Homeschooling has gained immense popularity in recent years, offering families an alternative approach to education that caters to their unique needs and aspirations. This rise has come as a result of many factors, one of which is of course the pandemic, as shown in this 2022 article by the BBC. In an article published in May 2023, The Guardian cited this rise and commented on the risk of those missing out on education through a lack of homeschooling structure. At Keystone Tutors, we have been providing homeschooling for over twelve years, working with families to unleash the full potential of the student and foster a love for learning. We are aware however it can be a complete minefield when it comes to approaching the intricate details and making decisions. The below set of points should hopefully be a helpful starting point to enable you to move forward.
1. Why am I being asked about an end goal for my child?
When approaching homeschooling, it is helpful to have a goal in mind – whether this is for your child to complete the school year or sit a certain exam. It can be broad and may just be that your child will be out of school indefinitely. Along with this, any extra information that can be collected around the child’s educational history is extremely beneficial. This helps the homeschooling team put together a plan for your child, as well as the tutors plan their approaching to working with the child.
2. Is there anything I need to do legally before homeschooling?
Currently, in the UK, there is no legal requirement to declare when you take your child out of school. However, your local council may well approach you for details or proof that your child is still partaking in education. Our recommendation is therefore to get ahead of the game and alert the council to your plans. Keystone can provide information on the timetable, tutors and educational plan if required.
3. What curriculum & exam boards will be child be taught when homeschooled?
The curriculum will typically follow the standard curriculum for that age group:
| Curriculum | Age |
| Key Stage 1 | 5 – 7 (Years 1 & 2) |
| Key Stage 2 | 7 – 11 (Years 3 – 6) |
| Key Stage 3 | 11 – 14 (Years 7 – 9) |
| Key Stage 4 / GCSE | 14 – 16 (Years 10 – 11) |
| Key Stage 5 / A Level | 17 – 18 (Years 12 – 13) |
Unless there is another goal in mind, we will follow as above. For those students approaching school entrance exams, we have specific tutors who are able to support with this preparation.
When a student is approaching GCSE & A Level exams, the process needs to be a little more considered. We are not an exam centre and as such we can’t decide on an exam boards for your student. We are able to support with tuition for all exam boards but the final choice of which your child takes will be down to you. The tutors that you have will be happy to comment on the different exam boards, and answer questions, but ultimately the decision will lie with the parent/guardian. We would recommend looking on the different exam board websites, and see which curriculum interests your child most. Additionally, if they have just left a school it can work well to follow the exam boards that their school was working with.
4. What subject choices can Keystone support with?
We can offer homeschooling in all academic subjects, and can provide theory support for Art, Music and Drama. Alongside this, we have fewer tutors in more niche subjects such as Russian but we are always happy to discuss what we can and can’t offer, and come to you with suggestions if we are not able to help.
5. How does my child sit their exams when homeschooled?
We are not an exam centre, so all exams are sat externally to Keystone. Our top recommendation is, if possible, to contact your child’s old school to see if they can sit the exams there. If not, we have a number of recommendations of exam centres in London, and we are also partnered with Tutors & Exams which have centres across the UK.
If you are based abroad, we always recommend contacting the British Council as your first port of call.
We can invigilate mock exams, as well as school entrance exams (with the permission of the school)
6. How do you deal with coursework when homeschooled?
As we are not an exam centre, we are not able to grade coursework. Whilst we can mark a piece of coursework, the final piece will be moderated and graded by your exam centre. Guidance on this will come from your chosen exam centre and may differ case on case.
7. How does timetabling for homeschooling work?
At Keystone we construct a bespoke homeschooling timetable to meet the needs of each student. We can vary start and end times and incorporate breaks into the day to ensure that the day works for the student and family.
As a rough guide, we tend to recommend the following for each age group:
Primary:
- 3 hours of English, 3 hours of maths, 2 hours of science and 2 hours of any further subjects (languages, humanities etc) per week.
Secondary:
- 4 hours of English, 4 hours of maths, 3 hours of science and 2 hours of any further subjects (languages, humanities etc) per week.
A Levels:
- 4 hours per subject per week
Of course, not all students will take all of the above subjects, but this is a rough guide. We will always incorporate English and Maths, and most of the time Science, into timetables unless there are reasons this is not required.
8. How do holiday and half-term breaks work?
As with timetabling, the dates of half-terms and holidays for your child’s homeschooling with Keystone can be completely bespoke. Many families chose to follow traditional school holidays, to tie in with siblings and friends. This may not always work for your family however, especially if homeschooling is being tied into travel or a move abroad. Therefore, we are happy to follow whichever pattern you feel is appropriate.
9. How does the pricing for homeschooling work?
Homeschooling at Keystone is billed based on a tutor’s hourly rate. These rates range upwards from £82.00 (inc VAT) an hour, with our top rates being £162.00 (inc VAT) per hour. Typically, our homeschooling tutors are around £100.00 (inc VAT) an hour. Factors such as the goal of the student, the length of the programme and the age of the child all play into how many hours we would recommend. This then dictates how much the price will be.
A primary school student is likely to be doing around two hours a day, a secondary school student will be three, a GCSE student may be up to four or five and then A Level is, as above, twelve hours a week (based on three A Level subjects).
We also have two different homeschooling packages, details of which can be found here.
10. How does my child socialise whilst being homeschooled?
A common worry with homeschooled students is the social aspect, and how it can be lonely. Whilst our lessons are all 1:1, we work very hard to ensure the chemistry is right between the student and tutor, so the lessons are fun, as well as being productive.
Alongside this, we encourage students to use their free time to join in extra-curricular activities and clubs. A list of recommendations can be found here.
If there is an appropriate group of similarly aged students homeschooling with Keystone, we are open to forming small classes for Study Skills and other lessons and we are always happy to discuss this further.
You can book a free consultation with our homeschooling team at this link or contact us via the website here. We would be delighted to answer any further questions you may have or discuss setting up homeschooling for your child.