Launch of the Religion & Worldviews Home Educators’ Fund!

We are very excited to announce the launch of a new, pilot fund for home educators. From this week, home educating families in the West Midlands region will be able to apply for small grants to support children and young people’s learning around religion and worldviews. 

The fund has been co-designed by a group of home educating parents and three grant-making trusts, All Saints Educational Trust, Culham St Gabriel’s and St Peter’s Saltley Trust. It has also been supported by The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP).  

Ian Jones, Director of St Peter’s Saltley Trust said: ‘Many schools do fantastic work in religious education, but we also know that some children and young people thrive best in a home education setting, and in recent years the number of children being educated at home has been increasing in most regions of the UK.  It has been exciting to be part of creating something which specifically seeks to benefit these families, who are often not eligible to access other sources of funding for their children’s learning. 

As funders of religious education, we also recognise that a strong education in religion and worldviews has a wider societal dimension in addition to what takes place in institutional settings such as schools and colleges; home school education is an important part of that wider canvas.” 

Alice Khimasia is one of six panel members for the fund and has been involved in the project from the beginning: 

“As a long-term home educator, it has been wonderful to be invited into the process of co-creating this fund. We are an oft overlooked community, despite our growing numbers. For me, the decision to deregister my sons from school was about giving them a wider world than the classroom, connecting them with global community and with their mixed heritage. Exposure to different religions and worldviews has been an important part of that process, in learning to understand others, to develop empathy and grow to be compassionate citizens.  

With increasing numbers of children unable to access schooling, the recognition and support of alternative pathways is crucial, and this fund is a positive step in supporting, encouraging and enabling home educators to mindfully incorporate creative learning about religion and worldviews into their children’s education. Our hope is that it will have a wide reach and lead to a wonderful variety of projects and outcomes which can further resource learning beyond the classroom.” 

Home educators will be able to apply to the fund throughout October, with a closing date for large project grant applications of Sunday 17^th November 2024.  

Find out more:  https://www.cstg.org.uk/grants/religion-worldviews-home-educators-fund/