About us

Who we are

homeschoolinginportugal.com is an independent project by the team behind alternativeschoolsinportugal.com, a directory of alternative schools, learning communities and homeschool support centres across Portugal.

Running that directory, we kept hearing the same questions from families. How do I ask the school? What goes in the protocolo? Which exams does my child sit, and when? What does the school actually need from us in June? The answers existed, but they were spread across decrees, ministry FAQs, school websites and long threads in parent groups. Many of them were only in Portuguese, and some were out of date.

Why this site exists

We want every family considering ensino doméstico or ensino individual in Portugal to find clear, current and sourced answers in one place, in English and in European Portuguese.

That means:

• explaining the law as it is written, with a link to the official text for every legal claim;
• saying plainly when the law is silent or when schools do things differently;
• showing when each page was last reviewed, and keeping a dated record of changes to the rules;
• respecting schools. Most of them want the arrangement to work as much as you do, and good cooperation makes the year easier for everyone.

What we are not

We are not lawyers, and nothing on this site is legal advice. If you are in a dispute with a school, speak to a lawyer or to one of the family associations.

We are not the Ministry of Education, EduQA, the DGE or any other public body, and we do not speak for them.

We are not a school, and we are not an online school. We do not enrol children, issue certificates or sign protocolos. Your child is enrolled in a Portuguese school, and that school, together with you, is responsible for the arrangement.

We do not decide anything about your application. Schools and the authorities decide. We explain how the process works so you can prepare well.

Free guides and paid tools

The guides, the calendar, the eligibility checker, the glossary and the letter templates are free and will stay free. They are the core of the site, and we write them for anyone who needs them, whether or not they ever pay us.

The paid subscription is a set of working tools for the families who are already doing this every year: an annual teaching plan generator, a learning log, a portfolio builder, and sample tests and exercises grounded in the official Aprendizagens Essenciais. These tools use AI to prepare drafts, which the family reviews and edits. See pricing for the plans.

The subscription pays for the time it takes to keep the free guides accurate. It does not buy influence over them: paying families get the same guides as everyone else, and we do not accept sponsored content. You can read more in our editorial policy.

Contact

We read every message. Write to hello@homeschoolinginportugal.com with questions, suggestions or corrections. If you have found an error in a guide, please tell us which page and, if you can, the source that shows the correct information. We will check it and fix it.

We cannot give advice on individual cases, but your questions help us decide which guides to write next.