First Steps to Home Schooling
As a parent, the Law in the United Kingdom says that you must make sure your child receives a full-time education from the age of 5 years until the age of 18 years but you don’t have to register them into a school nor follow the ‘National Curriculum‘.
Stay Organised and checklist these first simple steps to homeschooling:
- Know your Duties and Rights to Home School your Children, Citizens Advice
- School Leaving Age
- ‘Education Otherwise’ Frequently Asked Questions
- All your Questions and Answers about Home School
- Find out what your local borough says about homeschooling
- Homeschooling Intentions and Reasons
- Research, write/plan your home ed goals for your own prep and understanding.
- School Withdrawal Letter, Other Sample Letters
- Local Education Authorities (LEA) Duties and Roles
- Written Report: Education Philosophies and Education Reports
- Build Links with other Home School Parents/Guardians, Tutors, Social clubs etc
- Educate family members about your decision to homeschool
- Get full support from your loved ones
- Explore your style of homeschooling: Traditional (School-at-home), The Way of the Salaf, Classical, Unschooling, Eclectic, Unit Studies, Montessori, Charlotte Mason, Multiple Intelligence, Leadership, Waldorf
- Begin your search for your personal Curriculum Planning
- Homeschool Planners and Student Planners: Plan your personal Timetable
- Log Book (Assessment Forms) (including Field Trip Planning) and Reward Charts
- Exam Entries
- Decide on a suitable space in the home for homeschool storage
- Build your own home library
- Be patient, persevere and make lots of Dua to Allah Taala
Useful tips to stay Organised:
Useful Facts about School and Education:
- Changing Education Paradigms
- More coming soon inshAllah…
‘Key stages’
According to the national curriculum, Key Stages (KS) are organised into blocks of years. At the end of each key stage, a child’s teacher formally assesses their students performance to measure his/her progress. Other types of school like Academies (Higher Education), Private Schools and Home Education don’t have to follow the national curriculum. The Law clearly States that Education is compulsory by the time a child reaches the age of 5 years, but attending a school or studying the national curriculum is optional. Academies must teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, maths and science. They must also teach religious education. Here are what the Key Stage years look like:
- Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (Ages 0-5) – Children Centre, Preschool, Nursery etc
- Key Stage 1 (Ages 5-7) – Year 1 and Year 2
- Key Stage 2 (Ages 7-11) – Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6
- Key Stage 3 (Ages 11-14) – Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9
- Key Stage 4 (Ages 14-16) – Year 10, Year 11, Year 12 (6th Form/A-Levels)
‘Development needs’
To satisfy an individuals development needs, remember to include the following when selecting activities, neglecting these needs may result in poor development:
Sensory Play: | Include activities that stimulate the 5 Senses: Touch, Smell, Taste, Sight and Hearing |
Gross Motor Skills: | These are large movements we make with arms, legs, feet, or entire body such as crawling, running, and jumping. Fine motor skills are smaller actions. |
Fine Motor Skills: | The coordination of small muscle movement, involving the synchronization of hands and fingers with the eyes. Involve tasks controlled by the nervous system. |
Social/Mental: | This includes how we interact with others at different stages with different types of people in terms of age, ethnicity and gender and so on. Also how we learn to cope and control our feelings and manners. |
Communication and Intellectual: | There are a range of ways in which we all learn to communicate and understand one another. For younger children and babies, they communicate more through body language and gestures, sometimes babbling or crying, others learn to talk and write faster than others. We use our language to think and make sense of things and so our intellect is linked to communication. |
Spiritual: | This is the most important need for us all. Without it we are lost. Include consciousness of Allah throughout the day in all activities. Correct Islamic teachings from the Quran, authentic hadith and sayings of the Salaf. The soul yearns for true belief, speech and action, this is food for the soul. |
Learning Styles:
The FOUR main learning styles are:
- Visual (learning by seeing).
- Auditory (learning by hearing)
- Read/Write
- Kinesthetic (learning by doing)
Visit the ‘Vark‘ website for more details. This is a good guide to discovering and understanding you and your childs learning and teaching styles. You can also take quizzes and find out your different learning styles for different subjects.
Also, check out ‘GetSussed‘ by BBC.co.uk to understand more about learning styles and what careers they lead to.
What Next?
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Jazaakom Allahu khair!
Assalamu alaikum,
Just discovered your website – JazakAllah khair for all your efforts and generosity in sharing such amazing resources mashaAllah!
You may want to add that there is a Key Stage 5 too which is years 12 and 13 🙂
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Assalamu Alikkum WaRrahmathullahi wabarakathuh,
Do you have any link to age wise subject to teach children?
Example Class three: Trigonometry, Algebra…
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و عليكم السلام و رحمة الله و بركاته
Try CGP Progress books. It supports the national curriculum and lists all the topics per subject in order. Baarak Allaahu feekom
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Asalaam aleykm warahmatullahi wabarakatu. Is this a school? I would really like to enrol my daughter next year Inshallah she will be 4yrs.
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Wa alaykom salaam w rahmatullaahi w barakaatu!
No this is not a school. Its a homeschool blog where you will find free children’s educational resources to use whether at school or home. Baarik Allaahu feekom!
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السلام اليكم alaykum, noticed the link for number three is not working/broken- was able to find it, perhaps they updated the site since you made the list, but believe this is the new and correct link. Sorry didn’t know how to send a private message https://educationotherwise.org/index.php/faqs
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so is it a school for kids because I am 11 and I am looking for a good home school
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Assalam alaikum ummassad,I am Abdullah bin saqib ,I am 8 yrs old.Do you have a writers contest,I AM INTRESTED.
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Wa alaykom salaam w rahmatullahi w baraktu, sorry we do not have any writers contest. Jazaak Allaahu khair!
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Ma’sha’allah such a brilliant page you have here I have been thinking about homeschooling and currently looking into it so am so glad I came across your page Jazzaki’allahu khair.
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plz giv us more! ×
excellent
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More may be added over time inshaAllah. If you or anybody have any ideas, please feel free to recommend and id be glad to help.
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