Home-schooling can be challenging and as the nation heads into another period of restrictions and school closures, we’ve pulled together the best free videos, tools and tips to help make distance learning easier for everyone.
1. Joe Wicks PE Lessons
The nation’s favourite PE teacher is back to help keep children and adults active throughout the lockdown. He’s hosting free 30-minute sessions live on his YouTube channel at 9am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Exercising helps to not only keep you physically fit but also promotes overall wellbeing, so why not start your day with Joe’s fun, family-friendly workouts.
You can join the sessions on his YouTube channel @TheBodyCoachTV. If you can’t watch it live, the videos are recorded and can be accessed anytime.
2. BBC TV live lessons
No matter what your circumstance is at home, you’ll be able to benefit from free home-schooling tools thanks to BBC’s major step forward to make their lessons accessible for all children. From Monday 11 January, live lessons will be broadcast on BBC Two and CBBC for the first time.
CBBC will be broadcasting three-hour blocks of primary school programming from 9am, with fun lessons including Horrible Histories and Celebrity Supply Teacher. BBC Two will be catering for secondary school students, with the programmes focusing on the GCSE curriculum.
3. Free mobile data increase for students without broadband
While there’s a range of free tools available the majority of these are online and means that for families without broadband, home-schooling can be more difficult. Schools and families however can request a free mobile data increase for students without broadband or for those who can’t afford extra data for their devices.
Providers including Three, Virgin Mobile, EE, Smarty, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile have already signed up to the government backed scheme. You can find out more about eligibility here: https://get-help-with-tech.education.gov.uk/about-increasing-mobile-data
4. White Rose Maths
White Rose Maths is a group of teachers and mathematicians who have created five free maths lessons for children in years 1-8. Each lesson lasts for 20-30 minutes, and there’s a video available for parents and guardians to watch first to help you understand the lesson before going through it with your child. The team will also be live on its social media channels every morning between 10-11am for a ‘maths party’, where children are able to ask any maths-related questions they have to the experts.
5. Science with Maddie Moate and Greg Foot
Join in fun science lessons with Cbeebies presenter Maddie Moate and Science presenter Greg Foot. During the last lockdown, the duo presented more than 60 fun science and nature lessons that can all still be accessed on YouTube. The fun lessons cover topics including oceans, space, dinosaurs and much more.
The pair have also announced they are re-starting their #LetsGoLive science lessons on their YouTube channel. You can view them here: https://www.youtube.com/c/maddiemoate
6. Sky learning from home
For those who currently use Sky TV, you can benefit from its new ‘learning from home’ feature. The television provider has created sections for different age groups including under 5’s, primary and secondary school age. The educational programmes available cover a wide curriculum including history, science, maths and even arts and crafts. You can access the lessons via the Sky box’s homepage.
We’ll continue to update this article with more free tools as we hear about them.
