Social/Study Groups and Resources

Groups

For privacy reasons, details of social and study groups (online or otherwise) are not openly published. If you are considering or actively home educating, get in touch via the Home and Contact page for a list of regular meetings in London and surrounding areas.

General Resources

(For subject-related resources, please hop over this section and continue at ‘Resources by subject’ below.)
1. A short Youtube film on what Home Education is all about.

2. National Curriculum for KS 1 – 4 Effective September 2016  Note that there is NO requirement to follow this.

3. Home Education IGCSE and other external examinations forum – The forum to join if your child is 11+ and plans to study or is studying towards GCSEs and/or other external examinations.

4. Khan Academy – Covers a lot of subjects to GCSE level and beyond.

5. BBC Bitesize – For studies/revisions from KS1 to GCSE level.8. Access Arrangements tips for Exams

6. IGCSE Changes from 2017

7. Home Ed Group-order Facebook group – For heavily discounted study resources.

8. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – free online courses available for anyone to use. See below for a list of the ones we use.

Resources by Subject

Architecture

1. Over-subscribed monthly Architecture classes at Sir John Soane’s Museum. Museum trips are included in the year-long programme.

Maths

1. Conquer Maths – Probably one of the best non-free maths online program. Available at a huge discount to HE kids via a group order. It tests your kid(s) and works on their weaknesses, using clear videos and examples. Also tracks the syllabus to GCSE level.

2. Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (CIMT) – This is our preferred Maths option. If you want to see progress on paper, you can’t beat the CIMT. The resources are amazing and FREE to use and print. You can order hardcopies for a nominal fee. CIMT resources cover pre – primary to A Level.

3. SATs Question Papers (free downloads)

4. Hegarty Maths for kids who like a challenge.

5. Brain Pop (Brilliant web based videos – covers a number of subjects. Sadly, the UK version is no longer available.)

6. Corbett Maths (Recommended for Maths GCSE and also goes up to A Levels)

7. Education Quizzes (Available to home edders at 100% discount as at Jan 2018)

8. Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize and other online resources – all FREE and comprehensive.

9. Nrich Maths for all ages including post 16.

Sciences (including Chemistry, Physics, Biology)

1. BP Educational Pages – Great for primary and secondary design and technology, science and geography educational materials.

2. Free educational posters for science students

3. The Royal Institution for the amazing weekday lectures.

4. Science in School – Covers all aspects of science for primary school age kids.

5. The Royal Society – The definitive ‘Invigorate’ educational pages for KS2 and above

6. International Space Station Tracker

7. NASA’s Education Resource – Space in 3D

8. Electrical Circuits

9. SATS Question Papers Free Downloads

10. Mystery Science (Web based – Free for a limited period as at 03 September 2015)

11. Brain Pop (Web based – Covers a number of subjects) – Subscribe for the full range or access a number of lessons free of charge. Home Ed families get a discount.

12. Activity Packs for all ages from the British Science Week Organisation

13. Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize and other online resources – all FREE and comprehensive.

English and Literature

1. Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress – Software to help develop and improve reading and comprehension skills at pre-primary and primary levels. Home Educators get a discount.

2. Study Ladder

3. Sam Learning

4. The New First Aid in English (Find the books on Amazon)

5. SATS Question Papers Free Downloads

6. A Complete 10-Week Poetry Programme (FREE)

7. Bitesize Highlights on Shakespeare.

8.  For some much needed diversity, the Bengali Nobel Laureate. Sir Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Stories.

9. Books and plays by Prof Wole Soyinka, the African Nobel Laureate.

10. Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize (our preferred source) and other online resources – all FREE and comprehensive.

Languages

1. Duolingo – Free online site that ACTUALLY helps you learn and improve your knowledge of a new language. At the last check, it offered Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English)

2. Memrise – Free online site that offers very interesting ways to remember what is being learnt.

3. Youtube and other online resources – all FREE and comprehensive.

Engineering (including Design and Technology)

1. Dyson Free Education Resources

2. Young Engineers

3. Build Your First Robot – Robotics Engineering for Kids and Adults

4. Khan Academy, BBC Bitesize and other online resources – all FREE and comprehensive.

History

1. British Library’s World War One website and Schools Programme.

2. British Museum – Educational Workshops and Lectures

3. The Big History Project – Free, open resource

4. Free visits to English Heritage sites.

5. Discounted visits to National Heritage sites.

6. World History: Hyper History fully interactive site

Politics

1. UK Parliament Education service – Request an Education Loan Box

2. KS2 to KSinfinity Politics Educational Resources

Computing /IT

1. Code Academy Used to be totally free. Now has annoying ‘upgrade’ features.

2. Khan Academy – Still 100% free.

3. W3 Schools – Covers all Web programming languages. Forever free.

4. Coding classes at Imperial College. Usually on Saturdays term times (started September 2016).

GCSEs, A and AS Levels, and other external examinations

1. HE External Exams support forum.

2. HE External Exams Wiki.

3. Past Question Papers.

Sites including MOOCs providing mostly free modular courses

1. Future Learn – Fantastic hub for a variety of short courses for kids, adults and families. Highly recommended. Free.

2. Open Learn – A variety of short courses from the Open University. Free.

3. Coursera – has a broad selection of courses in-session or beginning shortly that you can take for academic credit (if you’re enrolled) or just a certificate of completion that shows you’ve learned a new skill. Topics range from science and technology to social science and humanities. Used to be free but now has paid upgrades.

4. Khan Academy – offers free YouTube-based video classes in math, science, technology, the humanities, and test preparation and study skills. If you’re looking to augment your education or just take a couple video classes in your spare time, it’s a great place to start and has a lot of interesting topics to offer.

5. TED Talks – well known for being thought provoking, interesting, intelligent, and in many cases, inspiring and informative. We’ve featured TED talks at Lifehacker before, and if you’re looking for seminars on the web worth watching, TED is worth perusing. Ted also features animated series.

6. Academic Earth curates an amazing list of video seminars and classes from some of the world’s smartest minds, innovators, and leaders on a variety of topics including science, mathematics, politics, public policy, art, history, and more.

7. edX is a collection of free courses from leading Universities like the University of California, Berkeley, MIT, and Harvard. There aren’t many, but the ones offered are free, open to the public, and they rotate often.

8. Udacity offers a slimmer selection of courses, but the ones offered are not only often for-credit, but they’re instructor led and geared towards specific goals, with skilled and talented instructors walking you through everything from building a startup to programming a robotic car.

9. The Savoy Academy offers a wide array of courses and entire course programs on topics from economics to political science and professional development.

10. Class Central aggregates some of the best courses available from open universities and programs around the web in an easy to sort and search format. Just search for what you want to learn, and if a course is available and starting soon, you’ll find it.

11. Education-Portal.com has a list of universities offering free and for-credit online classes to students and the public at large.

12. CreativeLIVE features a number of interactive courses in business, photography, and self-improvement, many of which are free and available to listen in on at any time of day.

13. Open Culture’s list of free online courses is broken down by subject matter and includes classes available on YouTube, iTunes U, and direct from the University or School’s website.

14. The Open Courseware Consortium is a collection of colleges and universities that have all agreed to use a similar platform to offer seminars and full classes—complete with notes, memos, examinations, and other documentation free on the web. They also maintain a great list of member schools around the world, so you can visit universities anywhere in the world and take the online classes they make available.

15. The University of Reddit is a crowd-built set of classes and seminars by Reddit users who have expertise to share. Topics range from computer science and programming to paleontology, narrative poetry, and Latin. Individuals interested in teaching classes regularly post to the University of Reddit subthread to gauge interest in future couses and announce when new modules are available.

16. Lifehacker University provides free online classes from schools like Yale University, MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, and many more that you can audit and participate in from the comfort of your office chair, couch, or computing chair-of-choice.

17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) places lectures, etc online so non students can freely access them.

18. MOOCs