Many people in the UK do not realise that British home education (known as 'homeschooling' in the USA) is legal, and becoming more popular all the time. Although laws in the four countries of the UK (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) are not the same, home education is legal in all of them.

According to the 1996 education act in England and Wales, it is parents who are responsible for providing their children's education 'in school or otherwise', suitable for the age, ability and aptitude of each child. The same wording is used in Northern Ireland. Scottish law says that 'every child has a right to an education, and it is the duty of the parent of every school age child to provide that education, either by sending the child to school, or by other means.'

Home educators in the UK do not have to be trained teachers, nor do they need any special qualifications to educate their children at home. Some British home educating families choose to use a structured 'homeschool' curriculum; some pick and choose school-type text books from bookshops; some use the Internet and libraries to find suitable educational resources; some follow the children's interests and do little or no teaching as such.

In other words, there are no rules for how families go about their home educating in the UK. It's up to each family to ensure that their children receive appropriate education, which will vary from child to child.  Although the previous government attempted to introduce bills that would require registration and compulsory visits (at great financial cost to the tax-payer, and a terrible infringements of parental and childrne's right) the bill has now been abandoned.

References: legal information for home education in Northern Ireland; Scottish government guidance on home education; summary of the law relating to home education in England and Wales.

Why home educate?

Some children are taken out of school due to bullying or other serious problems, but there are a growing number of British parents who home educate their children from the start. This site explains some of the reasons that families in the UK are choosing home education, with suggestions about how to get started and links to resources and legal information for home educators, with a guide to taking GCSEs for those who wish to.

If you're concerned - as so many are - about the social side of home education in the UK, try reading the the socialising articles, or browse a few home educators' blogs which describe their everyday life; sometimes hectic, but never lacking social activity.

How to home educate

For a more structured walk through some of the relevant concepts, start here for a quick tour of home education theory and practice, or browse the sitemap. There are plenty of articles to read about various aspects of home education, and also about parenting in general. If, like many, you worry about helping your children with maths, you might be encouraged by some of the maths articles that show how to introduce topics gently and learn together as home educators.

If you have any questions about British home education, please do get in touch at the address below. However you may find more up-to-date local information from those currently home educating in the UK. The mailing list pages can tell you ways of contacting some of them, or you might find a useful local group.

If you're wondering what happens to some British home educated children when they grow up, there are recent updates by three people who described what their home education life was about, listed on my home education glimpses page.

In other countries there are different regulations about homeschooling. Most English-speaking and European countries allow home education to some degree, although it's important to check local regulations. The home education abroad page gives details of the rules in a few countries - if you know about others, please do let me know.

If you would prefer to read a book about home educating rather than browse a website, there are several recommendations on my home education books page. I would particularly recommend Teach Yourself Home Education (by Deborah Durbin) for new home educators, or anyone wanting to know about research, legalities and methods in detail, Free Range Education: How Home Education Works (edited by Terri Dowty) if you would prefer to read personal accounts of about twenty different families who embarked on home education in the UK, or Learning without School by Ross Mountney, which combines theory about all aspects of home education with plenty of personal anecdotes and relevant quotations from other home educators. 

New home education pages

I update this site regularly, and am gradually adding extra pages about various topics that may be of interest to home educating children or parents. The most recently added educational pages are:


What made our family decide to home educate?

Short version: we moved to Cyprus in 1997 when my sons were eleven and nine years old, and decided to home educate for a few months while we settled in. We liked it so much that we continued. My sons are now 25 and 23.  One works in a media group in the UK after spending four years working on a ship, and was recently married; the other has just completed his third year at university in the UK. Neither has any regrets about not having been to secondary school.

This site 'home education in the UK' was launched on February 1st 1999, so is now nearly thirteen years old. 

You can read more about me and the development of the site in the page about this site, and more about our home education lifestyle in the pages about our style of home education.

If you have any requests for future pages on this site, or indeed if you just wish to get in touch or ask any questions, please do contact me using the email address in the right-hand column.


Site launched (at Geocities): 1st February 1999
Site moved to home-ed.info: 1st May 2006
Last updated: 26th November 2011