For home educators

The dread tends to lift

The Hedge gets to know your family first, then builds the home education around them - daily ideas that fit, a plan that bends to your approach, and a learning record that quietly keeps itself. So you teach normally, and the evidence is already there when AEARS comes around. Learning that feels like a breath, not a battle.

Try Educator free Not ready? Get the AEARS checklist

The Hedge is not an official Tusla product and is not affiliated with Tusla. It is a planning and record-keeping tool that helps you organise the kind of evidence an AEARS assessment looks for.

Free guide

Not ready to sign up? Get our AEARS guide

Pop in your email and we will send you a free AEARS readiness checklist and a home-ed first-steps guide for Ireland - the plain-English version of what the assessment actually looks for, and how to get your evidence in order before the season starts.

No spam. Just the checklist and the odd home-ed guide. We'll never share your email.

Or read our full guide to the Tusla AEARS process

How it works

It learns your family first

Most tools hand you a blank planner and wish you luck. The Hedge starts the other way around. We sit down at the kitchen table with a few gentle questions about your children, your days, and the kind of home education you want to run. From that, The Hedge builds your Family Framework - and everything after that bends to fit it.

The Kitchen Table
It gets to know you
A short, warm chat about your family - ages, interests, your rhythm, what a good week looks like. No forms to wrestle with. The Hedge listens, then builds your Family Framework around the answers.
Your stance
It adapts to your approach
Run a structured timetable, or a gentle child-led rhythm, or something in between. The Hedge meets you where you are and suggests ideas that fit your way of doing things - never the other way around.
The record
It keeps the evidence for you
You teach normally. In the background, every activity is dated and tagged to the NCCA curriculum, so the AEARS record builds itself. When assessment season comes, the evidence is already organised and ready.
Educator plan features

Built for Irish home educators

NCCA Curriculum Mapping
Every activity is tagged to the NCCA primary curriculum strands. Your children learn through doing - The Hedge tracks the curriculum automatically in the background.
Learning Logs for AEARS
Tusla's Alternative Education Assessment and Registration Service (AEARS) looks for evidence of learning. The Hedge auto-generates date-stamped, curriculum-tagged records of everything your child does, designed to help you organise that evidence.
PDF Report Export
Generate a formatted PDF learning report at any time - covering any date range, any subject areas, any children. A clear, organised record to bring to your AEARS assessment, with one click.
Weekly Curriculum Planner
Plan your week across the NCCA primary subject areas. The Hedge suggests activities that fit your plan, balances subjects automatically, and flags any areas that haven't been covered recently.
Multi-Child Management
Running a household school? Manage each child's curriculum, interests, and learning records completely separately - or together, for activities that work across ages.
IEP Support Tools
For children with additional learning needs, The Hedge supports Individual Education Plan (IEP) goal setting, tracking, and evidence gathering alongside the main curriculum.
Evidence from real life
Did something off-plan? Tell The Hedge what happened, by text or voice, and it reads it back, finds what it covered across Aistear and the primary curriculum, and keeps it as portfolio evidence. Following a child's spark becomes proof of learning, not a gap.
Curriculum coverage

Full NCCA curriculum mapping

Every activity in The Hedge is tagged to at least one NCCA strand. Over time, the platform helps you see where your children are thriving - and which areas could use more attention.

Curriculum stages covered

From early childhood through the end of primary, The Hedge grows with your children.

Junior Infants – 2nd Class3rd – 4th Class5th – 6th Class

Subjects mapped

MathematicsEnglish LanguageIrish LanguageScience (SESE)Geography (SESE)History (SESE)Arts EducationDramaMusicPhysical EducationSPHEReligious Education
AEARS & Tusla

The AEARS process, simplified

The Tusla AEARS assessment can feel daunting. The Hedge takes the administrative burden away entirely, so you can focus on the actual education. If you want to understand the process in full, our plain-English guide to the Tusla AEARS process walks you through every step.

Step 1
Teach normally
Go about your home education as usual. Every activity you log in The Hedge is automatically tagged, dated, and linked to the relevant curriculum strands.
Step 2
Review your log
At any time, open the Learning Log to see a chronological record of everything you've covered - searchable by subject, strand, or date range.
Step 3
Generate your report
When assessment time comes, generate a learning report. Choose your date range and the system produces a formatted PDF in under 10 seconds.
Step 4
Walk in prepared
Your report shows dated evidence of curriculum-aligned learning across the subject areas you have covered - a clear, organised record to bring to your AEARS assessment.
Early access

Built with Irish home educators

The Hedge is new, and we are building the home education tools alongside the families who use them. We will not put words in other parents' mouths here. If the AEARS season fills you with dread, come and help us make the tool you wish you had - and shape it as we go.

Try the Educator plan
Get the free AEARS prep checklist

Still weighing it up? Take the checklist away with you. We will send the AEARS readiness checklist and our home-ed first-steps guide straight to your inbox - no account needed.

Homeschool questions

Answers for home educators

The Hedge is not an official Tusla product. The learning logs it generates are designed to help you organise the kind of evidence an AEARS assessment looks for, so you can walk in with a clear, dated record of what you have covered.
The primary NCCA curriculum (Junior Infants to 6th Class) and the Aistear early childhood framework. The Hedge is focused on early years and primary, so it is built around the under-12 stages of Irish education.
The Hedge works for all home-educating families. Our tools support both AEARS assessment preparation and everyday learning record keeping, whatever stage of registration you are at.
The Hedge is a supplement and planning tool, not a standalone curriculum provider. It works beautifully alongside structured programmes like Classical Conversations, Charlotte Mason, or your own bespoke approach.

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