Recommended Resources

As teachers and parents ourselves, we completely appreciate that there are many parents who feel overwhelmed as they want to support their children effectively but may feel that they lack the knowledge, skills, ideas and resources to do it. Therefore, we have created this list (which we will keep adding to) to help you and we hope that you find it useful. We use many of the sites and programmes in the school we teach in and so we can vouch for their usefulness to you throughout this challenging period.

A great starting point would be to look at some of these resources with your children and, together, compile a timetable for the week of what you will do in order to maintain a degree of structure.

In addition to using these resources, if you feel  that your child needs further personalised help or you are finding resistance an issue, then please do get in touch to discuss our supportive and flexible tuition options, including our popular and affordable online tuition options. 

Rebecca and David

Maths Resources and Ideas

White Rose Maths - a Maths scheme used by thousands of teachers for their usual Maths lessons in schools each day. White Rose are providing excellent, short daily maths lessons via a video and worksheet for families to do at home. They have made lessons for Early Years through to Year 8. A brilliant resource! https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/

Times Table Rockstars - arguably the best times table resource ever and we love it at Nottingham Tutors! Free for 60 days if your child does not have a school account.  Suitable for all ages. www.ttrockstars.com

Count On - Maths games for all ages. http://www.counton.org/games/

Corbett Maths Primary - free Maths videos, worksheets and study cards for primary aged children. https://corbettmathsprimary.com/

Corbett Maths - free Maths videos, worksheets and study cards for secondary aged children. https://corbettmaths.com/

The Maths Factor (created by Carol Vorderman) - free during the school closure period. https://www.themathsfactor.com/

Other ideas:

Cook/bake together with your children and explore the measurements involved e.g. 'This recipe says I need 300g of sugar. I have poured in 50g so how many more grams do I need?' or 'This recipe says this cake makes 6 portions, how much of each ingredient do we need to use so we have enough for 12 or even 8 people?'

Another fun learning opportunity is to do your shopping online with your children. You could also give them a 'budget' and tell them to 'order' enough items for a number of people to have a party/BBQ etc. 

English (including Phonics) Resources

Phonics Play - free to use during the school closure period which would support both Early Years and KS1 children with their phonics. https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

Phonics Bloom - some free phonics games which would support both Early Years and KS1 children with their phonics. https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

Ruth Miskin Phonics videos - free daily videos to support with phonics. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo7fbLgY2oA_cFCIg9GdxtQ?fbclid=IwAR19E2vpDgtgOGcEYuEmcd5Rjqe5WLUjCy3RXwn4NgCOORNtJgMIazYnUMc 

Audible - free audio books to stream and listen to. https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

David Walliams - on his website, David Walliams has been releasing a daily audio story read by himself https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

Literacy Shed - a brilliant site used by thousands of teachers in schools. It has a huge range of videos to inspire story writing that can be done at home. Some of the videos also have question prompts and activity ideas your children could do. Suitable for all ages. https://www.literacyshed.com/

Purple Mash - a brilliant resource that is very popular in schools with many engaging online interactive reading comprehensions (Serial Mash). These stories are broken down into chapters with attached optional writing activites. Great to dip into each day. Suitable for ages 5-11. There is a 14 day free trial available - worth using for at least 2 weeks! https://www.purplemash.com/login/ 

Oxford Owl - free e-books to read with your child. These can be chosen by searching for the book band that your child is on to make sure they are appropriate for their reading level. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/reading/

Get Epic - hundreds of free books to read online. https://www.getepic.com/?fbclid=IwAR0JkOo0DDZGcD_yGGAUoELD7vB-5n7TVYaCF51nI98zf6KBPOu_70lUSiU 

ICT Games - English games for Key Stage One children. https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/literacy.html 

Letters and Sounds - good to support the teaching of Phonics.  www.letters-and-sounds.com/ 

Alphablocks - short videos to support Early Reading.  www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks 

Teach Your Monster to Read - a free website which supports Early Reading (can buy the app).  www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/ 

Once Upon a Picture - use the image to inspire writing for all ages. https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/

Pobble 365 - free daily grammar and writing challenges for all ages. http://www.pobble365.com/

Vooks - story books brought to life (first month free). https://www.vooks.com/ 

Grammarsaurus - free writing resources. https://grammarsaurus.co.uk/portal/free-materials/

Wind in the Willows The Musical - watch a performance of The Wind in the Willows.  Great entertainment and could also be used as a writing prompt or as inspiration to write and  perform a play at home. www.willowsmusical.com

Lit Film Fest -  Reading Rocks Reviews is a 5 lesson English project in which students write, video and share their own vlog-style book reviews with the help of some well known authors including Michael Rosen. https://litfilmfest.com/product-category/free/ 

Science

British Science Week  - lots of science activites that can be done at home. www.britishscienceweek.org

Science Max - YouTube is also a great source of fun experiment inspiration and 'Science Max' has plenty of engaging videos for children. www.youtube.com/channel/UCbprhISv-0ReKPPyhf7-Dtw 

Edinburgh Zoo - Edinburgh zoo has live cam of some animals. Great source of inspiration to then do some research e.g. life cycles/habitats etc. www.edinburghzoo.org.uk/webcams/penguin-cam/

Doctor Spoctor's Super Science - free online Science workshops. https://facebook.com/events/s/free-online-excellent-electric/1477397139109903/?ti=as

Explorable - science project ideas for children to do at home https://explorable.com/kids-science-projects

Maddie Moate - Daily garden related science videos with TV presenter Maddie Moate https://www.youtube.com/maddiemoate

Dr Chips - Live daily science experiments that children can do at home  https://drchips.weebly.com/

Explorify - free science activities. https://explorify.wellcome.ac.uk/ 

Virtual Practical Apps - (Secondary and A level) https://phet.colorado.edu/ 

BBC Bitesize Secondary Science - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zrkw2hv 

General Resources

BBC Bitesize - videos and resources on all topics for all ages. www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

TES - a website where thousands of teachers get resources from. For all ages. Most resources are free but some are chargeable. www.tes.com

Primary Resources - a website where thousands of teachers get resources from. For all ages and all subjects. www.primaryresources.co.uk 

Twinkl - a website where thousands of teachers get resources from for all ages. Currently offering 1 month free to parents during the closure period. www.twinkl.co.uk

Top Marks - a whole host of free games and resources for all ages and topics. Just type in your concept/topic of choice. www.topmarks.co.uk 

Joe Wicks' Workout - a live, fun daily workout for your kids by YouTuberJoe Wicks from 9am-9.30am Monday to Friday throughout the closure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6r99N3kXME

Virtual Museums - virtual tours of museums around the world. Could be used to inspire home research projects. https://www.travelandleisure.com/attractions/museums-galleries/museums-with-virtual-tours

https://upgradedpoints.com/best-virtual-museum-tours/ 

Big History Project - 13.8 billion years of history for Upper Key Stage Two children. https://school.bighistoryproject.com/bhplive

Craft Ideas - fun craft ideas to keep your children busy! www.thebudgetdiet.com/45-diy-fun-summer-projects-to-do-with-your-kids 

Art Lesson - a brilliant follow along, step by step art lesson on how to to draw perspective. Suitable for age 8 upwards. Very popular with children! www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZD8BjTK8dE 

Purple Mash - aswell as the above mentioned reading activities, this site has lots of computing, art, science and topic based actvities and games. 14 day free trial available. www.purplemash.com/login/

Oddizzi  - useful tool to see what knowledge your children have about a specific topic. 

www.oddizzi.com/features/geography-quiz/ 

TTS Booklets - free booklets to download and/or print off for Early Years, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two children with lots of activities to do in a range of subjects. www.tts-group.co.uk/home+learning+activities.html

Classroom Secrets - free resources to use throughout the school closure period. https://classroomsecrets.co.uk/home-online-learning/ 

Primary Stars Education - free access to some resources throughout the school closure period. https://primarystarseducation.co.uk/ 

Primary Games - games for all primary aged children. https://www.primarygames.com/