School choice

Home education or Mainstream state?

The difference between Home education and Mainstream state is mostly one axis: mixed ages. Home education sits toward mixed-age groups; Mainstream state sits firmly toward classes of the same age. They agree, more than most people expect, on when formal academics start, what a teacher is and technology at school. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Home education

Education at home with a structure you choose — bought curriculum, your own sequence, or a co-operative with other families. It gives complete control over pace, content and values, and it converts one parent's time into the school. The outcome research is genuinely good and almost entirely drawn from self-selected families, so it should be read as what is possible rather than as what is typical.

What it asks of you

  • One adult's working life, in most arrangements
  • Building a social world deliberately, since it does not arrive with the building
  • Teaching subjects you are not confident in, for years
  • A plan for the transition back, if there ever is one

Mainstream state

A national curriculum, same-age classes, regular assessment, and an intake drawn from whoever lives nearby. It is the default rather than a philosophy, which is exactly why it belongs on this list: choosing it deliberately is a different act from ending up in it. The mixed intake is a real feature and, for many families, the main argument in its favour.

What it asks of you

  • Accepting that you get the school you get, and that teaching quality varies inside it
  • Being willing to supplement at home where the school is thin
  • Sometimes, moving house — which is how selection works in a system without fees
Side by side

Where they differ

Home education is the filled marker, Mainstream state the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Home education sits toward mixed-age groups; Mainstream state sits firmly toward classes of the same age.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Home education sits firmly toward being in it, daily; Mainstream state sits toward school has to run without the parents.

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Home education sits toward a community that shares our values matters most; Mainstream state sits toward a broad, mixed intake matters most.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Home education sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Mainstream state sits toward school should stay neutral.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Home education sits between the two; Mainstream state sits firmly toward free and local, or it is not an option.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Home education sits toward no grades, no tests; Mainstream state sits toward graded and tested regularly.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Home education sits between the two; Mainstream state sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Home education sits a little toward outdoors and hands-on is the point; Mainstream state sits a little toward learning happens at a table.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • When formal academics start. Both sit a little toward early, and ambitiously.
  • What a teacher is. Both sit a little toward an authority who instructs.
  • Technology at school. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing