Develop an education program

Understand education programs

An education program is a plan for your child's learning while registered for home education. It outlines:

• what your child will learn
• how they will learn
• how you will monitor and record their progress.

Your education program should reflect your child's strengths, interests, abilities and learning needs.

Your education program provides the basis for discussions at evaluation meetings and helps demonstrate how your child's learning needs are being met.

Education programs should be flexible to meet individual needs and abilities. Education programs can be presented in different formats according to the child's preferred learning style, such as project-based learning, goal-based learning, inquiry-based learning or other approaches.

The education program does not need to document every detail of what your child will learn, or timetable when a particular subject will be covered. Your child's learning is not limited to school hours, term dates or written materials.

While making sure your education program suits your child’s individual needs, you can consider the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline developed by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA). If appropriate, you can also include the ABLEWA curriculum.

Resources are available for Pre-primary to Year 12 on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) website. Home educators can provide proof of registration to request a login to the SCSA website.

When preparing your child’s education program, please ensure that you consider the following questions. These questions will form part of your initial 3-month evaluation meeting and subsequent evaluation meetings every 12 months thereafter.

• What are your child’s educational strengths and interests?
• Are there any areas of your child’s learning you would like to focus on more closely? How do you plan to support these as part of your child’s home education program?
• What would you like your child to work towards between now (registration) and the 3-month evaluation? (These goals might relate to wellbeing, confidence, engagement, motivation, or learning progress).

Home education program examples

You can use the following education program examples as a guide when developing your child’s learning program.

• Education program example 1 – goal based
• Education program example 2 – general 
• Education program example 3 – traditional 11 and 12
• Education program example 4 – topic based
• Education program example 5 – curriculum focused
• Education program example 6 – home educator example

The examples that follow are shared by home education families. They show different ways you can develop an education program.

• Education program example 7 – child with autism
• Education program example 8 – self-directed learner with pathological demand avoidance  
• Education program example 9 – neurodivergent learner recovering from school burnout

You may also include materials from other sources. Find home education resources and support.