England does not use the word co-op much. What exists here is the home education group: families meeting weekly or fortnightly, sometimes with a rota of parent-led sessions, often with a hired hall and a small charge to cover it. The structure is looser than an American co-op and the vocabulary is different, which is worth knowing if you have been reading American homeschooling sites and wondering why nothing matches.
You do not have to register with anyone to home educate in England, and there is no set number of hours. The law asks for education that is efficient, full-time and suitable to the child, and it does not define full-time for home educators. A regular group is one of the easier ways to show what a child is actually doing if a local authority makes informal enquiries.
A register of children not in school is expected to arrive with the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It is not in force yet, and nothing on this page assumes it is. Check the England requirements page for where that has got to before you act on it.
Groups here are listed by county, because that is how families search and how far anyone is realistically willing to drive on a weekday.
Listed
3
home education groups
Counties
3
covered
Checked
2026-09-11
every listing
England sets no minimum hours or days, so there is nothing for a co-op day to count toward. What a co-op gives you here is teaching you are not doing alone, not compliance.
The full England requirementsThe Outdoors Group is an innovative scandanavian inspired outdoor learning specialist offering Forest School, Alternative Provision and Outreach for schools along with other Forest School activities.
Valley Farm provides nature-based coaching and therapeutic sessions to support you in your personal development and growth in a wide range of areas.
Most meet weekly or fortnightly in a hired hall during term time. Some run a rota where parents lead sessions in turn, others bring in a tutor for one subject and split the cost, and many are simply a regular meetup with the structure kept deliberately light. Fees are usually a few pounds per family per session to cover the room. Almost all of them expect parents to stay.
No. There is no registration requirement for home education in England at present, and no obligation to report where your child spends their week. If your local authority makes informal enquiries, a group is useful evidence of a suitable education, but attending one is not something you are required to declare.
It depends on what the co-op has to pay for. A group meeting in a member's home with borrowed materials can run on almost nothing, while a co-op hiring a hall and paying outside tutors for a few classes costs real money per term. The fees each group publishes are listed on this page where we have them, taken from the group's own website, so you can compare rather than guess. Ask what the fee covers before you commit: some cover the hall only, and materials are extra.
No. A co-op is a choice, not a requirement, and plenty of families never join one. What a co-op gives you is the subjects that are hard to do alone, a timetable someone else is holding, and other children in the room. What it costs you is a fixed day each week and, in most cases, a share of the work.
Claim your listing and it stays current, because it reads from your own term plan rather than from whatever we last checked. Starpath is free for co-ops to run on.
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