Banbury mum and dad team up to build app for home-educating families
Home education is on the rise across the UK, and one Oxfordshire family has created a new app to make life easier for parents managing learning at home. Home Ed Companion is the brainchild of Cath, 49, who has been home educating her children for 12 years. Alongside her husband Jason, 54, a software engineer, the couple have spent the past two years building an app that helps parents record and celebrate everyday learning.
Cath explains: “Over the years we’ve done everything from bushcraft and Robot Wars workshops to travelling in Italy and cooking pasta with a nonna on her farm. But in the excitement, it was easy to forget to write it all down. Later, when parents needed to show evidence to the local authority, they were left scrambling through calendars and notes. We wanted to create something simple that solved that problem.”
The app allows parents to log activities on the go, from maths lessons to spontaneous discoveries in the car, attaching notes, photos, or even tickets as keepsakes. Categories can be customised to fit any family’s approach, and each child can have their own profile. The app also creates visual graphs to show time spent on different subjects, giving parents reassurance and confidence.
“It’s a brilliant antidote to mum-guilt,” says Cath. “When you write it all down, you can see just how much learning is happening.”
As well as providing reassurance, Home Ed Companion will soon offer downloadable reports and portfolios, making it easier for parents to evidence their provision if required. Future plans also include a photobook of learning journeys.
Cath is keen to highlight that trust and privacy are central to the app: “We built this tool by home educators, for home educators. Data is never shared with local authorities, and parents can even use nicknames for children if they prefer.”
Currently available on Android, the couple are working on an Apple version due for release soon.
For more information visit www.homeedcompanion.com or download the app on the Google Play Store.
About the founders:
Cath, 49, has been home educating her children for over a decade. Her husband Jason, 54, is a software engineer who has coded the app part-time over the past two years.