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Home education
Deciding to home educate means that you take full responsibility for all education and costs including any examinations. We are here to support you and are happy to discuss your decision or answer any questions.
Are you already home educating or considering this option?
You are legally entitled to educate your child at home, although most families choose to attend school. Anyone can choose to home educate, you do not have to be a teacher or have any particular qualifications.
How to get started
If your child has never been to school, you don't have to tell us, however it can help us offer support and work in partnership.
If your child is attending a school, you need to write to the Head Teacher informing them that you wish to home educate (home-school). The school will then delete your child's name from the register and our team will contact you for some information; such as name, date of birth, preferred contact method and a brief outline of your education. This helps us confirm that your child is not missing education.
If your child attends a special school, then you must contact us. The Head Teacher cannot simply remove your child from their register.
Business Support
Learning Improvement Service, South Lakeland House, Lowther Street, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 4DQ
Telephone: 01539 312418
Email: electivehomeeducation@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
Guidance to support home educating families
Elective Home Education guidance for young people, parents and carers (PDF , 259KB)
Home education notification forms:
- Notification of Home Education - HE2 form (PDF, 134KB)
- Declaration of Education Provider - HE5 form (PDF, 128KB)
- Notification of Return to School - HE6 form (PDF, 86KB)
Resources for home education:
- Gov.uk: National Curriculum - National Curriculum for England (Not a requirement for home education but offers a useful overview of programmes of study and attainment targets for all subjects, at all four key stages)
- BBC Teach - Free classroom resources for primary and secondary school teachers. BBC Teach is home to thousands of free curriculum-mapped classroom videos, arranged by age-group and subject
- BBC Bitesize Education - BBC Bitesize offers a wide range of teaching resources for KS2, KS3 and KS4
- twinkl - Resources across a range of subjects for primary and secondary aged children
- Tes teaching resources - Tes provides a range of primary and secondary teaching resources including lesson plans, worksheets and student activities for all curriculum subjects. Some resources are free but there is a charge for others
- The Open University: Open Learn - Free learning from the Open university- up to GCSE
- Khan Academy - Free wide range of subjects ages 10 years upwards
- Hodder Education - Primary and secondary. Workbooks and revision books on sale with free sample pages
- CGP Books - Primary and secondary text, work and revision books on sale. Free online games. Local company
Teaching English:
- Pobble - Every day a new picture is uploaded to the site with writing prompts to stimulate ideas for writing. Suitable for upper KS2, KS3 and KS4
- teachit - English teaching resources for KS3, KS4 and KS5
- BBC Teach 500 words - BBC Radio 2 runs an annual 500 words writing competition. The website offers lots of tips for writing and resources to stimulate writing. The competition is open to children between 5-9 and 10-13
- Oxford Owl - Oxford Owl is an award-winning website to help support children’s learning, both at home and at school. Free eBooks are available on this site
- PhonicsPlay - A site packed with interactive phonics games, ideas and resources to help children to learn to read
- The Literacy Shed - This site is aimed at primary-aged pupils and provides high quality films and animations to stimulate reading and writing skills. Parents are advised to watch the clips before using with children to assess suitability
- Poetry4Kids - This site offers funny poems, classic children’s poetry, poetry activities and a rhyming dictionary to support poetry writing
- National Literacy Trust - The National Literacy trust offers resources for children from EY to
secondary. The site includes a section specifically aimed at parents and families
Teaching Maths:
- Homeschool Math - Primary - free resources and advice
- Mathletics - Primary. Also popular in schools with many pupils using the site at home. Charges for subscription
- nrich - Free problem-solving activities for primary and secondary age ranges
- IXL - Maths for all ages
- Conquer Maths - Step-by-step video lessons subscription required
- Citizen Math - Good videos working towards functional maths to GCSE equivalent
Teaching coding:
- Scratch - Free coding for younger children, games and fun tasks by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Codecademy - Free teens to adult coding
Teaching languages:
- One Third Stories - An innovative way to learn languages. Monthly subscription, although some like the German resources are free: One Third Stories: German
- duolingo - Free - good for older learners
- BBC Languages - Free - good for GCSE practice or beginner
- Digital Dialects - Free - huge number of languages
Teaching design, technology and science:
- James Dyson Foundation resources
- The Royal Institution - Royal institute for science-free, great ideas and experiments for you to try
Teaching environment and geography:
Jane Goodall's Roots n Shoots - Environment/Geography - fun based- charitable organisation. Free resources and missions to take part in.
How to apply for exams as a Home Educator
As a Home Educator you will need to apply as a private candidate - this is someone who:
- enters for exams through an exam board approved school, but is not enrolled as a student there
- is self-taught, home-schooled or has private tuition with a tutor or studies through a distance learning provider
Not all exams are open to private candidates. A school may allow you to enter for written papers but not for controlled assessment or spoken tests or the exam board may not offer that exam to private candidates e.g. AQA 8700 English Language (new specification) due to spoken content.
You can check which subjects are offered on the exam board websites:
- Pearson qualifications website (formerly Edexcel)
- AQA - Education charity website
- OCR website (Cambridge, Oxford and RSA examinations)
| School | Address | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eden Education | 2nd Floor, People First Conference Centre, Milbourne Street, Carlisle CA2 5XB | 01228 830831 | info@edeneducation.co.uk |
| KT Tuition | 134 Harrington Road, Workington CA14 3UL | 01900 68487 | office@kttuition.co.uk |
| Settlebeck High School | Long Lane, Sedbergh LA10 5AL | 01539 620383 | Sarah Campbell – Headteacher office@settlebeck.org |
| William Howard School | Longtown Road, Brampton CA8 1AR | 01697 745743 | Lorraine Muldoon – Exams Officer lmuldoon@williamhoward.cumbria.sch.uk |
Qualification options for Elective Home Education (EHE) students
Electively Home Educated families are not required by law to enter any exams or qualifications.
If you decide your child should sit exams, you should consider:
- what exams/exam board you might choose - subjects can have different boards
- qualification types - including GCSEs, International GCSEs, and Functional Skills
- where your child would sit their exam
- any post 16 education entry requirements
- how you would pay for the exams and qualifications as you'd need to fund them
- when your child should complete qualifications - some are available at post 16 education options
Exam preparation
You can find previous exam papers for free online for GCSEs and Functional Skills. Boards publish past papers and marking schemes on their websites:
- Pearson qualifications website (formerly Edexcel)
- AQA - Education charity website
- OCR website (Cambridge, Oxford and RSA examinations)
GCSEs and International GCSEs
If your child has started a GCSE programme, find out which exam board they have been studying. You can search for an exam centre that offers the exam.
If your child has not started a GCSE programme, find an exam centre first.
Make arrangements as soon as possible.
Contact your local schools or colleges to see if your child can sit their exams as a private candidate. Check they can do this for each year and exam your child needs to take.
Check for exam centres for private candidates on the Joint Council for Qualifications website
Functional Skills
Functional Skills are available in Maths, English and IT. They are the fundamental skills that young people need for work and their personal lives. You can study for the qualifications in practical ways and apply core skills to real-life situations.
Functional skills have a variety of different levels: Entry level 1, 2, and 3 are followed by Level 1 and Level 2. A Level 2 functional skill is equivalent to a GCSE grade 4. You do not have to start at the beginning. These qualifications can be sat at accredited exam centres. Some organisations allow children to take their exam at home.
Unlike GCSEs, functional skills exams are available at different times through the year.
Search for a functional skills course on the National Careers Service on GOV.UK
Find courses to prepare young people for their future on the Youth Employment website
Local Authority Careers Service
On behalf of the Local Authority, Inspira provides careers information advice and guidance for Electively Home Educated (EHE) young people from the summer term of Y11. Inspira work closely with young people to support transition planning which is bespoke and tailored to meet individual needs and they welcome the involvement of parents. An Inspira Adviser will meet with the young person in advance of transition. Inspira works with a range of providers and agencies to ensure we can support young people to prepare for the next stage of their learning journey. If you would like to find out more about the support and options available to you or your son/daughter or if you would like to speak to an adviser, please contact Inspira by filling in the relevant contact form on their website:
U-Explore careers information
U-Explore is a careers platform that is packed with information about jobs, businesses, courses and colleges/work-based learning providers. There are excellent materials explaining a range of courses including GCSEs, A levels, Further Education courses, apprenticeships as well as those offered by universities.
We have paid a licence fee to allow all Home Educated learners to access this site with a registration code. To log in to the U-Explore website:
- click user log in button and register with us.
- select Cumbria (under county).
- select Kendal (under town) (regardless of where you live).
- click home education (under establishment).
- click next step.
- put HOMEED in the registration code box.
- click next step.
- complete your details and click register.
- click on log in at the top of the page and enter your username and password.
You will see at the top that you have access to: student learner interface - click on this and you are
in the programme and ready to explore. When you get to the home page, you will notice 6 icons on the left hand side of the screen, select the second option for the Profile Page and start building your own profile. You can explore around the site and click on a star and it will save it to your personal profile.