COVID19 educational resources

This page was updated during Lockdown 2020 as people sought to educate their children at home in the UK.

You are welcome to link to this page from your website to help more people find the resources.

Listed here you will find:

  • Resources aimed at people with additional learning needs, loosely grouped according to themes and hopefully free to access.

  • Resources aimed at helping people understand the changes COVID has brought about.

  • Debby Watson's Passport to Play for children with profound disabilities.

  • Requested links from organisations who feel they have something to offer you (some of these may be paid-for services).

  • Resources aimed at children without additional learning needs.

Curating this list has been a joy, when the world went into Lockdown the kindness of the people and organisations listed here leapt into view.

The Sensory Projects Online College offers courses for people supporting people with complex disabilities. The Sensory Projects also has free and purchasable resources.


I will be sharing more content via social media and I am always happy to make new friends interested in learning and inclusion:

LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook

Passport to Play: A research project on playfulness and people with profound disabilities

Debby Watson's Passport to Play is a wonderful resource developed for use with children with profound disabilities, but of course it is not just children who play so the passport has something to offer people of all ages. You will find it as a download at the bottom of this page, together with a simple observation tool Debby developed to go with the passport.

Debby says:

I developed the Passport to Play during the course of carrying out research for my PhD on playfulness and profoundly disabled children. Families, teachers, academics and other professionals have contributed towards the content and I hope that it will be used to inform people who are getting to know a profoundly disabled child or adult about the way in which they can be playful. It may be useful, for example, in play schemes where people who are supporting a child with profound needs may not have known the child for very long, or staff in short break services may use it to engage with children playfully. Do contact me if you have any comments or questions about the Passport at debbywatson1@googlemail.com.

As well as the Passport, I developed an observation tool for looking closely at what makes someone with PMLD feel playful. I think observation is key in really understanding what is going on when trying to engage someone.

The Passport to Play project finished in 2014 but I have continued to write and present on the subject. Publications resulting from the research are:

  • D. Watson (2020) Crossing the wobbly bridge: an inclusive approach to researching playfulness and children with PMLD in Belonging for individuals with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties: Pushing the boundaries of inclusion Nind, M. and Strnadova, I. (eds) London: Routledge

  • D Watson, A Jones, H Potter (2018) Expressive Eyebrows and Beautiful Bubbles: Playfulness and Children with Profound Impairments

  • The Palgrave Handbook of Disabled Children’s Childhood Studies, pp177-190 Edited by K. Runswick-Cole, T. Curran and K. Liddiard. Palgrave: London

  • D. Watson (2015) 'Go-getters' and 'clever little cookies': a multi-method study of playfulness in children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) Thesis: University of Bristol

  • D Watson (2015) Turning to playfulness: findings from a study on playfulness and children with profound impairments The SLD Experience 73 (1), 18-23

  • D Watson, M Corke (2015) Supporting playfulness in learners with SLD/PMLD

  • The Routledge Companion to Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties edited by Penny Lacey, Rob Ashdown, Phyllis Jones, Hazel Lawson, Michele Pipe. London: Routledge

  • Watson, D. (2015) Playfulness and children with profound impairments: Lighting the fire! Special July 2015

  • Watson, D. (2015) ‘Go-getters’ and ‘clever little cookies’: findings from a multi-method study on playfulness and children with PMLD PMLD Link Vol 26 Issue 79 pp 7-9

  • Watson, D. (2013) Playfulness and children with PMLD: Going beyond the statutory to reach the child PMLD Link 25 (2) Issue 75 pp. 8-9

Also likely to be of interest:

PMLD link is a journal that shares ideas and information relating to supporting people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, subscription for a year is cheap and gives you access to ALL back issues - lots of ideas and insights within.

These Facebook groups are also very relevant to those supporting people with profound disabilities:

British Sign Language online course

Mainstream and mixed resources

Government list of free educational resources

Read and help to illustrate a new story by JK Rowling!

The Story Lady -reading you stories live everyday

The best live online lessons

Literacy packs from the National Education Union

Varsity Tutors free online lessons, parent support and much more

List of online organisations offering free subscription to their services

12 noon techniquest science demonstrations

Printable resources for exploring nature (linked to literacy and numeracy as well.) Good outdoor garden activities

Dyson's science and engineering challenges

The Maths Mum

4pm Mon, Wed, Fri live kids cooking lessons

Read Write Inc live streamed phonics sessions on Facebook and YouTube for children:

  • Set 1 Speed Sounds at 9.30 am and again at 12.30 pm

  • Set 2 Speed Sounds at 10.00 am and again at 1.00 pm

  • Set 3 Speed Sounds at 10.30 am and again at 1.30 pm

Tuesday 10am Born2Sing singing sessions for little ones

Interactive phonics cards

Live feeds to watch animals

Stratford Literacy festival sharing stories

NATRE resources

Literacy trust

Hundreds of free children's stories from Audible

KS1 KS2 and EYFS resources

Twinkl resources Free month access to all resources here

Theatre resources

Museum and Gallery virtual tours

75 Virtual Museum Tours

Primary school music resources

Resources from museums and heritage settings

Literacy trust resources

Geography games

Live stream the Northern Lights

Planet history

Scholastic Resource Bank:

Story books read online

Timetable with activity links for home school learning

30 day free trial of a handwriting app (be sure to cancel if you do not want to subscribe)

Science Foundation resources

Worldbooks Free access to thousands of ebooks and audio books for children

Challenge cards - Maths and SPAG

Reading activity warm ups

Body Coach 5 min PE activities

Storytime from Space!

Children's yoga activities

Learning from home activity books

Learn at home packs

Daily home school learning activities

Website list of home school resources

Lego online engineering classes

Also...

Mental health resources for families and children

Or for when school is done for the day:

Streaming services that are offering content for free (be mindful that some are free for the first 30 days and then expect payment, be sure to cancel to avoid charges)