It’s that time of year when ‘back to school’ ranges flood the supermarkets and absolutely everything is labelled ‘perfect for the lunchbox’. As a parent, it may be easy to judge whether a bag of dried fruit is better than a bag of crisps, but it’s slightly more complicated when it comes to online learning for kids.

That’s why we’ve submerged ourselves in the plethora of educational resources for primary and secondary aged children dotted across the web to bring you the very best catch of the day. Some give free access, others are subscription base but they all give great support to children and are worth checking out.

Tutor Hub


Tutor Hub was set up to provide help when kids need it most – at homework time. The site allows kids to connect over homework problems, discuss them in threads and solve them together. It also gives students and their parents the option of paying a tutor to help out online. When your kid needs help with a maths problem and you just can’t remember your Pythagoras theorem, sign in to Tutor Hub and put your cares behind you.

Reading Eggs


Avid GWG readers might notice that we’ve featured this site before – and with good reason. This subscription-based site offers a way for young ones (ages 3-8) to learn to read aloud in a setting away from the classroom. Reading Eggs have created a fun and engaging environment with animations, games, and songs for little ones to enjoy. Kids are rewarded each time they get something right, which really motivates them to read on.

Manga High


Manga High was shortlisted for our Website of the Year Awards back in 2010 and is still going strong. This excellent site is not only one of the pioneers of online learning, with games aplenty, but material is based on the national curriculum, too. The site focuses specifically on mathematics for kids age 11-16. Each video game provides a different topic and exercises skills like the real-world adaptation of problems and the ability to hypothesise and evaluate ideas.

Ed Place


Run by a team of teachers and professional tech-heads, Ed Place offers English, maths, and science in tune with the national curriculum’s Key Stages 1-4. There’s a 14-day trial period for £1, and after that subscription prices start at £8 a month. With literally thousands of worksheets to complete online or print and fill out (as well as a facility to track your child’s progress online), you’re really getting your money’s worth.

Learn English Kids


Run by the British Council, this fun site helps youngsters learn English, with inspiring online activities, including word of the week, spelling practice and Hangman. All the games are interactive – in the word of the week activity you get to watch a video about the word, in the spelling practice games you drag and drop the word to the right picture and in the hangman game you must guess the right word before the monkey gets squashed under the rock. Kids just love it.

Mathletics


Do your children think maths is boring and difficult? Well, with Mathletics – you just watch – maths will suddenly become fun. You or your children’s school sign them up for a fee, and they’re then free to roam the site and engage in fun and stimulating educational games. They even have the opportunity to connect and compete with other kids worldwide in a range of trying games.

Cookie


Colour-in vowels, jigsaw safari, and an animated lesson plan educating young children about the frog’s life cycle are just some of the features of this handy site. Although the material originates from American curriculums, there’s no reason why your kids can’t make use of the wide range of free materials. We adore the Simple Sentences game, where a sentence is ejected from a bubble machine word by word. Your task is then to place it in the right order. While the games load, the usual “loading” bar is replaced by a mini-game of tennis for two. Simple but so much fun!

Updated September 2018

READ MORE:

Best Back To School Sites
My Web with Clover Stroud
Five Best Podcasts for Kids