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First published in 1981, Otherways is Australia’s longest running alternative education magazine. Otherways is published by HEN three times a year and is full of advice and articles to support and inspire you, as well as sections written by kids for kids.

Otherways is offered as part of your HEN membership or available to purchase in the HEN Shop:

• HEN digital membership ($25.00 per year) includes the PDF version of the magazine which you access by logging in to your member account on the HEN website.
• HEN hardcopy membership ($45.00 per year) includes a printed copy of Otherways. HEN hardcopy members are also able to access the PDF version.

Both hardcopy and digital members have access to the Otherways PDF archive.

HEN members can login to download unlimited digital issues from the Members menu (Direct Downloads of Otherways and other Publications)

For a look inside Otherways, click the image below.

Otherways is produced by a team of volunteers. We welcome contributions from members and non-members alike.

HEN is a Victorian based organisation serving our broad home education community. We recognise that there is a wide variety of home education styles and approaches. Whilst we find that many articles submitted are geared towards natural learning, we are also happy to publish good articles and resource reviews to support home educators who use a curriculum or structured resources for any of their learning. Any topic related to home education will be considered. We welcome articles from both experienced writers and newbies.

If you have something important to say to other home educators but doubt that your writing skills are up to it, write your article as though you are talking to a friend and, if we think what you have to say will appeal to our readers, we can tidy up your spelling and grammar for you. We love to hear stories from home educators, written in their own voice!

We do not accept advertorials.

Please send submissions via email to editor (at) home-ed (dot) vic (dot) edu (dot) au

Please note that ‘home education’ is Home Education Network’s and Otherways magazine’s preferred term. Our editorial policy is to edit ‘homeschooling’ and similar terms to ‘home education’. The exception is where the author is making a distinction between school-at-home and home education, in which case, ‘home schooling’ is left as is. This is to avoid reader confusion.

‘Home educated’ encompasses a range of styles, and helps break down the perception of the public and government that we recreate school at the kitchen table. After a hard-fought campaign, HEN has succeeded in having the Department of Education and VRQA (the regulator) recognise that education does not have to look like school to be effective. This has been quite an achievement and makes Victoria one of the easiest states in which to home educate legally.

If you strongly prefer another term, please let us know via email: editor@home-ed.vic.edu.au.

Submission Due Dates

The due dates below are indicative for each issue. Please contact the Otherways editor for further information about space availability and submission date for the forthcoming issue.

March Issue: 20th January

July Issue: 20th May

November Issue: 20th September

General article length is 1,000 to 2,000 words, but we do accept longer articles if we feel that they will particularly appeal to our members. Photos – We are always in need of sharp, clear photos for editorial use. Regular print sizes work fine for inside the magazine. Covers require a very sharp, clear image. We prefer photos showing children and families doing everyday things, not posed educational-type shots. Please include information about the photo, including names of anyone in the pictures, and the name of the photographer.

Rights: Authors retain the copyright of their articles and are free to sell them elsewhere. By submitting an article to Otherways you grant us the right to print your article in Otherways and any Best of Otherways, Otherways Revisited or other future specials that we may publish.

Otherways cover photos will also appear on our other media, including website and social media pages.

Payment : Otherways Magazine is published by the Home Education Network which is a non-profit support group. All work on the magazine is done by volunteers in order to support and empower other home educators. We are unable to pay for any contributions.

HEN Members ‘Thank you’:

• Digital Membership – a choice of printed copy of the magazine (with your article).
• Hardcopy Membership – a choice of second printed copy of the magazine (with your article).
• Due to changes in our membership payments system, we are no longer able to offer 3 month membership extensions as a “Thank you” for your contribution.

Contact Otherways at editor@home-ed.vic.edu.au