Hi, I’m Cheryl. I’m a co-founder of Educational Freedom, in 2013 I had the idea to create a site that provided everything a home educator could need to know, all in one place. With the help of Liz and others, Educational Freedom was born. We have come to the end of our home educational journey with my 3 children at university, working or in college

Here’s our story:
I Home Educated my 3 kids for 15 years, I’m a single mum with a self employed seamstress business, oh and I’m disabled too.

I had no idea Home Education was even an option, and the day I met a lady with her ‘school’ age children and asked, “Why aren’t your kids in school today?” was the day our lives were turned around.

Since I deregistered we have faced an EWO that was determined to con me in to thinking that there was a new law: a law that gave them right of entry into my home, and also this ‘law’ gave them the right to demand information on how I educate my children. I was subjected to an abusive phone call from another EWO too, one which ended in me having to threaten with police action. All this was within a week or two of them finishing school in 2008.

Then an EHE visit. The visit, whilst it wasn’t awful, certainly didn’t support our choice and freedom to choose how to educate our children. To make future visits easier, she told me to name and date all the children’s work, and file it in subject and date order, so she could mark it too! I hasten to add that it didn’t take me long to realise how wrong these people were, how ultra vires their behaviour was, and I decided no one would be coming into my home again to tell me how to uphold my legal duty to educate my own children.

I was then subject to a malicious allegation to social services, an allegation that included Home Educating! The Social Worker thought Home Education was illegal, I wasn’t armed with enough legal know-how to explain. So I did lots of research and talking to other people, and I learnt enough to eventually have the case closed with no concerns.
I listened to those that had been around longer than me, read the template letters they would write, and I was able to start to offer to help families that were going through similar to me.

With a few friends, I started to help run a huge Facebook support group. We offered advice, support and chat to all families considering or already on the Home Education Journey.

It was soon obvious that Home Educators needed more than just Facebook groups or pay to access organisations, so Educational Freedom was born.

Now, with my eldest in university studying particle physics, my middle son working as a car mechanic and my youngest having given school a try then back home (offically flexischooled) and now in college, it’s a very busy life. But I have a fabulous team helping run our website, emails, Facebook page and groups.

I want to thank every single one of you for your support to help make Educational Freedom the success it is today, as of writing this October 2023) the site has had over 5 million views, the team have done, and continue to do, an amazing job. Thank you.

Kind Regards Cheryl Moy