Part 5 - Resources and websites for all ages
This section includes links to the websites of other organisations and individuals which may be of interest to Sandwell home educators. These links do not necessarily represent an endorsement.
DfE - Department for Education
General enquiries http://www.education.gov.uk
Education Otherwise
Sandwell EHE team prides itself in liaising very closely with this service and have attended training with Wendy Charles-Warner so that we ensure we are operating closely with current law and are not advising families wrongly on their rights. Due to this we have won Gold Awards through the organisations Kit Award for Excellence. We will always ask for advice if we are not sure and we encourage families to do the same because this service is an independent organisation – so if you don’t feel you cannot ask us or challenge us directly or feel unsure of anything we have advised you do please talk to them they are experts in the rights of home educating families and in current law.
Ed yourself
Is another organisation that delivers a similar service and is run by someone who has home educated their own children and is an expert in SEND issues.
This has been set up by Fiona Nicholson who was an elective home educating parent and remains very dedicated to the value of home educating. She is the national spokesperson for Elective Home Education so if you have any queries or need advice at all she will be able to assist. The websites tell you all you need to know about your rights as a home educating parent.
Connexions Service in Sandwell
Home Education Organisation
Home Education Advisory Service
This is a site that provides subscribers with a card that they can use to get free or reduced rates of admission to certain museums and sites of interest. The site also gives access to a help line and information leaflets, maths packs and publications. To subscribe has a small annual cost. Reviews are mixed on the benefits of this card and subscription as if you are an active user of Facebook Home Education pages then you will find you can gain reduced and free access to places without the need for this subscription as Facebook members manage to get group bookings and other deals by dealing direct with organisations.
Freddies Mummy Uk
This is a useful website for anyone starting out their home schooling journey as this is a mum who is home schooling her own child and she has listed lots of online resources and websites that she has found useful for her child and what’s more she gives reviews on them. Click on the Over 80 Home School Online Educational Resources to see them as over half of them are free and are already listed in this information pack but there are loads of others too that I am starting to recommend. I think it’s a lovely website and really useful for starting your journey in home schooling.
Home Educating Families Festival
HEFF™ is a week long summer festival for home educating families run entirely by volunteers. You can sign up for emails to learn about forthcoming events.
Sandwell Advocacy Service
Sandwell Advocacy is a registered charity who have been providing independent advocacy throughout Sandwell since 1993. They were established to support vulnerable individuals who feel that their needs, rights and wishes have not been considered when planning and delivering health and social care services. They have a team of qualified advocacy practitioners delivering a range of specialist advocacy projects throughout Sandwell. They support individuals who feel that they have no meaningful involvement in decisions that are made which directly affect their lives. They adopt an outcome focused approach that works with individuals to ensure they are placed at the heart of the decision-making process. They support people to ensure that they can explore avenues open to them, to discuss options and ensure that people make informed decisions. Ultimately, they work to empower people to have more say and control over what happens in their lives.
Contact them on: 0121 520 8070
Local Networks and Support groups
If you want to know more about what is available in your area form people who are home educating the best places to access are the local Home Education Facebook pages. From these you will be given all the details of the links that you need for useful FB groups, like the one for families interested in taking qualifications, for discounts you can access, for families home educating children with special needs, for individual subject groups...for practically anything you can think of, home educators have organised themselves groups for it- even for families home educating their adopted children for example!
Home Education Sandwell
And 'HELM' which covers the whole of the West Midlands
Other Useful Resources
Children’s University Trust
Described by the Sunday Times as 'The University of Fun', Children's University encourages 5-14 year olds to try new experiences; develop new interests and acquire new skills. This is mainly aimed at 7-14-year olds but can also cover 5-6-year-old too. The site offers child membership which is used to gain a Passport to Learning, which your child then records all their learning activities that they take part in at learning destinations. All entries evidence hours of learning taking place and lead to a presentation of Children’s University certificates at a Children’s University Graduation ceremony.
There are various learning destinations throughout the West Midlands such as museums, sports, music and much more. To get more details on membership and learning destinations and how it works check out the website.
Crest Awards
The CREST Awards scheme is the only nationally recognised accreditation scheme for STEM project work for 5-19 year olds. Around 40'000 students in the UK gain CREST Awards every year through investigations and enquiry-based learning, supporting them to solve real-life STEM challenges. Several EHE families are using this award when they do community activities but it is best to email the support team on the website for information about how it works for home educating families.
Online Learning Packages
IXL – Online Maths and English courses costs from £7.99 a month or £59 annual fee. Enables access to online modules of learning covering all key stages with tests and progress checks along the way.
EdPlace – Online Maths, English and Science course, costing from £99 per year per child or £15 a month. Programmes are a modular approach covering all key stages, with progress tests and checks along the way. Before subscribing you can take free maths assessment for personalised study recommendations.
Exemplar Education
This is an online maths and english website that covers from year 1 through to GCSE learning and aligned to the National Curriculum. It has over 2,00 video tutorials, freephone helpline with UK qualified teachers and offers an automated personal study programme. Costs start at £12 per week per family. 0800 1777 999
Echo Education
This is a KS3 GCSE and IGCSE online resource that offers tutoring for home educators by home educators. It offers courses in the following subjects: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, or combined sciences, History, Geography Maths and English. Prices start at £100 per subject or £160 with tutor support.
CloudLearn
Provides online GCSE and A level course providing course materials, tutor support and exam centre access. Prices start from £285 and subjects covered include Biology, Business, Physics, Chemistry, English, geography, history, sociology, travel and tourism, maths, science
IGCSE – Oxford Home Schooling 0800 0 111 024
This website covers Key Stage 3 programmes of study as well as a wide range of GCSE subjects. Example costs are 1 subject is £350, 3 subjects cost £535 and 5 subjects cost £1550. These costs cover all on line materials, access to tutor support, course workbooks and exam fees.
Kings InterHigh
InterHigh School is a complete independent online Primary, Secondary School and Sixth Form learning platform. Pupils from UK and around the world study online at home, with great results.
Cost of study start from £2,00 and range up to £5,000 covering up to A level and even Diplomas.
Seton Home Study School – Catholic Home Education
Seton Home Study School is an accredited Catholic home schooling apostolate under the Roman Catholic bishop of Arlington, Virginia. It is an American on line and workbook-based curriculum that you can purchase either a whole school programme or individuals subjects. It covers from ages 5 through to 16 years of age and many UK based families use this programme. Support is accessible in line and by phone and there are regular assessments and test to check on progress of your child. Prices vary according to age and what you purchase so it is best to check out the website for more details.
TEACH Home Education - Christian Education Europe
The European Academy for Christian Home-schooling (TEACH) has been supporting Christian Home Education across Europe for over 25 years. It uses workbooks and online resources alongside tutor support by phone. There are regular progress tests to check when your child is ready to move onto new level workbooks. Prices vary according to the workbooks and subjects you choose to purchase. It is best to check out the website for more details.
TLC Live 01279 657193
Online tutoring service. This is a personalised online tutoring service, delivering maths, English, science and EAL lessons for children 6 to 17 years of age. The cost is £36 per hour. They offer a free trial and you can watch a free demo of how it works on their website.
Dreaming Spires
Dreaming Spires is particularly aimed at secondary students (aged 12 to 18). In the UK, that would translate into KS3 and KS4, depending on the course and the level of involvement. It's an excellent choice for two kinds of parents:
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those who are thinking of putting their children back in school because they think they can't teach at secondary level;
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those who want much more than an exam syllabus, desiring excellence beyond the limits of the National Curriculum.
It is an online learning and tuition platform where classes are limited to no more than 15 learners at a time. The emphasis is on exam coaching with a vast array of subjects on offer. It is run by home edding parents. Check out the site to learn more about what’s on offer and the costs.
NET School
This site offers a high-quality education based on the English National Curriculum for students aged between 9 and 16 years. Internet teaching and study following IGCSE’s. For more details check out the website
Study.com
Take online courses on Study.com that are fun and engaging. Pass exams to earn real college credit. Research schools and degrees to further your education. This has a free trail available but not sure the cost after this I think it depends on what subjects you choose to do and to what level.
Online Cross Curricular Learning Resources
Kerboodle: The digital teaching and learning service
Kerboodle works alongside your course textbooks and is packed with customisable learning content, assessment materials and reporting tools. It covers Primary right through to Secondary covering most subject covered in schools and some vocational subjects too. It covers the following: -
• Teacher notes, planning materials and on-screen lesson presentations.
• A range of assessment materials including auto-marked tests, self-assessment checklists and a variety of support materials.
• In-depth reporting functionality to monitor homework and track progress.
• An extensive bank of learning resources including videos, animations, podcasts, worksheets and digital versions of the textbooks.
• A wealth of help and support
You do have to subscribe to use it but to find out costs check out the website for more details.
https://global.oup.com/education/secondary/kerboodle/?region=uk/
Teachit
This is a thriving community of teachers contributing resources covering English, Maths, Science, languages, geography and history and a dedicated section for Primary. Resources cover from Early years right through to A level and there are lots of free resources. Check it out now by either clicking on link below or typing address and substituting English for one of other subjects.
Seneca
This is a free online platform for homework and revision that covers most of the subjects taught across KS3, GCSE and A level exams. Join over 1,000,000 students revising 2x faster across 250+ exam board specific A Level, GCSE & KS3 Courses. It states it is aimed at teachers to track progress of their students but it is being used by home schoolers. Check out the link below.
Doddle Learning
Doddle academy is a new online learning platform focusing on helping students succeed in English, Maths and Science at KS3, KS4 and KS5. Designed to guide students through all modules of a subject's curriculum, Doddle academy gives home educators a fantastic all-in-one resource of engaging lesson bundles, quizzes and revision activities that will support their child's home learning right through to assessment. Based in the UK, they have a dedicated team who make it easy for home educators to subscribe, providing step by step support at every stage, plus the fee is affordable too, for just £40 per pupil per subject this is an engaging, inclusive resource for all families.
They also have a Careers and Employability Handbook reference guide for parents, young learners and aspiring professionals seeking guidance on the next steps in career planning. The book covers the entire career journey, from making education and career choices, to preparing candidates for the recruitment process and ultimately helping them settle in the workplace. They are making this fantastic resource available, for free, to all home educators on request. All you need to do is email hello@doddleacademy.co.uk . They will also send a free academic year planner with the handbook.
Studyladder
Studyladder is a comprehensive program which caters for children aged 4 to 12 covering Mathematics, English, Science and ICT, Health and Safety, Arts and music and more! A comprehensive program of online educational activities for students mapped to the curriculum. £48 for 16 months for whole family access.
Oaka Digital Online
Oaka™ Digital is an online resource where you can access fully illustrated Topic Booklets on each subject, 3D images and interactive activities, as well as quizzes to fully test your children's learning. It can be used on computers, laptops and tablets. There is a free 10 day trial to check it out. It includes fully illustrated Topic Booklets, 3D images, interactive activities, quizzes and pupil progress reports. It covers Science, Geography, History and French. Subscriptions start at £14.99 a month or £149.99 for a year. They also sell topic books in the same subjects starting at £2.97 each. Resources are aimed at 11-14 year olds.
Fun Schooling Journals
At the core of Fun-Schooling is the Fun-Schooling Core Journal. There are over 50 different Core Journals based on a myriad of interests. These journals organize the learning of all the core subjects revolving around their passions. Along with the Core Journals, they use books from the library or bookstores, card and board games, art supplies, internet and video games, like Minecraft and Prodigy. You can purchase hard copies of books and some are downloadable pdf’s. Book prices are advertised in dollars but a link takes you to Amazon with prices in pounds prices vary from book to book.
Q-Files.com
Q-files is an advert-free online library of knowledge specially designed for children covering lots of topics such as history, geography, culture, technology, space, science, life and earth. The site is the creation of Orpheus Books Limited, a publishing company based in Oxford, England. The pages in Q-files have been written by specialist children's writers. A year subscription costs £42.
Oak National Academy
Free online lessons across a variety of UK school curriculum subjects. It provides teachers with free lessons and resources for pupils aged from 4 to 16, from reception to year 11. Oak also includes a specialist curriculum for supporting pupils who normally attend specialist settings. It has been developed by over 40 teachers across the UK all specialising in different subjects and provides up to 4 hours learning each day. It is currently free for all to access due to extended funding from the government due to the lockdown that occurred in March so may remain available throughout 2020-2021 academic year.
Rising Stars
Website resource that covers maths, english, computing, history, geography, pe science and more
Top Marks
This is an online resource full of cross curricular interactive resources and activities.
Everyschool
Everyschool is for busy teachers searching for internet based teaching resources. Links are sorted by subject, key stage and topic. Roughly following the relevant strategy/framework/scheme of work
Have Fun Teaching
Have Fun Teaching is the largest collection of videos, songs, free worksheets, activities, songs, and videos. Thousands of no prep teaching resources
Primary Leap
PrimaryLeap.co.uk is an educational website for parents and teachers. It provides 1000s of printable worksheets to help children. It covers every curriculum area and every age group. This is technically a subscription site but if you right click on worksheets and click ‘save as’ you can save them to your computer for no cost at all to print off.
The School Run
Worksheets, activities and learning games for EYFS, KS1 and KS2, including English, maths and science advice for parents and SATs past papers. This is a subscription site but check out the website for details.
Interactive Software Suite Home Education Licence Daydream Education.
Affordable Home Education Software Suite - Packed with Curriculum-Based Content! Fun Interactive Activity · Exciting & Engaging Suite Cost is a one off £50 fee to access resources to 10 subject areas (Maths, English, Science, ICT, Physical Education, Business Studies, Geography, Design & Technology, Music and Religious Education. Site covers early years right through to A level study. Resources are more suited to 9-14-year-old learners but some of the English and Maths may be suited to younger children. Also access to other resources that you can buy.
TES Resources
Website for teachers and home educators with resources, schemes of work, lesson plans and teaching ideas for early years and key stage 1,2,3 and 4 (3-16 years old) which follows National Curriculum frameworks. Most of the resources are free while some have a small cost.
Teachers Pay Teachers
Thousands of free classroom-tested resources created by educators many of whom are home schooling their own children. There is a mix of free and small cost resources suitable for pre-school right through to secondary age.
Teaching Packs
Is a website that develops a wide variety of teaching packs themed on English, Maths and Science and a variety of topics. The cost is £15 a year and you can access and download every pack they have.
Activity Village
Is a website that produces worksheets and activities for seasonal activities and topics including key days in the year with an emphasis on arts and crafts and practical activities. It also costs £15 a year to access and download unlimited resources.
URBrainy
Website with worksheets and games for reception through to year 6, Cost of subscription for home users is £48 per year.
Twinkl
Teacher created planning and assessment materials and teaching resources. Covers all key stages and follows National Curriculum. There are many resources that are free but lots require you to have a membership in place, for which fees vary.
BBC Learning
BBC Schools, BBC bitesize, BBC programmes and clips
Khan Academy
Learn for free about maths, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more.
Civitas Core Knowledge
Activities, stories and lesson plans, as well as information for youngsters aged 4 to 11 in English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Music and Art in Years 1 to 6.
KM Tuition
KM TUITION offers KS2, KS3 and KS4 students to learn and enrich their skills in Maths, English and Science at their own pace. The site offers access to free worksheets for KS1, 2, 3 and 4 Maths and English, past SATS papers for KS2. They also have centres where you can access tuition either in centre or coming out to your home.
Primary Resources
Primary Resources - free worksheets, lesson plans and teaching ideas for primary and elementary teachers.
The £2 Tuition Hub
This site costs £2 per lesson and covers absolutely loads of subject areas including core subjects like maths and English as well as wider learning like piano, art, book club, fashion design, astronomy etc. Covers age 3 right up to GCSE learning
Vocational/work related training online
Alison
Website that is designed for adults and workplace training but it is also very much used by home schoolers as there are a wide variety of online courses on this site that you can access for free and it even keeps a journal of all course you have completed that you can print off to use as evidence of learning. If you want the certificates you do have to pay for them and this is how they make their money.
Alison.com
OpenLearn
This is a website that offers free learning through the open university and has over 100 free course interactives and videos and more. So if you want to study a particular vocational area or career chances are there will be a course on here for you.
John Academy
This is a website that offers lots of vocational learning at relatively low cost in a variety of vocational areas including animal care, woodwork, health and fitness etc
English On line Resources
Literacy/reading
Mr Thorne Network
Watch UK school teacher Mr Thorne and YouTube sensation Geraldine the Giraffe take you on a learning journey through the world of phonics, grammar, spelling and punctuation, learning letters and sounds along the way.
Letterland
Letterland was created to teach phonics using a story-based approach. The story logic engages students leading to long term retention of concepts. What's more, Letterland is wonderfully multi-sensory. It activates every learning channel through music, actions, alliteration, movement, song, art, games and role-play.
Jolly Phonics
This is a synthetic phonics publisher offering a 7-year programme that teaches not only phonics, but spelling, punctuation and grammar too, enabling children to read and write from an early age
Phonics Play
A site packed with interactive phonics games, phonics planning, assessment ideas and many teaching ideas and resources to help children to learn to hear phonemes, recognise graphemes and develop the blending and segmenting skills that are vital for learning to read and spell
Letters and Sounds
Letters and Sounds is a phonics resource published by the Department for Education and Skills in 2007. It aims to build children's speaking and listening skills as well as to prepare children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. The website has access to loads of downloadable resources across the 6 phases starting from alphabet recognition through to complex sound blends providing all the resources and activities you will need including interactive games your child can play in order to learn to build words and read sentences. It’s all free too!
Phonics 4 Free
This website can be accessed for free via the Letters and Sounds website or you can go to it using the link below. It is designed by Mona McNee following the tried and tested Step by Step programme which works with all ages from age 4 to adult. The resource is completely free and has lesson plans, games, worksheets and even guides for using. It has links to videos but these may no longer work.
Picture Book Explorers
Website with downloadable literature based unit studies designed to guide you and your child along a learning journey inspired by beautifully crafted picture books with links to the British Isles. Each topic pack contains maps, flags, a time line and fact sheets to help you on your way. Some will contain notebooking pages, mini-books, quizzes and/or colouring sheets. They each contain over 20 activity suggestions with the information and/or instructions needed to complete them. These range from discussion ideas to creative writing projects to practical art projects to craft activities to maths problems to science experiments to recipes to games to field trip ideas and beyond.
Reading Eggs
Reading programme for children aged 3-13 years old. Cost is £39.95 annual membership.
Combined cost of both Reading Eggs and Mathseeds is £47.95 annual membership. There is a 40% discount for home educators but you need to email them!
Oxford Owls
Oxford Owl is an award-winning website to help support children's learning, both at home and at school. It is completely free all you need to do is register a username and password and then once in create a class login so you can use all aspects of the site. You do not need to be a teacher to use it. The site will allow you to use e books and to assess your child’s reading level so you can choose the right books for them to work through. It also allows you access to other assessments for maths and comprehension so you can see the progress your child is making and assess the level they are working out as well as identify area they struggle in.
Teach Your Monster to Read
Help children learn to read with the free, award-winning reading and phonics game. The ground-breaking game that makes learning to read fun. Covers everything from letters and sounds to reading full sentences. Designed in collaboration with leading academics. Complements all synthetic phonics programmes used in schools. Computer version is 100% free. Covers the first two years of learning to read.
Read Theory
Online reading activities for all levels. Improve your reading ability using this fun, interactive, educational tool in school or at home. Free reading comprehension and writing exercises. Just log in and start using
Epic.com
Epic! is a subscription-based reading and learning platform. It offers access to books and videos for children ages 12 and under. The service can be used on desktop and mobile devices.
Spelling resources
Sir Linkalot
Sir Linkalot’s multi-sensory approach is truly effective over all age ranges and abilities. It covers pupils with different learning modalities, including more visual or auditory learning styles. Perfect for boosting school lessons, assisting home schooling, and hitting UK national curriculum SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. Suitable from ages 4+. Uses quick, memorable animation and quizzes. Free on line lessons.
Spelling Tutor
This is an online subscription resource learning site dedicated to learning how to spell. Spelling Tutor repeats words you get wrong on Day 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 and 21. Each time you get it wrong it goes back to the beginning. So each word is presented until you have got it right 7 times in a row over 21 days. Each session is divided into 3 parts:
1.Repeat words from yesterday and previous sessions. 2.Write new sentences from dictation. 3.Repeat all the words you got wrong in this session. Playing spelling tutor helps child to learn to spell the most common 1,000 words. Suitable for all children, including those with dyslexia.
Emile
Improve Students Spelling & Times Tables with Emile. Emile is being used by schools across the UK to improve spelling and times tables recall. Students can compete in multiplayer games against each other, collect coins and buy presents for their virtual Emile and explore Emile's universe in Story Mode. Teachers/parents can easily set work, see progress or even allocate end of term or block assessments. Get FREE Access Now and see how Emile could help your child.
Writing resources
Scribeasy
This is an online story writing platform that boosts fun, creativity and vocabulary. Scribeasy's packed with inspiring resources and tools. It is an inspiring and enjoyable method that's suitable for all types of learners (the website likes to recommend ages 7 to 99+), and can be used for writing independently or co-creating with carers, parents or a coach. Scribeasy is free to try and ideal for home and classroom learning. Find the right plan for you on the family or school page. There is a free 7 day trail and they have subscriptions available from monthly family subscription costing £6 to a yearly family subscription costing £30.
Writing Resource- Brave Writer
Help your child fall in love with writing! Through their user-friendly materials and award-winning online classes, you'll grow into a competent writing coach, calm your anxious writers, and nourish your aspiring authors.
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)
This is an American online resource for home school writing curriculum and sells teacher and student writing packages with dedicated home schooling resources that enable you to teach through from phonics and sounds, reading, writing right through to complex grammar and writing composition. It covers from early years right through to college level as well as special needs.
Talk 4 Writing
Useful web site with downloadable free resources
English Literature resources
SparkNotes
This is a free on-line resource that has access to all a range of literature texts and Shakespeare texts and books that are suitable for Key Stage 3 and GCSE study. The site will help with line by line translation of texts so you can achieve a greater understanding of texts.
My Shakespeare
Another useful site for Shakespeare that is free.
Mr Bruff –
Having grown up in a deprivileged family, Mr Bruff is passionate about providing students everywhere with the very best education. He achieves this through his free videos and worksheets.
He began making online revision videos in January 2011 and to date has achieved over sixty million views from across 212 different nations. Thousands of messages of support and praise have flooded in from across the globe, making it clear that Mr Bruff’s videos are helping students across the world to achieve their highest potential. Check out the ‘exam success’ page to see some of these messages.
Stacy Reay-
Stacey Reay is an English with over 12 years experience.
She has a successful YouTube channel with 4,5 million views with all kinds of GCSE videos on there https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJhuqpyhE8NzYZFkwTzi_7g/shorts
Verbal reasoning skills
Farquhar’s Vocabulary Flash Cards
Farquhar's Vocabulary Flash Cards – These are cards specifically created to improve your child's verbal reasoning skills and ultimately succeed in the 11+ entrance exams. You can purchase a variety of sets of flashcards prices range from £12.99 - £49.00.
Christian Based English Programmes
First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease
These are American resources that can be purchased on Amazon and have a Christian ethos to them.
Writing with Ease
Children develop writing skills by practicing narrations and dictations. In narration activities, children are specifically and systematically taught to summarize information from a passage. Initially, children dictate their answers to be recorded and progress to writing their own. In dictation activities, which also gradually increase in difficulty, children are systematically taught to remember and write down sentences. Both skills are critical components of writing about original thoughts and ideas.
First Language Lessons
Scripted lessons give the teacher direction and confidence, while exquisite pencil reproductions of great paintings are used to encourage children in oral composition
Check out more about the authors and the resources below.
www.thecurriculumchoice.com/a-little-classical-teamwork-first-language-lessons-and-writing-with-ease