When Queensland’s Education Minister Di Farmer introduced legislation to the state’s parliament that requires students schooled at home to follow the Australian Curriculum, the news received a mixed reaction.
While some in the sector have welcomed the move, others have expressed concerns about the impact enforcing the curriculum could have, with Home Education Association (HEA) state leader Samantha Bryan saying the mandate could push some home-schooling families ‘underground’.
By trying to avoid the enforcement of the new legislation designed to give home-schooled students, Ms Bryan says she’s worried some parents will not register their home-schooling plans with the regulatory body.
She’s questioning how the changes would benefit children if they were already receiving a high-quality education. More support for home-educating families – who she believes make great sacrifices, driven by love and care for their child’s well-being – is on her wish list for positive change.
“Some of these families would love to put their kids back in school, so I think a dual-enrolment option – part-time home education, part-time school – would be great.”
Home-school surge drives legislative change
The Queensland government’s move towards greater scrutiny and adherence to the national curriculum was motivated by the surge in numbers of families choosing home-schooling for their child’s education.
An almost 200 per cent increase in the state’s home-schooling numbers for 2023 saw 10,048 students registered for home education in Queensland – up from 3411 in 2019.
Nationwide, 43,892 children were registered for home-schooling in 2023 – double the 2019 figure of 21,966.
“With the increase in the number of families choosing home-schooling, we need to make sure that the interests of the student are the priority – especially in regard to their well-being and safety – and this is what this legislation will do,” Ms Farmer says.
Building on the Australian Curriculum with individualised flexibility
While it’s clear some families do choose home-schooling for ideological and religious reasons that inspire avoidance of sticking to the Australian Curriculum, the majority of home-school education providers – including private companies and state government-led virtual schools servicing school-aged children in every Australian state and territory – have no issue with the legislation push.
At private home-schooling provider, Euka, adhering to the Australian curriculum is the basis of its offering, with families able to tailor their child’s education in ways that suit individual needs and interests.
Unique reasons behind home-schooling boom
Euka Future Learning Academic Director Ellen Brown says home-schooling numbers started growing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by a range of unique needs and circumstances.
“Euka has seen exponential growth in numbers over the past two years in the order of 150 per cent, which even supersedes some of the growth seen by the home-school sector, more broadly, in each state and territory,” she told EducationDaily.
“Some students start as they are not thriving in mainstream school and this may be due to bullying, physical or mental health issues or simply because they find it’s not a great fit for them. Others are moving to home-schooling because they want a more flexible lifestyle. There are families that are moving to home-schooling because their child has gifts, talents or sporting prowess that they want to provide more time for in their timetable. We have many students working ahead of their age level and excelling without a cap on grade.”
Choosing to home-school with Euka, she says, offers students access to a full education program that can be individualised to the child.
“Rather than just purchasing subject content, our parents enrol and have the opportunity for us to tailor that program if needed,” Ms Brown told EducationDaily.
“For example, if their children have had certain issues at a mainstream school, we can add revision or extension. Students can work at their own pace – a nod to the fact that every child is different in the speed at which they learn. Another significant reason why families are choosing Euka is our Grade 11 and 12 programs, with students flocking to do their senior studies with Euka due to the flexibility and our university pathways.”
On track to complete secondary school education at his own pace
For Laura Allerton, helping her 16-year-old son Joshua Newman find a way to help him continue his commitment to quality education was essential to support his dream to pursue a professional career in in international MotoGP races.
Although giving a child the freedom to follow their dreams can be a tough thing for a parent, she says she knew the decision to home-school with Josh so he could devote more energy to his sporting ambitions was the right thing for him – and their family.
“When I become a mum, making sure my children have every opportunity in life has since been my number one priority,” she told EducationDaily.
In 2023, Ms Allerton says her son’s commitment to compete meant their travel commitments included “seven rounds of the Australian Superbike series and five rounds of the FIM Ohvale series”.
“With these race events, he also would attend practice days prior to the race event to learn the tracks so we were on the road a lot.”
While she told EducationDaily that many of Josh’s teachers were understanding of what the ambitious teenager was striving for – and would prepare work he needed to do so he could complete it before leaving for a competition – she admits some were not as flexible.
“This led to my decision to enrol Josh in home-schooling so he can make school work for him and not have any added pressure or stress of a certain timetable,” Ms Allerton says.
Taking a leap to support son’s dreams
Watching how her academic son had coped with remote learning during COVID, helped her make the decision to transfer him out of his Anglican school and into Euka’s delivery of an online education program.
“Josh showed commitment and dedication to his learning – not once did I have to chase him up or discipline him because he wasn’t doing his school work,” his mum says of the pandemic-driven education experience.
“He would get up at 8am, attend all the classes and complete all his work every day – he even received academic awards while in lockdown, so I knew he has the ability to focus and has the self-drive to complete high school from home.”
With an older brother who is a three-time Australian Superbike Champion, Ms Allerton remembers how challenging that experience was during her own childhood – long before emails and laptops made access to remote learning easier than ever before.
“He finished in year 10 to chase his dreams,” she told EducationDaily.
Making time for training
Josh started his first week of online school this year – something Ms Allerton says has been made easier because “the team at Euka have also been so helpful with every step”.
Having a highly motivated son who created a learning plan to get up early each morning to complete all his school work so he could train all afternoon has also helped.
She says Josh wants to complete Year 12 in 2025.
“The beauty of home-schooling is you can set your own pace and one of the things Josh found when he would do school work on the road was that he was able to complete tasks a lot quicker,” Ms Allerton told EducationDaily.
Going for gold in education
From Josh’s perspective, he is grateful that his parents have been supportive of his career aspirations – “especially my mum, as she has invested a lot of her own time and effort into making it happen for me”, he told EducationDaily.
“My whole life has involved watching, riding and racing motorcycles from the age of four, having attended a race at only a few months old. It was inevitable that I would chase a career in racing.”
But even while his racing aspirations currently come first, Josh says he also values his education and spent the last few years of secondary school “at a good school” applying the same competitive spirit to chasing top marks.
Balancing a busy schedule
As a home-schooling Euka student undertaking Year 11 in 2024, Josh is studying English, personal development, health and physical education (PDHPE), sports lifestyle and recreation (SLR), physics, advanced mathematics and modern history – and says he is excited about the opportunity to have “control over my own work I need to complete – especially before going away practicing/testing or racing”.
“At training, I cycle five to six times per week and do some other gym work throughout the week,” Josh told EducationDaily.
“I also ride my motocross bike on my weekends away from racing – for both fun and training. The amount that I actually ride my race bike changes, with some months of the year being a lot busier than others.”
Last year, he says, there were a few times where he rode three or four weekends in a row.
Despite the punishing schedule, his determination to fulfil his goals is unwavering.
“My ultimate sporting ambition is to make a professional career out of racing motorcycles with the goal of racing overseas,” he says.
Now that her son has a sustainable way to stay connected to the education he knows it important, his mother says she can imagine he will be racing overseas within five years.
“This is what he is pushing for,” Ms Allerton says, “and I hope he gets the opportunity to live it.”
