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Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill Summary and Protest

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill 2026 Protest

What the January 17 rally reveals about opposition to the Bill. Yes to children’s wellbeing. No to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

On the 17th of January, families and campaigners gathered in central London to protest the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They came from across the country. Home educating parents. Parents of children with special educational needs. Teachers, former...

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Christmas and home education: creating a calmer, more connected December at home

Christmas with home education feels different. In the best way.

One of the things I love most about home ed at this time of year is the pace. We can slow right down. We can stay home when the weather is wild. We can choose quiet mornings with fairy lights, biscuits, and a box of decorations tipped across the table. There’s no rush to get out of the house. No last minute costume dramas. No...

Why home educators must help shape national policy: lived experience matters

Why alternative educators should help shape education policy: lived experience matters

Policy made without listening to home educators will always miss the point. The real expertise is with them, not Whitehall.

Here’s a simple idea that shouldn’t be radical at all, but is…

The DfE needs more than data. It needs the people who know children best.

If the government wants to understand elective home education, it makes sense to involve the people who actually do...

Home education as quiet rebellion: the power of connection over control

Why community is the quiet revolution in home education

“The most revolutionary thing one can do is to introduce people to one another.” — Howard Zinn

Home education is often seen as an act of quiet rebellion — a decision to step away from systems that no longer serve our children, and to build something smaller, slower, more human. But if Oscar Wilde reminds us that disobedience can...

School is the newcomer: why children learn best outside the classroom

The industrial revolution and the birth of modern schooling: what history tells us about learning

For most of human history, children learned by taking part in life. They absorbed skills and knowledge through family life, apprenticeships, play, and community. Learning happened as they joined in with the real work of their world; watching, listening, experimenting, asking questions, and...

Home education is creation, not escape - nurturing curiosity and childhood

Creating learning that fits your child, not the system

People sometimes assume home education is about escape, or ‘running away from the system’. As though we turned away from school out of fear, avoidance, or rebellion. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Home education is not an act of retreat. It is an act of creation — a deliberate choice to build something new,...

Music Technology Club: Online music sessions for home-educated teens

Music Technology Club opens new sessions for home ed learners

One of the joys of home education is discovering learning that feels truly alive - the kind that ignites curiosity and confidence. The Music Technology Club , part of Education & Bass , does exactly that. It gives young people the tools to explore music, sound and self-expression - no expensive gear, no rigid rules, just...

How a home education photography course helped a Suffolk teen find her passion

With results day around the corner, Suffolk teen Caitlin Banham is an example of how home education can transform your relationship with learning.

Teacher and founder of Aced Qualifications , Deborah Hayward, is currently celebrating the successful impact their photography course has had upon recent student Caitlin who, after being inspired by her studies at Aced Qualifications, has...

Play is not a break from learning, it is learning.

Play is learning: why play fuels education for children of all ages

Learning through play: From early years to teens

In England, play often gets treated as a nice extra, something squeezed in when the “real work” is done. But research, and decades of experience in home education, show that play is not a break from learning. It is learning. When we think of play, we often picture young children with building blocks or playground games. But the power of play...

Stop calling home educated kids invisible: why these children aren’t missing

The term ‘invisible children’ wrongly paints home-ed kids as lost or at risk. In truth, they’re thriving outside school - seen, loved, and learning in their own way.

There’s a damaging phrase that has been popping up in media stories for years: “invisible children.” It’s often used to describe children who aren’t in school, as if being out of sight means out of mind. As if children...

ADHD, hunter-gatherers, and education: why the system isn’t built for our brains

There’s been a popular photo being shared on Facebook about how ADHD isn’t really a disorder - it’s a different kind of wiring. A set of traits that once helped humans survive, especially in fast-paced, unpredictable environments. And for many home-educating families like ours, this idea makes a lot of sense.

It’s backed by research too. A study in Nature Genetics found that ADHD traits are...