UK Home Education Resources- Updated

This post was originally posted in January 2013. It needed some updating. I have checked all the links and added in some more. It is also one of the tabs at the top of the page, for reference.

I've pulled together a list of my favourite UK home educating resources. This is not exhaustive.

Please feel free to add your recommendations in the comments.
This particular list does not include individual blogs. I have a separate post about these.
In addition, I have purposely omitted individual books in the interest of brevity!

This only includes UK sites. There are many, many useful sites across the Pond and like many other home educators here, I go on the forums and occasionally, pluck up courage to pay lots of postage! However, there is plenty of help here including some people who conveniently import from the US.

Many but not all of the sites are Christian. Whist these are sites that I have used, I do not claim any responsibility for the contents of any of these sites.

Home education groups

• The Deut6v7 yahoo group is one of the most helpful resources. This is a specifically Christian, UK home educating group. 

• The Home education exam group has a plethora of posts. This is the group for questions about boards and exam centres.

• A less busy group is the secondary age English group.

• Most areas have Google or Yahoo groups for local home educators. Most of these will have people of very mixed philosophies but can be a useful resource about local events.

• Group specifically for home educators entering children for the Primary maths challenge.

• Facebook has many home education groups but the Christian Home Educators UK group is very active. 

Home education organisations and sites

• Education Otherwise-Education is compulsary: school is not.

• Home Service-Christian home educators.

• Education Advisory Service

• Home education UK

• Paula Rothermel has researched UK Home Education. Her work is a decade old but is some of the precious little research on the subject.

• Fiona Nicholson campaigns for UK home educators. Her site includes the latest on government thinking.

Suppliers

• Conquest Books are a family based business who sell home education materials and other books. They sell Apologia, Five in a Row and Artistic Pursuits amongs others. Their delivery tends to be fast.

• Ichthus Resources sells a wide range of home education materials including Singapore maths and science. 

• Galore Park sells curriculum mainly designed for private schools. They are home education friendly and are used by many UK home educators. We particularly like their maths books.

• The technology shop is based at a London Primary school but sells a rather eclectic range of items from pulleys and propellers to googly eyes and small kits.

• The Book People have discount books. We have done particularly well with books around art.

• Schofield and Sims sell workbooks and posters. We use them for mental maths. Our almost four year old world map came from them. The posters are printed on heavy paper and need to be attached to walls with velcro pads.

• Cambridge Latin Course supplies the Latin course that we use but also has extensive cultural background material and as well as vocabulary and grammar quizzes on the website.

• Skoldo produces primary French and Spanish resources including song downloads.

• Northstar Worldwide is a UK based Christian secondary age on-line learning site. They have courses for GCSEs and IGCSEs as well as catering for younger secondary age pupils.

• The Metropolitan Tabernacle bookshop sells the Christian Liberty nature readers and a selection from Master Books.

• Civitas have produced a Core Knowledge curriculum which has an interesting table showing the curriculum by year from year 1 to 6.

• Rainbow books sell the Maxwell family books. I've used Managers of their Homes which is a helpful and detailed introduction to scheduling. 

• Branch Out World is run by a UK home educator who produces picture book studies of books easily obtainable, think Dogger and Katie Morag, in the UK. 

Trips

This section is generic not related to any particular part of the UK.

• Kids in Museums advocates for younger visitors to museums. They have a manifesto and a list of those organisations that have signed up to this. This organisation is also worth approaching should you, perish the thought, discover a museum that is not child friendly.

• English Heritage manage historical sites over the UK and also run fabulous re-enactments. They do offer free entry to home educators subject to some conditions. 

• National Trust manages historic homes and gardens. They offer reduced membership to home educating families although unless you never want to visit during school holidays, bank holidays or weekends, it is probably better to consider family membership.

• The Woodland Trust has maps of woodland open to the public. Don't miss their Nature Detective site which has many free activities for children. Most of these activities don't require a trip further than the garden or the local park.

• The Field Studies Council run events in outside locations. 

• The Children's University allows some educational visits and other events to be counted towards awards.

Educational Sites

• Home Educators don't need to follow the National Curriculum but it can be useful to have an eye on this.

• Woodlands Resources is a site covering various aspects of the National Curriculum (mainly KS1 and KS2) and more besides.

• The BBC Schools site has some resources. I prefer the primary part of the site. My younger children enjoy the language area.

• School physics has explanations aimed at different age groups and in different degrees of depth. 

• Royal Institution's RI Channel has science videos including of its famous Christmas lectures.

• The Mathematical Association has some questions similar to those in its maths challenges.

• Nrich is a maths site with challenges and fun maths for ages from Lower Primary to Upper Secondary. They aim to "enrich the experience of the maths curriculum for all learners".

• IXL is an international organisation but with a UK specific maths practice site.

• The National STEM Centre has a website with 

Added value

• John Betjeman Poetry competition is for 10-13 year olds. 

• Booktime distributes a book bag with a couple of books to reception age children each year. Home educators can apply using this form.

• World maths, literacy and  science day are hosted each year by World Education Games. These are free to enter although Matheletics runs the games and obviously gets publicity.

• Grow your own potatoes is designed for primary schools but home educators, with children in the relevant age group, are able to register and enter the competition for heaviest potatoes. 

• RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch is an annual event.

• The Royal British Legion produces a free learning pack for educators. This includes DVDs and a poster. The DVDs have sections on both the First and Second World Wars and there is a guide as to suitability for different age groups.

• The James Dyson Foundation produce Challenge cards which contain 52 science, technology and maths challenges. These are free to educators and use materials found around the house. They also have engineering and ideas boxes out on loan. We haven't tried the boxes yet!

Over to you. I love to find new educational resources. What would you add?

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