Ideas, insights, and inspiration for home educators doing things differently.
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NEET: Why This Number Should Matter to You
NEET: Why This Number Should Matter to You There’s a number doing the rounds in policy circles right now. And if you’re a home ed parent or you work in SEND, it isn’t a distant statistic on someone else’s spreadsheet. It’s the thing you’ve been quietly worried about for years, finally showing up in the…
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What About Exams? A Calm Guide to GCSEs and Beyond for Home Educated Teens
If there’s one question that quietly haunts home educating parents from the very beginning (even when their child is only seven) it’s this: But what about GCSEs? It’s the question that comes up at family dinners. It gets asked by well meaning friends. It pops into your own head at 11pm when you’re trying to…
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How to Home Educate Through the Hard Seasons (Illness, Grief, and Everything In Between)
Life doesn’t pause when you start home educating. In fact, sometimes it does the exact opposite. You plan for gentle rhythms, for nature walks and project-based learning. You don’t plan for a sudden illness that wipes everyone out for a fortnight. You don’t plan for the heavy weight of grief after a family loss. You…
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The First 30 Days of Home Education: What Actually Matters (And What Doesn’t)
You’ve done it. The deregistration letter is sent.The final school day has happened.The uniform is folded away. And now… it’s just you. If you’re in your first 30 days of home education, this post is for you. Because this stage is tender. And confusing. And often nothing like you imagined. Let’s talk about what actually…
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Unlearning School Thinking: Why Home Education Feels Harder Than You Expected
Most parents come into home education thinking the hard part will be the teaching. What they don’t expect is how deeply school thinking follows them home. The timetables. The pressure. The constant background question of “are we doing enough?” even when their child is calmer, happier, and learning more naturally than they ever did in…
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Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Where We Are Now and Why Families Are Paying Attention
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has reached a crucial point in its journey through Parliament. Members of the House of Lords have begun the report stage, a phase that allows for detailed scrutiny and the opportunity to propose amendments before the bill moves closer to becoming law. For many families (particularly those involved in…
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Home Education for Autistic Children
Creating a Rhythm That Supports Their Whole Self Home education can be a breath of fresh air for autistic children. Not because autism makes learning harder, but because mainstream environments often misunderstand the way autistic minds work. At home, you can build days that honour sensory needs, reduce pressure, and allow learning to unfold in…
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How to Build a Home Ed Week That Doesn’t Burn You Out
If there’s one thing almost every home educating family learns the hard way, it’s this: you can have the perfect plan on Sunday night and still feel overwhelmed by Wednesday. Not because you’re doing anything wrong, but because real life doesn’t follow timetables! Children, emotions, energy levels, and unexpected moments all play their part. A…
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Why Boredom Is Actually Good for Your Child’s Brain
If there’s one sentence almost every home ed parent hears on repeat, it’s this one: “I’m boooored.”But here’s the twist most of us weren’t raised to believe: boredom isn’t a problem to fix. It’s actually one of the healthiest, most powerful states for a child’s developing brain. In a world full of instant entertainment, structured…
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The Truth About Motivation in Home Education
I touched on motivation a while back on Instagram (@theanthillcommunity) – did you see it? If not, that’s okay! (But you really should be following us because we have great tips, community and freebies there) It’s such an interesting and important topic, I thought it’d be worth a deeper dive for home ed parents. So…
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How to Handle a Wobbly Day (Yours or Theirs)
Emotional support and gentle routines for when learning feels chaotic Some days just wobble.Maybe the morning started with tears over socks. Maybe the maths book mysteriously disappeared. Maybe you woke up already running on empty. Every family has those days where even the most carefully planned learning melts into mess and emotion. In school, these…
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Why Community Matters in Home Education
Because learning at home doesn’t mean learning alone.When you step into home education, it can feel like walking into a vast open space full of freedom, but also a little lonely at first.No school gate chats. No term dates. No ready made network of parents to swap ideas (or worries) with.And yet, one of the…
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When the Curriculum Shifts with the Seasons
How autumn learning can be hands-on, nature inspired, and flexible There’s a quiet magic to learning in rhythm with the year. As the air cools and the leaves turn, many home-educating families find that autumn invites a different pace: slower, deeper, and more connected to the world outside the window. Unlike the fixed timetable of…
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Home Education vs Homeschooling
What’s the Difference? Across the world, families are choosing to take learning into their own hands. But the language we use to describe this journey often shifts depending on where you live. Two of the most common terms are home education and homeschooling. At first glance, they look the same. Both involve parents stepping outside…
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What Does a Home Education Day Really Look Like?
One of the quiet challenges of home education or any kind of family-led learning is figuring out how to structure your day. Not to mimic school, not to tick boxes… but to find a rhythm that helps your days feel calmer, more connected, and more sustainable. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking…
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AI in Education: A Helpful Tool, Not a Replacement
AI is suddenly everywhere… in search engines, writing tools, education apps, and even toys. For many parents and educators, especially those outside mainstream systems, this brings a mix of curiosity, caution, and big questions: These are all valid questions. And in my experience, the answer is this: AI is a tool. Not a teacher. Not…
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How Do You Know Your Child Is Making Progress in Home Education?
One of the most common questions I see and hear from home educating parents is: How do I know my child is making progress especially if we’re not following the curriculum? It’s a valid concern. In a system where learning is often measured by levels, tests, or grade boundaries, stepping outside of that can feel…
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Online Safety Act: What’s Changed for Children Online Since Enforcement Began
It’s now been a couple of weeks since 25 July 2025, when Ofcom officially began enforcing the Online Safety Act’s Children’s Codes. So how is life online for children changing? Let’s take a look together: What’s Happened Since Enforcement Began? 1. Risk Assessments Underway and Ofcom Is Watching 2. Age Verification in Real Time 3….
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The Rise of Home Education in the UK: What the Latest Numbers Reveal
Over the past few years, something seismic has been happening: home education in the UK is surging and not just as a pandemic blip. These aren’t fringe numbers anymore; they’re reshaping education. National Numbers: What’s Really Happening 111,700 children were reported as electively home educated (EHE) in the autumn term of 2024, up from about…
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EHCPs and Home Education: Your Rights, Support, & What’s Changing
If you’re home educating a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you’re probably already familiar with the balancing act between personalised support, local authority expectations, and doing what actually works for your child. But with new legislation on the horizon and a lot of uncertainty around funding and future changes, many parents…
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Home Education in the UK: Laws, Local Authorities, and What Parents Need to Know
Home education is growing steadily across the UK, and with that growth comes a mix of freedom, responsibility, and (understandably) a lot of questions. If you’ve recently deregistered, are thinking about home educating, or just want to feel more confident in how you’re navigating it all, this blog is for you. Do I Need to…
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The Power of Play & Why It Matters for Your Child’s Growth
If there’s one thing I wish every parent knew deeply and confidently, it’s this: play is not a break from learning, it is learning. Over the years, I’ve watched parents worry that they’re not “doing enough” if their child spends hours building with blocks, dressing up, roleplaying with dolls, or creating entire universes out of…
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Tech That Helps (and Tech That Hurts) Your Home educating Flow
Technology is everywhere! Especially when you’re home educating. It can be an incredible tool, opening up opportunities for learning, creativity, and connection. But it can also derail your day, overwhelm your child, and create tension or dependency if it’s not used thoughtfully. As someone who supports a lot of home educating families, I often get…
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Is Your Child’s Mental Health Suffering in School? Why More Parents Are Taking Learning Home
This is something I hear more and more: “My child just isn’t coping in school anymore.” It’s not always an academic issue. Often, it’s emotional. A slow, quiet burnout that builds over time… until something breaks. Over the past few years, I’ve seen just how many families are making the choice to home educate because…
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What Actually Is ‘Flexi-Schooling’?
When it comes to education, one size rarely fits all. That’s where flexi-schooling comes in… a growing option in the UK that blends the structure of traditional school with the flexibility of home education. But what exactly is it, who’s choosing it, and why is it suddenly making headlines? Let’s break it down! Let’s Break It Down……
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Why So Many Families Are Choosing Home Education in 2025
Over the past few years, I’ve watched home education move from something viewed as ‘alternative’ to something many families are now actively choosing and not just in emergencies or as a last resort. It’s been striking to see how rapidly the numbers are growing. In London alone, over 11,000 children are now being home educated,…
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The Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill: What Home Ed Families Need to Know
In recent months, I’ve noticed a rising sense of anxiety among home educating families about the proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Set to become law in September 2026 if passed, it’s stirring a lot of emotions… especially in online groups, where concerns about surveillance, autonomy, and registration are understandably high. I want to gently…
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Working-Class Families CAN Home Educate
There’s a stubborn myth floating around the home education world: one that says home ed is only an option for middle-class families with spare bedrooms, private tutors, and one stay at home parent. Let’s bust that myth right now. Working-class families can and do home educate. Not only that, many are doing it with creativity, resourcefulness, and strength that…
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Beyond the Screen
Is It Just Gaming… or Learning in Disguise? When your child is glued to their video game, it’s easy to worry they’re “wasting time.” But what if those gaming sessions are quietly building real world skills without you even realising? In today’s screen saturated world, many home educators wrestle with guilt over screen time. But…
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Why Your Home Ed Day Doesn’t Need to Look Like School
If you’re new to home educating, it’s natural to feel pressure to “keep up” with school hours: six hours a day, five days a week. We see a lot of parents worrying that they aren’t doing enough, that their children aren’t “learning” for the same number of hours they did at school. But here’s the…
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When Home Ed Isn’t the Plan
No one dreams of pulling their child out of school mid year.No one plans for the day they have to choose between their career, their financial stability, and their child’s wellbeing. But for many families, that day comes anyway. Maybe it starts with a knot in the stomach every morning before school.Maybe it’s watching a…
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What to Do When Your Child Refuses to Learn
Let’s just say it: Sometimes your child will flat-out refuse to learn. They won’t want to do the activity you planned.They’ll roll their eyes at the worksheet.They’ll cry, argue, shut down—or just walk away. And in those moments, it’s easy to feel like you’ve failed. But you haven’t.Not even close. First, Let’s Reframe “Refusal” When…
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Building The Anthill
Why We’re Creating a Parent-First Platform for Home Learning We’ve spent decades working in education—first in Further Education colleges, then in Independent Schools. And while the settings differed, the underlying story stayed the same: Education Is Still Built Around Outdated Metrics For all the talk of innovation, most schools—state or independent—are still judged by metrics…
