Online Learning Resources for Pupils and Parents
As education has well and truly gone virtual, there are a plethora of learning resources online that can help benefit students during their home studies. From art and photography, maths, computing and general tools to aid studying; the digital sphere has opened up like never before, presenting plenty of opportunities to keep on top of school life away from the classroom.
Rendcomb College has embraced virtual learning through Microsoft Teams and the ability to host classes, hold one-to-one sessions and also provide feedback at the click of a button. Our highly qualified and experienced teachers have also searched high and low to find the most reliable and respected sites to accompany the curriculum.
Whether you prefer YouTube videos for history revision or online tools for writing citations, here are a number of useful websites approved by Rendcomb College teachers that can be tailored to your education.
- BBC Bitesize has been around for decades and is still regarded as a high quality platform for learning. They have also ventured into providing lessons on TV too. It’s free to access and breaks down the curriculum into manageable sizes and stretches across many topics. Our educators use it to support the main body of their lessons, particularly in parallel with KS3 classes.
Our teachers recommend the following three online resources when studying maths at home, due to their unique methods of making the subject fun and engaging.
- Corbettmaths is a free tool that provides practice papers for both senior and primary school students and includes a whole range of video tutorials.
- Hegarty maths is a subscription based service which features interactive worksheets with supporting videos. It’s great for providing instant feedback, plus you can watch videos for help and message your teacher about a specific question you may find challenging.
- MyMaths is another subscription based platform, which uses interactive presentations with moving images to make learning maths more dynamic.
We are spoilt for choice with websites dedicated to English education. From traditional teaching to tools that embrace virtual learning.
- Open Culture Audio Books - From Jane Austen to Lewis Carroll there is a whole library of a thousand audio books ready and available for you to download and listen to for free. Many a cult classics which are great to tick off the bucket list.
- Microsoft 365 - Many of our pupils will now be familiar with Microsoft 365 and there are heaps of application within the programme which can assist learning. Microsoft Stream is available free through the school and enables us to record lengthy video lessons, instructions and listening exercises.
- Flipgrid is another site which allows teachers to record, edit and provide feedback for students with videos, presentations and speaking exam practice.
- Kahoot is a great way to get all the family involved and make learning fun. Their website and phone app is designed with interactive quizzes, vocabulary revision and short tests, to keep your mind active.
English (International Study)
The EAL (English As a Language) Department provides many online resources and is particularly beneficial for our overseas students. It helps to keep our teaching up to date and adds variety – who wants to work from a book all day long! This virtual resource lets students learn remotely from their home country where they can simply access information at a click of a button in their own time zone.
- Rendcomb College frequently uses tools from the British Council which are relevant and interesting when learning English. Plus, for those taking the IELTS exams there are practice papers available.
- For additional assistance when learning English we also utilise Film English which helps our students learn the language through visual material. There are a number of short films which lead to wider discussions and aid pupils to widen their vocabulary and improve their skills in a fun and creative manner.
As part of the school curriculum we teach French, German and Spanish and have experienced teaching staff who are experts in their chosen language. A number of websites that complement our studies include:
- Quizet - Free online flashcards designed for KS3-5 to test your memory
- Kerboodle - Electronic textbooks for KS3-4 (subscription required)
- Viva - A reading, writing, listening and assessment resource that accompanies the KS4 physical textbook (subscription required)
- Dynamic Learning - This accompanies the KS5 Hodder A Level textbook (subscription required)
- Thisislanguage - A website which supplements and enhances listening skills for KS4 - (subscription required)
Art & Photography
In the art & photography department we have our own references collated onto the virtual pin board Pinterest as most of our students have an account. There are over 80 boards with approx. 8,000 references and tutorials, which we have collated over four years for our students to use and benefit from. All of these images are approved for student use and it’s continually updated.
- Pinterest forms an integral part of what our students use for their GCSE and A-level studies worldwide.
There are other free sites which supply art and photography too including:
- Access Art (accessart.org.uk)
- The Tate which offers learning options for younger years (tate.org.uk)
- Google Arts and Culture that provides great reference and research opportunities (artsandculture.google.com)
Design & Technology
One of the most challenging subjects to continue during this time due to resources and restrictions to workshops, there is the benefit of online guidance which can help with design and technology.
- Technology Student is a free well established site which offers a huge range of pages on the topic and has designated sectors depending on your level of expertise and also needs for coursework.
- TEDTalks are a trusted way to learn and be inspired with videos available across a whole range of subjects.
If ever there is a time to understand the importance of computing or further learn about how best to utilise it and make platforms your own, it is now. The free website, Code, is an online block based coding environment which teaches the fundamentals of programming through a series of self-paced challenges. Rendcomb uses the express course with Year 7 to cover the fundamentals of programming and to assess students prior learning before moving on to a text based programming language. Students login to their own account and we are able to monitor progress and see their work.
Online learning has become more accessible as education has gone virtual. There are a number of specialist learning support (LS) sites that can assist many needs.
- Seneca Learning is the platform Rendcomb set work for LS pupils on LS virtual classrooms for English, spelling, grammar, punctuation, learning key vocabulary and also the sciences.
- As mentioned earlier, Hegarty Maths provides a great resource to accompany the curriculum. It’s also great for teaching videos, specifically MEMRi tasks which reinforce maths concepts. Rendcomb ask pupils to do this at least three times a week to aid working memory processes.
- Nessy is aimed at younger learners with dyslexia where education is in a gaming format.
- The subscription based Teachit features a wide range of GCSE resources and worksheets.
- Revision World allows you to look at past papers for free when revising for your GCSE exams.
- Tailored Tutors is a great resource for A Level students studying physics, biology, chemistry and reinforcement . Although a little expensive, it is a cheaper alternative to tutoring.
Rendcomb also use a number of apps:
- Prizmo Go - This scans and reads texts out loud for pupils.
- Notability- A great word processing app that is very flexible and changes background paper, squared paper and embeds photos of textbooks easily. It also includes a speech to text feature.
- Shakespeare In Bits - A creative app which is £14 for the play you are studying by the Bard. It has animation, synopsis and analysis alongside and is designed especially for dyslexic learners.
If you require advice on what website are relevant in other subjects of the curriculum don’t hesitate to ask your teacher.