The Home Education Network supports home educating families by encouraging and supporting groups of home educators, by organising group activities such as science at Monash and home-ed camps. Home Education Network maintains this web site at (http://www.home-ed.vic.edu.au); runs a phone support service for members and the wider home education community; and researches and publishes Otherways Magazine.

Otherways Magazine contains the latest news, research, workshops and events, networking and support group information, letters from families and articles on every aspect of home education from Australia and around the world. We cover all topics in the effort to inspire, inform and encourage.

The Home Education Network is your home education community, all HEN activities are organised and run by volunteers.

Each year brings more informative and inspiring articles in Otherways, as well as more camps and activities and an increasingly dynamic home education community.

Membership Benefits

• Otherways magazine four times a year by mail ($40 membership) or downloaded ($20 membership). Not sure if Otherways is for you? You can download a free back issue here.
• Membership Card
• Access to HEN’s public liability insurance
• Subscription to our email notices for news of camps, classes and events
• Advertise home education events you are organising in Otherways and/or by email notification to members
• Access to the HEN community
• Access to competitions (Rio Tinto Big Science Competition, Australian Mathematics Competition, Australian Informatics Competition) with HEN as your ‘school’. These competitions do not accept individual entries.
• Support HEN’s voice in advocating for home educators

Join Now

HEN Membership includes your membership card and one year’s subscription to Otherways magazine which is published four times (Feb, May, Aug, Nov) a year. You can join by either:

1. Using our Online Shop (click here)
2. Download the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the form, print it, fill it in, and mail it with your payment. Click here to download the Membership form

Please note: When you join you will be sent the current issue of Otherways and your membership will expire after you have received three more issues. (i.e. if you join in November, December or January your membership begins with the November issue of Otherways and expires on 31st October the following year).

PDF Membership also available: You may also choose to be  PDF member. You will receive Otherways 4 times a year as a PDF file to download from the website. Cost $20 per year and includes all other membership benefits.

Please note HEN is a parent support group, not a business
Whenever you contact someone at HEN, please be aware that we are all volunteers. We are all keen to help other home educators find the information they need, put them in touch with the right person, book them into classes/events/camps, or post out things you have ordered and we strive to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible. The HEN team do an amazing job of supporting other home educators and are often so efficient that many people who contact us don’t realise we aren’t a professional organisation but please do keep in mind that all us are volunteers who do have children at home who need our attention. For this reason, we can’t always respond as quickly as you would expect from professionals. Please bear with us, we are committed to helping, sometimes it just takes a little time.