Getting started

Venue

However they start and with whatever good intentions they come into being, groups run in a single person’s house inevitably come under the ‘ownership’ of the house owner.

In my experience, there is no way around this. The person who owns the house always has greater sway over the group than everyone else. If the person who owns the house is easy-going, they can continue for quite some time; but if that person happens to be controlling, has a huge blind spot to their own child’s behaviour or believes their child to have greater needs than everyone else’s (not that uncommon in a world where parents have put their own career aspirations on hold for the good of their offspring), the group will die sooner rather than later. You can very easily (or not so easily sometimes) work in groups with people like this, as everyone has something to offer in terms of friendship etc., but it is just that they really cannot have too great a say if you want the group to survive. 

The other major problem with having groups in someone else’s house is that if the group stops working for the person who owns the venue, or life happens (such as school, moving house, childhood friendships becoming more destructive than constructive, other family commitments etc.) and they cannot be part of the group anymore, the group has to find a new venue, often fairly quickly, or the group dies.

Ones that are open to the wider community tend to have greater longevity, as the group tends to take on a life of its own rather than being dependent on a couple of individuals or friendships between certain children, and these tend be in non-personal settings, such as community centres etc. Obviously, this does cost more than just running it in someone’s house, but it keeps the arrangements more business-like and any annoying behaviour less personal — you don’t end up with the problem of having to kick people out who have over-stayed their welcome, for example.

Other potential pitfalls and considerations

You have to ensure that those who don’t organise anything or have it in their house have some ownership over the group too, otherwise they will not put in as much effort as everyone else (defeating the concept of a co-op), and eventually they will be more likely to drop out too.

“Everyone has to feel that the group belongs to them, otherwise it will not thrive beyond the couple of families who are completely invested in it.”

Interestingly, the parents who run sessions and organise groups always have louder, more participatory children than anyone else. I don’t know if this is because extroverts breed extroverts, the parent is a child’s role model so the child copies their parent, or if the child feels authorised to speak because, if the group belongs to their parents, by extension it also belongs to them… but for whatever reason, I have only ever seen one exception to this in however many years of home educating.

“To get the most out of children in a group, you really need all parents to be completely involved.”

If people just start dropping kids off and leaving, or going off into another room to chat, you never get the same benefits that you can from everyone being hands-on and in there. If parents start asking questions, the children will too. However, if you get a parent who starts taking over the learning and won’t stop asking questions, that brings a whole load of its own problems!

It is a really tricky balance of completely investing in a group, but at the same time being detached enough to not mind if the group comes to an abrupt stop. People’s situations change month on month, and those you think will be home educating with you for years to come suddenly up and leave, or their or their kids’ needs change.

“No home ed group lasts for ever.”

If you get two years out of a group, you are doing really well. The longest group I have been in was going for 7 years, but most groups will only last a term or two.

If everyone is paying in for resources or room hire you need to consider whether you are going to share costs out per child or per family, and whether to give sibling discounts. What you consider ‘fair’ generally depends on how many children you personally have and, to a lesser extent, what your politics are. You will get very different answers depending on whether someone has one child or six, and how often you hear them use the term ‘deserving poor’. There is no easy way around it; if you stick to your guns it can break friendships. Most opt for some kind of compromise, e.g. reduced prices for multiple children.

The higher the costs, the more it will limit the numbers who agree to attend the group (particularly for larger families). Money can be a really touchy subject, with some home educators having been known to make money out of a group despite others putting in equal amounts of time, expertise and resources for free. How you deal with this side of things will depend very much on your own personal values with regard to money, but the groups that tend to do best are the ones where finances are agreed collectively and all money transactions are completely transparent. 

“One of the biggest things to look out for, but one that no-one ever really mentions, is home ed burn out.”

Parents who put everything into a group are doing a full-time job on top of the full-time job of educating their own child, plus keeping their relationship with a spouse/partner/co-parent going and running a family and a home. Something has to give and for most home educators it is the house (don’t expect much when you go round to a home educator’s home!). However, I have seen people put their kids in school literally overnight, relationships break up and, for those who can afford it, people out-sourcing a huge part of their child’s education to external tutors. It is much easier if money is not a problem, but as most home educators are on one income, people really have to pace themselves if they want to keep any semblance of sanity.

Home educating parents who are also trained teachers are often great when it comes to working with big groups of children/teens. They know how to balance the needs of every child, not just their own, and can organise and command a group of children in a way many others struggle with. But (sadly, there is always a but) they tend to put more pressure on themselves to give the best sessions they possibly can as they feel the world is judging them in a way other home educators don’t experience. They will give the most to a group, but can often be the first to get burn out.

Bear in mind, it is possible to accidentally slip into being an illegal school. This is hugely unlikely if you are working as a co-op, but if you are meeting up for more than 18 hours a week and parents are dropping the children off, you could find yourself being investigated by Ofsted.

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Organising and running home ed groups with private tutors

Some activities only really work in groups, such as drama, sport, discussion-based learning for subjects like philosophy and current affairs etc., but many parents do not feel they have the skills, time or inclination to lead these types of groups, so the natural solution is to bring in a private tutor.

Again, these groups tend to come and go almost at the same rate as co-ops; however, a group made up of a good organiser, a good tutor, in a good setting, with a good catchment of home ed kids can survive really well — some have been running for over 15 years. The organisers change, the attendees change, the venues change, occasionally the tutor changes, but the groups themselves continue to operate. 

Ideally, the tutor needs to be a professional tutor who has no plans of changing career any time soon (they will bend over backwards to make the group work), and not related to any of the children (it upsets the balance within the group setting and can change the nature of the session contents/format).

You have to be careful if tutors are coming in to make sure you do not fall into the ‘illegal school’ bracket. Start double-checking if your sessions are sneaking up past 10 hours a week or if children are being dropped off. It does not have to be all the same children, in the same venue, with the same tutor, or even with paid tutors; as soon as parents stop being responsible for their own children it starts taking the form of organised schooling.

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How to organise a home ed trip

Even if you don’t feel up to or inclined to run a home ed group,  you might be inspired to organise the odd home ed (‘school’) trip. These are an invaluable part of learning, and although there are many trips you can do on your own as a single family group, you can’t always access the tours and resources that many places put on for schools unless you book as an education, youth or school group, not to mention the discounts groups can get as opposed to paying full price as a conventional visitor.

It might seem a little daunting organising a trip if you have never done it before, but it really isn’t as tricky as you might at first think.

Find a trip you really want to do. It might be one that fits in with a project or exams you are doing, is a place you or your children have always wanted to go to, is near somewhere you have to go to anyway or one that you have been told about and fancied trying yourself.

Look on the venue website and find the ‘Education’, ‘schools’ or ‘learning’ section. It will tell you everything you need to know to organise a conventional ‘school trip’ there. Some venues have home ed info too, but more often than not you will need to phone up and find out specifically whether they can fit your needs.

Some things to ask when you contact them:

• Child-to-adult ratio
  For most home ed groups where the organisation does not limit numbers, it generally averages out at about two adults for every three children, but can be higher for some places than others. Many organisations allow home ed groups to have a higher ratio of adults to children than schools (which can often be about 1:10) when you explain how home ed works, but sometimes it is not always possible. Where it is, adults are generally charged at a discounted visitor rate. 
  
• Minimum and maximum numbers
  Find out what the venue’s requirements for these are as it can be a struggle to get the numbers for a group booking, but equally, really popular trips can mean waiting lists or booking two trips. You will also have to check whether these numbers include the children and adults, or just the children.
  
• Age ranges
  As most home ed families are comprised of multiple children of different ages, many people prefer trips that can cater for several age groups. Not all trips can do this, but you would be surprised by how many are accommodating. The usual approach is to aim the content at one age group, but children of several age groups will be present, and if you are having a tour or ‘classroom activity’, the speaker will generally tone it up or down depending on the participants present.
  
• Price
  They usually give school rates, but occasionally give group booking rates instead. If you are booking a specific workshop as well as entrance, you will be paying more. Sometimes adults are free, sometimes some are free (designated ‘teachers’, those accompanying a child with SEND, and occasionally, one adult per family), often all adults have to pay. Where there are free places for ‘teachers’, most organisers divide that discount among all the adults attending, so everyone gets a slight discount and no one gets a free place. At venues where everyone is free, you get high numbers booking on to the trip, but attendance is generally quite poor – see ‘Other Considerations’ below).
  
• Possible dates
  Sometimes they will give you several provisional days and you can ask on the Cambs home ed google group/Facebook/WhatsApp groups to see which days would be most popular; but more often than not, you have to book a day and just hope enough people can make it. Booking quite a bit in advance will give you more flexibility, as you then have time to change the date if another day is more do-able for other home ed families. 
  
• Times
  Booking anything before 10am risks a high rate of absenteeism and late attendees. Home ed families are often not used to rush-hour traffic, train tickets are not off-peak until after 9am, and many dislike early mornings! This is particularly important if people have to travel long distances. We can get up for the really good trips, but they do have to be particularly good.
  

Once you have all your information you can advertise to individual families and groups, or put it on some of the larger home ed forums.

Keep a list of those that ask to come – most are done on a first come, first served basis. You will need their email addresses (so that you can contact people with extra details nearer the time), and the names and ages of their children that are planning to attend. It is also worth keeping a waiting list as people often do pull out of events last minute.

“As soon as people say they would like to come, ask for payment and make it clear that they do not have a place until payment is made – you would be surprised how many people can pull out and never pay up, leaving the organiser out of pocket.”

Payment is generally done by bank transfer or Paypal – it is much easier that way to keep track of who has paid and who hasn’t. If it is a small local group, cash can work easily too, but you do have to be fastidious about paper work as you go!

Do not pay the organisation until after all the participating parents have coughed up. Sometimes you have to take money off everyone before you can fully book the trip with the venue, but generally you get a few weeks between booking the trip and paying for it. If the trip then cannot be booked or has to be cancelled for any reason, you do have to return the money to the people who paid to go on the trip. 

If someone pulls out, do not give them their money back unless another family can take up the places. Otherwise it will leave the organiser out of pocket. As long as people know from the outset that this is how it works, everyone accepts it.

“No one will end up organising anything if it financially costs the organiser every time someone changes their mind and no one can be found to take their place.”

Send a reminder out with any final details about a week before the trip. You often need to include your mobile number in case anyone needs to get you on the day. And take a register with you – it doesn’t have to be fancy, just a scrap of paper will do, although people pay you more attention if you have a clip board! It means that you know you have everyone with you before your session starts and you aren’t left waiting around for the ‘invisible man’.

Other considerations

Poor attendance: this happens surprisingly often, particularly for free or cheap trips. There are, however, a few things you can do to make it not too bad:

• Send out multiple reminders – you’d be surprised how many people forget.
• Be really specific about where to park and/or meet, and make the arrival time 10 to 15 minutes earlier than the time you need everyone to be there by – when people get too late, they often choose to not turn up rather than come into a session that has already started 20 minutes late. 
• Taking a returnable deposit works well for free events, but not everyone likes it. If you don’t know the majority of the people coming, take it anyway. You have to make it clear that they will get their money back on arrival, or the money will go to the organisation if they fail to attend. Generally, the amount asked for is around £5, sometimes per child, sometimes per family.
• You can also ask for a fee of £2 to £3 for free events, with it made very clear that the money is being given as a donation to the organisation. Again, it varies between per child and per family.
• Ideally, book the event for mid-morning onwards.

Adult attendance: If there is a group limit on the number as a whole, you may want to consider limiting the number of adults that are allowed to attend, so that more children can take up places. It is a sore point for some, as there are many children in home ed who do not like to be without their parents, or who have additional needs meaning that they need the extra parental support. However, if you ask people if their child would be willing to go in without a parent present, there are usually a fair few who will be obliging.

If the organisation have put a cap on the number of adults attending, you just have to be brutal and explain that if children cannot go in without an adult, then unfortunately, they cannot attend.

Insurance: You won’t need insurance if you explain that everyone is responsible for their own children. This is how most people organise trips and what most people expect. It is far and away the easiest way to do things, particularly with younger ones. 

If you cannot have that many parents attend, then you will have to ask the parents that can come if they would be willing to be responsible for the children without parents.

“If I was being really cautious, I would say that as an organiser of a trip, you should not agree to be responsible for anyone’s children other than your own.”

Other people being responsible for their friend’s kids is one thing, but the organiser taking on other people’s children starts opening up the insurance question. Having said that, other parents do happily take on the risk, so it isn’t much of an issue, particularly with older children. If you are at all concerned that a child has behavioural issues or a tendency, for example, to flail their arms and break expensive Ming vases, make sure that their particular parent attends with them. 

Ages of children attending: it is best to be clear whether the trip is open to children of any age or if it’s aimed at a particular age group. With the latter, you are likely to get parents asking if their child can join anyway even if they’re not old enough to be in the target age bracket; and others will have children in different age groups, or can’t leave a smaller sibling. You will need to consider the content of the session/trip and how appropriate and accessible it would be for any younger children attending, and also whether the venue can adapt to some children attending who aren’t in the target age group. Having older children in a younger group rarely causes any problems, but you do have to check that they don’t start dominating the session or answering all the questions so that the younger ones, for whom the group is aimed, aren’t losing out as a result. If you don’t want to mix the ages up, which you might not want to, particularly if you want a very focused group (this becomes more of an issue as the children get older), you have to be clear about this from the beginning, saying it’s because of the trip’s or the venue’s aims or requirements, otherwise you will get people getting a bit fed up about it – they don’t mean to be, it’s not personal, people just get twitchy where their children are concerned.

Behaviour: Generally, home ed children behave impeccably on ‘school trips’, and as a community we are regularly complemented on this. However, not all children behave as you might expect. If the parents don’t seem to be handling their children’s behaviour, it is the responsibility of the organiser to step in and have a little word with the parent. Most take it well. Some, not so well. If you can, get a teacher friend on the trip and they will be able to do it for you if you’re not really the confronting type. Some parents feel comfortable enough to confront the child themselves, which can work fantastically, but other parents don’t always like someone else curbing their child’s behaviour. It is a tricky one.

If eating is not allowed in the venue, stipulate this from the very beginning. Sometimes it doesn’t matter, but sometimes it does, so best to spell it out beforehand. Even then, you will have people ignore you, but at least when you challenge them on it, it won’t come out of the blue.

Money: If numbers make a difference to price, it is better to overcharge and then give a refund on the day than to find yourself out of pocket. Sometimes you have to round up (never round down, it will leave you paying for other parents, which isn’t fair if you have gone to all the hard work of organising the trip in the first place), which may leave you with a slight surplus (a couple of pounds or so). If you regularly organise trips, you might put it towards the next trip, some choose to spend the surplus on sweets and share them out with the children who attend the event, some give a slight cash refund on the day, and some just keep the difference. This doesn’t usually cause any worries (most of us just feel lucky enough to be able to book a place on someone else’s trip), until the numbers start getting big.

“The aim of organising trips isn’t to make money, and if it is, transparency is all important if you don’t want to pull a community apart (the line between colleague and friend is very slim in the home ed world).”

Finally: Organise it to be exactly what you want. You will find yourself going round in circles for ever and a day if you try and please everyone else. Honestly, many have tried and all have said you just can’t.

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Booking a home ed event

Sometimes organisations will come to your chosen venue rather than you having to travel. Booking halls and community centres can be a fabulous way to do it, as you pay for them by the hour, and divide the cost among those attending. Again, doing it as far in advance as you can will limit damage if you have to cancel due to low numbers. Make sure that there is good parking, a place where parents can go with little ones if you don’t want them in the session, and is easily accessible by public transport.