Should we be quantifying our child's learning: Discussing the perils of outcome based learning
July 12, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read“I don’t care about anyone else. I will say that with my whole chest.” That line, dropped by one of the guests near the end of this episode of Home Education Matters, captures the central tension at the heart of a growing debate in the home education community: whether quantifying a child’s learning through certificates, unit awards, and mini-assessments is a helpful tool or a dangerous drift back toward the school system families opted out of.
The episode brings together three home educators—Charlotte, Emily, and host Eleanor—to wrestle with a question that is becoming urgent as the UK’s Schools Bill looms and local authorities demand more evidence of educational progress. The throughline is deceptively simple: should we measure what our children learn at home? But the conversation quickly reveals that the answer depends on who is doing the measuring, why, and at what cost to the ethos of home education itself.
The pressure to prove progress
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What you'll learn
- 1 Should we be quantifying our child's learning: Discussing the perils of outcome based learning
- 2 Home Education Matters
- 3 (00:18) **Introducing the Debate** - The hosts frame the central tension: whether home educators are replicating school by quantifying children's learning through tests, assessments, and formal awards.
- 4 (02:59) **Charlotte's Controversial Take** - Charlotte admits she doesn't hate assessment, explaining how small check-ins help her manage four children across different ages and learning levels.
- 5 (05:45) **The School Parallel** - The host challenges Charlotte's reasoning, pointing out that "I have too many children to track otherwise" is exactly the argument schools use to justify testing.
- 6 (08:35) **School's Damage to Learning Awareness** - Charlotte shares a powerful example of her 11-year-old who attended a dance workshop but insisted she "hadn't learned anything" until Charlotte walked her through everything she now knew that she didn't know yesterday.
- 7 (11:42) **The Qualifications Dilemma** - The conversation shifts to the real-world need for qualifications, using Charlotte's daughter who wants to open a dance school for deaf children as an example.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Join us as we discuss the temptations and pitfalls of focusing on quantified learning with our home educated children. From AQA Unit Awards right up to A levels and beyond, we are a world that honours quantifiable achievement in academics.
But is there more to learning than that and are we, as home educators, uniquely positioned to be at the vanguard of a new approach to education that prioritises experience, understanding and passionate curiosity?
This podcast is a labour of love, and time and energy and commitment and lots of coffee! It really helps us if you can follow us on our social media channels and comment to let us know if you enjoyed the episode, what you'd like to see more / less of and generally come and say hi!
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