education is compulsory in the UK; school is not. Scotland uses similar wording in Section 30 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, and Northern Ireland in Article 45 of the Education and Libraries (NI) Order 1986.
"Suitable" isn't statutorily defined – courts decide it case by case based on the individual child. "Efficient" is generally taken to mean the education achieves what it sets out to achieve – there's no statutory definition. "Full-time" doesn't have a fixed hour requirement for home educators; the reference point of "around 4.5–5.0 hours of education a day, for about 190 days a year" in DfE guidance is drawn from schools and doesn't have to be replicated at home.
Home education doesn't require you to follow the national curriculum, keep school hours or holidays, use a particular curriculum, or enter your child for public exams. The law only requires that the education is efficient, full-time and suitable.
Who does it in the UK, and why?
The reasons parents give for home educating in England, from the DfE's autumn 2024 census (of reasons known to the local authority, with more than 4 in 10 recorded as unknown, other, or not given):
- Mental health: 14%
- Philosophical or preferential reasons: 14%
- Lifestyle choice: 9%
The demographics are broader than the stereotype suggests. In autumn 2024, home-educated children in England were 51% female and 48% male (the rest not recorded); 64% White, 5% Mixed, 4% Asian, 3% Black; 16% on SEN Support (vs 14% school-wide) and 6% with an EHC plan (vs 5% school-wide). The population skews toward older year groups, with 19% in Year 11.
Some families choose home education from the start. Others move to it after a specific school situation stops working: bullying, unmet SEN, mental health, or a school that isn't the right fit. Ofsted's 2019 research found that many secondary-age moves to home education happened after "SEN, medical, behavioural, wellbeing needs" rather than as a positive first choice.
The main homeschooling approaches
There's no single UK homeschool curriculum. Families organise their week in different ways.
Structured, curriculum-following. Uses a scheme of work (often the national curriculum, sometimes an online-school one) and free content like Oak National Academy or BBC Bitesize. Familiar shape, easy to move back to school if you want to.
Self-built, mixed resources. Parents pick topics, pull from free content plus workbooks (CGP, Collins, textbook sets), and adapt as they go. The most common route in practice.
Charlotte Mason. A British approach dating to the late 1800s, built around "living books" (narrative-driven, not textbook summaries), narration (the child retells what they've read), short focused lessons, nature study and habit training. Ambleside Online is the free version.
Montessori. Italian physician Maria Montessori's method: child-led work, prepared environment, mixed-age groupings, specialist materials, long uninterrupted work cycles. Mostly used at early years and primary.
Unschooling. Self-directed and interest-led, with no set curriculum. Coined by US educator John Holt in the 1970s. UK adherents feed into national conversations via groups like the UK Unschooling Network.
Classical / Trivium. Three stages – grammar, logic, rhetoric – with Latin often central. More common in the US than the UK.
Waldorf / Steiner. Rudolf Steiner's arts-integrated approach with delayed formal literacy and a distinctive rhythm to the school year.
Online school. King's InterHigh, Wolsey Hall Oxford, Minerva's Virtual Academy, Nisai, Cambridge Home School Online, Harrow School Online. Live-lesson or asynchronous models, £2,750 to over £10,000 per year depending on stage.
| Approach | Best fit for | Typical age range |
|---|---|---|
| Structured / national curriculum | Families keeping the option of returning to school | Primary and secondary |
| Self-built mixed | Parents wanting flexibility, comfortable with planning | Primary and secondary |
| Charlotte Mason | Literature-loving families; small children | Primary, sometimes to KS3 |
| Montessori | Early years and primary; child-led household | Ages 3–11 |
| Unschooling | Highly self-directed children; interest-led families | All ages |
| Online school | Working parents; those wanting delivery outsourced | Primary through sixth form (varies by provider) |
Home education vs online school vs private tutoring
It's easy to blur these three. They're not the same thing legally.
Elective home education is when the parent takes responsibility for the education. Even if the child spends most of their day in an online school or with a tutor, if the child isn't registered at a bricks-and-mortar school and the parent is the arranging party, it counts as home education under Section 7.
An online school (King's InterHigh, Wolsey Hall Oxford, Nisai, Minerva, Cambridge Home School Online) is a provider you buy from. Some are DfE-accredited under the Online Education Accreditation Scheme; some are Ofsted-registered independent schools; some are neither. The child is still legally home educated as far as the LA is concerned.
A private tutor is another paid service. Standard self-employment rules apply; private tuition of a subject "ordinarily taught in a school or university" is VAT-exempt.
An independent (private) school is a school. Attendance means the child is on a school roll and Section 7 is discharged "by regular attendance at school", not "otherwise". Home education doesn't apply.
Flexi-schooling is a hybrid – the child stays on a school roll but attends only agreed days, with home education filling the rest. It requires the head teacher's agreement (there's no right of appeal) and time out is recorded as authorised absence.
How assessment works without a school
There's no mandatory testing or standardised assessment in UK home education. No SATs, no compulsory reporting. Some families use commercial standardised tests (CAT4, for example) for their own tracking; others do informal weekly reviews; others rely on the child's outputs and their own judgment.
At secondary level, the assessment question becomes practical. If the child is heading to university or a job that expects qualifications, GCSEs, iGCSEs and A-Levels are the standard route. Home-educated students sit these as "private candidates" at approved exam centres. JCQ lists around 190 UK centres that accept private candidates.
Most home educators prefer iGCSE (International GCSE) to UK GCSE because most iGCSE syllabuses have no coursework or non-exam assessment, and sciences typically use an "Alternative to Practical" written paper instead of lab work. Cambridge International and Pearson Edexcel International are the two main iGCSE boards. UK universities, including Russell Group, treat iGCSE and GCSE as equivalent for admission.
What it costs
There's no state funding for elective home education. The DfE's parents guidance is explicit: "you assume the full financial responsibility for the provision of education".
Realistic ranges:
- DIY, free content, library-heavy at primary: around £300–£800 a year.
- Mixed approach with some paid curriculum, tutors and activities: around £1,000–£3,000 a year at primary, more at secondary once exam fees start.
- Full online school: £3,000–£10,000+ a year per child.
- Exam entries at secondary: roughly £200–£320 per GCSE subject; combined science can be £375–£525; a full six-subject iGCSE round is typically £1,500 or more before any tuition.
Common misconceptions
"You need a teaching qualification." No. There's no requirement to be a qualified teacher, or to have any particular educational background.
"The council pays for it." No. There's no wage, allowance or stipend paid to parents for home educating. Some LAs will fund exam fees discretionarily, but few do.
"You have to follow the national curriculum." No. Following it is a common choice, not a legal requirement.
"Home-educated children can't go to university." They can. Home-educated students apply through UCAS as independent applicants and are accepted by Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group universities, provided they meet standard entry requirements.
"Homeschooling means the child never sees other children." It doesn't have to. Most home-ed families build community through co-ops, clubs, museum days, sports and local groups. Published UK research (de Carvalho and Skipper 2019; Paulauskaite et al. 2022) points to home-educated children reporting strong social engagement across mixed-age networks, though de Carvalho and Skipper interviewed only three adolescents so the sample is small.
