Home Education Learning Plan QLD: Template & Examples

Your learning plan — what Queensland officially calls your educational program— is the document you submit when you register for home education. It sets out how your child will learn for the year, and it's the part most new families find hardest to start. The good news: there's no single “correct” format, Queensland gives you free templates, and you don't have to teach to a year level. This guide covers what the plan must show, the official templates, and what one looks like at different stages.

What is a learning plan (educational program)?

It's your plan for delivering a high-quality educationat home — your goals for your child, the learning experiences you're planning, and how you'll know they're making progress. It isn't a school timetable, and it isn't a promise you have to follow to the letter; it's evidence that you've thought your year through. You can write it yourself or with a registered teacher, and you can revise it as the year unfolds. Writing this program is a core step when you register for homeschooling in Queensland.

What your learning plan needs to show

Queensland's home education procedure describes a high-quality educational program as one that:

• is responsive to your child's changing needs, guided by short- and long-term educational and personal goals;
• has regard to your child's age, ability, aptitude and development;
• is conducted in an environment conducive to learning;
• is responsive to your child's need for social development;
• uses suitable and relevant teaching strategies to deliver the program;
• engages your child in a range of rich and varied learning experiences;
• is supported by sufficient and appropriate resources; and
• uses strategies for monitoring educational progress.

You don't need a separate heading for each of those — you need a plan that, read as a whole, clearly addresses them. A simple, honest plan that covers your goals, your approach, the areas you'll cover and how you'll track progress will do the job. Progress beats polish.

The free QHE templates

You don't have to start from a blank page. The Home Education Unit publishes three optional program templates, each with a worked example, so you can pick the one that matches how you actually teach:

1. Australian Curriculum (ACARA) program — organises learning around the Australian Curriculum learning areas. Suits families who want a recognisable, subject-by-subject structure.
2. Goal-directed program — built around the goals you set for your child and the activities that work towards them. Suits an eclectic, child-led approach.
3. Thematic program— plans learning around themes or units of interest (say, “oceans” or “ancient Egypt”) that weave several subjects together. Suits project-based and unit-study families.

These templates are a guide, and using them is optional — you're free to design your own format. The value is in seeing a completed example before you write your own.

Examples by stage (not by grade)

A common worry is “what should my plan look like for Year 3?” Here's the reassuring part: Queensland assesses whether your child is receiving a high-quality education and making progress— not whether they're sitting at a particular year level. So it helps to think in broad stages rather than grades.

• Early years (roughly 5–7): goals framed around foundational literacy and numeracy, lots of play-based and hands-on experiences, read-alouds, and everyday maths (cooking, shopping, counting). Progress shown through early writing samples and simple number work dated across the year.
• Primary (roughly 8–11):goals across English, maths and a couple of other areas your child is drawn to (science, history, the arts), a mix of set work and projects, and a note on how you'll track reading, writing and maths growth over time.
• Early high school (roughly 12–15): clearer subject goals, more independent work and research, and strategies for monitoring progress that start to include short written responses, longer projects and self-review.
• Senior years (16+):goals that look towards your child's post-school pathway — further study, training or work — with the program shaped around that direction.

Whatever the stage, the plan should connect your goals to real learning experiences and to how you'll notice progress. That last part matters, because progress is exactly what your annual report has to demonstrate later — your report is due at least two months, but no more than three months, before each anniversary of your registration. Planning with progress in mind now makes that report much easier.

Practical tips for writing yours

• Write in your own voice. Assessors read real plans from real families — plain English is fine and expected.
• Keep it realistic.A plan you can actually follow beats an ambitious one you'll quietly abandon by March.
• Set a few clear goals per area,then list the sorts of activities that work towards them — you don't need to schedule every week.
• Say how you'll track progress. Dated work samples, a simple learning journal, photos of projects — decide your method up front. Our record-keeping guide shows a light-touch system that feeds straight into your report.
• Need the big picture first? Our registration overview shows where the learning plan fits in the whole process.

This is a general overview, not legal advice, and requirements can change. For the current program templates, examples and forms, use the official Queensland Home Education forms and resources page.