Preparing to apply for home schooling registration

As a home schooling parent, you need to plan and prepare your child’s educational program before your application is assessed.

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Getting ready to prepare an educational program

Take these steps to prepare your educational program.

Research

Make sure you are well informed before you begin. It's a good idea to:

review and consider if you can meet the eligibility and registration requirements
consider the resources available to you
contact a support group
talk to other parents.

Plan your approach

Consider how NESA's registration requirements will interact with how you plan to home school your child. You will want to:

identify your child’s individual strengths and learning needs
start to prepare your child’s educational program by reviewing the relevant NESA syllabuses
consider the records you will keep
gather relevant resources
consider your home setup and how it can provide a suitable learning space.

Prepare for implementation

You need to be ready with the relevant materials when you apply for home schooling registration. Your preparation should include:

gathering records of your child's previous educational history and achievement to help provide a starting point for your child’s learning
identifying the learning activities best suited to support your child’s learning, including any additional needs they may have
developing your child’s educational program based on NESA syllabuses
outlining how you will monitor and record your child’s achievement and progress.

Requirements for registration

The requirements to be met for home schooling registration are described in section 4 of the Guidelines for Home Schooling Registration in NSW (the Guidelines).

The requirements relate to the educational program for the child. That is, the parent’s teaching and learning plan and records of implementing the educational program.

You must keep records of implementing your child's educational program. This is to show:

how you have delivered or plan to deliver the program
how you have met or plan to meet the requirements for registration.

Consider your child’s learning needs

While you are developing your educational program, you will need to reflect on the individual needs of your child and how you can support their learning. Considerations can include the following areas.

Your child’s strengths, interests and areas that need development

Your child’s educational program should:

build on their strengths
incorporate their interests
provide opportunities to continue to develop their learning.

Some examples of how you can do this include:

incorporating your child’s interests (for example favourite characters, topics, or sports) across a variety of subjects or teaching activities
applying your child’s strengths to their learning, for example:
- an avid reader may enjoy comparing historical fiction and historical facts through reading
- an independent learner may benefit from researching content and developing a presentation of their findings
providing additional support in areas they may find challenging, for example if a child finds writing a challenge then you may need to provide scaffolds to support the writing process.

Any additional learning needs

Some children have additional learning needs that require further support. An educational program for children with additional learning needs may need to address the following.

Giftedness

A child who has been identified as gifted may be supported in their learning by:

the depth of content and skills covered within a stage
progression of stages in one or more syllabus areas
additional focus on the application of skills and knowledge across other areas of learning.

Disability

A child with disability may be supported in their learning by:

drawing on an appropriate syllabus stage to support the development of fundamental skills
incorporating adjustments to support learning
the use of assistive technologies
accessing Life Skills outcomes and content, Years 7-10 or Life Skills syllabuses, Years 11-12.

Additional supports and therapies

Some children are engaged in additional therapies to support their needs. There may be opportunities within these sessions to incorporate into parts of your child's educational program. Examples of supports and therapies may include:

using Speech and Language Therapy as one element to develop skills that may be contained within the English syllabus
using Physiotherapy as one element to develop skills that may be contained within the PDHPE syllabus.

Involving your child in planning

Involving your child in the development of their educational program can be beneficial. You may wish to discuss your planned program as well as your child’s learning progress with them.

Under your supervision, children can:

develop learning goals
share their strengths
identify areas for further development.

This can provide your child with a sense of ownership and promote engagement with learning.

Providing a space for learning

You will need to consider your home environment and the learning spaces in the home that can support your child’s learning. This learning space may be used to deliver teaching and learning activities. You have the flexibility to decide where the most appropriate parts of the home are where this learning can happen most effectively.

Some key questions you may wish to consider when selecting learning spaces include:

Is there a space that has sufficient light and airflow?
Is there an uncluttered space where your child can complete their learning activities?

You may also want to consider the ways that a learning space can help:

limit external distractions (when needed) to help support your child’s focus
stimulate your child’s curiosity, exploration and imagination.

Preparing your child’s educational program

The educational program is your child's individual learning plan for the registration period.

You are not required to use a specific format or template when presenting your child’s educational program. The educational program and associated records may be paper based, project based, digital or a combination of different mediums.

Overview of elements for home schooling educational program

Below is an overview of the required elements. This may assist with your planning to see if you have considered all required elements.

Required elements	Support resources
Have you addressed all minimum curriculum requirements that are relevant to your child’s stage of learning?	Curriculum requirements can be found in the Guidelines.
Have you based the educational program on current, relevant NESA syllabuses?	Syllabuses are located on the NSW Curriculum website. The support materials page as it has the outcomes and syllabus overviews.
Have you considered your child’s individual needs and how they can be addressed in the program?	Resources to assist parents may be found on the Educational programs and the NESA syllabus support materials pages.
Have you included the variety of teaching and learning experiences you are planning to implement?	You might like to get in touch with your local home schooling support group to gather some ideas to get you started.
Have you come up with a system to help you plan, supervise, and record the teaching and learning will take place?	You can find optional templates to support you when planning and recording your child’s learning on the NESA syllabus support materials page.
Have you decided on a system to track your child’s progress and achievement throughout the registration period?	You can find templates to support tracking your child’s progress on the NESA syllabus support materials page.
Have you allocated adequate time to sufficiently cover the curriculum? How can you demonstrate that?	Materials to assist parents may be found on the Educational programs page.
Have you gathered and considered where you can access adequate resources to support your child’s learning?	Find helpful links on the Educational programs page.

Registration requirements and commercial programs

If you decide to purchase a commercial program, it remains your responsibility to make sure that it meets NESA’s registration requirements.