Home Schooling Tutors

At SLT we work with families to create a home schooling programme that will deliver results. We follow a rigorous programme that is tailor made for your family.

1. A thorough assessment of the student’s needs (including SEN) and their academic goals

2. An understanding of the wider reasons for home schooling – for example, is your family travelling frequently and you are looking for continuity of education, or do you wish to follow a particular educational model, such as Montessori or Waldorf

3. SLT will then introduce carefully matched home school tutors. It is really important that we introduce just the right match of tutor; one who has the following attributes:

i) the commitment to your family

ii) the ability to develop the student’s softer skills, such as resilience and creativity in addition to academic skills

iii) full knowledge of any curricula and exam boards you may wish to follow

iv) the ability to act as a natural mentor to the child to really help them engage with the subject matter and above all make home schooling fun!

4. We then prepare a detailed ‘route to completion’ road map

5. When home schooling has started, we have regular check-ins and termly reviews to ensure that all is working well

Home school tutors introduced by Simply Learning Tuition take responsibility for each part of your child’s education. From day-to-day learning plans to historical and cultural trips and sports activities, tutors create a professional and focussed teaching environment that keeps learning fresh and engaging. Their passion and enthusiasm underpinned with academic excellence, previous experience and long-term commitment allows tutors to empower your child, helping them to grow in confidence and flourish.

The home school tutors we introduce will not only match your child’s educational needs and personality, but will also blend in seamlessly with your family’s lifestyle. If your child is a budding young athlete or an aspiring musician, tutors can work around their schedules. We can introduce music teachers, art tutors or sports coaches who will work closely with your child to help develop their passions and find suitable classes and clubs in your local area. These are an important part of your son or daughter’s social and emotional development.

A more flexible environment
Whether home schooling is a long-term plan or a fill-in between schools, we’re firm believers that home schooling shouldn’t try to replicate the rigidity of the classroom. Instead it is an opportunity to make the most of what a more flexible learning environment can bring.

A bespoke timetable
The way we normally work is for our home school specialists to work with you to build a completely bespoke timetable for your child. The home school tutors introduced by Simply Learning Tuition will then take responsibility for each part of your child’s education. From day-to-day learning plans to historical and cultural trips and sports activities, tutors create a teaching environment that keeps learning fresh and engaging. Their passion and enthusiasm underpinned with academic excellence, previous experience and long-term commitment allows tutors to empower your child, helping them to grow in confidence and flourish.

A tutor that fits your family
The home school tutors we introduce will not only match your child’s educational needs and personality, but will also blend in seamlessly with your family’s lifestyle. If your child is a budding young athlete or an aspiring musician, tutors can work around their schedules. We can introduce music teachers, art tutors or sports coaches who will work closely with your child to help develop their passions and find suitable classes and clubs in your local area. These are an important part of your son or daughter’s social and emotional development.

Families living in London are able to benefit from the proximity of world class home school tutors, who come to their home to teach in person. SLT works with the very best home school tutors to provide effective, safe and fun home schooling to families in London. We have presented a selection of these tutors below.

In London, about 0.5% of children are home schooled at any one time. SLT works with families who engage professional teachers and tutors to provide the highest possible quality of teaching. This will be in line with whatever curriculum your child is following and will use a teaching style that is uniquely suited to each child.

For families living outside the UK, international home school tutors can ensure academic continuity for your child if your circumstances require your family to travel frequently. If you are moving to the UK, tutors can also help prepare your child for British independent school entrance examinations and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

Most families who home school will work with a tutor in order to provide a professional education. If a parent is a qualified teacher, and has sufficient time to prepare and deliver effective, stay up to date with the curriculum and engage successfully with their child, or children, then there is less need to bring in some one else. However, in our experience, a large part of the success of a home schooling programme relies on the relationship between student and tutor, and this is often improved by bringing in an expert.

Tutors are subject specialists and know the schools and exam boards that your child will be studying. They are employed by you and must deliver a professional service to meet agreed goals. In most cases the teaching they deliver will be more effective, more engaging and often better value for money that that delivered by a parent. As with many things in life, you get what you pay for and the more experience a home school tutor has, derived by working with a wide range of students, the better they will be able to teach your child. Of course, part of the magic is finding the right fit between tutor and child, which is what Simply Learning Tuition is here to help with.

If you have any questions about the best way to approach your child’s home school education please get in touch. An SLT Home School advisor will be delighted to help.

Home schooling is a type of education where a child learns at home. This can be for many different reasons, from personal choice, to a learning difficulty. Parents can decide to teach themselves or work with experienced tutors.

Modern home schooling began in the 1970s as reformers began championing more progressive forms of education. Religious parents were dissatisfied with secularist teaching adopted by most public schools and wanted to create an eclectic curriculum that incorporated their own beliefs, more creativity and life skills.

A number of studies have tried to find a correlation between test scores, teaching standards, and home and public education. Studies have produced very interesting results but have yet to prove that either is more beneficial. Of course, all children learn differently and can potentially benefit from any form of education.

In 1998 Dr. Lawrence Rudner conducted a study, The Achievement and Demographics of Home School Students, which produced some of the most convincing arguments for home teaching. Dr. Rudner does not advocate either form of education, yet his research did seem to suggest that privileged children from home schools generally perform better than students of an equivalent background at public and private schools. He did also say that one should not draw conclusions based on his research alone as he was only studying a limited number of variables.

Typically, approximately 0.6% of children are home educated. This means that up to 80, 000 children in the UK do not attend school and are taught either by their parents or private tutors. Reasons for home schooling children vary, from a short-term necessity to the school or classroom environment not being suitable for a child’s individual needs and circumstances.

It has been commonly reported that home schooling is on the rise in the UK, with latest number estimating that roughly 80,000 were home schooled at some point in 2018, with many of these not registered with their local authorities. This means the number of children who are known by councils to be home educated was 27% higher in 2018 than in 2017.

Interestingly, a recent report published in July 2019, claims that the most consistent number for home schooling in the UK hovers between 50,000 to 60,000, and represents over 0.5% of the relevant age group. The majority of home schooling takes place in the South West, with 0.4% taking place in Inner London and 0.4% in Outer London.

Parents who educate their children at home are not required to hold any formal qualifications; however, parents with a lack of qualifications may struggle to teach subjects they are not familiar with. Whether or not you need to engage private tutors to help home school your child depends on your time and your child’s age. By engaging an experienced home schooling tutor who is represented by a reputable agency, you can ensure that your child’s attainment, meets or even excels what is expected within a school setting.

Section 7 of the Education Act states clearly that home school teachers are not required to hold any particular qualifications (or any at all), but that a child’s education must be relevant to their “age, ability and aptitude.” If parents do not have the necessary qualifications or time to teach a subject themselves then they should consider hiring a private tutor. It is a good idea to first check what experience and qualifications a private tutor has before hiring them – you may wish to read SLT’s list of recommendations for, ‘What to what to look for in a private tutor ‘. Tutors with no experience or relevant qualifications may not have the ability to develop a well-rounded syllabus and confidently teach a subject. Below is a list of a few qualifications and a small explanation of what they are.

PGCE
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education degrees are internationally recognised teaching qualifications that develops highly capable teachers. PGCE students are required to spend a number of months in a school to give them unrivalled experience. All PGCE graduates hold FQTS (Fully Qualified Teacher Status).

MA
Master of Arts qualifications are postgraduate degrees. They allow students to focus on a more specific topic of interest. Ma teaching degrees do exist but do not necessarily make someone a fantastic teacher. Many with Ma teaching degrees research teaching methods and do not actively teach themselves. A tutor with an Ma in a specific subject and a significant amount of teaching experience will be a good choice for a tutor.

BA
Bachelor of Arts degrees are undergraduate degrees and are the most common type awarded in the UK. Ba teaching qualifications differ from the BEd (Bachelor of Education) in that that it features a single subject bias. The BEd is a more general teaching qualification. The Ba is often compared to the PGCE and is generally geared towards secondary school teaching. Both PGCE and Ba courses usually focus on a particular level of education. This resource on the government website explains the different levels of education the National Curriculum.

TEFL*
Teaching English as a Foreign Language. A lot of tutors will list a TEFL as one of their qualifications. Many teachers gain experience by completing TEFL courses, which are largely conducted overseas. Tutors with TEFL qualifications, whatever level they may be, will have been required to complete a certain amount of teaching. Quite often this includes teaching in third world countries and in dangerous situations.

There are some basic requirements to fulfil before you embark on any home schooling programme:

- An excellent teacher! This can either be you or a professional tutor
- A well thought out plan of which syllabus and which subjects to study
- A co-ordinated syllabus and exam centre, with exam dates and registrations in place
- Plenty of teaching resources including text books, posters, pens and paper
- A good internet connection and a fast computer
- A quiet, creative place to work that ideally can be dedicated to schooling
- A well crafted time table that is geared to the student’s concentration span and working preferences, with plenty of time for consolidation and self-study
- Some kind of co-curricular and social programme to ensure your children maintain a healthy balance of external inputs and life experience.
- We also recommend that you join one of the many excellent home school networks, which pool resources and offer moral support on your journey. Some of the best home online programmes come pre-packaged with suggestions and networks of other home schoolers. Our ‘How to Home School’ page has lots of other helpful recommendations for getting started.

So much of life’s experience comes from interaction with adults and other children outside the home. It is essential that home schooled children have plenty of access to these. We recommend that home school parents concentrate on the following:

Ask friends to join your classes – it may reduce the cost and facilitate peer to peer learning
Ask for play dates
See if you can join in sporting and artistic lessons with a local school, perhaps in return for some classroom assisting.
See what social events local facilities, such as libraries, offer.

There are many home schooling websites that have various resources to support your child. There are also exam past papers for GCSE’s and A-Levels on exam board websites, but do be aware that they only publish them for current specifications, so for any of the new syllabuses, there will not be a significant back catalogue to use. You might find this list of home school resources helpful.

Private tutors also have a huge amount of resources that they have collated through experience and past students. Many tutors also create their own resources, similar to teachers in schools, that are based around your child and their way of learning. The national curriculum is available on the government website for guidance of where your child should be if they were in school, and so can be used for further guidance.

Many parents decide to use the National Curriculum as a framework for developing their own, however it is important to bear in mind that independent schools and associated entrance examinations expect students to work well beyond this. The National Curriculum, details of which can be found below, features levels in which certain subjects are mandatory. The more a child progresses through the school levels, the more focused their learning becomes. Developing a curriculum around this is recommended because there is an abundance of resources available influenced directly by the National Curriculum. BBC Bitesize is one such website that features an array of resources designed by universities to follow the syllabuses set by the exam boards and is completely free to use.

SLT offers some useful advice on choosing an exam board, curriculum and subjects.

Designing a unique curriculum is possible, and many parents decide to completely ignore the national curriculum in favour of a more, academic, vocational or practical education. Mathematics and English should be taught as part of every curriculum and at every age level. All universities and employers expect a certain level of mathematics and English (typically to GCSE). There is a reason why young children are taught a wide range of subjects: peoples interests change as they grow older. A well-rounded curriculum that is designed to teach the basics of every subject and allows students to decide their future is therefore the most effective. To force a GCSE student to study art and design when they want to become a science teacher is probably a waste of time and resources. Allowing children to pursue their interests will also help them develop a thirst for education. This is possibly one reason why home schooled children are often more accomplished in academic tests: they are given greater freedom to study subjects they enjoy.

Every year, Simply Learning Tuition support home schooled students with their GCSE and A-Level examination registrations, and preparation for these examinations with expert home schooling private tutors. Home schooled children need to be entered as private candidates for their national examinations, and these always take place in an accredited examination centre. Fees vary, but all exam centres charge something for invigilation and administration costs, plus exam board fees. Please note that not all schools accept private candidates.

You can home school for any period of time, from a couple of weeks to several years. Families may embark on a period of temporary home schooling to cover a gap between schools or to recover quickly from the learning loss associated with an illness, or some other reason for school absence. In many cases families take a travelling tutor on holiday with them (or tutor online) to cement the learning from school, or to help prepare for a challenging entrance exam such as the 13 Plus, or 11 Plus, or national exams such as GCSE’s or A Levels.

Part-time home schooling takes place alongside regular schooling, or another activity that takes up much of a student’s time, such as acting or performing. The benefit is that it is more cost effective than full-time home schooling because fewer hours are being delivered by the tutor. It may be that the parent isis supporting teaching and working alongside the tutor. Alternatively, part-time home schooling could be part of a staged return to school, where for example a student is recovering from an illness and can only be at school for a few days a week. SLT has also helped families where the student attends sports and softer, non-examined subjects at school, in order to develop their co-curricular skills and maintain friendships, while they forge ahead, or catch up with academic work with their tutors at home.

The Department of Education makes it clear that parents who choose to educate their children at home are financially responsible for their education. The first thing that needs to be considered is the cost of things like stationery, books and tutoring. Textbooks are relatively expensive compared to other non-fiction books as they are produced by university presses that usually charge a premium to private buyers.

Buying a good computer and investing in a stable internet connection will benefit students significantly. This opens up access to a host of excellent teaching resources on the internet, online tutors if required and helps teach independent learning skills. Independent learning is an essential skill for students who plan to study at A-level and higher. Below is a list of things that need to be accounted for when considering the full costs of home schooling.

Textbook costs Income lost from unemployment
Stationery costs (pens, pencils, paper, exercise books, mathematics equipment) Supplementary classroom equipment (projector, television, smartboard, whiteboard)
Tutoring prices per hour (and supplementary tutor services, such as marking) Extra-curricular activities (sports, visits to museums) and travel costs
Computers Software costs (word processors, spreadsheet software)
Exam entry fees (at least £150 per exam) The Home School Curriculum

At SLT we work with families to create a home schooling programme that will deliver results. We follow a rigorous programme that is tailor made for your family.

1. A thorough assessment of the student’s needs (including SEN) and their academic goals

2. An understanding of the wider reasons for home schooling – for example, is your family travelling frequently and you are looking for continuity of education, or do you wish to follow a particular educational model, such as Montessori or Waldorf

3. SLT will then introduce carefully matched home school tutors. It is really important that we introduce just the right match of tutor; one who has the following attributes:

i) the commitment to your family

ii) the ability to develop the student’s softer skills, such as resilience and creativity in addition to academic skills

iii) full knowledge of any curricula and exam boards you may wish to follow

iv) the ability to act as a natural mentor to the child to really help them engage with the subject matter and above all make home schooling fun!

4. We then prepare a detailed ‘route to completion’ road map

5. When home schooling has started, we have regular check-ins and termly reviews to ensure that all is working well

Home school tutors introduced by Simply Learning Tuition take responsibility for each part of your child’s education. From day-to-day learning plans to historical and cultural trips and sports activities, tutors create a professional and focussed teaching environment that keeps learning fresh and engaging. Their passion and enthusiasm underpinned with academic excellence, previous experience and long-term commitment allows tutors to empower your child, helping them to grow in confidence and flourish.

The home school tutors we introduce will not only match your child’s educational needs and personality, but will also blend in seamlessly with your family’s lifestyle. If your child is a budding young athlete or an aspiring musician, tutors can work around their schedules. We can introduce music teachers, art tutors or sports coaches who will work closely with your child to help develop their passions and find suitable classes and clubs in your local area. These are an important part of your son or daughter’s social and emotional development.

Yes absolutely. You should inform your current school (if your child is enrolled) and the Local Education Authority. If your child has a SEN, the LEA will want to be sure that you have a detailed support plan in place.

You need to be able to provide an, ‘age appropriate’ education for your child that is full-time. Beyond this, it is up to you which subjects you teach and which, if any exams you enter.

As part of that, lessons are always delivered at a pace that your child is comfortable with. Often this simple change can make such a huge difference.

Then the extra magic of an experienced home schooling tutor is that they can also subtly adapt their methods to suit your child’s learning style. And the one-to-one focus quickly builds confidence – in turn delivering better results and creating a virtual circle of improvement that can get your child excited to learn again.

On the other side of the spectrum, home schooling can also allow for an intensive, highly focused approach, ideal when there is a clear goal and limited time – for example when preparing for retakes.

If you use private tutors, the home schooling will cost approximately £40-100 per hour. If you teach yourself, this will be greatly reduced. You need also to factor in the cost of lesson materials, exam entry and educational visits.

Many studies have shown that home schooled children perform as well, or better than their classroom educated peers. However, home schooling places a lot of responsibility on parents if they do the teaching themselves and need to plan and deliver all the academic and extra- curricular activities themselves.

Yes absolutely! Some of the very best home school tutors work online, especially if their students live far away from the tutors. Many co-curricular activities can also be organised online.

The majority of home schooling around the world is conducted by parents who follow a recognised exam board and use their own teaching resources. Others will sign up to an online course or distance learning programme. There is no, ‘one size’ fits all and we recommend that parents check the pros and cons of each programme carefully.

Home schooling can offer a huge number of benefits to both parents and their children. Many of the families we work with say their children benefit tremendously from the more relaxed environment that comes with being taught at home, without the anxiety of school or the pressure to study a curriculum that they may not be able to access effectively without additional support.

As part of that, lessons are always delivered at a pace that your child is comfortable with. Often this simple change can make such a huge difference.

Then the extra magic of an experienced home schooling tutor is that they can also subtly adapt their methods to suit your child’s learning style. And the one-to-one focus quickly builds confidence – in turn delivering better results and creating a virtual circle of improvement that can get your child excited to learn again.

On the other side of the spectrum, home schooling can also allow for an intensive, highly focused approach, ideal when there is a clear goal and limited time – for example when preparing for retakes.

Yes – and in a good way!

Time and again we see home-schooling having a wholly positive impact on a child’s development. For some, being away from the pressure of a school environment and forming a strong bond with a private tutor can very quickly reignite their interest in learning again, improving their grades and confidence, and often leading to them going back into school at a later stage with a completely different outlook. Alternatively, if home-schooling is to fill a gap between schools, the one-on-one time will easily keep your child in line with – and often ahead of – their peers.

The one concern some parents have with home schooling is the lack of social interaction that comes naturally in a classroom. However, this is something an excellent home schooling programme can easily resolve through trips, art clubs or sports activities – and in a way that can often suit children better than the pressure-cooker of a school.

Home education offers a huge number of benefits to both parents and their children. Lessons are always delivered at a pace that your child is comfortable with and in many cases, transform your child’s life. Teaching methods can be adjusted to suit your child’s learning style. The one to one focus quickly builds confidence, in turn delivering improvements in results and thus creating a virtual circle of improvement.

Many of the families we work with say that their children benefit tremendously from the relaxed nature of being taught athome, without the anxiety of school or the pressure to study a curriculum that they may not be able to access effectively without additional support.

Home schooling allows for an intensive, highly focused approach which can be useful when time is limited, for example when preparing for retake examinations.

Every family’s needs are different; from just a few hours a week to full-time tutoring. If additional support is required, we can also recommend and introduce educational psychologists and speech and language therapists or other therapists. When the time comes to re-integrate your child into the school system, our education consultants can help to organise this.

For families living outside the UK, international home school tutors can ensure academic continuity for your child if your circumstances require your family to travel frequently. If you are moving to the UK, tutors can also help prepare your child for British independent school entrance examinations and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

The decision to home school your child is complex. As experts in bespoke home education and all that it entails, we have successfully introduced home school tutors to children of all ages since 2009. Please feel free to contact us for a relaxed and impartial conversation.