English – Writing
KS1
A range of reading, writing, phonics and grammar games and activities.
KS2
A range of reading, writing, phonics and grammar games and activities.
KS2
This BBC site is used by teachers but it has lots of very useful resources and ideas that you could use at home. There are animated tales to watch, audio stories to listen to, fun punctuation and spelling videos, including ‘Supermovers.’ There’s also a Shakespeare section and information about different types of non-fiction writing.
Primary, Secondary
Crick Software are offering schools free access for every pupil and teacher on their home devices. Choose either Clicker for primary schools or DocsPlus for secondary schools. The software helps learners at home with:
· Child-friendly word processing support that will enable pupils of all abilities to work independently.
· Engaging resources on a wide range of curriculum topics to kick-start writing.
· Can be used on and offline with easy sharing and saving options.
Complete a form to be provided with access codes and installation information.
KS1, KS2
Hamilton are providing free English teaching packs for each year group. The materials include lesson plans, text extracts and film clips, comprehension activities and stimuli for writing. There are currently two weeks’ worth of packs, with more to follow.
KS1, KS2
LitFilmFest are releasing videos every weekday at 10:30am on YouTube to provide inspiration for children’s writing.
KS1, KS2
The Literacy Shed have produced a free teaching pack for KS1 and KS2 pupils. Lots of ideas and resources linked to individual films. Would be useful for both parents and teachers.
KS1, KS2
This website from London Grid for Learning (LGfL) contains a host of short videos that help explain key elements of the grammar curriculum. It’s organised into separate year groups so you can easily find appropriate content and provides clear explanations that are useful for both children and parents!
KS1, KS2
Oxford Owl: a breakdown of the key learning for each year group for parents, with definitions and examples of each skill in context.
Year 5 & Year 6
This pilot website provides grammar lessons based around captivating clips from the BBC’s natural history archives. It’s focused on the Year 5 objectives but would be appropriate for Year 6 too. There are 15 lessons to choose from. Each has a stimulating clip from the BBC; an explanation of the grammatical skills with examples; scaffolded challenges and a writing activity. Worksheets can be downloaded as PDFs.
KS2, KS3
If your child is a Minecraft fan, Minecraft Education have sample lessons and starter ideas to inspire creative writing and communication, with a range of topics such as Fantastic Mr Fox, Shipwreck Narrative and Instructional Writing.
KS2 – Discussion, Writing, Grammar
A new picture is posted every day with a story opening for children to continue; questions to discuss about the picture and a grammar-related activity. A great one stop-shop with a year’s worth of pictures to choose from. Can be downloaded as PDFs to print and send home too.
KS1, KS2 – Illustration / Writing
This YouTube channel from CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) has 11 short videos of well-known children’s authors demonstrating how they draw some of their characters. Children can watch and pause the video, copy alongside them and maybe even create their own new stories for the characters.
EYFS, KS1, KS2 – Writing
11 free teaching sequences to compliment books by the authors above. The books are generally KS1 texts but there are three separate sequences for each phase.
All the sequences contain cross-curricular ideas so these packs would be good for schools wanting to provide something more holistic or give parents choices about the book-related activities they do at home.
EYFS, KS1, KS2
The free section of The Literacy Shed site contains lots of short films, organised into categories (‘sheds’). Most include teaching ideas, often with comprehension type questions and writing prompts.
KS2, KS3
Elementari is a K-12 online platform to read, write, code, share, and remix interactive stories using professional illustrations and sounds.
KS1, KS2
Oxford Owl: support for parents in developing their children’s writing, with the key aspects of the national curriculum and activity ideas for each year group.