Beverley Paine's Australian Home School Curriculum: registering as a home education provider in Australia

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Homeschool Australia K-12 Curriculum

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Learn from experienced homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum. It really is that easy!

Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned.

Curriculum Pages Index

As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. Feedback and comments welcome. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful.

Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content which will also be reproduced in a reasonably priced handy reference booklet from our Practical Homeschooling Series.

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Registering: General Requirements

excerpt from Getting Started with Homeschooling, Practical Considerations
© Beverley Paine, 1997

The list below is a general summary of guidelines used for considering home school applications by officers of educational authorities. Although specific requirements alter between different areas, offices and states, the contents of this list have proven, over time, to be reasonably consistent.

Don't be put off or deterred by the educational jargon used in most educational documents and texts. All occupations develop jargon - it is a type of workplace language. Instead of thinking of jargon as an exclusive language, and resenting the use of it by educational officers, regard it as your own - you are becoming an educational professional, much like a teacher! Learn the meanings of key words, and practice translating jargon into your everyday language to make everyone, even officials, more comfortable. This is one of the fastest ways of building confidence as a home educator.

As you read through the requirements remember the officers who compiled this list work within one kind of educational system, and have little or no experience of how home learning happens. They have based these requirements on their limited school experience. Some of the requirements on this list may not be relevant to your proposed learning program. If this is the case you may need to persuade the interviewing officer that different places of learning need different approaches to education.

Reasons for request. This is not always required. In any case, the reasons for choosing to home educate are irrelevant to the quality of the proposed educational program under consideration. Consequently there shouldn’t be any need to include them in your submission. Sometimes offering reasons can unfairly prejudice the interviewing officer against your application, if there are conflicting attitudes or philosophies.
Names of the parents or caregivers responsible for the provision of educational program. Often qualifications and/or experience are asked for; don't be intimidated by this - in most states you don't need teaching qualifications to educate your children at home, although you do need to have attained an appropriate level of literacy and numeracy, preferably senior school level. There are many approved home schooling parents who never finished senior school themselves, but have successfully educated their own children to beyond this level. Don’t be deterred. List all of your qualifications, no matter what field they are in, and don’t forget life skills and work experience (both paid and voluntary).
Relevance of the proposed educational program, and level of study, to the children's learning needs. This simply means providing individual learning programs tailored to each child's level of instruction. Part 4 offers advice on how to determine your children’s learning needs and styles.
A suitable home learning environment. Although physical layout, space, equipment, displays, etc., are considered, the overall impression and atmosphere of the home are most important - does it look and feel like a place where children are learning?
A proposed program of work covering essential skills and understandings, outlining curriculum details; subjects, learning plans, timetables, balance, and types of teaching methodologies. In addition to outlining, in broad terms, your overall goals for the year, it is a good idea to offer a simple example of a typical day’s learning plan. This demonstrates at a glance your awareness of how learning objectives are targeted and accomplished in planned activities. When thinking about this consider what the children are going to learn and how, its
appropriateness and relevance to their learning needs, and if it reflects what children generally need to learn to function and participate as adults in society. Parts 5 and 6 takes you through some of the processes involved in determining these. How much you prepare, and what form it will take, is your choice. It depends upon on your personal style, how confident you are, and your current knowledge of your children’s educational development.
Resources and materials to be used, including access to curriculum documents. Educational authorities prefer you to refer to accepted educational philosophy and curriculum for planning, as well as other sources such as educational texts, libraries, the community, etc. Resources include reference materials, support groups and information, consumable items (art, craft, science, maths, texts, etc), community organisations and places of interest, work
places, libraries, and people.
Across curriculum emphasis. In the home it is easy to link the often separated areas of learning, drawing together many disciplines instead of just studying one subject at a time. Integrating general themes such as multiculturalism, Aboriginal studies, media studies, etc., into traditional curriculum subjects broadens the curriculum and widens the learning experience.
Other broadening activities, especially the provision for social and cultural activities with others. Traditionally these areas are covered by 'extra-curricula' or after school activities, special events and festivals. Home schooling families are uniquely placed to take advantage of many cultural activities, including participating in a wide range of community activities and voluntary opportunities conducted during school hours. After school and weekend activities remain available to home educated children.
A statement of philosophy of education or long term goals for the education of the student. This involves a brief and concise outline of what your beliefs about education, and your goals, in educational terms, for your children are. Part 3 discusses this in detail.
Monitoring and evaluation methods to be used. This is sometimes called the
assessment process, and includes the methods you use to check the standard of your children’s work. This is primarily to avoid learning disadvantage. Most often children’s standards are checked against their own previous attempts, and sometimes ‘national standards’ or ‘averages’ can be used. What you do and what you use is up to you. Generally all that is required are records or samples of your children's work, anecdotal evidence of learning, and copies of learning programs. It is uncommon for homeschoolers to be required to attend ‘tests’, etc. Part 7 offers a detailed discussion on evaluation and record keeping.
Sometimes the interviewing officer will want to know if there is any intention of your children returning to school at any stage. There is no requirement for children to return to school at any stage, although experience has shown educational authorities generally approve of an open-minded attitude by the family on this option, should the children want to return to school. In most cases approval to home school is granted for only up to two years and is subject to a review process. Many families homeschool for only a year or two, after which time their children easily integrate back into mainstream education, with no disadvantage.
Contact with homeschooling groups for support and social needs. This is increasingly being suggested by authorities, and demonstrates their awareness of the benefits derived from formal and informal home education networks.

All of your preparation should involve minimal effort and even less worry. By carefully considering the aspects discussed in Part 1, you will have already clarified and understood some of the requirements usually sought by educational authorities, and will need only to articulate them. Meeting the requirements is often just a natural aspect of planning your children's education. Recording the process is good practice and helps to clarify your goals.

Some families submit only a page or two, others prepare a folder of information. Do as
much or as little as you feel is needed to explain your learning program to others. Use
your own style and language and keep it simple and brief. At most, preparing your first
learning program should not take you more than a couple of weeks of researching,
thinking, brainstorming and recording, drafting and polishing.

Regardless of whether you decide to apply for ‘registration’ or ‘permission’ from any
educational authority, the process outlined above in the approval procedure is an excellent
exercise in clarifying the home education experience in the early months. After such an
exercise has been gone through many families report increased confidence in their home
schooling practice, and a greater understanding of the direction and methods they adopt.
Some families often resent this process, as it takes time away from hands on learning
activities with the children. These families focus primarily on the ‘permission asking’
aspect of the exercise, and are not using it as a process for planning and organising their
home education programs. If you feel compelled by law or otherwise to become
‘registered’ and resent the process, try to view the experience positively. Negotiating with
educational authorities can be an empowering and useful learning experience for the
whole family.

In time, as you become proficient and experienced in educating your children at home,
you will evolve the skill of efficiently recording your learning plans and evaluation. What
may take some time and effort now will begin to occur naturally. Home schooling is an
evolutionary process - you won't find yourself doing the same thing in the same way each
year!

Knowing what is required helps you to be well prepared, not only for the interview, but,
more importantly, for your journey into home education. Even if you never need to
negotiate with any educational authority following the process or writing an educational
curriculum for your children builds confidence and is very empowering.

More information can be found at:

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