Working parents frequently ask us how an online elementary school (in the UK, a primary school) works, and how it can support families where parents have demanding jobs or regular travel commitments, or where children balance academic study, social development and sporting commitments. In a full-time online elementary school, the school teaches, marks and tracks progress; the family provides supervision, a learning space and daily reading and number practice.

The balance of who does what is a significant talking point for families considering online education for younger children. Families are often surprised when we explain that our online primary school delivers a full academic and pastoral programme designed specifically for younger learners online, which sets it apart from home schooling.

Who does what in an online elementary school?

What the school takes care of

The school sets the timetable. Sophia teachers teach the daily live lessons, set independent tasks, mark the work, give feedback, follow up on missing work and plan consolidation or extension where a child needs it. These tasks are the school’s responsibility. Enrichment and House activities, assemblies and personal mentoring are part of the programme and give every pupil a varied timetable across the week, and parents meet the Form Tutor weekly or fortnightly so that communication stays clear and up to date.

Teachers record academic progress through standardised GL Assessment tests during the year, which compare each pupil’s standard with the UK national average, alongside end-of-unit assessments from the core subject schemes and observations of work shown in class and submitted online, as in a physical classroom. Parents receive report cards and can see live progress and attainment on our online Parent Dashboard. Live tracking lets teachers note and discuss a child’s areas of excellence, and follow up with support when a child falls behind.

What the family provides

The family keeps a much smaller set of responsibilities. With safeguarding always first, a contactable adult needs to be available for supervision during the school day, so the school can reach them about technical problems or attendance. Before any child and parent join, we run a series of workshops to build confidence with the digital tools we use.

The child needs a dedicated, quiet space to learn (we also suggest headphones), comfortable seating and a desk, paper and pens for working out during live lessons, and drinks and snacks throughout the day.

During school hours when there are no live lessons, children complete their independent work, socialise in the online Playgrounds, or go outside to run and play. Teachers also set daily reading and number practice alongside wider independent work, to build strong learning habits and encourage a love of reading.

When younger children join us, we ask parents to stay present and close at first to support their engagement. When the time is right, we encourage parents to step away so their children can engage independently and with confidence.

Our subject specialist teachers teach, set work, mark, give feedback, support, assess, record progress and report to parents, as in a physical school. Making sure a child joins each lesson and completes work set outside lessons remains the parent’s responsibility.

When you compare online elementary schools for your child, ask each school which of these responsibilities it takes on and which it passes to parents.

Sophia High School is a British online school for ages 4 to 18, based in London and accredited by the UK Department for Education. This guide uses its online primary school (Reception to Year 6) as the worked example.

Primary school or elementary school: what is the difference?

The two terms describe the same stage of education in two systems. In England, primary school runs from Reception to Year 6, which the UK national curriculum for England sets at ages 4 to 11 across the early years foundation stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

In the United States and Canada, elementary school covers “some combination of kindergarten through Grade 6”, roughly ages 5 to 12, according to the PIRLS 2016 Encyclopedia. The exact grades vary by country, state and district.

As a guide, English year groups line up with US and Canadian grades like this:

1. UK Reception (age 4 to 5): pre-kindergarten
2. UK Year 1 (age 5 to 6): US and Canada kindergarten
3. UK Year 2 (age 6 to 7): US and Canada Grade 1
4. UK Year 3 (age 7 to 8): US and Canada Grade 2
5. UK Year 4 (age 8 to 9): US and Canada Grade 3
6. UK Year 5 (age 9 to 10): US and Canada Grade 4
7. UK Year 6 (age 10 to 11): US and Canada Grade 5

Year 7, the first year of secondary school in England, corresponds to Grade 6 in the North American education systems.

Birthday cut-offs also differ between countries. England uses 31 August to set the year a child enters, whilst other systems often use 31 December as the cut-off for year group allocation. Sophia High School’s age calculator gives the exact year group for any date of birth.

How does an online elementary school work?

Families searching for an online or virtual elementary school will find three kinds of service:

1. Full-time online schools. The school enrols the child as a pupil, employs qualified teachers, follows a recognised curriculum, delivers live lessons across the taught curriculum, sets the timetable, marks the work and reports to parents.
2. Self-paced programmes. The child works through recorded lessons and activities. Workbooks are often provided to benchmark the taught curriculum. A parent or “learning coach” organises the week and checks the work.
3. Online tutoring. A tutor teaches one subject at a time in sessions the family books. The family arranges everything else. Tutors may or may not hold a teaching qualification.

For a working parent, a full-time online elementary school places most of the responsibility with the school. Parents act as supervisory support at home and receive regular updates on their children’s progress, in the same way physical schools take responsibility for educational outcomes and pastoral care on campus.

Self-paced and online tutoring models leave educational outcomes, the quality of the curriculum, and teaching and learning with the family, a model that may best suit homeschooling families who want that oversight themselves. These models provide curriculum materials and leave delivery to the support team at home.

Who teaches my child and plans their learning?

In a full-time online school, teachers plan the curriculum, prepare the materials and teach the lessons. Measuring academic and pastoral outcomes comes down to understanding each child’s starting point, setting targets, taking snapshots of attainment over time and measuring progress from the baseline at each checkpoint.

At Sophia’s online primary school:

1. Live lessons. Teachers teach English, Maths and Science live, in classes of six to eight pupils.
2. Project Based Learning. Collaborative Project Based Learning lessons teach the wider curriculum, including History, Geography, Art, Music and Design, through a transdisciplinary approach that connects subjects.
3. Discrete subjects. Teachers teach French, PE, Computer Science and Esports weekly in discrete live online lessons.
4. Short teaching blocks. Each lesson lasts up to 40 minutes and combines a live teacher-led lesson, active collaboration with peers and individual learning, followed by offline, independent consolidation and learning tasks.
5. Published schemes. Accredited schemes give pupils quality programmes and materials in reading, writing, maths and science: Literacy Tree for English, and White Rose for Maths and Science.
6. Prepared materials. Teachers set the work in each child’s digital notebook inside secure online Google Classrooms and have live access to the notebooks, so they can give in-the-moment feedback that guides learning as it happens. Small group learning, online.
7. Recordings. Teachers record all live lessons and post the recordings to Google Classroom at the end of the day, so children can rewatch them if needed and parents can view them as guardians. This transparency, and access to learning long after the live lesson ends, is a significant benefit for our families.

Parents do not need to find resources, explain new content or decide what comes next. The lesson recording, the digital notebook and the online resources in Google Classroom contain everything a child needs.

Who tracks progress and acts when a child needs help?

A survey of 554 elementary teachers across about 50 countries (Macur, 2022) found that assessing pupils received the most votes among the problems of online teaching, ahead of engagement and technology.

The same study showed that 55% of the teachers surveyed felt less competent teaching online. Ask any online elementary school how it handles this. How do teachers know where a child is on their learning continuum, how do they evidence it, and how do they decide the next steps?

At Sophia, progress tracking works in six ways:

1. Live visibility. Teachers see and respond to work as each child completes it in their notebook during the lesson, correcting misconceptions or offering extension as they appear.
2. Marking. Teachers mark submitted work and give feedback, according to the Parent Handbook.
3. Daily targets. Each day ends with a short review and updated targets.
4. Standardised tests. From Year 2 onwards, pupils take the GL CAT4 benchmark assessment on joining, and end-of-year Progress Tests in English, Maths and Science. The results map each pupil’s performance against national standards, drawn from a large sample of pupils in UK schools and British international schools around the world.
5. Parent contact. The school holds weekly or fortnightly meetings with parents, and termly consultations with Form Tutors and subject teachers review progress in more depth.
6. Learning support. When a child needs extra help, the school plans this support with the family; the learning support page sets out the process.

What does an online elementary school day look like?

At Sophia High, the school day for our online elementary school students follows the UK school day. Core live lessons take place in the morning, UK time, and some lessons continue into the afternoon, depending on each child’s timetable arrangement and time zone. Each day contains breaks between lessons, time to complete independent learning, time for movement and play, and time to engage in activities outside the online classroom. With a global cohort of students, families outside the UK have timetables adjusted to fit reasonably within their local time zone, while lessons remain within the UK school day. The school does not expect pupils to spend a full eight-hour day online.

A day at our online primary school follows the same rhythm:

1. Morning: core lessons. Daily live English, Maths and PBL lessons with movement breaks between them, Phonics in Key Stage 1 and Lower Key Stage 2, and guided reading throughout. Science and discrete subjects are timetabled weekly.
2. Morning: Form Time. A 15 to 20 minute pastoral session, Holistic Horizons, covers PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) and wellbeing check-ins. On Thursdays, assemblies (part or whole school) celebrate pupils’ successes, and parents are welcome to attend.
3. Afternoon: discrete foundation subjects. Subjects such as History, Geography, Art, PE, Design, French, Computer Science and Esports, or time for independent, creative work in the digital notebook.
4. End of day: review. A short review, updated targets and lesson recordings posted for parents in Google Classroom.
5. Fridays: enrichment. Core subjects run Monday to Thursday. Fridays focus on Enrichment, House activities and Competitions, and every pupil can share their passions and explore new ones.

How much adult support does an elementary-age child need at home?

Sophia asks for a contactable adult during the school day, an open learning space and oversight that suits the child’s age. Teachers do the teaching. The school’s policies set out the family’s responsibilities:

1. A contactable adult. Parents make sure a responsible adult is present at their location and contactable throughout the school day. When a child is not in a live lesson, they need suitable adult supervision.
2. Support while the child settles in. The Parents’ Terms and Conditions require a responsible adult to be present until the school confirms that the child can join live lessons independently. Before starting, families attend a Google and Canva Orientation Session so children can open the classroom and notebooks without help.
3. An open learning space. The child learns in a quiet environment (headphones help), sitting at a desk or table with a suitable chair to support good posture and physical health. The camera stays on at all times, and the computer needs a working microphone. iPads are not suitable for this kind of online learning. Phones stay out of sight and reach during lessons.
4. Daily practice. Parents of elementary and primary pupils support short daily practice in reading, phonics and number work, and make sure all independent work is completed by its deadline.
5. Age-appropriate oversight. Parents oversee the child’s online activity and set up parental controls. The school runs digital safety workshops for parents and works with families to put the correct controls on all learning technology.
6. Attendance. Parents tell the school as soon as possible when a child cannot attend. As a DfE accredited school, we expect good attendance of at least 95%.

The school’s IT team handles technical problems during the school day. Breaks, lunch and the hours after lessons fall under the family’s own childcare arrangements.

The balance matters in both directions. A child who confidently finishes a task alone and shares it with the teacher for feedback and next steps is doing what the lesson design asks for.

Research on remote primary learning during the pandemic school closures points to the same balance. In a survey of parents, Garbe et al. (2020) found that remote learning placed more responsibility for learning on parents, who reported difficulties balancing that role with their other responsibilities. A 2024 study of 28 parents of children aged 7 to 13, 17 of them in work, found that parents often felt they had become their children’s teachers, re-teaching material and managing the timing of each lesson (Kurum Tiryakioğlu, 2024). Sophia’s model keeps that work with the school: qualified teachers lead the live lessons and set the pace, children build independent learning habits, and parents keep their working day.

What should working parents ask before choosing an online elementary school?

Use these ten questions in any admissions conversation to judge whether an online elementary school is a good fit for your child:

1. Are lessons live, and who teaches them? Ask for teachers’ qualifications and how long they have taught the age group and subject. Have they passed all safeguarding clearance checks?
2. How many children are in each class?
3. Which curriculum does the school follow, and how does it map to the year groups or grades and subjects your child has studied?
4. How many live lessons are there each week, and how much time does your child need outside live lessons to complete the work teachers set?
5. How will your child learn the technology used to access live lessons and the work set in the online classroom?
6. How does the school track progress, and how often will you see it and receive teacher feedback?
7. What happens when a child falls behind or needs learning support?
8. What does the school expect from an adult at home? Ask for it in writing, so expectations are clear.
9. Which hours does the timetable cover in your time zone?
10. Who accredits the school? Check the inspection body and the registration number.

For a wider checklist on curriculum, teaching and pastoral standards, read our guide to the best online schools for primary-age children.

Sophia: an accredited online elementary school for working families

Sophia High School holds UK Department for Education accreditation through the Ofsted-delivered Online Education Accreditation Scheme, under URN 149905, and is an accredited member of the Independent Schools Association (ISA) and the Council of British International Schools (COBIS). The accreditation page lists each body.

1. Programme. Sophia’s online primary school teaches Reception to Year 6, Key Stages 1 and 2 (ages 4 to 11), in live classes of six to eight pupils.
2. Fees. Primary fees are £9,600 a year (plus 20% VAT for UK residents), payable annually or termly, with discounts for families with more than one child. Details sit on the school fees page. Each child requires a £1,000 refundable deposit.
3. Admissions. The application process has four steps: an online registration form, a £100 registration fee (plus 20% VAT for UK residents only), a live “getting to know you” session with a Senior Leader, and signing the Parent Terms and Conditions. Most families complete the process within two to three weeks.
4. Families abroad. The international families page covers time zones, travelling internationally during the school year and joining from outside the UK.

Frequently asked questions

New pupils join the Spring Term on 5 January 2027, and returning pupils start on 6 January (term dates). Admissions take two to three weeks, so families aiming for January should send an enquiry by early December to ensure a smooth start.