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Remote Learning and Support for Schools and Parents
Welcome to the Learning Middlesbrough Remote Learning Support area.
Here you will find a number of online resources to help support remote learning during lockdown and potential closures
BBC Live Lesson from Monday 11 January
Bring your subject to life with interactive lessons featuring some of the BBC’s biggest brands and presenters
The primary resources support core subjects like English, Maths, and Science, while also covering the wider curriculum with resources for Geography, History, Art, and Culture – which includes opportunities for SMSC (spiritual, moral, social, and cultural) development.
Twinkl has created a Home Learning Hub which provides ideas, activities and live videos along with our Remote Learning Resource Packs to make it as stress-free as possible for parents to teach their children from home.
Covid-19 Resources – Support Resources for Schools and Parents – Tools for schools to help support home learning and maximise the impact of work set.
EYFS Home
A free, daily set of activities for 3-5 year-olds link to the English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) educational programme
BookTrust HomeTime
Looking for something fun as a family? Enjoy storytime with our free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in our book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters.
Link to the BookTrust’s YouTube channel
Musical ABC
Online Staff training – Music, being the universal language that it is, can appeal to so many children. As well as being enjoyed as a wonderful creative subject it is also a great learning tool.
Link to the Musical ABC website
BBC Bitesize, BBC Teach & CBeebies
A guide of early years content across Bitesize, BBC Teach and CBeebies.
Link to the Early Years content on the BBC website
Words for Life
Free activities and ideas to keep your child busy at home, whilst also benefiting their reading, writing and language development. Select an age group below to get the latest resources.
Link to the Words for Life website
Exciting Learning Opportunities
TTS Group have created an Exciting Learning Opportunities Activity Book.
Link to download the activity book
NRICH – Maths at home
NRICH – set of EYFS activities, designed in partnership with Early Years Practitioner Partners, to support the development of the initial building blocks for mathematical thinking, reasoning and problem solving with your children.
CBeebies Maths
Give your child a head start in Maths: everything parents need to know about Numeracy development from 0-6 with fun activities you can build into everyday life and play
Link to the CBeebies Maths website
White Rose Maths
Reception maths teaching resources
Link to the White Rose Maths website
BoogieBeebies
Children’s music programme
Young People’s Trust for the Environment
Giving young people a real awareness of environmental problems, such as climate change, disappearing wildlife, the pollution of soil, air and water, the destruction of rainforests and wetlands, the spread of desert regions and the misuse of the oceans. The materials aim to provide balanced views to take into account the realities of the modern world. Sustainable development – industry with less impact – is the way forward.
10 Minute Shake up
10 Minute Shake Up games – Change4Life and Disney have teamed up to bring you play-along games inspired by your favourite Disney and Pixar characters. These 10-minute bursts of fun will really get your kids moving and count towards the 60 active minutes they need every day!
Link to the NHS 10 minute shake up website
Yorkshire Sport Foundation
Keeping active in these times is really important, and that’s why #ThisIsPE is a useful way to quickly put together activities and games that will entertain and burn off some of that energy.
The videos are presented by PE teachers and linked to the Primary PE curriculum so it is a fantastic way of educating your children physically at home!
Instructions for accessing work from school if you have an Xbox or PlayStation
PhonicsPlay
Get access to free resources from PhonicsPlay
Link to the PhonicsPlay website
Phonics Bloom
L&S phonics resources
Link to the Phonics Bloom website
Read Write Inc
Laura Suthers – Middlesbrough teacher with some Read Write Inc lessons
Link to Laura Suthers YouTube channel
Sounds-Write
Information and support for Covid19 – Sounds-Write Phonics Resources for Parents and Carers
Oxford Owl
Free ebook library – you will need to create a free account
Link to the Oxford Owl ebook library
Words for Life
Free activities and ideas to keep your child busy at home, whilst also benefiting their reading, writing and language development. Select an age group below to get the latest resources.
Link to the Words for Life website
Words for Life: Zone In
For young people age 13+
Tips on boosting your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills for young adults.
Link to the Word for Life – Zone In website
Words for Life – Virtual School Library
Every week a popular children’s author or illustrator will provide you with free books, exclusive videos and their top three recommended reads.
Link to the Words for Life – Virtual School Library website
Talk for Writing
These booklets are age-related – pick and choose what is right for each child. They all include a model text which is also available as a streamed audio recording.
Link to the Talk for Writing website
Roy of the Rovers
Award-winning author Tom Palmer has created a brilliant guide that’s perfect for helping kids learn how to write creatively using the drama and action that comes with football – using topics such as character creation, arguments, and how to start a story.
Link to Roy of the Rovers website
World Book
A collection of over 3,000 ebooks and audio books for your child(ren)to access for free
Link to World Books ebook/audio book library
Jane Considine
Online live English Lessons starting Monday 11th January author of The Write Stuff/ Sentence Stacking
Link to The Training Space YouTube channel
Darwin’s Dragon
Chapter-by-chapter resources – Free download. Fabulous new book by Lindsay Galvin
Link to Darwin’s Dragon resources
Storyatron
Storyatron is a mighty story-making machine, and it’s powered by imagination. With your help, the Storyatron can generate special, unique stories – just for you.
Link to the Storyatron website
British Library
Get creative with activities for children of all ages. Invent your own superhero, make a pop-up book and much more!
Link to the British Library website
First News
First News is a weekly newspaper aimed at 7 to 14-year-olds. We report the news in an age-appropriate and non-scary way that gets children engaged. They are offering free access to the newspaper for a limited period of time, to help parents and children during the partial school closures.
Link to the First News website
Newsround
Keeping children up-to-date with the world around them – creating opportunities to discuss the news.
ICT Games
Tablet and desktop friendly free educational games aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old.
The games are linked to the UK KS 1 and 2 curricula.
Link to the ICT games website.
The Children’s Poetry Archive
Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
White Rose Maths
The White Rose Maths Team prepared a series maths lessons for each year group from Year 1-10 to allow children to continue their daily maths lessons from home.
Link to the White Rose Maths website
Family Maths Toolkit
The Family Maths Toolkit is full of ideas to help parents, families and children aged 13 and under enjoy everyday maths activities together.
The website also offers resources to help teachers support family engagement with children’s maths learning.
Link to the Family Maths Toolkit website
ICT Games
ictgames – free to play educational games aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old; written by a UK teacher with 20 years experience. The games are linked to the UK KS 1 and 2 curricula.
NRICH Maths
NRICH – a range of primary activities grouped by mathematical topic.
Link to the NRICH primary website
Link to the NRICH Teacher primary website
Zap Maths
Zap Maths is an app that brings the primary maths curriculum to life. Students are able to progress through the fun games at their own pace and also enjoy multiplayer live quizzes with friends and others in a safe anonymised way. The school version of the app enables teachers to generate and even create their own tailored learning paths with all aspects of the app benefitting from detailed assessment and progress reporting.
To help catch children up and keep them engaged during lockdown disruptions Zap Maths is being made available for free for three months directly to Middlesbrough parents or schools with no obligation or payment details required.
STEM
Through the website – access a variety of free curriculum-linked science lessons for children of all ages. These lessons cover a range of topics, including evolution, forces, and the human body. Created and recorded by subject experts, remote lessons can be accessed at any time of day, making it easy to fit into your home learning schedule.
BBC – Winterwatch
This cross-curricular programme in partnership with the RSPB and BBC Two’s Winterwatch will allow Key Stage 2 pupils to experience the magic of nature in the winter from their classrooms, and arm them with the necessary skills to go out and explore their local wildlife with the Big Schools Birdwatch.
Covering key curriculum objectives across English, maths and science, the lesson will delve into the key features of a ‘how-to’ guide, working scientifically using classification keys and how to present data using bar graphs.
Link to the BBC Winterwatch teaching website
NASA
American but NASA provides a safe place for children to play as they learn about NASA and its missions.
Headstart South Tees
‘Giving all children and young people in South Tees the necessary support to build resilience to achieve good emotional health’
Headstart was introduced in Middlesbrough in 2013 as a Big Lottery funded project; additional funding was secured from Future in Mind, education and public health.
- Support young people aged 0-19 to cope in better in difficult circumstances and do well in school and in life.
- Build resilience in young people to prevent the onset of common mental health problems.
- Learn from different approaches and contribute to an evidence base for investment in prevention and early intervention.
- Develop an early intervention and prevention model to provide support in school, at home, in the community and virtually.
- Develop a co-production model with children and their families.
HeadStart is predicated on the Academic Resilience Approach to support children and young people in achieving good educational outcomes despite adversity.
For schools, promoting it involves strategic planning and detailed practice involving the whole school community to help vulnerable young people do better than their circumstances might have predicted.
Facilitating the system wide Academic Resilience Approach helps to enable and empower schools to build and improve emotional resilience to:
- diminish the difference academically for the most disadvantaged young people
- improve attendance
- prevent mental health problems escalating
- support young people to access appropriate help early
Using the Academic Resilience Approach, we can help to embed evidence-based approaches across three key areas:
- People – from the pupils and parents to the whole staff group, even the caretakers
- Strategy and leadership including governance, policy, senior leadership
- Systems and structure including information management, behaviour systems, support structures, and so on.
Full details and information for schools, professional, parents and children/young people is available at – www.headstartsouthtees.co.uk or contact a member of the HeadStart team on 01642 728079
Tees Valley Music Service
A number of freely available YouTube videos Snappy Music Songs, TVMS Class Taiko, TVMS Class Samba, Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum.
Link to the Tees Valley Music Service YouTube channel
Snappy Music Songs – Grandad United
Snappy Music Songs – Alfie the Alligator
Snappy Music Songs – Stanley and Cedric
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 1
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 2
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 3
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 4
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 5
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 6
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 7
Bucket Drumming with Mr Drum: Lesson 8
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 1
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 2
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 3
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 4
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 5
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 6
TVMS Class Samba: Lesson 7
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 1
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 2
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 3
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 4
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 5
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 6
TVMS Class Taiko: Lesson 7
Sing Up
Free resources to keep children learning and singing outside of school.
Rhinegold
A ‘live’ page of musical resources for teachers and parents to use for remote learning
The Voices Foundation
The Voices Foundation – YouTube Chanel – ensuring children benefit from high-quality music education remains.
Voices Foundation has adapted to ensure that they can still deliver their award-winning approach to music education in a socially distanced world.
Just Breathe – short film
Our emotional responses are hard to navigate at any age. Figuring out how and what you are physically feeling is particularly challenging when you’re feeling things like rage, sadness, disgust, and confusion for the first time.
Link to the ‘Just Breathe’ short film
Headstart
‘Giving all children and young people in South Tees the necessary support to build resilience to achieve good emotional health’
Joe Wicks PE classes
Joe Wicks: Youtube PE classes are coming back to help you keep active during lockdown
Link to Joe Wick’s YouTube channel
Complete PE
A complete home learning PE Resource from the Youth Sport Trust
Link to the Compete PE YouTube channel
BBC Super Movers
Fun curriculum linked resources to get your class moving while they learn – in partnership with the Premier League.
Link to the super movers website
GoNoodle
Inspires all children to be active and mindful with a wide range of offerings that appeal to children’s different ages, interests, skills, and abilities.
British Red Cross
The Red Cross Home learning resources to support to teachers, children, young people and parents through the coronavirus crisis. The resources on wellbeing, resilience building, kindness and first aid can be done at home or in the classroom
Link to the British Red Cross website
NHS 10 Minute Shake Up
10 Minute Shake Up games – Change4Life and Disney have teamed up to bring you play-along games inspired by your favourite Disney and Pixar characters. These 10-minute bursts of fun will really get your kids moving and count towards the 60 active minutes they need every day!
Link to the NHS 10 minute shake up website
Yorkshire Sport Foundation
Keeping active in these times is really important, and that’s why #ThisIsPE is a useful way to quickly put together activities and games that will entertain and burn off some of that energy.
The videos are presented by PE teachers and linked to the Primary PE curriculum so it is a fantastic way of educating your children physically at home!
Amazing Aurora
Explore the aurora through the eyes of different cultures using their folklore to create your own stories about space weather and its impacts. (for ages 7-11)
There are several different lesson plans, incl. Weather Heroes and Weather Warriors
Link to the Met Office website
Young People’s Trust for the Environment
Giving young people a real awareness of environmental problems, such as climate change, disappearing wildlife, the pollution of soil, air and water, the destruction of rainforests and wetlands, the spread of desert regions and the misuse of the oceans. The materials aim to provide balanced views to take into account the realities of the modern world. Sustainable development – industry with less impact – is the way forward.
Royal Collection Trust
The Royal Collection Trust – Get creative, learn something new and have fun with our activities for families.
We hope that the selection of resources below can help anyone of any age, nationality or gender with making their education an effective and fun experience. The listed websites and applications are simple to follow and can be accessed by a learner of any ability, at any level. Children can improve their reading skills utilising phonics tools and explore other knowledge through the selection of maths and science resources. Some of the tools require downloads which can be initiated by the parent or guardian. Most are free, however, some may require in-store or in-app purchase, so please read the disclaimer below prior to agreeing to Terms and Conditions that some may have.
Further information and resources can be found on the Ethnic Minority Achievement Team EMAT support for schools during coronavirus | Middlesbrough Council.
General EAL Websites
English File – Oxford University Press
Students can learn more English here with interactive exercises, useful downloads, games, and web links. Students can also practise grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, and reading, and have some fun too.
Link to the Oxford University Press – English File website
NEXUS – ESOL for Learners
A student can improve their English with help from this website from the British Council with videos, listening activities, texts and grammar exercises at every level. They can also hear form other learners about their lives in the UK.
Link to the NEXUS – ESOL website
Headway Students
Students can choose their level to browse interactive exercises and downloadable audio and video resources. Includes a website learning record for them to track their usage. Also ‘Word of the Week’ and ‘Dyslexic Friendly’ texts available
Link to the Oxford University – Headway website
Spotlight Radio
This is a daily radio programme for learning English. Just 15 minutes a day. It uses a special method of broadcasting that makes Spotlight easier to understand around the world.
Link to the Spotlight Radio website
Games to Learn English
This is a colourful, engaging user friendly site. Interactive and very simple to use. Perfect for reluctant learners, children and older. Good addictive format for beginners in particular with cartoon illustrations.
Link to the Games to Learn English website
BBC Learning English
General ESOL Website with a wide variety of features – grammar, pronunciation, exercises to dip in and out of, videos to watch. Quizzes, children’s section and teachers section.
Link to the BBC Learning English website
British Council
High Quality Resources, aimed at adults, requires an online free English test to establish level. Online tutor available to help which incurs a fee. Good for serious students who need English for career progression etc. Can source face to face sessions nearby too.
Link to the British Council website
BBC Bitesize
a well-known website that has always been free to use. Covers many topics.
Link to the BBC Bitesize website
Excellence Gateway
This is aimed at Practitioners to support ESOL Students. New to ESOL materials on the Excellence Gateway might be useful – there’s a picture pack, useful templates and some simple reading texts too.
Link to the Excellence Gateway website
English My Way
English My Way has resources for beginner literacy learners.
Link to the English My Way website
BBC English
BBC Learning Circles Videos – some real life scenarios to enact.
Link to the BBC English website
En. Diglin
This resource is useful for low or zero literacy students. The ABC part of the Digital Literacy Instructor was developed particularly for low-literacy adult learners. The materials are free but previously you needed to register to access it. Recently, they have decided to remove the need to login as learners are working from home and might find it difficult to login without support.
Link to the En. Diglin website
Future Learn
The British Council also has courses through Future Learn. It is a great site with lots of other resources. Please note that further progression onto the course may incur costs. You can search on Future Learn by title for the next run dates. Please click on the link to find latest courses on offer.
Link to the Future Learn website
Memrise
A variety of English offered. Requires registration and sign on.
Breaking News English
This website can be confusing to navigate but once you get the hang –there are good worksheets on the latest news for students to check understanding. Useful for Practitioners too.
Link to the Breaking News English website
Cambridge English
This has some free activities students can access.
Link to the Cambrisge English website
Maths
Maths Genie
Free across all levels A Level to Primary. Also launching Home School Support after Easter.
Link to the Maths Genie website
The Maths Factor
This is Carol Vorderman’s Maths Website. Its layout and simple language makes it suitable for ESOL users to follow.
Link to the Maths Factor website
E Maths
Covers all levels including Key Stage 1 to GCSE
Maths is Fun
This is a very established website that students with little English could navigate around. The advantage of this is if you have a basic laptop, the games might be easily accessible without Adobe etc.
Link to the Maths is Fun website
YouTube Videos
- Oxford Online English
- Go English
- Learn English with Papa Teach Me
- Joel and Lia
- English Like a Native
- To Fluency
- BBC Leaning English
Learning Languages Mobile Apps
Here is a list of a number of mobile apps for a variety of purposes and levels. All may not be available on both Android and Apple devices. You can download each one from the relevant app store. Please note many of these include in app purchases and may include adverts.
ABC Kids
Basic literacy, aimed at children but can also be used by adults
Babbel
Limited Languages on the App
BBC English – English listening
Entry level 3 and above Mobile Learn English Grammar Entry Level 3 and above
BBC English – English pronunciation
Pre-entry upwards
British Council – Learn English grammar
Beginners /Advanced
Daily English Conversations محادثات يوميه-
Learning daily phrases in English with Arabic language help – download in Arabic
Duolingo Popular app
focussing on key vocabulary phrases and short sentences to begin with
English Conversation
Conversational English taught with videos
IELTS Speaking Practice
Entry level 2 and above
Learn English – One Word a Day
Teaches Basic, Medium and Hard words
Learn English- تعلم الانجليزيه
Learning English with the Arabic language help – download in Arabic
Learn English Easily – تعلم اللغه الانجليزيه بسهوله
Learning the basics of English in an easy and simplified way – download in Arabic
Learn English Like a Professional- تعلم الانجليزيه حتى الاحتراف
Learning English in a simplified way with the availability of short stories and listening – download in Arabic
Mondly
Bilingual Language Learning
Practice English grammar
Entry level 2 and above
