Advice for Home Educators

Can Home Ed Groups Resume?

With schools returning, many home educators are beginning to ask whether they can resume their normal home ed meetups. No, home ed groups are not schools and cannot resume if their numbers and venue exceed the current limits.  However, you may begin any activity that lies within the current restrictions on gatherings. Why   Schools involve the same set of children gathering at the

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HEN News

Welcome Home

By Sue Wight We are standing at a unique moment in history Globally, an astonishing 1.4 billion children have come home for their education — something unthinkable a few months ago. While some concerns have been raised that children could “miss a year of education”, in reality kids learn wherever they are and parents are highly adept at facilitating learning. For millennia, all children

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Advice for Home Educators

Advice for Covid-19 Home Educators

Most children being kept home from school due to the pandemic will miss their friends and routine, they may also be scared about what’s happening around the world. The most important thing is to ensure that we support kids’ mental, as well as physical, health. Here are some ideas to help you as adapt to the ‘new normal’. Also some recent media articles to

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Advice for Home Educators

Social Distancing

UPDATE: 31/3/2020 All in-person groups and events MUST cease until the social distancing laws permit them.  March 15: In the current climate, HEN strongly recommends the suspension of all gatherings. While children seem less susceptible to Coronavirus than adults, home ed gatherings involve both. In addition, some doctors warn that children (while remaining well themselves) can transmit the virus to others. Earlier action will

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HEN News

2019 HEN Survey

HEN surveys the home education community to help shape our future work. While we operate mainly in Victoria, our stats can be useful to home educators anywhere in Australia. HEN works hard for the home ed community. If you’re not yet a member, please consider joining. Membership is only $25 per year including digital Otherways Magazine (or $45 with printed copies). 2019 results: and

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HEN News

Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre

Victorian home educators can now access free physical and digital language resources through the Department of Education and Training’s languages library – Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC). They have resources from early years through to senior. Interested families are encouraged to visit the library and complete a membership form to receive a library card for immediate use or join online.    

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HEN News

Other Ways to Uni and Careers

Home ed students have a wide choice of pathways to university and careers. They can tackle university courses whenever they are ready – anywhere between age 13 and 100. Career pathways and destinations can be almost as individual as home education itself. This is a 68 page PDF on pathways to university and careers written by home ed veteran, Sue Wight. Available now $20  Members

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HEN News

Skills First Submission

Home educated students are effectively locked out of VET funding at the moment and HEN is trying to get this changed. Our submission is below. An explanation of acronyms is provided below the submission for younger families. Acronyms and terms: VRQA: Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority – the registration body which registers home ed students of compulsory education age. DET: Victorian Department of Education

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VHEAC permanency

HEN would like to see VHEAC made permanent to ensure that all home education policy decisions, requirements and supporting documents receive input from experienced home educators. The current position of the major political parties is: ALP: Minister Merlino says VHEAC will run through to mid-2019 when VHEAC members will “collectively decide on the future format and functions of the committee.” While that doesn’t rule

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HEN News

School Sport Victoria

Victorian home educated students can access the inter-school and interstate programs with School Sport Victoria by providing a copy of their VRQA registration letter to SSV.  Families are responsible for the costs involved. Home schooled students can access: 1. SSV Swimming, Cross Country, Golf and Track and Field (District level for primary-aged kids and Division level for secondary aged students They then progress through the competition levels

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HEN 2018 Survey of Vic Home Ed

The Home Education Network (HEN) seeks to inspire, inform and support home educators. We also advocate politically and represent home education in the media when required. HEN surveys the home education community to help shape our future work. HEN works hard for the home ed community. If you’re not yet a member, please consider joining. Membership is only $25 per year including digital Otherways

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HEN News

Monthly HEN social meet-ups and parents’ nights

To help people better make connections in their local area, we are looking for volunteers to run one-off social events and/or parent nights.  We would like these events to run throughout the state, so that every HEN member will be close enough to at least one event each year. HEN social events will be open to all (members and non-members), aiming to increase local

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