Starting Homeschool - Do Home Educators Have to Follow the National Curriculum?

One of the first questions many parents ask when they start looking into home education is: “Do I actually have to follow the National Curriculum?”

The short answer, at least in England, is nope, you don't have to . If you educate your child at home, you are not required to follow the National Curriculum, use school textbooks, teach the same subjects as a school, or work through the same topics at the same age. The National Curriculum is a framework for schools, rather than a set of lessons that home educators are legally required to copy. (Same goes for SATS. SATS are for schools, not for the children.) That doesn't mean there are no requirements at all, though.

So what do you have to teach?

Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents have a legal responsibility to make sure their child receives an efficient, full-time education which is suitable for their age, ability, and any special educational needs they may have. This can be provided at school or otherwise — which is where home education comes in.

The interesting part is that the law doesn't give home educators a list of compulsory subjects. So, no, you don't have to sit down every Monday morning and work through English, maths, science, history and geography simply because that's what a school timetable might look like. You can use a curriculum if you want to. You can follow the National Curriculum if it suits your family. You can use workbooks, online resources, books, practical projects, museums, nature walks, cooking, experiments and plenty of other things too.

The important thing is the education your child is actually receiving, rather than whether it looks like school.

But doesn't the education have to be “full-time”?

Yes — although full-time doesn't mean that you have to recreate a six-hour school day at your dining table. Government guidance says there is no fixed number of hours that home educators must teach. Whether education is full-time depends on the individual circumstances, although it should take up a significant proportion of the child's life, allowing for normal holidays and breaks.

A child helping to plan and cook a meal is learning. Reading a book is learning. Measuring ingredients involves maths. Visiting a museum can turn into a history lesson. Building something involves problem-solving. Looking at birds, plants or the weather can become science. Even a long conversation about something your child is interested in can lead somewhere completely unexpected.

That doesn't mean you can simply leave a child to watch YouTube all day and call it education. As parents, we are responsible for actually providing an education. It just means that education doesn't have to look like school.

 

Six hours at school doesn't mean six hours of teaching

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about home education is looking at the school day and thinking, But children are at school for six hours, so surely I need to teach for six hours too? Not at all. Those six hours in a mainstream include break times, lunch, assemblies, moving between classrooms, getting coats and bags sorted, handing out books, waiting for everyone to be ready, dealing with behaviour, tidying up and all the other little bits and pieces that have to happen when you're teaching a whole class of children.

There is a huge difference between a child being in school for six hours and receiving six hours of actual, focused teaching. At home, you also have something a classroom teacher simply can't provide to the same extent: one-to-one attention. A teacher might be doing their absolute best, but they're still responsible for a whole class of children. At home, you can sit beside your child, notice immediately when they're struggling, explain something in a completely different way, answer their questions and move on when they've understood it. You don't have to spend ten minutes getting 30 children settled before you can continue.

That makes a surprisingly big difference to how much can actually be achieved in a shorter amount of time.

You don't have to know everything

And no, you don't have to be some sort of walking encyclopaedia to home educate. I'm certainly not! One of the things I actually love most about home education is that I get to learn too. History is a perfect example. There are so many periods and people I knew very little about before we started exploring them together. The same goes for science, geography and all sorts of other subjects. I don't need to stand at the front of the room pretending I already know all the answers. Sometimes we simply say, “I don't know — let's find out”! We look it up, read about it, watch something, experiment with it or find a book about it.

Home education isn't about being the world's greatest teacher or knowing absolutely everything before you begin.

Can I use the National Curriculum though?

Absolutely. For my family, we follow the National Curriculum for Maths at minimum. I use Science and English as more of a guideline and for other things like History or Geography, I may just use it for inspiration! Some home educators choose to loosely follow it because it gives them a useful starting point and helps them feel confident that they're covering a broad range of subjects. Others don't follow it at all.

There isn't one correct home education curriculum. You might decide to concentrate more heavily on reading and maths while your child is younger. You might spend several weeks studying a particular historical period. You might build your science around nature and the seasons. You might discover that your child learns far more when you follow their interests. That's one of the freedoms of home education.

What about GCSEs?

This is where the National Curriculum can become useful to think about, even though it isn't legally compulsory. If your child eventually wants to take GCSEs, A levels or other formal qualifications, you'll need to work towards the requirements of whichever qualifications they want to take. But that doesn't mean they have to have followed the National Curriculum throughout their childhood.

For us, the National Curriculum is something I use as a guide rather than a rulebook. I like knowing roughly what children are generally learning at different ages, and it can be useful for spotting gaps or planning ahead. But home education gives us the freedom to step away from it when something else works better. And really, that's the whole point.

You don't have to recreate school at home. You just need to make sure your child is genuinely being educated.

Where to go next -

I've broken the rest of this guide into smaller, practical posts so you can work through one question at a time.

My Child Has Never Started School — How Do I Homeschool From the Beginning?

What to do if you're choosing home education instead of sending your child to school, including compulsory school age, Reception, early learning and getting started. 

 → Read: Home Educating a Child Who Has Never Started School 

How to Deregister Your Child From School for Homeschooling

Exactly what to do if your child is already at school, including a copy-and-paste deregistration letter and what happens after you send it.

→ Read: How to Deregister Your Child From School for Homeschooling

Does the Council Check Homeschoolers?

What happens after you start home educating, including council contact, informal enquiries, reports, home visits and the new legislation.

→ Read: Does the Council Check Homeschoolers?

What Do You Actually Have to Teach When Homeschooling?

What "suitable education" means and how to make sure you're providing a genuine education without recreating school at home.

→ Read: What Do You Actually Have to Teach When Homeschooling?

Do Homeschoolers Have to Follow the National Curriculum?

No — but what can you do instead? 

 → Read: Do Homeschoolers Have to Follow the National Curriculum?

How Many Hours a Day Do You Have to Homeschool?

What "full-time education" actually means and why home education doesn't need to look like the school day. 

 → Read: How Many Hours a Day Do You Have to Homeschool? - 🍁 Coming Soon 🌿

How to Plan Your Homeschool

Curriculums, resources, routines, timetables and actually putting your first few weeks together. 

 → Read: How to Plan Your Homeschool -🍁 Coming Soon 🌿

Or find the full 'Starting Homeschool' series here.

Welcome to home education!

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