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

Inclusive resources

Government list of free educational resources, including a set for special school students.

PAMIS's Virtual Activity Programme for people with profound disabilities

Molly's TV channel for engaging learners with special educational needs and disabilities

Sensory digital art packs

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

COVID19-specific resources

Mental health support through Sensory Dance with Collar and Cuffs

Therapeutic stories from Speaking Space

Strings and Things Six Sensory Stories about Social Distancing and Lockdown.

Huge selection of resources for supporting people with learning disabilities to understand and react to the current situation.

Social story about COVID19 from the Garden School

WHO's story book for children about COVID19 beautiful illustrations and available in many languages.

Climbing the Rainbow - a book about COVID19 for children by the illustrator of the Gruffalo

COVID19 breathing exercises

Brain Injury Trust Social Story regarding COVID19

Talking Mats resources for discussing the impact of COVID19

Range of resources including social stories about COVID19

Pete Wells' COVID19 sensory story

Social story about COVID19 and school closures from Ian Bean

Beating the virus - books beyond words

Resources about COVID19

Springwood Primary School's social story about COVID19

Children's stories about COVID19

Surviving Through Story, from Dr Nicola Grove of the Open Storytellers Project and friends

Guides etc on COVID19

UNC resources to support people with Autism during the COVID19 pandemic

Advice from Autistica on supporting autistic children with routine and learning during this time.

Latest Coronavirus Information for families of children with special educational needs compiled by the Special Educational Needs Jungle

Coronavirus and SEND Law from the Special Educational Needs Jungle

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

Ruby Tuesday Books
We’re offering a downloadable copy of one of our KS1 maths activity books. Here’s our social media links + the direct link to the book/offer:
https://www.rubytuesdaybooks.com/learningathome/
https://twitter.com/RubyTuesdayBks
https://www.facebook.com/RubyTuesdayBooks/
https://www.instagram.com/rubytuesdaybks/
We have loads of KS1 science worksheets and resources available here
And KS2 science worksheets and resources here