Useful Links

Schoolhouse offers information and support to parents/carers throughout Scotland who seek to take personal responsibility for the education of their children, families who have chosen, or are contemplating home-based education; and those who wish to safeguard the right of families to educate in accordance with their own philosophy and with due regard to the wishes and feelings of their children.

Wise Up is an organisation set up by home educating parents in the Neath Port Talbot area of South Wales. They are a constituted voluntary group whose aim is to offer support and information to home educating families and those considering home education as an option for their children.

Home Education in Northern Ireland is an informative, interesting and helpful site aimed at families in Northern Ireland who are home-educating or who have an interest in doing so.

Home Education UK is probably the most extensive HE site in the UK, put together by Mike Fortune-Wood, with hundreds of pages of information, reference, guidance and examples.

Home Education in the UK explains some of the reasons that people are choosing home education, with suggestions about how to get started and links to resources and legal information. There are plenty of articles to read about various aspects of home education, and also about parenting in general, as well as socialising. An excellent site

IPSEA is a volunteer-based organisation and many of the volunteers are themselves parents of children with special educational needs. IPSEA can provide: free independent advice; free advice on appealing to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal, including representation when needed; free second professional opinions.

Home-Education: Aims, Practices and Outcomes is the published paper from Paula Rothermel, of the University of Durham, produced in 2002. This research explored the aims and practices of home-educating families from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The methodology involved a questionnaire survey completed by 419 home-educating families and 196 assessments evaluating the psychosocial and academic development of home-educated children aged eleven years and under. The aim was to gain an understanding of children's education outside school. This was the first UK study involving home-educated children and their families, using diverse methodologies, broad aims and large sample.

The National Autistic Society "exists to champion the rights and interests of all people with autism and to ensure that they and their families receive quality services appropriate to their needs." Their website includes information about autism and Asperger syndrome, the NAS and its services and activities.

Kidscape is the first charity in the UK established specifically to prevent bullying and child sexual abuse. Kidscape believes that protecting children from harm is key. Kidscape works UK-wide to provide individuals and organisations with practical skills and resources necessary to keep children safe from harm. The Kidscape staff equips vulnerable children with practical non-threatening knowledge and skills in how to keep themselves safe and reduce the likelihood of future harm. Kidscape works with children and young people under the age of 16, their parents/carers, and those who work with them.

Medway Dyslexia Association support individuals and families affected by dyslexia, help professionals in health and education to assist those who have dyslexia, and work to raise awareness and understanding of dyslexia and promote social inclusion for dyslexics in Medway and Kent. Work in partnership with other organisation's to provide a comprehensive service. Click here for their latest bulletin, including information about their XL project - which offers Touch-Type Read & Spell, and also an opportunity to try out some fun computer programmes and other resources that they have available. The aim of the project is to improve confidence (and general reading & spelling ability) in youngsters aged 8—13 years who have problems with their Literacy and handwriting skills.

HE-GSCE is a group for home educating families who have children who wish to take GCSEs. The intention is to share information, resources and experience. It is open to all home educating families.

HE12Plus is an egroup for home educators, or parents considering home education, for their older children/teens in the UK (ages 11-18). They offer support and advice on a wide range of topics to do with home education. Links to other groups, free downloadable resources, links to quality websites and a contact database.

Aspies.co.uk is a wonderful site, written by the parent of an "aspie". Informative and interesting, it also contains useful links to other aspergers/home education resources.

A to Z Home's Cool is a homeschooling website run by Ann Zeise, your guide to the best homeschooling resources on the web. The strength of the site is that it links directly to essays written by homeschooler everyone, as well as by Ann herself.

Learning Abled Kids - Curriculum, information, & resources for homeschooling a child with learning difficulties, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADD, ADHD, or a Specific Learning Disability.

Deut6v7 is a mailing list for Christian home-schoolers in the UK and Europe.

Home Educators and UK Muslims aim to provide a forum where muslim home educators in the U.K. can support each other.

Black And Other UK Home Educators is a yahoo group for families providing information about home educating, to discuss education and to share ideas about black, mixed-race and other children outside school in the UK.

Our Home School is a lovely site, set up by a home educating mum, and gives a real clear, detailed insight into the way home education works for their family. A good site to start if you are considering taking the plunge.

The Home Education Network UK aiming to pull together resources available to home educatorssuch as Yahoo groups, Home Ed Blogs, Educational Websites or any of the learning resources you have found. Also offers a membership package for any  home educators wishing to join

Leaping from the Box has articles and resources to assist homeschoolers, home educators, unschoolers and independent learners who "desire to move beyond the "cookie-cutter" box mentality in their homeschooling or unschooling journey". Ideas and materials along with tips for using textbooks (curriculum), community resources & online information.

Home Ed'ers United is a site that has been set out for all Home Educators, and they have links to Home Educating Groups around the world. They have a shop for useful resources, as well as running several services of their own.

HERL-UK is a UK Home Education Resources Library. The idea is to provide a Library Service for Home Education Resources which will be available to any UK-based home educating family. It runs on a (free) membership basis As an initial member you are able to borrow one to two resources at a time. Once trust has been established then this is reviewed and you are allowed to borrow more resources.

National Grid for Learning is a portal for "quality assured educational resources on the internet".

ABC Homeschool - "Your Complete Homeschool Resource"

Unschool~Kidz! is one for the children - read this Australian e-zine free, online, written by homeschooled kids, for other homeschooled kids. Great ideas, very enjoyable to read. You can see the rest of the Australian homschool site here, amongst which you can find some good articles and resources useful for the UK too.

ReadItSwapIt is a free book swap shop. They have thousands of titles to choose from, with many more added every day. ReadItSwapIt is a completely free service, so you can swap as many books as you like and you'll only pay for the postage.

The Children's Legal Centre is a unique, independent national charity concerned with law and policy affecting children and young people. It opened in 1991 as the major UK project for the International Year of the Child and is staffed by lawyers and professionals with experience in child law. The Centre is funded by grants from central government, the UK National Lotteries Board, the BBC Children in Need Appeal Fund, donations, sales of publications and consultancy work.

Family Rights Group was established as a registered charity in 1974 to provide advice and support for families whose children are involved with social services. They provide a telephone and written advice line service for parents, relatives and carers who have children in care, or on the child protection register, or who are receiving services from the Social Services.

ADVICEGUIDE is the information site from the Citizens Advice Bureau, containing the answers to hundreds of the questions that they get asked. If you cannot find the information that you are looking for you can contact the CAB through the site.

Please note: these advertisements are provided externally and the appearance on this page of a company does not mean that they are endorsed by the UK Home Educators. Any profits raised from these adverts go towards the cost of travel for education visits by the children.