Organisations across the world have responded to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by sharing free resources to help support schools, students and families. We’ve rounded up a selection of free resources available from our partner organisations – focusing on challenge alongside enjoyment, enrichment and wellbeing.

Oxplore – “Home of Big Questions”

A digital outreach portal developed by the University of Oxford, Oxplore aims to raise aspirations and stimulate intellectual curiosity amongst 11- to 18-year olds. The “Home of Big Questions”, it tackles complex ideas across a wide range of subjects, drawing on the latest Oxford research and promoting interdisciplinary enquiry.

Get started:

• Watch this short video for an overview of the platform and how it can be used.
• Download this free activity sheet designed to help students and families get started.
• Read this blog post for more ideas, including additional resources to print and use at home.
• Follow Oxplore on Wordpress and Twitter for new Big Questions, live online events and more.

NRICH – “low threshold, high ceiling” maths activities

Based at the University of Cambridge, NRICH provides free “low threshold, high ceiling” maths resources for learners aged 3-19, designed to enrich mathematics teaching and learning through challenging, engaging and meaningful activities.

Get started:

• Watch this short video for an introduction to NRICH’s “low threshold, high ceiling” approach.
• Visit NRICH’s maths at home webpage for a selection of maths activities to try at home.
• Take a look at this overview, article and video for accompanying tips and guidance on using the activities.

Shakespeare’s Globe – free online screenings and resources

The iconic Shakespeare's Globe theatre offers resources and services to support teaching and learning with Shakespeare for all ages. During the current period, the Globe is opening up access to its catalogue of past production recordings through fortnightly releases on YouTube, including introductory talks from the Globe's Head of Higher Education and Research, Professor Farah Karim-Cooper. This year's 90-minute Playing Shakespeare production of Macbeth will be available from 11 May until schools reopen. Schools can also request free access to all Globe Player films, as well as many other educational videos, by contacting Bloomsbury. 

Get started:

• Take a virtual tour of the Globe theatre.
• Explore the Teach Shakespeare website – hundreds of free resources including worksheets, activities, revision guides and more.
• Explore individual plays in more depth with the Playing Shakespeare microsites for Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Day – daily articles and activities based on current affairs

The Day turns the daily news into lessons designed to get students thinking for themselves and engaging with the world. In response to current demand, it has launched a free daily newsletter for parents and carers supporting students at home. It is also offering free access to articles relating to different aspects of the pandemic, with links across the curriculum – with an added focus on activities to complete at home, both online and away from the screen.

Get started:

• Sign up for The Day Home – free daily newsletter to support home learning.
• Browse the latest daily articles and activities to spark debate and enquiry.
• Check out The Day Explorer – aimed at younger learners.

Plus…

Many more organisations are offering free resources to support and engage students across all ages, abilities and areas of interest. For additional ideas and inspiration, take a look at:

• BBC Bitesize: daily lessons for home schooling in maths, English and more
  
• Chartered College: compact guides for schools during COVID-19
• Department for Education: list of online education resources
• Department for Education: overview of coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for schools
• Department for Education: guidance on remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Department for Education: case studies of remote education practice during coronavirus (COVID-19)
• EdTech Demonstrator Schools and Colleges Programme
• Education Endowment Foundation: resources to support home learning
• EEF: COVID-19 support guide for schools (June 2020)
• EEF report: Impact of school closures on the attainment gap (June 2020)
• EEF report: Remote learning: rapid evidence assessment (April 2020)
• Fair Education Alliance: list of free initiatives for young people, parents and educators
• Oak National Academy: online lessons from reception to Year 10
• School Libraries Association: support for out-of-school learning (book-related resources)
• School Libraries Association: support for out-of-school learning (other resources)
  
• Seren: distance learning resources to support Year 12 and 13 students in Wales

Share your own…

What resources, websites or approaches have you found useful in supporting more able learners remotely? Share your recommendations in our online forums.

Cathy Metcalf, Year 5 teacher and expressive arts lead at St Mary's RC Primary School, shares four approaches to help learners move beyond the search for a single right answer.

For many of our more able learners, much of their education is spent seeking (and usually finding) answers. Correct answers. They are the children in our class who ‘know’ they have the answer we are looking for, and frequently the learners who struggle when they get an answer wrong. But how do these learners cope when there is no ‘right’ answer? When everyone’s ideas and opinions are valued and acceptable, and right and wrong are no longer the outcomes or intentions of the lesson?

Element 3c of the NACE Challenge Framework reminds us of our responsibility to consider “social and emotional support” as well as academic provision for the more able. Similarly, the updated education inspection framework (EIF) calls for schools to develop “pupils’ character… so that they reflect wisely, learn eagerly, behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well” and “pupils’ confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy”. In Wales too, wellbeing has a significantly raised profile in the context of ongoing curriculum reform.

Learners who are not used to the feeling of struggle and failure are likely to crumble when faced with a task or approach that does not entail a straightforward correct answer. As practitioners, we have a responsibility to ensure that our more able learners are regularly exposed to a high-enough level of challenge to experience the feeling of struggle, in an environment where they feel part of a supportive learning community. 

In my ‘other life’ (beyond teaching) I have worked as a musical director in theatre for nearly 15 years, and I feel that the expressive arts provide so many opportunities for this kind of development. I am always looking for ways to explore and use the arts in my pedagogical approach, and have found the following approaches to be particularly successful for more able learners: 

1. Draw on creative role models to develop growth mindset

Carol Dweck’s theory of growth mindset is important to helping learners understand the benefits of ‘staying with’ a task or problem, even when it feels beyond their ability – and here, there is much to be learned from the world of expressive arts.

Many artists and musicians spend weeks, months, even years perfecting a work. Even the process of rehearsing for a performance (be it a school concert, instrumental examination or West End production) requires dedication and resilience, calling for repetition after repetition to ensure consistency.

For learners it can be powerful to take inspiration from an artist or other celebrity and to understand how they approach their craft. The NACE Essentials guide to learning mindset suggests encouraging learners to “research individuals they admire who have achieved something great and explore what these people have in common.”

In my school, figures such as Walt Disney and J. K. Rowling are year-group models, and pupils learn about how they have created their masterpieces through teamwork, setbacks and extensive editing. Developing a growth mindset permeates our whole school culture and reinforces the idea that “the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time” (Thomas Edison).

2.  Set creative open-ended tasks

The guidance for more able learners from the regional consortia within which I work suggests “setting creative open-ended tasks” within our everyday practice. I recently used a task which involved playing short excerpts of music and asking children (and staff) to choose the colour they felt the music was describing.

Of course, with this type of task there is no ‘right’ answer, yet the lesson serves many purposes: to encourage reasoning and justification for any answer, to develop child talk in a low-stake environment, and as an introduction to the technical vocabulary required for describing music.

It was particularly interesting to note how many of my more able learners were fixated upon ‘Yes, but who is right Miss?’ and I am already planning further activities using paintings, sculpture and digital art to try and change this mindset.

3. Provide regular mental workouts

In its recent thematic review of provision for more able learners, Estyn recognises a problem in many schools of simply setting more work in terms of quantity, rather than extensions which require deeper thinking.

I try to provide my class with opportunities to think deeply about their academic work, but also to think deeply in an altogether more abstract, creative way. The use of ‘thunk’ questions and ‘cognitive wobble’ are particularly strong ways of encouraging learners to question their own perceptions of the world, and even to challenge information that is presented to them by teachers and parents.

Some of my favourite ‘thunks’ are excellent warm-ups for art, drama and literacy lessons… e.g. If I drop a bucket of paint on a canvas, is it art? What if I drop the bucket deliberately? What colour is Tuesday? If I compose a piece of music, but it is never played, is it still music?

Character studies during drama or literacy lessons also provide opportunities for ‘cognitive wobble’ – the result of conflicting information clashing when we need to form an opinion about something. e.g. We know thieves are villains, and yet Robin Hood is a hero... 

My class last year also took part in a project with a visiting neurologist, who taught the pupils about the brain, and how it works in the same way as any other well-exercised muscle. They learnt about different parts of the brain and how it functions, and many were able to make links with the ongoing work we had done on mindset.

4. Challenge parents to change their perspectives

Finally, I am reminded of a conversation with a parent who had been flicking through a maths book before a parent-teacher consultation. The parent commented on the number of mistakes in the book and expressed concern over their child’s lack of mathematical understanding. The child in question was, in fact, a strong mathematician who really thrived when challenged and was learning to articulate her mistakes and what she had learnt from them.

If we want to reframe the concept of success for our learners, we also need to challenge the perception of ‘right’ answers held by parents – which in many cases is passed on to their children. Ensuring that parents are well informed of the learning culture in a school, particularly that of mindset and deep learning/challenge is crucial in supporting this change.

We have recently introduced Individualised Achievement Plans for our most able learners, which involve a target-/project-setting meeting between learner, teacher and parent, and already we are seeing the benefits of parents’ support when more open-ended tasks are introduced and continued at home.

I was particularly struck by a comment in the NACE Essentials guide to learning mindset: “the risk with more able learners can be that teachers do not sufficiently reward effort, due to success being perceived as a ‘given’ [… A]ll learners need ‘process praise’ to build or reinforce that all-important growth mindset.” This is of course true, and not just of learners at school age. We all need to feel as though our efforts, whether at work or elsewhere, are appreciated, and we are all likely to perform better when praised.

For our young learners, receiving support, praise and encouragement not only at school but also at home can have a huge impact. Engaging with parents to ensure a consistent approach is key.

I recently read an NCETM article titled “The answer is only the beginning”. It seems to me that the more we are able to instil this mindset in our more able learners, the better we equip them for whatever challenges they may face, both academically and throughout their lives.

References and further reading

·         Healthy and happy – school impact on pupils’ health and wellbeing (Estyn, 2019)

·         How best to challenge and nurture more able and talented pupils: Key stages 2 to 4 (Estyn, 2018)

·         Regional Strategy and Guidance for More Able Learners (Education Achievement Services for South Wales, 2018)

·         NACE Essentials: Using mindset theory to drive success (NACE, 2018; login required)

·         The Learning Challenge (James Nottingham, 2017)

·         The Little Book of Thunks (Ian Gilbert, 2007)

NACE member offers: for details of current discounts available from our partner organisations, including education publishers such as Crown House, Hodder, SAGE, Rising Stars and Routledge, log in to our members’ site.

Lesley Hill, headteacher of NACE member Lavender Primary School in North London, shares her school’s approach to ensuring the curriculum remains broad, engaging and meaningful – alongside a successful focus on good outcomes for all learners.

“Lavender” School conjures images of a delightful school in a leafy suburb. It is a delightful school, but we have our challenges. The number of children with English as an additional language, and of those eligible for FSM, are both above national averages. We also have a high number of children with need. However, challenges are not just about closing gaps, and when it comes to curriculum one particular challenge is to hold on to what is important.
 
In the late 80s, I was an advocate of themes, of helping children see links in learning and maximising creativity. Although I understood the need for a national curriculum (to avoid children potentially repeating the same topic year after year!), I had serious concerns about a rigid, dictated and narrow curriculum that would merely feed standardised tests.
 
A few decades (and curriculum reviews) on, and I don’t believe that prescription has to stifle creativity, or that children have to learn within a narrow framework to get results.

Empowering learners to make choices… and mistakes

For some years, most of our subject teaching has been done through cross-curricular topics and we insist on at least one pupil choice topic per year. Classes or year groups vote on different themes and teachers ensure that the statutory knowledge and skills are covered within the topic. In KS2, we aim to include children in the planning process by asking them to consider how the required topic content could be taught.
 
Our use of pupil voice helps to engage and motivate our learners, but we also want them to have ownership over their learning. The introduction of growth mindset five years ago made a marked difference in terms of attitude, and was particularly empowering for those higher-achieving learners who find it so hard to “get something wrong”.

Developing skills for self-evaluation and reflection

Learning to learn strategies were also embedded and this culture enabled us to introduce fast, effective feedback a year ago. Teachers do not write in any books, but mark verbally during lessons, through 1:1 or group conferencing. Children peer- and self-assess and write reflections on their learning against success criteria. The self-evaluative process needs higher-order thinking, and allows learners at all levels to develop those skills.
 
Meta-cognition is promoted through peer work and is particularly successful for higher achievers when working with lower achieving or younger children (such as through our Reading Buddy scheme). Talk partners are therefore picked randomly to allow a range of peer-work experience. Group and paired feedback has been successful across the curriculum. I opened a sketch book recently and read, “I spoke with my partner and we thought that I should put more shading and detail on the petals.” Our “drafting and crafting” approach is used across the curriculum, enabling children to reflect on all learning, not just the core subjects.

Encouraging creativity at home

The fact that we value all subjects is visible in our homework policy. Learners have the usual spellings and number facts to learn, but also work on given topic themes. Because the titles are quite open (such as “Enfield Town”), children can access them and deepen their learning according to their own starting points. On home-learning day, you might see children carefully manoeuvring a model volcano, clutching a home-made booklet about local history or a USB stick with a slideshow about chocolate. They might just have a sheet of notes that have been prepared for a “lecture”. They share these projects at school, paying special attention to their presentation skills, which are then peer- and self-evaluated.

Extracurricular experiences and engagement

Visits and outings are built into our curriculum. We develop enterprise and aspiration through trips to businesses and institutions, such as Cambridge University, and by inviting in key people. We value working with others, getting involved with school cluster creative projects wherever possible. Last year, we were able to buy in a British Sign Language (BSL) teacher from a partner school to teach sign language to every class from nursery to Y6. We also encourage entries to events such as the annual Chess Tournament and Mayor’s Award for Writing, and are in the process of organising a spelling bee across our partner schools.
 
Home-school partnerships are important to us. Family days, where parents come in and work alongside their children, as well as exhibitions and information fairs, help us to share our wider curriculum. One event saw parents being led on a tour through the WWI trenches and, last year, families came in to learn the school song (written by the children themselves). We also work to build wider community links through events such as bulb planting with the local park group, or charity choir performances. Our School Council representatives are confident and vocal when considering local and wider issues and how we can support others.

What does it all mean?

Lavender's results are very pleasing across all key stages. Our GLD, phonics, KS1 and KS2 combined outcomes remain above national figures, with progress data of our higher-achieving children being better than national in all subjects.

OK, so Year 6 do have to do practice tests and more homework than most, but you'll still catch them sneaking into my office during a unit on mystery texts, going through my bin, and desperately trying to work out if I'm actually a spy. Despite budget pressures, I will continue to find the money for Herbie's insurance (our school dog's work with the most vulnerable children is priceless) and I’ll always value our subject leaders for the passion and drive they bring to our curriculum.

Data will always be top of my agenda, but it's there alongside breadth, depth and enrichment. A broad and balanced curriculum doesn't have to be at the expense of good outcomes for our children.
 
Lesley Hill is headteacher of Lavender Primary School, a popular two-form entry school in North London, part of the Ivy Learning Trust and a member of NACE. She has taught across the primary age range and has also worked in adult basic education and on teacher training programmes. Her current role includes the design and delivery of leadership training at middle and senior leader level, and she also provides workshops on a range of subjects, such as growth mindset and marking. Her book, Once Upon a Green Pen, which explores creating the right school culture, is due to be released early next year.