Education is compulsory - school is optional

Join EO or renew your membership

Membership of Education Otherwise provides full access to EO’s support facilities for a year.  The standard membership benefits include:

  • Belonging to a community bound by common aims, i.e. providing support and information for families whose children are being educated outside school, upholding the freedom for parents to choose to take direct responsibility for the education of their children, and promoting knowledge, understanding and acceptance of education otherwise than at school.

  • Access to EO’s network of Local Contacts and Volunteers. EO has extensive knowledge of and experience in home education built up over 40 years. As a member you can draw on that experience but just as importantly you contribute through helping to build on that knowledge and expertise into the future.

  • The opportunity to get involved in Local HE group activities including starting new local groups with support from those who have already done so.

  • Access to Public Liability Insurance for Local HE groups run by three or more EO members at a preferential rate via EO's collective policy.

  • Correspond with fellow members and participate in EO discussions and activities which help inform trustee decisions through EO’s Members Only secure forum.

  • EO is a Professional Member of the organisation ‘Benefits and Work’, which provides specialist guides to claiming Disability Living Allowance and Employment Support Allowance. The Benefits and Work guides are available for consultation free of charge to EO Members.

  • There are many opportunities within EO to volunteer, including: helping run the organisation, playing a direct role in supporting fellow and future home educators, and in educating professionals about home education. Our volunteers play an essential role in helping meet EO’s aims and are vital to EO‘s support network.

  • Contribute to and receive EO newsletters including online access to the archived newsletters and bulletins.

  • The opportunity to contribute to EO initiatives that enable children and young persons to participate directly in EO or via EO e.g:

    • EO offers our young people opportunities to write about their experiences or thoughts in our member newsletter.

    • EO would like to assist interested HE young person’s gain representation in the 'Youth Parliament' movement -  http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/

When joining, please note:

Usernames: this will be the name under which you post to the forum, so please DO NOT USE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AS A USERNAME.

Existing members: please log in to check your current membership status, and to renew your membership if necessary.

Membership type and concessions

Volunteer renewals
If you hold a current EO Volunteer membership, please renew it via the Member Area here:https://educationotherwise.org/index.php/renew-your-volunteer-membership

Are you in receipt of DWP benefits (not Tax Credits or Child Benefit)? Please choose Yes or No. NB: if you don't make a choice, your subscription cannot proceed.
The EO member magazine is provided via email as a print-friendly pdf file, which is also available to download from the website's member area. In addition, the content is available in the member area as responsive web pages. UK only: If you need a printed version and do not have access to a printer, you can ask us to print and post it to you for an additional payment of £8 per year. Please note that this will be a black and white print-out of a full colour magazine, on loose A4 sheets. Bulletins are not available by post.
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