If you’ve just started home educating, or you’re only thinking about it, you don’t need to have it all worked out today. Nobody does. Here’s a calm place to begin — one small step at a time.
Most families find their feet through a gentle settling-in period — sometimes called “deschooling.” There’s no bell, no timetable to copy, no curriculum you’re forced to follow. Learning can look like baking, reading together, a walk, a good conversation. Give yourself — and your child — permission to slow down and rediscover what curiosity feels like.
You can do these over weeks, not in an afternoon. Tick them off as you go.
In England and Wales, parents can educate their child at home — it’s a long-standing legal right. You’re not doing anything unusual; thousands of families do this every year.
Write to the headteacher to say you’re educating your child at home. The school takes them off roll and lets the local authority know. (For a special-school place, the local authority’s agreement is needed first.)
Those first weeks are for settling, not sprinting. Follow your child’s interests and watch how they like to learn. The structure can come later, once you both feel steadier.
Local home-ed groups, park meet-ups and online communities are gold — for the children’s friendships and for your own reassurance. You’ll pick up more from other parents than from any guide. Join the Schola community to start.
You don’t need a folder full of worksheets — just a simple note of what you did each day. It helps you see progress, and it’s exactly what you’ll want ready for the 2027 “Children Not in School” register.
You will find your rhythm. Every confident home-ed parent started exactly where you are now — unsure, and doing it anyway.
Schola is the calm co-teacher beside you — it holds the curriculum knowledge so you don’t have to carry it in your head.
Jot what you did — “we baked bread and doubled the recipe.” No jargon, no planning.
Schola matches it to the UK curriculum and drops the jargon, so you can see the everyday things you do already count.
Your child’s whole stage laid out as a visual route — you never build or decode it. A suggestion, never a demand.
Everything quietly becomes the report your council will ask for in 2027. Nothing to scramble for.
Real activities — days out, baking, games — matched to what your child hasn’t covered yet.
No account, no cloud. Your records stay on your own device — always.
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Free until 29 August — no account, no card. Works on your phone or computer; pick one device and your records stay there.