We are so excited about being approved as a centre for the AQA Unit Award Scheme. Basically the scheme is a flexible way to recognise your child’s learning without exams (and you get a lovely certificate to keep forever for each unit completed).
An AQA Unit Award is not a course, qualification or GCSE.
It’s an accreditation by AQA, the largest GCSE and A level awarding body in England. It is open to learners of all ages and abilities, and for each unit completed, learners receive an official AQA certificate listing what they have achieved.
As home educators, we are already putting so much thought and care into our child’s education – an AQA Unit Award is simply a way of having some of that recognised officially. Plus, as they’re open to all ages, the rest of the family can join in too… so you’ll become a home educating family rather than a family with home educated children!
Each unit does have clear outcomes to meet, but they’re focused and manageable – it’s not like taking on a whole GCSE syllabus (although some of the bite-sized units are mapped to AQA qualifications so they could become good preparation for exams later, if you choose to do them). Like I say, there aren’t any exams to sit with the AQA Unit Awards. It’s just about meeting the criteria and receiving a certificate that reflects what your child has done.
And once you see how it works, it’s much more straightforward than it might sound at first.
The process is simple:
Register with us as your AQA centre
Choose a unit (browse them all at https://www.aqa.org.uk/programmes/unit-award-scheme/our-units)
Your child completes the learning
Submit the evidence to us
We assess and provide feedback if needed
We submit it to AQA
Certificate arrives
With over 22,000 approved units available through AQA, you’re not choosing from a narrow menu. There seems to be a unit for everything!
You can pick units that genuinely reflect what your child is already learning – and what they actually care about.
That might be something academic like English, maths, science, history or geography.
Or it might be something more specialist like forensic science, coding, animal care or environmental studies.
Or it might even be based around interests they already love – Minecraft, Roblox, Disney characters, gaming, photography, creative writing, cooking, nail art, first aid, event planning… the list really does go on.
Some families focus on core subjects.
Some lean into hobbies and special interests.
Some do a mixture of both.
Every unit has clearly defined outcomes, so your child knows exactly what they’re working towards – and you know exactly what needs to be evidenced.
When you browse the AQA Unit website, you’ll be able to click into each unit to see what evidence is required. The three main categories of evidence are:
Summary sheet: This is the summary sheet that we will fill in once you’ve sent all of your evidence in. This can take many different forms: photos, videos, written work, fact files, collages, learning show workbooks, etc.
Student completed work: This is basically any written or computer work that your child has completed.
Photographs: For practical work (such as cookery), AQA sometimes ask for a photograph of the finished product.
Below you will see two examples. Unit 105134 (Minecraft: Basics) and Unit 123296 (Learning about Stars). You will see on the first one, the evidence needed is a summary sheet (so you can show your child’s work in many different ways) and on the second one, the evidence is ‘student completed work’ (so you’ll need to upload a copy of your child’s written or computer work). In the graphics, you’ll just see a few ideas but you really have got the freedom to complete them however you like.
If you want to choose a unit yourself, from the 22,000+ available, the assessment and postage + packaging will be £10 per person.
If you choose one of the AQA linked hub blocks (webpage coming soon), this will be £5 per person (on top of block cost).
