Future Learners

The 2026 NAPLAN results showed one in three Australian students below the literacy and numeracy benchmarks. This quickly turned the conversation to screens. A petition for device-free primary schools gathered more than 25,000 signatures in two weeks, and the Federal Education Minister said Australian kids may need a digital detox. In this episode, Brett Campbell and Ellen Brown unpack the results and the digital detox debate that has arisen from them. The research so far stops short of linking classroom screens to the NAPLAN decline, and they agree that what a child does on a screen matters more than time spent on devices. They also cover AI in education, the screen habits children build outside school hours, and how homeschooling families decide how much of the learning day happens on a device. Key discussion points One in three students are below the benchmarks in literacy and numeracy. Reading slipped in Grades 5, 7 and 9. Numeracy improved slightly in those grades. Research to date has found no direct link between classroom screens and the NAPLAN decline. The wider evidence is mixed. Ellen would like NAPLAN back on paper while the technology catches up, so the results can be trusted. Brett questions how long pen and paper will stay relevant, given how rarely adults use them. Children need digital literacy skills, and they build them on a screen. Researching, creating documents and using online tools prepare children for work. Entertainment and passive scrolling do very little to build digital literacy. What happens on devices between 3 pm and 9 am sits outside a school’s control. Brett sees those hours as where parents have the most influence, including through the habits they model. Ellen sees AI as a tool children need to understand, so they can recognise it and use it well. Homeschooling lets parents set the screen balance. In a Euka lesson, children read on screen with a read-aloud option, do a hands-on activity offline, such as testing a chemical reaction in the kitchen, and answer the Apply questions online or on a printed activity sheet. What did the 2026 NAPLAN results show? ACARA tested about 1.2 million students in Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9. As ABC News reported, one in three sat below the literacy and numeracy benchmarks, unchanged from the previous year, and one in ten need additional support to catch up. Reading went backwards in Grades 5, 7 and 9, with students in the strong or exceeding bands falling from 68.2% to 66.3%, according to The Guardian. Numeracy improved slightly in Grades 5, 7 and 9, with 29,000 more students in the exceeding category than in 2023. Grade 3 students recorded their lowest numeracy scores since the current reporting scale began in 2023. Ellen notes that negative movement tends to make the news, and the numeracy gains received far less coverage. When reading education news, she suggests pausing to look closely at what the numbers say before reacting. Are screens to blame for falling NAPLAN results? No evidence currently directly ties computer use or screen time to the NAPLAN decline. The wider research is mixed. Paper supports reading comprehension. A meta-analysis of 54 studies found readers understood informational texts better on paper than on screen. More screen time was linked to better cognitive processing. An eight-year Finnish study found children with more screen time showed better cognitive processing as teenagers. How often technology is used matters. The OECD found students who used computers moderately at school outperformed those who rarely used them, while very frequent users did worse. Classroom behaviour is part of the picture too. In the latest PISA results, 41 per cent of Australian students reported noise and disorder in their classrooms, against an OECD average of 31 per cent. Can banning screens quickly fix literacy results? Brett describes what he calls the pendulum effect. When a problem makes headlines, the pressure to be seen doing something can swing policy from one extreme to the other. He sees literacy as a problem that takes years to shift, with several causes to look at. Are Australian schools banning devices? The petition, run by the Heads Up Alliance, reached 25,000 signatures in its first two weeks and had over 30,000 at the time of publishing. It asks for device-free primary schools, including homework, handwriting restored as a core priority, an end to routine one-to-one laptops in high school, EdTech independently proven before use, and no generative AI in school learning. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare wrote that “when I was a kid there was a computer room at school. Now they are everywhere,” adding that “there is a good argument our kids need a digital detox,” as The Guardian reported. The same report notes Castlemaine Secondary College in regional Victoria has scrapped bring-your-own-device for Grade 7, with 98 per cent parent support. From 2027, Victorian government schools will phase out bring-your-own-device in primary and cap device use at 90 minutes a day for Grades 3 to 6. In WA, Hale School has moved homework back to pen and paper, and Presbyterian Ladies’ College now keeps iPads at school for Grades 1 to 6. Should NAPLAN go back to pen and paper? NSW Education Minister Prue Car has said pen and paper may be a good way forward for NAPLAN. Ellen agrees, and her reasoning is about the data. NAPLAN was fully digitised in 2022, except for Grade 3 writing and some students with special needs, and a technical glitch on the first day of this year’s testing raised concerns about the data’s accuracy. Ellen describes schools where students lost their connection partway through a test. If governments are going to make big changes based on these results, she says, the results need to be right, and a paper test would give a like-for-like comparison with earlier years. She adds that writing by hand slows a child down in a way that helps them think through an answer. Brett offers another perspective. Adults rarely write by hand anymore, and technology is moving quickly. He suggests the test could keep moving forward with better technology, such as built-in screen breaks, with only some parts, like writing a story, done on paper. Ellen adds that most students already spend much of the school day with textbooks, pens and paper, and many are getting too little digital literacy teaching. That fits ACARA testing showing Australian students’ digital literacy is declining. How much screen time is too much for children? For Ellen, the answer depends on what a child is doing on the screen. Using technology to research, build a spreadsheet, save and organise files or create a digital product builds skills children will need for work and for their future. An hour of scrolling or entertainment is very different. She also notes that growing up surrounded by technology is a separate thing from being technologically literate. Her approach is to decide which digital skills children need, set aside deliberate time to build them, and limit screen time for entertainment. If schools leave those skills out, Ellen says, parents can’t be expected to fill the gap at home. She is concerned that if children aren’t taught those skills, they won’t be prepared or know how to use computers when they graduate. She compares it to her own generation leaving school wishing they had learned about tax and money. “Not all screen time is equal, so use screen time for learning. Let’s take what’s useful. But if you want a digital detox on that passive consumption of digital tools, then I think go right ahead. That would be a fantastic idea.”— Ellen Brown How can parents encourage healthy screen habits at home? Brett points out that the hours between leaving school and arriving the next morning sit outside anything a school decides. “A lot of parents don’t really like me saying this, but I say it anyway. Parents must take personal responsibility for what’s happening to their child from a device perspective, from 3 pm to 9 am.”— Brett Campbell Modelling matters too. A child who sees a parent reach for their phone every time they stand up is likely to adopt the same habit. Brett also encourages parents to check what their children are watching and ask themselves whether it is making them smarter. Episode 29 looks at the under-16 social media ban. A simple digital detox challenge for families Brett closes with a challenge for parents and students. Pick a two-hour window when you would normally be on your phone, outside learning time, and put it away. Bedtime works well. For bonus points, leave the phone in the kitchen overnight and notice how you feel. He suggests it is a useful way to understand what a digital detox asks of a child. Should children use AI for learning? New York City has introduced a one-year ban on student-facing AI tools from Pre-K through Grade 8, and the petition here in Australia calls for no generative AI in school learning at all. Ellen sees AI as another tool for learning. Children are moving into a world where AI is part of almost everything, she says, often without people realising it. “Knowledge is power, and it’s important for kids to understand what AI is and how to use it well, otherwise they’ll be a victim to it.”— Ellen Brown Does homeschooling require a lot of screen time? Ellen walks through how a Euka lesson works. Children read the lesson on screen, with a read-aloud option for those who need reading support. Then comes the practical part, done away from the device. A child who has read about chemical reactions might try one in the kitchen. In the Apply section, children use what they have learned. They can work online with self-marking questions that give instant feedback, or download the activity sheet and complete it on paper. Parents decid

A child can be doing well at school and still be struggling. Ellen Brown talks with psychologist Lisa Boland about how to recognise that child and what to do first. Lisa believes that a child’s mental health should come before their schoolwork and their attendance record. Ellen and Lisa also discuss what bullying does to a child’s nervous system, what helps children with ADHD and autism learn, and what healthy socialisation actually involves. Much of the conversation applies to any parent, whether their child is at school or learning at home. Meet Lisa Boland Lisa runs her own psychology practice in a rural area, which means she sees close to everything a psychologist can see. Her clients range from young children to adults, and many are children struggling to get to school. She is also a mum to two neurodivergent boys, and she homeschools them. In the episode, she gets specific: the sign that arrives hours after the school bell, why a child can stay anxious at a new school where everything is going well, and the one thing she would tell every parent about mental health. Key discussion points “School refusal” is increasingly called “school can’t.” The wording names what is happening: a child who is unable to get there. Pushing through carries a cost. Lisa’s view is that it often worsens existing mental health concerns, and that apparent improvement can mean a child has learned to mask. The clearest signal often arrives after school. Post-restraint collapse describes the child who holds it together all day and falls apart at home. Stress from bullying accumulates in the nervous system. The brain remembers the triggers, so a new school can still set it off. A child who does not feel safe cannot learn. A child in a stress response is on the lookout for danger. Some neurodivergent children love school and thrive there. Others burn out, and Lisa has seen severe cases. Social skills cover much more than making friends. Mental health comes before academic achievement and attendance. How to tell school refusal from an ordinary bad morning The advice used to be to push through. Get to the school gate today, get through it tomorrow, and count the attendance as a win. Lisa’s view is that we know more now. Pushing through often makes existing mental health concerns worse, and the improvement that appears afterwards can be misleading, because children are good at pushing things down to fit in or to spare their parents. Sometimes a child who could not attend, and now can, has recovered. Sometimes they have learned to mask. Lisa sees that second version often in neurodivergent children, and it tends to surface later. The signs of school refusal a psychologist looks for Every child is different, but these are the patterns Lisa watches for: An inability to get there. The child is frozen and anxious. Changes in mood or behaviour around the school day. Losing interest in things they used to enjoy. Food restrictions, or a jump in worries and questions. Post-restraint collapse. That last one describes a child who holds everything together all day and falls apart the moment they get home. Lisa describes parents and teachers comparing notes and realising they are getting two very different versions of the child. Why an anxious child struggles to learn, even after the bullying stops While bullying is happening, Lisa explains, a child spends much of the day in a fight, flight or freeze response. That kind of stress is cumulative, building in the nervous system day after day. The brain also remembers the triggers. Removing the bully can leave that response in place. A child might get on well with everyone at a new school and still struggle there, because the setting keeps reminding their nervous system of something else. Lisa gives the example of driving past the old school, or going back for some reason, and watching it resurface. Ellen notes that people generally assume it is over once the bully is gone. “A child cannot learn if they don’t feel safe.”— Lisa Boland Her reasoning is that a child in a stress response is on the lookout for danger, and that is where their attention goes. Decoding a word or working through subtraction asks for attention they are already spending elsewhere. If bullying is what brought you here, our guide to bullying and homeschooling works through the decision itself, and the signs a child is silently struggling at school covers what to watch for. What helps children with ADHD and autism learn Lisa says that plenty of neurodivergent kids thrive at school and love it. Among her clients and in the homeschooling community, she also sees autistic and ADHD burnout, sometimes severe, in children who presented well right up until they could not hold it together anymore. These are often the children described as a pleasure to have in class. The effort of masking stays invisible until it runs out. Lisa describes children who reach a point where they cannot leave their bedroom, or cannot bring themselves to switch from one screen activity to another. She makes an academic point alongside the clinical one. A child learning in a way that suits their brain is a child who can reach their potential. Key things that help many children with ADHD Lisa named a few things that help many children with ADHD, with the caveat she repeats throughout: every child is different. Movement and the freedom to get outside. Engagement. She describes the part of the brain needed for schoolwork switching off when a task is boring or asks for long stretches of sitting still. Relationship with whoever is teaching, including some banter back and forth. Snacks on the go while they work. Some classrooms can accommodate this. Ellen, a former teacher, says it gets hard with thirty children, and Lisa agrees. The dyslexic child needs one thing, the autistic child another, the ADHD child another again, and the rest of the class something else. Episode 23 covers homeschooling with dyslexia, ASD and ADHD. Does homeschooling affect a child’s social skills? Ellen says this is one of the questions they hear most, and Lisa’s answer widens what this includes. Making and keeping friendships counts. Other considerations: Can your child go into the shop, spend their own pocket money and handle the interaction at the counter? If they cannot find what they need, can they ask someone? Can they sit down to lunch with children and adults of all different ages? If something seems off at the park, do they know what to do, and do they know your phone number by heart? Lisa’s point is that social skills are much broader than making and maintaining friendships. Those wider skills get practised everywhere a child goes. Ellen adds that adults choose the people they spend time with based on shared interests. She also notes that for many children who are miserable at school, the social environment is the reason. Lisa’s own children could be out with friends every day of the week if they wanted, so the opportunity is plentiful and they aren’t missing out on anything. Is taking your child out of school the right decision? Ellen describes a guilt she hears from parents new to homeschooling, a sense that a better parent would have pushed harder or stayed longer. Lisa says choosing to homeschool your child is going above and beyond, and that a child who found the school environment distressing was unlikely to reach their potential there. She also talks about the practical side. Getting the right support in place can be close to a full-time job: appointments with psychologists and paediatricians, monitoring whether medication is working, and observing your child throughout the day. For the parent watching their child crying every morning before school, her advice is direct. “For me, that child’s mental health is always going to take priority over their academic achievement, or worse, their attendance record. That’s something that, as a psychologist, I couldn’t care less about. You know your child. If you can see that your child is suffering, and that environment is going to exacerbate that suffering, prioritise their mental health.”— Lisa Boland She adds that the decision is smaller than it feels. Nothing is permanent; you can change your mind in six months, and children are good at catching up. Many families use time at home as a reset while support is put in place, then return to school later. Both Ellen and Lisa loved school themselves, and both look back and notice a cost they missed at the time. Asked what she would tell every homeschooling parent in Australia if she had five minutes, Lisa said this. “I would tell them you’re already doing a brilliant job. If you take care of your mental health, your kids will follow. If you’re good, they’ll be good.”— Lisa Boland Why this episode matters This episode is about recognising when a child is struggling and knowing what to do first. Lisa puts safety ahead of schoolwork, mental health ahead of attendance, and treats the decision to homeschool as one you can revisit. For a parent weighing up homeschooling, that reframes the question from whether this is the right call forever to what their child needs right now. Start the free homeschooling course If you are working out what this could look like for your family, our Complete Guide to Confident Homeschooling covers registering legally in your state, choosing and structuring a program, building a daily rhythm, supporting a child who learns differently, and knowing your child is progressing. Nine short video modules, about two and a half hours, hosted by Brett and Ellen. Free and self-paced. Start the free homeschooling course. Questions answered in this episode What is the difference between school re

An important note for NSW families: nothing is in effect yet, and the current guidelines still apply until the policy is finalised. The draft keeps the three things registration has always asked of you: an education plan based on the NSW curriculum, records showing that plan is being delivered, and an assessment by an Authorised Person. It still doesn’t say exactly what’s required or how much evidence is enough. A key concern is that no urgent pathway has been added for families who can’t wait for the 12-week registration processing times. Brett Campbell and Ellen Brown work through what the draft means in practice. What counts as evidence, where Authorised Persons come from and whether they must visit your house, how likely approval really is, and what you can do if you need to remove your child from school while awaiting registration. Key points from this episode Nothing has changed yet. The Department has published drafts. The existing Guidelines remain in effect until a final policy lands. Parental choice survives into the new framework. The draft Policy states plainly that education is primarily the responsibility of the child’s parents. The draft does not say how much evidence is enough. It lists ways you can show learning, such as journals, checklists, excursions and digital portfolios, but sets no quantity for any of them. That leaves the judgement to your Authorised Person, and their approach can vary significantly. Refusal is rare. Families may get stressed thinking their application is unlikely to get approved, but if you have a plan, it is very likely your application will be approved. An audit recommended NSW speed up registration a year before the draft was written. The draft sets an indicative timeframe of up to 12 weeks, which is too long for some families. You can still act if your child cannot wait. An exemption from attendance comes from your school principal, not the Department, and taking your education plan to that meeting makes it much easier for a principal to say yes. Nothing has changed yet for NSW homeschooling families Homeschooling registration in NSW moved from NESA to the NSW Department of Education, and the drafts released on 27 July 2026 are the Department’s first framework. Consultation ran as a short survey and closed on 10 August 2026. The Department has confirmed that the current Guidelines remain in effect until the new policy is finalised. If you are registered, or partway through an application, nothing about your obligations has changed. What the NSW draft policy gets right about parental choice The draft Policy states that the education of a child is primarily the responsibility of the child’s parents, and that parents may choose either school enrolment or homeschooling registration. Ellen believes this is really important, because the policy language preserves parents’ right to homeschool. The second is flexibility. Parents write the education plan, decide how it is delivered, and can amend it during a registration period so it stays fit for purpose, including for children with disability or additional needs. Brett points out you do not need a diagnosis in the family to benefit from the flexibility. The plan is meant to bend around the child in front of you, whoever that child is. Both hosts agree that flexibility and structure are not opposite. Having a base to work from makes it possible to be flexible, try new things, and know you’re within the guardrails and ticking off all the boxes. What evidence of learning means under the NSW draft This is where there is some uncertainty, and Ellen states it is one of the things that makes parents most nervous. The draft requires parents to keep records demonstrating how the child’s education plan is being implemented, and how the requirements and conditions of registration are being met. That is a broad requirement, and the FAQs confirm there is no mandatory quantity or format of evidence. Learning journals, checklists, excursions and digital portfolios are offered as examples rather than requirements. The states handle this differently. Queensland tells you exactly how many pieces of work to supply and what they should look like. NSW gives you no number or format of evidence at all. Why no set amount of evidence can be unsettling “Broadness is wonderful, but it can also be unsettling, because it then comes down to your Authorised Person to say, actually, this is too much, or this isn’t enough. That’s where parents can start to feel a little bit like it’s shifting sand.”— Ellen Brown Brett’s read is that breadth leads to ambiguity, and ambiguity leads to frustration and anxiety. He wants the Department to publish a minimum, so families know whether they are meeting the mark. As a result, the NSW homeschooling community often fills the gap itself, comparing notes in forums about what different APs expect. It should be a lot clearer for families. What an Authorised Person is checking for When an AP turns up, it is not just to see what has been done, but to ensure that you’ve ticked the boxes aligned to the curriculum. Euka is built around this. Every lesson carries the curriculum code it maps to, families can upload work into the portal for safekeeping, and the registration and reporting service turns completed lessons and parent comments into one report you can hand over. Ellen homeschooled in NSW for 12 years, with different APs, and knows what it’s like to prepare reporting. The services at Euka reflect her experience and are built to help families feel confident in what they are putting forward. Who your Authorised Person is and what the home visit involves Once you apply, the Department organises your first meeting with an Authorised Person for your area. They review your plan and make a recommendation. Most APs come out of the mainstream school system. Retired principals, experienced teachers, people who know what a good education looks like from the inside of a classroom. Ellen has never met one who came from a homeschooling background and says it will be nice when that finally happens. Whether you are visited at home depends on the AP. In Ellen’s experience, some APs need to come to the house, and others are happy with a video call or a meeting at a library or community centre. It is worth asking rather than assuming. Ellen describes an AP as closer to a learning coach than an education inspector, and most turn up asking how they can support you. Other parents have told her they came away feeling judged rather than supported. Nobody is entirely comfortable when someone arrives to assess something they care about this much. If your child is highly anxious, the draft FAQs allow you to request that the AP does not sight your child, usually supported by information from their medical or allied health providers. Will my homeschooling registration be approved in NSW? It is highly likely, and the Department’s own numbers back this up. “If you’re stressing out about your approval, chances are you’ll be approved, because you’ve already thought it through.”— Ellen Brown In 2025, the Department refused 5.2% of applications. But most refusals (3.5%) were because the applicant could not be reached for assessment after repeated attempts over several weeks. Another 0.94% were refused because the child was not eligible, including living outside NSW or submitting an incomplete form. Applications refused because the requirements were not met were very low at 0.61%. If you have an education plan covering the NSW curriculum and you attend your assessment, you are in good shape. Euka has not had a family go through the process and fail to get approved. Some families are concerned about a shorter registration period. The draft Procedures allow an AP to recommend less than the full term where areas for improvement have been identified, or where there are current concerns about the child’s safety. Neither phrase is defined in any of the documents. Brett delves into both sides. A policy has to cover every household, including the small number where home is not a safe place, and you cannot write a rule for that without some breadth. What he wants is more clarity for families: if a family is given three months instead of twelve, tell them exactly what caused it and exactly what must change. There is a review pathway if a recommendation goes against you: an internal review by a different Authorised Person, then an external review at NCAT. Ellen notes that a review by a second person in the same role is limited on its own, and that the external step is what makes it a real safeguard. The audit recommendation the NSW draft did not act on A year before these drafts were written, NSW was told to speed up registration. The Auditor-General’s report Alternative school settings and home schooling, published on 25 September 2025, recommended that the Department of Education work with the homeschooling community on reform, including consideration of “expedited registration processing times to shorten transition periods”. The audit found the time to decide an application had already grown 63 per cent, from 40 calendar days in 2019 to 65 in 2024, while applications rose by around 125 per cent. The draft Procedures answer that with an indicative processing timeframe of up to 12 weeks, and the FAQs confirm that until registration is approved, the child must remain enrolled at school. A family worried about their child’s wellbeing is directed back to the school principal. Twelve weeks is 84 days. The audit’s figure for how long a decision was already taking in 2024 was 65, which makes the draft’s indicative ceiling longer than the problem the audit asked the Department to fix. Ellen recommends keeping the safeguards in place and adding a defined urgent or provisional pathway: the

This episode delivers good news for parents, whether you’re already homeschooling or still considering it: the research is on your side. Homeschooled kids tend to do as well as or better than their peers, both socially and academically. Dr Rebecca English is one of Australia’s most respected researchers in home education. She has spent 15 years studying homeschooling families. In this episode, Dr Rebecca and Ellen dive into key factors that help homeschooled children succeed. This includes giving children a say in how they learn, the freedom to stay with a topic until it clicks, and the choice to lean into what genuinely interests them. Meet Dr Rebecca English, home education researcher Rebecca did not set out to research home education. Her first degree was in business, majoring in advertising, and she moved into teaching after deciding advertising was not for her. She taught in schools serving low socioeconomic communities, then completed a PhD on international students in Australian secondary schools. She came across home education several years ago and proposed it as a research topic. She began interviewing families in 2011 and has been studying the field ever since. Her perspective matters to a parent weighing this up because it is based on evidence rather than opinion. She has spent 15 years interviewing families and reading the studies on what actually happens to home-educated children. In the full episode, she gets specific about the parts families worry about most. What the research actually shows about social and academic outcomes and the importance of agency for successful learning. Key points from this episode Why homeschooled students do as well as or better than their mainstream-schooled peers. Homeschooled students actually can go to university. Agency is a child’s ability to control their own learning experience. Why agency is important for intrinsic motivation. Running the day based on tasks not time. Parent engagement is one of the strongest predictors of educational success. Homeschooling allows a child to work towards mastery. Teachers are leaving mainstream school for the same reasons students are. What the research says about homeschooled children’s academic outcomes Rebecca says the research shows homeschooled young people are advantaged both socially and academically. The size of that advantage varies. At one end of the range, the effect is mild, and schooling and homeschooling make little measurable difference. At the other end, homeschooled students are clearly ahead of their mainstream schooled peers. The evidence comes from meta-analyses, which pool the findings of every available study on a topic. Across the key learning areas, homeschooled students tend to do as well as or better than their peers in school. Maths sometimes trails English and the social sciences, but in the main these young people are outperforming their mainstream schooled peers. Our guide to whether homeschooling is as high quality as traditional school covers this topic in more detail. Homeschooled students can still go to university Rebecca names university entry as the second misconception, and her answer is direct. Homeschooled students can go to university, and there are many ways in. The example she gives is vocational. At the university where she works, a Certificate IV in any subject is enough to be accepted into teaching, which means the pathway does not depend on an ATAR. Our guide to how homeschooling affects university admissions sets out the Australian pathways in detail. Why homeschooled students tend to do better Two things in the conversation explain the pattern, and neither is about the curriculum. The first is parent engagement. Parent engagement is one of the best predictors of educational success, and no cohort is more engaged than a parent sitting down one-to-one with their own child. Rebecca’s example is a child stuck on squared numbers. A parent can trace it back to shaky times tables, fix that, and then explain that the small two does not mean multiply by two. Then they can keep going, because no bell is going to end the lesson. The second is mastery. In a timetabled day, a subject stops after 70 minutes regardless of where a child is up to. “We work towards mastery in homeschooling. We don’t work towards mastery in school. After 70 minutes, maths stops mattering.”– Dr. Rebecca English At home there is no rule about how long anything takes. If geography is going well, there is no reason to stop at Australia’s capitals; you could move on to other countries. On the other hand, if a particular topic is not working, you can leave it and come back to it later. More on this in our guide to learning at your own pace. Does homeschooling affect social skills? What the research says Socialisation is the other half of what Rebecca describes as advantaged, and it is the misconception she hears most often. Some of it comes down to how safe a child feels asking a question. As Rebecca puts it, admitting you do not know your eight times tables at home is not shameful, because there is nobody to be embarrassed in front of. Ellen’s experience matches, and she says no environment is as nurturing as home. Families often arrive worried that a child is a year behind in a subject, which is a strange idea in homeschooling, because a child is simply where they are. Once that child is free to say they do not understand something, they frequently go scooting ahead. What Ellen values most is the change in children’s beliefs about themselves. A child who has decided they are hopeless at maths has usually just missed some steps. That belief is no longer set by who else is in the room. As Ellen puts it, these children are no longer limited by who is in their class or by what a teacher thinks they are capable of. More on this in our guide to homeschool socialisation. What learning agency means, and why it drives motivation Rebecca defines agency as your ability to control your world and your surroundings, which in education means your learning experience. Her view is that this has been steadily withdrawn. Over the past two decades, curriculum and teaching methods have both been overly centralised and standardised. “When we’re talking about agency in an academic sense, what we mean is your ability to control your world and your surroundings. And in terms of education, it’s your learning experiences.”– Dr. Rebecca English The reason it matters is motivation. Intrinsic motivation is what gets a child to start something difficult they don’t particularly feel like doing, and Rebecca believes control and choice feed it directly. Tasks, not time: how to give a homeschooled child some say over their day The practical version is simple enough to try this week. Rather than running the day by the clock, you agree what needs to be done and let the child have some say in the order and the pace. Her recommendation is to set out the work for the day and leave how they arrange their time up to them. Ellen recognises the pattern from her own parenting. The moment you tell a child they have to do something, it becomes the last thing they want to do. Give them the same list with room to move, and it tends to get done. Choice can also sit inside the learning itself. Rebecca gives the example of a child who must cover algebra but can do so through something they care about, whether that is cooking, bikes, or anything else. At Euka, this shows up in how lessons are built. Alongside the content, there is usually a hands-on activity, a digital activity and a downloadable sheet, so a child has some say in how they learn something and how they show what they know. The same applies at the weekly level. Families can follow a week plan that moves across subjects, or a subject plan that lets a child stay with science for three weeks if that is where their interest is. Why working to tasks prepares children for real workplaces Schools run on time. Most workplaces now run on tasks. Rebecca’s example is that if you finish your work early while working from home, nobody minds if you put a load of laundry on. The work is done, and that is what is being measured. Her conclusion is that in many ways homeschooling prepares a child better for the world we live in. It reframes one of the most common objections families hear: what happens when the child gets to the real world. A child who has spent years managing their own workload against deadlines has been practising the exact skill most jobs require. Our guide to how homeschooling prepares children for the real world goes through the other skills that carry across. How to give choice to a child coming out of school Ellen raises the obvious complication. A child arriving from school may have had very little say in anything, and handing them a blank day is not a plan. Rebecca’s answer is that it is gradual, and she compares it to teaching a child to ride a bike. You hold on, you hold on, and eventually you let go. She names three things that help in the meantime. Allow time to adjust to a workflow that is not organised around a bell, target learning towards things the child is genuinely interested in, and set some limits on screen time. Some children need a deadline to get moving. Others prefer to start immediately and clear it. The point is that they learn which one they are. When an anxious child needs to settle before starting schoolwork For many families, the first stretch is not about workload at all. Rebecca notes that school refusal is strongly correlated with anxiety and neurodivergence, so many children arrive carrying a good deal of stress. A significantly anxious child is not going to move straight into formal lessons that look like school. What they need first

If you are considering homeschooling, have just started and are feeling overwhelmed, or have been at it a while and hit something unexpected, this episode is about finding support and navigating the questions and challenges that may arise. Most families come to Euka for the thing that sits at the centre of homeschooling: the curriculum. As Australia’s largest online K-12 homeschooling provider, we cover the full range of grades, and our team is where families bring their questions about lessons, progression, reporting and getting registered. Alongside that sits a different kind of help. The Home Education Association is an independent, volunteer-run member body offering advocacy with state authorities, local community connections, member resources and work experience insurance. Many Euka families are also HEA members. This episode covers both. How to choose between a structured program and building your own, and what to do if your school resists letting your child go. It also covers how children rebuild their confidence socially, which is often what brings experienced families looking for answers. Ellen Brown talks it through with Tina Smith, who homeschooled six of her own children and now helps other families through the same problems as Treasurer of the Home Education Association. Her sixth child is now at university. Meet Tina Smith Tina is Treasurer of the Home Education Association, a volunteer-run member organisation that supports homeschooling families across Australia. She is answering from both sides. She has been the parent working it out across six children, and through HEA she has helped other families through the same problems: getting a family registered, working through the options with a parent who had been told homeschooling was her only remaining choice, and helping a family rebuild their child’s social confidence after they left school. In the full episode, she gets specific about the practical parts. Which office to contact when a school will not release your child, what a structured program is genuinely good for, and the work experience insurance most families do not know is available. Key Points Key discussion points: Tina recommends Euka to families who want structure. Asked what she tells a family looking for a structured program, her answer is direct: go to Euka. Schools vary. Some actively recommend homeschooling. Others resist releasing a child at all. If a school resists, you have another avenue. State education departments and their home education units have become more open to helping families register. A structured program does a specific job. It is often what families use while a child settles; it is also helpful if you’re considering putting your child back into mainstream school down the line. Bullying is often a symptom. Underneath it, there is frequently a diagnosis or an unmet need the school setting could not accommodate. Social confidence can be rebuilt. Interest-based groups place a child among people who have chosen to be there, across a range of ages. Work experience insurance starts earlier than most families expect. Insurance is usually a key obstacle, and HEA covers members from age 12. Where families can find homeschooling support The questions Tina hears open in much the same way. Where do I find information? How do I start? I am overwhelmed because there is so much out there. And underneath them, the one that carries the most weight: I am a parent, and I have no idea what I am doing. Her approach with a new family is to hand over two or three things to look at rather than sending them off to survey everything. That matters because there are no guarantees. Every child is different, every family dynamic is different, and what works well for one child may not suit yours. Ellen’s own start was much the same, with everyone she met certain their way was the right one. What she took from it is that there are many great ways to do this, and that in the end, you are the only one who will know the right fit for your child. Tina names the comparison trap directly. “You look at a family and go, oh, I wish I could do that. But that’s not your family. So you have to work out your own rhythm, and the resources that work for you.”— Tina Smith, Treasurer, Home Education Association Finding a homeschooling community Tina points new families towards other homeschoolers, as connecting with other families is how you start to see the breadth of what is out there, and what works and what does not. Local support groups are the usual route in, and the Home Education Association runs homeschool community groups by area. Our guide to forming a community with other homeschoolers covers how families do it in practice. What if the school pushes back when you withdraw your child? Tina has seen it go both ways. She describes one family in which the school and the education department worked through the alternatives, found none viable, and told the parent directly that homeschooling was the right path. She also sees the opposite happen. Some schools do not accept homeschooling as a legitimate option, and some see releasing a child as a matter of authority rather than a family’s decision. In her experience, it can get quite heated. Who to contact when the school says no The school is not your only avenue. State education departments and the home education units within them have become more open to helping families who are being obstructed, and they can intervene. As Tina puts it, it comes down to knowing who to talk to. HEA publishes state-by-state registration information, and its advocacy work is currently focused on making registration a smoother experience with each state authority. Ellen adds the reframe worth holding onto. Choosing homeschooling is in the same category as choosing a public school, a private school, or distance education. It is a choice you are entitled to make as a parent. If the difference between those pathways is still unclear, our episode on homeschooling versus distance education sets them side by side, and our guide to whether homeschooling is legal in Australia covers the registration requirement. Structured program, or build your own? Some families arrive certain they could never write their own program, and a structured one removes that worry. If that sounds familiar, our episode with a teacher trainer on what actually makes a good teacher is worth a listen, since the answer has very little to do with formal qualifications. Tina also sees families use a structured program for another reason: to help steady a child. Time to reassess, re-ground them, and settle their emotional state. In her experience, those families often return to school afterwards, which is a legitimate outcome rather than a failure. Asked what she tells a family in that position, her answer is direct. “If you want to use a program that is structured, go to Euka.”— Tina Smith, Treasurer, Home Education Association The example she gives is a family who arrived from another country, were not confident with an English curriculum, and needed something structured while they moved between states for work. She recommended them to Euka. They kept using it as they changed states, and when they eventually moved back overseas, they did so knowing their children’s education had been properly covered. That continuity is the point. A complete K-12 curriculum means a family can move house, change states, or travel without the program restarting, and Ellen notes that families use it either way: some take the full program, others take a subject or two as their foundation and build the rest themselves. Cover the base, then add your own Tina built her own program at first. By the time her children reached the middle years, she was less confident, so she bought a program that covered the foundation skills and added her own material on top. This option worked well for her family, as they layered in what her children were actually interested in, which, for her family, was the part that mattered most. She is clear that this depends entirely on the child. Her children were academically inclined, and she knows families with very creative children for whom that same core-work approach did not work. A prescribed curriculum is useful. Being able to flex it is better, because it opens up everything else: nature, museums, libraries, the internet, and the history and geography a family picks up while travelling. Ellen adds that the curriculum is the base, not everything. Why more families are homeschooling for bullying and neurodivergence Ellen asks about bullying, noting a significant increase in students coming in because of it. Tina confirms she is seeing the same and then adds more context. Bullying happens for many reasons. As Tina puts it, it could be racism, health, disability, or just because you exist. Our guide to the signs your child may be struggling at school covers what this can look like before it becomes obvious. She describes bullying as a big proportion of the calls. Still, she says an even bigger one now comes from families whose children are managing a diagnosis such as autism or ADHD. Our tips for homeschooling with ADHD go further into the practical side of this. What those parents describe is the social side of school becoming overwhelming, in ways the setting could not accommodate. Ellen draws out the consequences of how this gets reported. Bullying and school refusal are the labels the media reaches for, but they are frequently the visible end of something else. A child managing anxiety or autism inside a system that cannot flex will often find that school becomes very difficult. Read that way, school refusal describes a setting that is not a good fit for that child, at that time. Withdrawal, in Tina’s acc