Support and legal information
- Education Otherwise: the long-standing charity for home educators, with legal guidance, a helpline and local contacts.
- Home Education UK (home-education.org.uk): thorough legal and practical information, especially on local authority contact and the 2026 Act.
- HE Exams Wiki and the associated Facebook group: the reference for sitting GCSEs and A-levels as a private candidate.
- GOV.UK 'Educating your child at home' and your council's elective home education page: the official position and local procedures.
- The Home Ed Daily and Facebook groups by region: news, local groups, meet-ups.
Free curricula and worksheets
- Oak National Academy: thousands of free lessons with videos and quizzes mapped to the National Curriculum, reception to year 11. The single best free UK resource.
- BBC Bitesize: revision and explanation by key stage and subject; strong for KS3 and GCSE.
- Kuraplan's free worksheets by year and subject: printable, National Curriculum-aligned maths, English, science and more for Key Stages 1–3, with answer keys, plus a generator for topics not in the library.
- White Rose Maths: free schemes of learning and workbooks by year group, used by most primary schools; the sequence is a good spine.
- Khan Academy: free maths and science, US-organised but easily mapped; Khan Academy Kids for the early years.
- Twinkl free tier and Teachit: worksheets and resources; Twinkl's paid tier is popular with home educators for its breadth.
- Letters and Sounds (the original free phonics programme) and the DfE's validated phonics programmes list.
- The National Curriculum programmes of study on GOV.UK: the actual documents, short and readable, useful as a checklist.
Paid programmes and online schools
- CGP books: the cheapest, clearest workbooks for every KS2 SAT, KS3 and GCSE subject; most home educators own a shelf of them.
- Galore Park (Hodder): textbooks for KS2 and KS3 English, maths, science, Latin and languages, favoured by classical and independent-school-style families.
- Wolsey Hall Oxford, InterHigh (King's InterHigh), Oxford Home Schooling, My Online Schooling, Minerva's Virtual Academy: online schools and distance-learning courses from KS2 to A-level, £1,500–£5,000 a year for a full programme or a few hundred pounds per GCSE course.
- Conquer Maths, MyMaths (via a school licence), Maths Whizz, Reading Eggs, Purple Mash: subscriptions for daily practice.
- Tutors: Tutorful, MyTutor and local networks; £20–£50 an hour, most useful for GCSE sciences and maths.
- Kuraplan's family plan: lesson planning, worksheets, answer keys and records in National Curriculum terms for every child, £39 a year (about $49).
By age
- Early years and KS1 (4–7): Letters and Sounds or a validated phonics programme, Oak reception and year 1 lessons, Numberblocks and White Rose for maths, lots of picture books, the library's Summer Reading Challenge.
- KS2 (7–11): Oak lessons as a spine, CGP KS2 workbooks, White Rose maths, Kuraplan worksheets, Galore Park for a more academic route, nature study with the Wildlife Trusts and Woodland Trust resources.
- KS3 (11–14): Oak and Bitesize, CGP KS3, Galore Park, a science kit (Home Science Tools ships to the UK; Timstar and Philip Harris supply schools), a first look at GCSE specifications.
- KS4 (14–16): the exam board specifications and past papers (free on Cambridge, Pearson and AQA sites), CGP GCSE guides, an online course for any subject you cannot teach, and the HE Exams wiki for the entry process.
Groups, activities and days out
- Local home ed groups on Facebook (search your county plus 'home education'): meet-ups, group classes, forest school sessions.
- Home education days at museums, National Trust and English Heritage sites, zoos and science centres; many run term-time weekday programmes.
- Forest schools, sports clubs with daytime sessions, swimming lessons off-peak, music services (county music hubs accept home-educated children).
- Duke of Edinburgh's Award through open centres, Scouts and Guides, cadets, and local youth theatre.