Difficult times are ahead of us all with both parents working from home and now schools closing so kids are to be ‘homeschooled’. Luckily in this day and age, there are plenty of online resources to support families and here we’ve broken them down by Key Stage and subject. There is some overlap and in the end we’ve added some extra resources so it’s worth skimming the whole article.

First of all, here are our 6 top tips to making this work for everyone:

1.Set a timetable

Secondary schools are already setting the expectation that pupils follow their school timetable, studying and submitting school work as allocated online throughout the day. This will help you manage your own workload too.

2. Study Sharing

Families are going to be in each others pockets a lot more than even summer holiday time. Worst, the weather and the pandemic is going to make a lot of us housebound. So for those people who don’t have symptoms and have passed the self-isolation recommendation why not buddy up with another family with kids in the same class as yours and take it in turns to ‘host’ home school? The kids will enjoy it and work well together and it gives everyone a break. This often works well with older/younger kids where the oldest can ‘mentor’ the younger one through their work. It’s a learning experience for everyone.

3. Break time

Breaks are as important as studying so make sure the kids know when they can take a break and what the parameters for the break are. Can they use a device? Have a snack? Facetime a friend(s)? Be clear and open.

4. Exercise

We’re all going to be at home snacking and working, it’s really important to make sure we all get some exercise too. We’ve outlined a few activities that are free and easy to access. 

5. Screen time

Screen time doesn’t need to be your enemy - see below for some ways to reward/engage your kids in an educational way.

6. Enjoy

This isn’t a situation any of us could have anticipated but it’s happened and we’re here. The kids are going to bicker, it’s going to be tough to keep going and no-one knows when it’s going to be over. What we can control though is how we go into this. Let’s try and enjoy each other’s company and use this time as an opportunity to engage as a family. This situation can be as good or bad as we make it - let’s try and make it good.

RESOURCES

KS3/KS4: 

Luckily secondary school kids are used to working to a school timetable and the schools are setting expectations that every child will follow their existing schedule completing and submitting classwork online throughout the day for assessment. This makes parents lives a lot more straightforward. It’s also important to encourage your kids to read every day. Here is a list of online resources that can support your child’s continued development:

Design & Technology

Tinkercad - https://www.tinkercad.com - All kinds of making

Geography:

BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zrw76sg

Various topics, resources, and tests on most KS3 units including plenty of Geographical map skills 

Geography Games - Geography gaming!

History

Big History Project - Aimed at Secondary age. Multidisciplinary activities.

Languages:

Duolingo - https://www.duolingo.com - Learn languages for free. Web or app.

 Science:

Kerboodle.com Science online textbook for KS3 

Pearson Activelearn Science online textbook for KS4 

Teaching English Language

British Council https://www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources/find - Resources for English language learning

Multidisciplinary

BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zrw76sg Various topics, resources and tests on most KS3 units including plenty of Geographical map skills 

Maths & Computing:

Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org - Especially good for maths and computing for all ages but other subjects at Secondary level. Note this uses the U.S. grade system but it's mostly common material.

Coding:

Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/ 

Sololearn https://www.sololearn.com/ 

W3schools https://www.w3schools.com/ HTML 

Coding Python.org www.python.org Python programming 

https://www.codecademy.com/ Another coding website 

Hour of code https://hourofcode.com/uk/learn  

Films (English)

Jane Austen - Emma, Clueless

Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing, 10 things I hate about you, Kiss me Kate, O, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story

Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers

Victor Hugo - Les Miserables

Younger films (but still relevant)

Lucy Maud Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables

E Nesbit - The Railway Children, 5 Children and It

Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden

PL Travers - Mary Poppins

J M Barrie - Peter Pan

A Ransome - Swallows and Amazons

Online video content:

 Ted Ed - https://ed.ted.com - All sorts of engaging educational videos

The Kids Should See This - https://thekidshouldseethis.com - Wide range of cool educational videos

Crash Course - https://thecrashcourse.com - You Tube videos on many subjects

 

Exercise:

It’s really important to keep the kids fit and active, whether that’s by building an exercise routine into the day, or better, getting them out and about

Jo Wicks, The Body Coach, is launching a daily HIIT workout at 9am every weekday - Tune in to ‘PE with Jo’

Once you’ve got the kids away from their devices, it’s well worth the effort, get them into the great outdoors and occupy them with activities like these https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/ A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location.

 

KS4:

BBC Bitesize - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/zy3ptyc Various topics, resources and tests on KS4 AQA units 

Science: Pearson Activelearn Science online textbook for KS4 

GCSE and above (multidiscipline):

Seneca - https://www.senecalearning.com For those revising at GCSE or A level. Tons of free revision content. Paid access to higher-level material.

 Openlearn - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ Free taster courses aimed at those considering Open University but everyone can access it. Adult level, but some e.g. nature and environment courses could well be of interest to young people.

Teaching Packs

http://www.teachingpacks.co.uk - Learning packs to print out, there are LOADS of them and each pack can be tailored to different learners.

BBC Learning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/coursesearch/ This site is old and no longer updated and yet there's so much still available, from language learning to BBC Bitesize for revision. No TV license required except for content on BBC iPlayer.

Futurelearn - https://www.futurelearn.com Free to access 100s of courses, only pay to upgrade if you need a certificate in your name (own account from age 14+ but younger learners can use a parent account).

We hope you enjoyed this blogpost - just in case there aren’t enough resources or ideas here, don’t forget our Conversation Cards also provide a fun, structured way to have topical, meaningful conversations.