Plain-English reference
Home education glossary
Concise definitions for terms families repeatedly encounter. These explanations are general information, not legal or clinical advice.
- Elective home education
- Education provided by a parent instead of full-time attendance at school. The legal process and terminology vary across the UK.
- SEND
- Special educational needs and disabilities. Official definitions and processes depend on the UK nation and context.
- SEN
- Special educational needs: needs that may require educational provision different from or additional to usual provision.
- EHCP
- An Education, Health and Care Plan used in England for some children and young people who need support beyond ordinarily available provision.
- Neurodivergence
- A broad, non-diagnostic term describing minds that develop or function differently from what is treated as typical. It can include autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other differences.
- Executive function
- Mental processes involved in starting, planning, remembering steps, regulating attention and completing tasks.
- Sensory processing
- How the nervous system notices and responds to sensory information such as sound, light, touch, movement and smell.
- Working memory
- The limited amount of information a person can hold and use at one time.
- Reasonable adjustments
- Changes intended to reduce substantial disadvantage for a disabled person. The legal meaning depends on context.
- KS3
- Key Stage 3 in the English National Curriculum, commonly covering Years 7 to 9. Kinduru keeps key-stage mapping as internal curriculum metadata rather than a learner label.
- KS4
- Key Stage 4 in England, commonly covering Years 10 and 11 and often connected with GCSE study.
- Curriculum
- An organised plan for what is taught, in what sequence and toward which learning aims.
- Autonomous learning
- An approach in which a learner has substantial control over what, how or when they learn.
- Structured learning
- Learning organised through an explicit sequence, routine or curriculum. Structure can remain flexible and learner-responsive.