Online education resources for school children
Covid-19 - Online education resources for school children
We want to support parents, children and teachers with home schooling once again during lockdown.
Below we have pulled together a collection of our online education resources for school children and signposted other external sources. All of these resources are either free, or they have been made free during the period of school closures.
If any of the links are out of date or you have any useful additions, please email community@warwick.ac.uk.
University of Warwick resources
Family friendly Science Lectures
In partnership with Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate, the University of Warwick produces a series of fun-packed family-friendly Science Lectures every year around Christmas time for the general public, particularly aimed at school-aged children - in December 2020 these moved online. Given the challenging circumstances we all find ourselves in at the start of 2021, this year's lectures are available for free on our YouTube channel for anyone to watch until the summer. These 10 minute bite-sized chunks of science might be helpful to support home learning - or just to have some fun during lockdown. They are suitable for a wide range of ages but we think you will find some of them to be particularly suitable for ages 7-19.
The lectures include:
'The Levitating Train: Superconductivity' with Dr Paul Goddard (recommended for ages 12+)
'Stardust: the Birth of Planets' with Dr Farzana Meru (recommended for ages 12+)
'Seeing is Believing: the Huge Effect of Tiny Atoms' with Dr Aruni Fonseka (recommended for ages 10+)
'The Astronomical Ruler: Measuring Distances in Space' with Tishtrya Mehta (recommended for ages 10+)
'Technicians to the Moon: How do Rockets Work?' with Paul McCarroll and Dr Alan Burton (recommended for ages 8+)
'Whizz, Pop, Bang: Experiments to Do at Home' with Ally Caldecote (recommended for ages 8+)
Click on the name of the lecture you'd like to watch above, or watch the whole playlist on the Warwick Arts Centre YouTube channel.
Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) Outreach online resources
WMG Outreach have resources which are available online for students, families and virtual classrooms to take part in! Videos, tutorials, experiments and lessons, all ready for people to try at home. If any parents are wondering what to do with the full house over the coming weeks, try these out and if you have have any requests for topics, email wmgoutreach@warwick.ac.uk.
Some of the resources include:
Turtlestitch – a free website on which users can write a programme to control a digital embroidery machine. It's a fun way to apply maths skills and discover the patterns they can make using maths. It's great for children in school years 5 to 9 and ideal for learning at home while schools are closed.
Find WMG video tutorials, how-to cards and maths tasks to guide users through Turtlestitch here.
Tinkercad – a colourful, easy-to-use computer-aided design software, free to use in the web browser. This fun activity can be enjoyed by children from around 8 years old. Teachers, kids, hobbyists and designers use it to imagine, design and make anything.
You can find video tutorials and ideas for several projects here, including keyrings, money pots and lolly drip trays.
If you fancy getting a bit more hands on, staff at WMG have also made some videos demonstrating experiments to do at home, using household items and toys you might already have. It's advised that children are supervised doing these experiments.
CAD tutorials aimed at 14+, which could be used by engineers to prepare them for study in September.
Fun Maths and Science activities (suitable for age 9-11)
Something very old and very cool! From Euclid, the Father of Geometry - give it a go.
Cubes and Big animals – Maths and Science questions for Year 6 – answers are here.
Four Science Questions for your enjoyment! You can find the answers here.
How long would the line of toothpaste be if you squeezed all of the toothpaste out of a new tube in one go? See if you can find the answer.
Shapes Gold Magic - answers are here
Beans Stars Dogs - answers are here
Penny Farthing Radiator - answers are here.
Sphere Level Tram - answers are here
Ages Web Bike - answers are here
Warwick Classics and Ancient History (KS2- KS5)
With many parents and students turning to online teaching resources, the Classics outreach team have condensed some of the information from the rest of their site to provide a quick and easy set of resources for home schooling. More specific resources on special topics and modules from the GCSE/A-level curricula are provided in the other sections of their website.
Warwick Sport (all ages)
Warwick Sport are working to keep people moving during COVID-19 with live fitness classes, classes on-demand and Les Mills workouts - check out what's available here.
Home fitness - Get active with your kids
Warwick Arts Centre - art-related activities that you can do at home
Recreate an artwork from the collection (suitable for all ages)
Find objects in your house that you can use to recreate artwork from the University's collection. You can choose anything from the collection which you can find here.
To give you some inspiration, the team have already had a go – take a look.
National Institute for Health Research - Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands
Explaining COVID-19 Statistics to children (aged 8 - 13) - News blog from Dr Celia Brown, Associate Professor of Quantitative Research, Warwick Medical School
This blog is a mixture of information for parents, and information and activities for children (aged 8-13). Some activities have different versions for older (10-13) and younger (8-10) children.
Explaining COVID-19 Statistics to Children (p13). Answers to the article on COVID-19 statistics! (p25).
The King, Covid-10 and the randomised controlled trial (suitable for primary school children)
Dr Celia Brown from Warwick Medical School has produced a video for children explaining randomised controlled trials. The work was inspired by Julia Donaldson's book "The Cook and the King". Dr Celia Brown is supported by the National Institute of Health Research - Applied Research for Collaboration West Midlands.
Video - approximately 10 minutes long - video transcript
Politics and International Studies
Explore the Egyptian revolution online with new multimedia resource (recommended for students aged 16 and over, as some of the themes are not suitable for children)
A digital archive documenting the 25 January 2011 uprising and its aftermath through the prism of popular culture. It has been designed for both researchers and students interested in the 2011 Egyptian revolution, as well as contemporary Egypt and the relationship between politics and popular culture more broadly. The content may be of interest to those teaching/studying A-levels in media studies, film studies, Middle East studies, Arabic language, international studies, history, geography, art, theatre and performance studies.
Statistics Department
Mathematical science activities (aimed at Year 12 and 13 students)
The Statistics Department has created four packages with mathematical puzzles, links to resources on maths/stats/data science and challenges for data exploration with questions and links to datasets. The activities were designed for Warwick offer holders but any Year 13 and 12 students with an interest in mathematical sciences may also be interested in this. You can explore the activities here.
In some of the packages there are resources from which you can learn about the mathematics, statistics and data science techniques used to model and manage infectious disease outbreaks. Mathematical scientists all over the world play a central role in fighting the pandemic. You can also explore Warwick research and activities about the Covid-19 outbreak.
Widening Participation and Outreach
The Widening Participation and Outreach team have created a page to outline some of the online resources that are available for information, guidance and support for students, teachers and parents/carers.
Government supported resources
The government has brought together some guidance on supporting children's education during coronavirus whilst they are learning at home. This is aimed at parents and carers.
Oak National Academy Resources - primary and secondary
A government backed online classroom and resource hub has been set up to support teachers to support their pupils. The site has a bank of high-quality, sequenced video lessons and resources for teachers to use as they wish. They cover a range of subjects including maths, English, art and languages. You can view lessons by subject and level or follow their planned weekly schedule.
Other online learning websites
BBC Bitesize (for all ages)
BBC Bitesize are publishing three new lessons every weekday with videos, activities and more for all ages. They also have a new dedicated TV channel full of learning content, podcasts on BBC Sounds and loads of educational video on iPlayer.
The Brilliant Club (for pupils from 10-18)
A variety of resources from The Brilliant Club's programmes.
Youtube Free School
Watch here.
TedEd@home (organised by age group)
Free interactive, video-based lessons.
Khan Academy (age 2-18)
Online education courses.
Coventry City Council - Schools Library Service
Online resources that can be used for free to support home learning. The resources will be updated weekly.
STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) resources
Starters for Science by the Primary Science Teaching Trust (primary)
A lovely set of experiments that can be done at home. Thought-provoking and fun to do.
Hour of Code (primary and secondary)
Lots of ideas for short projects and follow on activities.
National Centre for Computing Education (for teachers)
A range of teacher resources and free courses for teachers – all published on the teach computing website. It's organised by key stages and linked to the curriculum – very straight forward for teachers to use.
National STEM Learning (primary and secondary)
A really valuable resource – with a very large collection of STEM resources for teachers, home educators and parents. Covers all science subjects, organised by key stages and topics. Requires registration to access – but all resources are free.
Tomorrows Engineers (secondary)
Engineering resources and career information aimed at inspiring young people. Focused more on secondary school children and teachers than primary.
Born2Engineer (all ages)
Inspiring stories of how engineers have made a difference to our world. Videos are particularly useful.
The Maths Factor (age 4-12)
Free online maths lessons with Carol Vorderman.
Learn to Count (ages 3 - 14)
Fun counting games
Digital School House (suitable for all ages)
10 unplugged activities to teach computing at home with everyday household objects.
NRICH - mathematics resources (ages 3-18_
NRICH is a collaboration between the Faculties of Mathematics and Education at the University of Cambridge. NRICH provides thousands of free online mathematics resources for ages 3 to 18, covering all stages of early years, primary and secondary school education - completely free and available to all.
NRICH website
UK Mathematics Trust
Junior Mathematical Challenges past papers free to download
Virtual reading club
Warwickshire Schools Library Service
Resources for learning at home
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Home learning (age 4-14)
Teaching resources (all ages and levels)
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
Home learning with the RSC
National Geographic for kids
Live 30-minute PE lesson at 9am every morning.
Resources for individuals with special educational needs
Rhyming Multi-Sensory stories (age 3-19 years)
Exploring storytelling through the senses in a fun and engaging way!
Rhyming Multi-Sensory Stories for SEN ASD ADHD PMLD EYFS adapted to suit pre-schoolers to adolescent teens.
Sample stories:
'A Different Day' helping individuals with SEN understand the Covid-19 Pandemic
'Washing Hands' Helping individuals with SEN with their hand hygiene during the Covid-19 pandemic
Other fun leisure sites
A list of free virtual tours e.g. aquariums, zoos.
CotsWild Academy - videos, pictures, quizzes and lots of facts about the animals at Cotswold Wildlife Park
Ideas on indoor activities to do with your children during lockdown.
Please note: this page provides access to a list of free online resources. It is not intended to endorse any particular resource. The University of Warwick is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Can you think of any resources we're missing?
Let us know at community@warwick.ac.uk! We'd like to make sure we're sharing as many useful online resources as possible.
Last revised: Thu 14 Jan 2021