For more info about local home ed events, or if you’re thinking of switching to non-school education and would like to talk it over, you might like to join a local home edders’ email list or Facebook group.
Only home edders and maybe-soon-home-edders are meant to join these spaces, so typically you’ll have to give a little intro when you join, to confirm that applies to you. In that sense, they’re “private”, though some have hundreds of members.
People are often very willing to share their own experiences. They’re good places to ask questions such as…
- “My child age X is really not liking school. Did anyone else take their child out at a similar age? How did it go?”
- “A few of us are planning to go to the park on Thursday afternoon – anyone want to join us?”
- “Are there any other children around 8 to 12 who are into everything about animal care, who might like to meet up with my son age 9?”
- “These GCSE courses for teens, at Nottingham College – what subjects can you currently do? and are your kids liking the courses?”
- “My neighbour told me that the law about home ed says [x y z]. Is it true?”
- “My child age 8 isn’t very interested in maths, and I’d like to find ways to make it enjoyable. What kinds of things do you all do?”
- “We’re thinking of signing up for [web site] – has anyone else used it? was it worth the money?”
- “I think my daughter may have dyslexia. Other people in a similar situation, did you get a formal diagnosis? If so, how did you go about it, and did you find it was useful?”
- “I got a letter from the Council asking about our educational provision – does everyone get the same letter?”
- “Someone at the group the other day mentioned a home ed trip to [museum]. Who’s organising that?”
- “I met someone the other day who teaches Japanese. Supposing I were to set up a regular group at our house, how many people would be interested?”
Non-Facebook
A lot of home ed organising these days happens via Facebook, but the Home Ed Notts email list was set up to ensure that’s not the only way to connect.
It’s currently a quiet list (because most people are on FB) – but if you don’t want more emails, you can switch off the email option and bookmark the web site instead, and read the messages there.
Facebook options
If you’re happy with Facebook, try one of these, depending on which area is closest to you (some people join more than one):
- Home Education Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County
- HEAD ON – Home Education Activities Derbyshire Or Nottinghamshire
- Mansfield HE Group
- Newark Home Education
- Meetups at Newark YMCA
- Home Education Bingham
- Lincoln Home Educators
- Home Education Meet Ups & Events Yorkshire & Lincolnshire
- Home Ed Grantham and District
There are many smaller local FB groups for specific events, such as regular park meetups for different age groups, or art, science or sport. You can usually find out about those smaller groups via the relevant geographical-area list.
There are also some national groups on specific topics, which may be useful if you need advice:
- Home Education UK Exams & Alternatives
- Home educating through A-levels
- Home Educating our Special Needs children
- Home Education and your Local Authority: Help with dealing with officialdom
Bear in mind that Facebook can be very unfriendly to people who aren’t using their “real” name, and can lock people out of their accounts with no warning if they suspect you of that. So be cautious of relying on it as your only connection to people.
Another non-FB resource is the Home Ed Exams Wiki, a collection of information assembled by home edders for home edders.
A not-very-regularly-updated Twitter account exists at @NonSchoolNottm. Don’t rely on this for upcoming events – do join the HEN list or a FB group (as described above)… but if you hang out on Twitter anyway, it does point to interesting stuff sometimes 🙂
Greetings – I am a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher from the United States who is coming to research and teach at the University of Nottingham from September 2016 to January 2017. Would there be any interest in having me do a presentation or workshop with the students or parents in your group? Since I’ve taught at a variety of grade levels, I can adapt lessons or presentations however you’d like. I’d love to meet people while I’m there and I’d love to hear about your home ed community.
If you’d like to see me and check me out, here’s an interview when I was a finalist for my district’s Teacher of the Year: http://bit.ly/TeacherLight
Please let me know if this is of interest to you and I’ll contact you once I find a place to live and make further arrangements.
Warmest regards –
Marjorie
Thanks for getting in touch, Marjorie – that’s really exciting!