Courses & Lessons

Online learning for home educated students

Online courses and lessons for home-educated students

Online learning can be a brilliant option for home-educated children and teens. Whether you're looking for live group tuition, one-to-one support, or self-paced courses, there’s now a wide range of flexible options to suit different ages, needs, and learning styles.

From online GCSEs and Functional Skills to creative workshops and interest-led learning, many providers now cater specifically for home-educated students. Some offer accredited qualifications, while others focus on enrichment, confidence building, or skill development.

This section shares trusted links to online tuition, virtual lessons, and distance learning courses — from short taster sessions to full online programmes and even degree-level options. Everything here has been chosen with flexibility, accessibility, and UK home educators in mind.

It can be helpful to have a plan. If your child knows what they would like to do in the future or has activities they're keen on pursuing, work backwards to plan that route. 

Look at college admission requirements and work back from there. You don't have to do GCSEs at all. Alternative qualifications or part-time college provisions exist for 14-16 year olds. The H.E. Exam Wiki lists them here.

Decide which subjects you want to do. Look at the page for your chosen subject on the H.E. Exam Wiki. This will tell you which specifications are available to home-educated students and list the necessary textbooks and other resources. 

Pick an exam board; you can do this by browsing the course books on the exam subject. It is possible to study many exam subjects just with the recommended exam board textbooks and past papers for practice, and with the help of the internet, many free resources are available. Check through our resources section too.

 

If you decide to use a tutor or pay for an online course for a subject, there are a few things to be aware of: Ensure you know which options (GCSE or IGCSE, the exam board) are available to sit as a private candidate. Please don't assume that the tutor or course knows this; sometimes they don't. Then, check which specification/syllabus is being taught by the tutor or course provider. Each course (with some exceptions) should focus on one specification - by one exam board. For example, Suppose your child was planning to sit the Edexcel IGCSE English language exam, and your tutor was teaching the specification for the AQA GCSE English language exam. In that case, they are different; make sure it's the correct one! 

Exam Centres

Ideally,  find an exam centre before you start studying. As an external candidate, you take GCSEs or IGCSEs  at an examination centre, whether at a school or private exam centre. A guide to the whole booking process is here.

Ask in your local home ed community groups (on Facebook for example) for centres in your area. Also join the Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives group.

Some options are now available for taking exams online (remote invigilation); these are expensive though (approx. £400 more than usual). Here's one example, more are becoming available all the time.

 

Read our article on exams for home educated students.

 

Online Schooling / Virtual Schools

Online schools offer a structured, school-like experience from home, often following the National Curriculum with live lessons, timetables, and qualified teachers.