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First week of home education checklist UK

The week after deregistration is not about teaching. It is about everyone breathing out. This checklist gives you one gentle page of small, free, low-stakes things to do each day so Monday morning has an answer that is not a lesson plan.

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Pages
2
Format
A4 PDF
Updated
9 May 2026

Pairs with our guide: read the article.

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“We don’t mind what you do with it. Print it, edit it, cross out the bits that don’t fit your family. The licence is: use freely, don’t resell.”

About this template

What this template does

You deregistered. The letter has gone. The school knows. And now it is Monday morning and your child is sitting at the kitchen table in pyjamas, looking at you, and you are looking back, and neither of you has a plan. The silence is louder than you expected.

This checklist is the plan. It is a one-page, stick-it-on-the-fridge, tick-the-boxes sheet covering your first seven days of home education. Each day has four to six small, gentle suggestions. None of them cost money. None of them require a car. None of them are lessons. The first week's job is not to teach anything. It is to lower everyone's heart rate, let the school rhythms fade and start noticing what your child actually chooses to do when nobody is telling them what to do.

The checklist sits alongside our full first-week guide, which goes deeper on the app side and the habit of logging. This printable is the offline companion: the thing on the fridge when your phone is in the other room.

Frequently asked.

Do I need to follow this checklist exactly?
No. It is a set of suggestions, not a timetable. Skip anything that does not suit your family, swap the order around, or do three things from Day 1 and nothing from Day 2. The point is to have something small and doable on the fridge so Monday morning is not a blank.
My child just wants to watch TV and do nothing. Is that normal?
In the first week, yes. This is the start of deschooling (the settling-down period after leaving school where the family unwinds from school routines). Flatness, extra sleep and a lot of screen time are very common. The checklist is designed around this, with items small enough that a tired child can manage them.
Is this a curriculum?
No. There is nothing in here that counts as formal education. It is a settling-in week, not a teaching week. Curriculum decisions can wait.
We do not have a car or any spare money. Will this still work?
Yes. Every item on the checklist is free and walkable. No paid memberships, no museum tickets, no specialist materials. A kitchen, a library card and a pair of shoes are all you need.
What if one of the days goes badly?
There is a sidebar on the checklist for exactly this. A bad day in week one is not a sign that home education is the wrong decision. It is a sign that everyone is still adjusting. Skip the rest of the day, make a cup of tea and start fresh tomorrow.

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