13/08/2026
Check out what Lara is offering next academic year.
New timetable announcement?! A long read here but I need to explain!
(If you're new, I'm Lara, a teacher-actor who streams free lessons for home educators on this page).
I've been planning three lessons a week for years now -
1) The all-ages lesson, with a household-object activity, questions to check understanding, and free print outs. These lessons usually include ‘school science’ but they're also a high energy performance which hides the vegetables. I hear from many parents of kids with school trauma and PDA saying how well they work. I also really enjoy them because we spend 6-7 weeks on one topic so I can roughly plan them in advance and have learned loads by the end.
2) A LEGO story show, with household-object activity, chat, and story at the end. These are popular, but not as popular as the all-ages lessons and they're the most work for me by quite a long way. Every week I research a new topic, find/invent an activity, write a story from scratch, set up the Lego, and riff facts about the topic for about 40 minutes live to camera. Sometimes I smash it, sometimes I barely scrape in 😅 Attendance is patchy- some topics are really popular and some less so - but they all use a lot of time and adrenalin that I'd like to try channeling into something else. The audience for these lessons is also the same as the all-ages lessons and a lot of regulars are aging out, into…
3) IGCSE Physics lessons. The least attended, but the audience appreciates them and I feel I’m doing an important job. They’re more ‘guys this is so cool!’ energy, less ‘here’s what you need to know to pass’, which suits home educated kids really well. They can buy a revision guide and learn how to get marks - they need someone to introduce the topic in a way that makes them care, and details to make it relevant to real life. I’ve heard from a gorgeous amount of people whose ‘children’ are now doing physics at uni after I got them into it!! That said, I’ve taught the entire course twice now (over four years!) and it’s all available for watching on catch up, so I’d like to try branching out a bit. Which leads me to the new thing 😬😬
4) IGCSE Science lessons. I’d like to trial teaching biology, chemistry and physics in a way that makes it properly interesting and relevant, but also gives kids all the information they need to take IGCSE Double Award if they fancy. ‘School’ science is fascinating - what makes something alive? How do leaves work?! - but you need to have time to delve into details, and tell stories, which I’m good at. I’m hoping I can incorporate a lot of the Lego show suggestions into these lessons too. The big advantage for me is that after two years I end up with a module I can teach again so it’s more sustainable. It also means that I’ll have taught a third of IGCSE biology, which so many of you have requested, so then doing that whole course is less of a jump.
Any questions let me know! My only concern - apart from facing upset over the lack of Lego show - is that ‘IGCSE Double award Science’ sounds so boring 😂 and a few people said ‘we wouldn’t want that because we’re doing the sciences individually’. But I think if I can get across to people that it covers two thirds of what you need for any science IGCSE, and is just a great science grounding and you definitely don’t need to want to do exams to take it, it could work really well. Worth a trial!
