There is a nuanced distinction in terminology and philosophy between the US and UK approaches, emphasising that in the UK “home education” is a broader, more flexible, and child-led concept compared to the more school-like connotation of “homeschooling”.
Understanding the Shift: Why More UK Families Are Choosing Home Education
The number of children in home education across the UK has seen a dramatic increase in recent years. As of autumn 2024, local authorities reported 111,700 children in elective home education (EHE), up from an estimated 92,000 in the previous autumn—a 21.4% year-on-year rise. Over the 2023/24 academic year, a total of 153,300 children were home educated at some point, compared to 126,100 the year before. This means that approximately 1.4% of the pupil population is now educated at home, up from 1.1% in 2023 and 1% in 2022.
Official statistics published by the Department for Education and the ADCS break down home educated children by key stage (age group), showing the largest numbers in Key Stages 3 and 4 (ages 11–16). However, these figures only include children known to local authorities. In our Bristol network, for example, the majority of younger home educated children (ages 6, 7, and 8) have never been contacted by the local authority. This suggests that the actual number of home educated children in the younger age brackets could be double the official figures, or even higher, as many are simply not counted.
Key Factors Driving the Shift
The Department for Education (DfE) collects data on the reasons families choose home education. According to the latest available figures, in January 2023, 18% of home educated children with a known reason were being educated at home due to dissatisfaction with school. This includes concerns or dissatisfaction for any reason, not just a general sense of concern. Other common reasons included philosophical or preferential reasons (23%), mental health (15%), lifestyle choice (10%), and health concerns relating to Covid-19 (5%).
- Dissatisfaction with Schools and Quality Concerns
Many families cite growing concerns about the quality of state education. Issues such as bullying, rigid curricula, and a lack of flexibility in learning approaches are prompting parents to seek alternatives.
- Gaps in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Provision
Unmet needs in schools, particularly for children with SEND, are a major driver. Many parents feel schools are not equipped to support children with autism, sensory processing difficulties, or mental health challenges.
- Mental Health and Wellbeing
Parents report that the school environment can exacerbate anxiety and other mental health issues, with some schools unwilling or unable to accommodate these needs.
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pandemic has had a lasting effect, with many families from the “lockdown generation” struggling to return to traditional schooling.
Online learning during lockdowns introduced families to alternative educational approaches, making home education a more familiar and viable option.
- Financial and Policy Factors
The cost of private schooling, now exceeding £15,000 annually, combined with a new 20% VAT on private school fees, has made home education a more attractive and affordable alternative for some families.
Improvements in data collection and the introduction of mandatory registers for children not in school have also contributed to higher reported numbers, though the underlying trend remains upward.
Regional and Demographic Trends
The North and Midlands have seen the largest percentage increases in home education, with numbers more than tripling in the North East and rising by 85% in the East of England between 2019-20 and 2023-24.
Areas with higher levels of child poverty have also experienced notable increases in homes education.
Changing Motivations
While home education was once primarily a lifestyle choice—and continues to be for many—my own journey began for very personal reasons. When my eldest daughter was just 9 months old, I discovered she was not being suitably cared for in nursery. This experience made me question how people who seemed so trustworthy, and even “better than me” at caring for babies, could neglect such basic needs: not offering milk, letting her cry it out alone in a room all day. If a highly respected, 5-star Ofsted-rated nursery could allow this, I wondered, what else might happen within the nursery, preschool, or school system?
I realised that I was my child’s best advocate—the one who would work hardest to provide her with a safe, nurturing environment. Through genuine love and care, I wanted to give her the freedom to explore and accomplish whatever she enjoyed, starting from those early days at 9 months old and continuing now, at 8.5 years.
Although my motivations were deeply personal, I’ve noticed that the reasons families choose home education are shifting. Increasingly, parents feel compelled to home educate due to perceived shortcomings in the school system, particularly around SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and mental health support. For many, it has become less of a proactive lifestyle choice and more of a last resort when mainstream education fails to meet their child’s needs.
Homeschooling vs. Home Education: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?
The terms homeschooling and home education are often used interchangeably in the UK depending on who you’re talking to, but there are important distinctions that shape how families approach their children’s learning.
Homeschooling: Parent-Led, Home-Based Learning
Homeschooling typically refers to a model where parents take full responsibility for their child’s education. In this approach, parents act as the primary teachers, designing lesson plans, selecting resources, and directly delivering instruction—often recreating a traditional school environment at home. The parent is in charge of the curriculum, schedule, and assessment, with learning usually centred around the home.
Home Education: A Broader, Flexible Approach
Home education is a wider term that encompasses various educational methods outside the traditional school setting. While it can include homeschooling, home education also covers arrangements where parents collaborate with tutors, use online courses, join group learning sessions, or tap into community resources. It’s a dynamic, often child-led approach that adapts to each learner’s needs, interests, and preferred styles. Home education goes beyond simply replicating school at home—it nurtures creativity, life skills, and well-being, and often involves learning in diverse environments, not just at the kitchen table.
| Aspect | Homeschooling | Home Education |
|---|---|---|
| Who teaches | Parent(s) only | Parent(s), tutors, online resources, group sessions |
| Learning style | Often structured, school-like | Flexible, can be child-led and personalised |
| Environment | Primarily at home | At home and in community settings |
| Curriculum | Chosen and delivered by parent | Can be mixed: parent-designed, tutor-led, online, etc. |
Why the Distinction Matters
- Perception and Policy: The term homeschooling often conjures images of recreating school at home, which can lead to misunderstandings by local authorities and the public. This can affect how families are supported and regulated, as well as how their choices are perceived.
- Flexibility and Individualisation: Many UK families prefer the term home education because it better reflects the diversity and adaptability of their approach. Home education allows families to move away from a rigid school mindset, embracing learning that is tailored to a child’s interests, needs, and pace.
- Community and Support: Home education opens doors to collaborative learning, social groups, and specialist tutors, offering a richer and more varied educational experience than homeschooling in the narrow sense.
Why Many UK Families Prefer Home Education
For many UK families, home education is about more than just teaching at home—it’s about empowering children to learn in ways that suit them best. This approach values creativity, well-being, and real-world skills, and recognises that education happens everywhere, not just in a classroom or at a desk. By using the term home education, families assert their right to a flexible, personalised, and holistic education, free from the constraints and assumptions tied to traditional schooling.
In summary, while homeschooling and home education both involve learning outside of school, home education offers a broader, more flexible, and often more empowering path—one that many UK families find better meets their children’s needs and aspirations.
The Child-Centred Approach: Putting Children’s Needs and Interests First
Unschooling: Learning Through Life, Not Lessons
Unschooling is a distinctive form of home education that places the child’s interests, curiosity, and natural development at the heart of learning. Unlike traditional homeschooling, which may still follow a curriculum or structured lessons, unschooling is about living a rich, engaged life where learning happens organically—through play, exploration, and real-world experiences, not through forced or scheduled study.
Children in unschooling families have regular access to their parents, the wider community, and a wealth of resources: workshops, museums, zoos, and hands-on activities. There are no compulsory lessons, assignments, or tests. Instead, children are free to choose what they want to pursue, whether that’s tracing letters to perfect their handwriting, asking for help with maths because it excites them, or simply spending hours in imaginative play, reading, or practical activities like woodworking alongside a parent.
Personalised, Interest-Led Learning
This approach allows children to:
- Progress at their own pace, free from the pressure of constant assessment or comparison to peers.
- Pursue their passions, whether academic, creative, or practical—often leading to deeper engagement and mastery.
- Develop real-world skills naturally, such as reading through listening to stories, or learning to use tools by observing and copying adults.
- Enjoy a childhood filled with play, exercise, and freedom, which research shows is essential for healthy development.
Unschooling recognises that learning doesn’t need to be forced to be effective. Children are innately curious and will seek out knowledge and skills that are meaningful to them, often surprising adults with their capabilities and interests.
Avoiding the Stress of Constant Assessment
There is substantial evidence that the stress of tests in schools can be harmful for some children, particularly in the form of test anxiety, which is linked to lower achievement and increased emotional difficulties (see academic review completed in 2023 here).
By removing the burden of tests, grades, and compulsory tasks, unschooling supports children’s mental well-being and fosters a genuine love of learning. Parents act as facilitators and companions rather than instructors, helping their children access resources, answer questions, and connect with the wider world.
Building Independence and Confidence
Unschooling children often develop strong independence, self-motivation, and confidence in social settings, as much of their learning happens in the community and through real-life interactions. They become adept at managing their own time, making decisions, and pursuing their interests—skills that serve them well into adulthood.
Why This Matters
A child-centred, unschooling approach demonstrates that education can be joyful, meaningful, and entirely personalised. Children are not only learning academic content but are also developing life skills, emotional intelligence, and a lifelong love of discovery—without the stress and rigidity of traditional schooling.
Navigating the Law: What the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Means for Home Educators
The government’s plan to introduce a compulsory register for children not in full-time school, including those who are home educated, has shifted legislative vehicles in 2025. The original Children Not in School (Registers, Support and Orders) Bill, which would have placed a legal duty on local authorities to maintain such registers, was dropped in March 2025. Instead, these requirements have been incorporated into the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is currently making its way through the House of Lords and is yet to be enacted.
If passed, the new law will require parents to provide information to local authorities about children who are not in school, with the aim of ensuring all children receive a suitable education and improving safeguarding. Local authorities will also have new powers and responsibilities to support and monitor home-educated children. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is currently progressing through Parliament but has not yet been enacted. The Bill has completed its passage through the House of Commons and had its second reading in the House of Lords on 1st May 2025. The committee stage in the Lords began on 20th May 2025, and is expected to last until at least 2nd July 2025.
After the committee stage, the Bill will move to the report stage, which cannot begin until at least 14 days after the committee ends. Given that Parliament goes into recess on 25th July 2025, the Bill will almost certainly be carried forward to the autumn for further consideration and potential amendment in the Lords.
In summary, the Bill is not yet law and is unlikely to be enacted before autumn 2025 at the earliest, depending on the speed of further parliamentary stages and any amendments. Here is a summary of the current proposed changes.
Overview of Proposed Changes
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill introduces significant legislative changes for home educators in England. Central to the bill are new requirements for a compulsory home education register, enhanced oversight by local authorities, and stricter conditions for withdrawing children from school for home education.
Key Provisions Affecting Home Educators
- Compulsory Home Education Register: The Bill, when enacted, will introduce a legal duty for local authorities to maintain registers of all children of compulsory school age who are not in full-time school, including those who are home educated.
- Council Approval and Oversight: In certain circumstances—such as where a child is subject to a child protection plan or investigation—parents will need local authority consent to home educate. Local authorities will have increased powers to assess the suitability of home education and, if deemed unsuitable, can require school attendance.
- Information Sharing: The bill introduces a single unique identifier for children to improve information sharing across services, and requires groups and tutors that home educated children attend (such as Scouts, swimming lessons, or informal learning groups) to provide information to local authorities.
Concerns from the Home Education Community
- Erosion of Parental Rights: Many home educators are deeply concerned that the bill shifts decision-making power from parents to the state, treating all families as potentially suspect and requiring government consent for educational choices.
- Threat to Educational Freedom: The requirement to meet state-approved education standards risks marginalising alternative approaches like child-led, faith-based, or unschooling methods. Many fear that the bill effectively bans informal, flexible styles of education by demanding detailed records, timetables, and oversight that are incompatible with such approaches.
- Changes to School Attendance Orders (SAOs): While the Bill does not mandate “forced schooling” for all home-educated children, it expands the circumstances in which local authorities can intervene and issue SAOs. This means that, in practice, families could be required to send their children to school if the local authority disagrees with their educational approach, even if the family believes it is high quality. The final outcome will depend on the interpretation of “suitable education” and the discretion of local authorities.
- Privacy and Practicality: The expectation that parents and groups must provide extensive information—including details of “every persons and settings”—raises serious privacy concerns and could discourage tutors and groups from working with home educated children.
Key Points:
Tutors and Groups: Parents must list any regular tutors or organised groups (e.g., music teachers, sports clubs, Scouts, tuition groups) that contribute to their child’s education.
Online Learning: If a child is enrolled in a structured online course or uses a specific online tutor, this would likely need to be reported. However, the Bill does not require parents to list every educational website, YouTube channel, or app their child accesses for self-directed learning.
Intent: The intent is to ensure children receive a suitable education and are safeguarded, not to micromanage every educational interaction.
Privacy: Many have argued that collecting detailed information about all educational providers—including informal or occasional ones—could infringe on family privacy and deter providers from working with home-educated children.
Practicality: For families with multiple children or highly individualised, self-directed learning, compiling and updating such lists could be burdensome and detract from actual learning time.
Consultation and Guidance: The government has acknowledged these concerns and has indicated that detailed guidance will clarify what information is “reasonably required.” The final requirements may be less onerous than some fear, focusing on regular, formal provision rather than every incidental resource.
Impact on SEND and Diverse Learners: The bill’s one-size-fits-all standards may fail to accommodate children with special educational needs or those who thrive in non-traditional learning environments.
Conclusion
The surge in home education across the UK reflects a complex interplay of personal, philosophical, and systemic factors. While once viewed primarily as a lifestyle choice for a some, home education is increasingly becoming a necessary alternative for families dissatisfied with the mainstream school system—especially those whose children have special educational needs or mental health challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, rising private school costs, and greater awareness of flexible learning options have all contributed to this shift.
Crucially, the distinction between “homeschooling” and “home education” highlights the UK’s unique approach: one that values flexibility, child-led learning, and the freedom to tailor education to each child’s needs. As more families embrace this path, it is essential that policymakers, educators, and local authorities recognise the diversity within the home education community and ensure that support structures evolve to meet the changing landscape. Ultimately, the rise in home education is not just a response to the limitations of traditional schooling, but a testament to parents’ desire to provide nurturing, personalised, and empowering learning experiences for their children.
The evolving landscape of home education in the UK is shaped by more than just semantics—it is about values, rights, and the lived experiences of families and children. The distinction between “homeschooling” and “home education” is not merely academic; it reflects a fundamental difference in philosophy, flexibility, and the vision of what learning can be. For many families, home education is a conscious choice to prioritise a child’s well-being, interests, and individuality, moving beyond the boundaries of traditional schooling to foster curiosity, confidence, and a lifelong love of learning.
Approaches like unschooling exemplify the potential of child-centred, interest-led education, where children thrive without the pressure of constant assessment and standardisation. As legislative changes such as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill progress through Parliament, it is crucial that policymakers recognise and protect the diversity and autonomy that make home education so valuable to families. Ultimately, the goal should be to ensure that every child—regardless of where or how they learn—has the opportunity to flourish in an environment that truly meets their needs.
Gentle Parent 