16-year-old Salford youth councillor sets up charity to support home schooling

Eccles charity, The Home Education Opportunities Group, are providing support to families that are home-educating over lockdown.

The group, who has only recently gained charity status, has been set up by 16-year-old Salford youth councillor, Tommy Kirkwood, to help families who have chosen to educate at home.

They give support to families over Zoom calls, online and over the phone. The group is completely youth-led, with adults only overseeing the activities, giving them a freedom otherwise not achieved in mainstream school.

They also run education groups where they meet in person and showcase their work, however, as they are not exempt from the second lockdown, this has to be moved online.

Tommy said: “After lockdown has ended, we have huge plans to run sessions in person, and theatre, ski and sailing trips which are not always accessible to home educators.”

Tommy and Emma Kirkwood, mother and son charity trustees, have been in home education for six years now.

They both discovered that there was an opportunity to be able to develop a network of home educators that are not able to access the same resources as those in mainstream school.

Tommy and Emma made the choice to become a charity so they could create subsidised spaces and paid exams for low-income families that struggle to pay for the costs of home education.

Kirkwood said: “Our aim is to be able to pay for at least 5 GCSE exams a year for 5 young people, and the books to help those young people as well.”

You can find information about their upcoming events on their Facebook and Twitter pages.