Throughout the UK, many parents have unexpectedly taken on a role of supporting the education of their children at home, whilst key workers in education are dividing time between educating their pupils remotely, providing resources to help parents support their child’s learning and caring for the students still attending schools.
We’ve put together some of the top free educational resources that parents and teachers have been using throughout the social distancing period. We’ll keep this list updated to the best of our knowledge and pinned to the top of The Hub so you can easily find and share with others.
Click the bullets below to jump straight to the subject area:
- General resources
- Maths
- English, literacy and humanities
- Health and wellbeing
- Languages
- Science, geography and outdoors
General learning resources
BBC Teach
BBC Teach has educational resources for students of all ages, with curriculum-mapped materials and activities to support learning. A wide range of subjects are covered, including PSHE, Drama, Design and Technology and a variety of modern foreign languages.
Twinkl
Twinkl is an online learning platform with resources for KS1, KS2, KS3/4 and SEND students. Twinkl has created a Home Learning Hub with free resources to support all ages, including home learning plans to help plan out students’ days.
Classroom Secrets
Educational resource provider, Classroom Secrets, has created dedicated home learning packs for years groups EYFS to Year 6, complete with a variety of subject-related activity sheets and practical ideas. Its Classroom Secrets Kids website is also currently free to sign up to, with interactive resources, tutorials and games.
Chartered College of Teaching tips
The Chartered College of Teaching has shared research and advice on the importance of engaging with home learning, with advice for how teachers can support parents and tips to help parents engage with home learning and create good learning environments at home.
Winston’s Wish
The charity Winston’s Wish has produced a number of incredibly helpful advice documents, ranging from how to speak with children about coronavirus, through to supporting pupils who have lost a loved one.
Free training with Lyfta
Lyfta runs a free, certified, professional development course for teachers as part of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning programme, which focuses on teaching Sustainable Development Goals, skills and values. To find out more about the training programme and to book onto a session at a time that suits you, please click here
Discovery Education Free Resources
Discovery Education has made a selection of fantastic resources freely available to support parents and schools with home learning. The free resources include support with literacy and maths as well as interesting topics such as ‘exploring the depth of outer space’, ‘learn more about where food comes from’ or ‘learn more about the human body’. There are hundreds of award-winning resources to explore which you can find here.
Diversity Role Models
Diversity Role Models (DRM) has developed a collection of fun and engaging activities to encourage learning about LGBT+ equality and difference from home. Each activity has multiple parts that can be stand-alone exercises or completed altogether.
Maths resources
The Maths Factor
The Maths Factor was originally created by maths expert, Carol Vorderman, and later acquired by Pearson Education. Usually offered on a subscription basis, you can now access daily maths lessons, games and courses for KS1 and KS2 students aged 4-12 years.
White Rose Maths
White Rose Maths has created a free set of maths lessons for students in Early Years education up to Year 8, with more resources being added for additional year groups soon.
English, literacy and humanities
Whether you introduce reading into daily schedules alongside the curriculum or encourage children to spend time reading a book of their choice for fun, there are plenty of additional resources at the moment.
Audible has made a huge range of children’s and teenagers’ audiobooks available, as well as literary classics, for free.
You can download and print a variety of activity sheets from Oxford Owl for free, including reading, writing, spelling and SATs skills sheets, as well as finding a variety of tips on organising children’s learning days.
Meanwhile, children’s authors such as Oliver Jeffers and David Walliams have made their children’s stories available. A story from David Walliams’ series The World’s Worst Children is shared daily at 11am, whilst Oliver Jeffers reads his stories daily via Instagram and publishes on his website, with a commentary and discussion behind the making of his stories.
Discovery Education commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day
Join Discovery Education to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. Through a series of activities, learn what life was like in Britain during the Second World War, culminating in a national virtual tea party. Click here to see how you can get involved.
Free home learning resources to support EAL pupils
NAHT partner FlashAcademy® a digital language-learning platform that teaches English from 45 home languages, has created a raft of free EAL home learning packs to help minimise disruption to English language development during school closures. Here is a summary of what the packs contain and how to access them.
Health and wellbeing
P.E. with Joe Wickes
The Body Coach, Joe Wickes, has pledged to become the nation’s P.E. teacher and people of all ages have been tuning in every morning from 9-9.30am to take part!
imoves
Parents and teachers can sign up to receive new daily activities to their inboxes, with quick blasts of activity to full fitness sessions at home or school.
Change4life at home
With a variety of Disney-inspired games and activities, change4life has created fun resources to help keep children of all abilities fit and active whilst at home.
PSHE Association
The PSHE Association has created a coronavirus hub, where it has added some home learning resources, a guide for teaching PSHE remotely and advice on how to address the coronavirus situation in relation to PSHE.
MiSP
Mindfulness in Schools Project is inviting NAHT members and their families to join them in a free daily mindfulness practice online. Find out how to join in here.
Languages
Interactive language software provider Rosetta Stone is offering school children three months of free access, where they will be able to receive instant feedback and progress reports.
Apps such as Duolingo also use similar approaches to learning new languages. Starting by learning words through sequences and images, you can progress onto phrases, sentences and different topics.
Science, Geography and outdoors
STEM Learning
STEM has provided a variety of resources covering science topics, computing, design and technology and maths, with suitable activities, ideas and demonstrations for all ages, including post-16. There are also fun ideas for whole family activities, with topics designed to challenge and create discussion.
Learning Through Landscapes
The Learning Through Landscapes website has all sorts of free resources to inspire outdoor lessons. From inspiration for literary works and outdoor craft projects to observing nature, growing plants and physics experiments, there are ideas to keep students busy for weeks.
Explorify
The Explorify team has created #ScienceFromHome on Twitter to share activities and inspiration for home learning whilst it’s working on producing new resources. However, you can also sign up to Explorify for free to choose from a variety of activities and download certificates and activity trackers to keep younger students motivated.
Transform Our World: Learning from home
A quality-rated resource hub to help teachers bring environmental action into the classroom. With formats including quizzes, cartoon strips and games, these learning from home resources from Transform Our World partners are perfect for parents and teachers to use remotely.
What resources have you been using at home and what are your standouts? Let us know in the Have Your Say page so we can keep the list up to date!