Home educated students can choose to enter a variety of local, state, national and international competitions throughout the year. Home ed kids, as individuals or as teams, have participated (often successfully) in competitions such as FIRST Lego League, Parliament Prize, Australian Mathematics Competition, Australian Geography Competition and more. Home ed kids have also enjoyed Scout awards, The Duke of Edinburgh International Award, and CREST.
We have compiled a list of competitions, awards and challenges for your convenience. Please note that during 2020, many have not run or may change the way they run in the future.
A list of state, national and international competitions, awards and challenges open to all students (most are direct entry, not via HEN): Competitions and Awards Available to Home Ed Kids: updated July 2023
Lockdowns have brought some wonderful changes to the competitions space.
Most of the competitions will now accept registrations straight from homeschoolers! This will save you money as you will not need to pay extra postage on top of the entry fees anymore.
Competitions that are now open to homeschoolers directly include:
- Australian Geography Competition: https://geographycompetition.org.au/
- Big Science Competition: https://www.asi.edu.au/programs/big-science-competition/cost-and-how-to-get-involved/
- All of the Australian Mathematics Competitions: https://www.amt.edu.au/competitions
A list of competitions co-ordinated by a HEN volunteer, where you can register your school as Home Education Network, can be found at Competitions with HEN registration . Follow the instructions in the rightmost column if you are interested.
To register for these competitions as a home educator please contact competitions@home-ed.vic.edu.au