Websites

Please find below a list of websites that are useful during remote learning

Free Resources for Parents & Pupils to Access Online

While schools are closed Audible UK are providing free access to a huge library of free stories for children including titles in six different languages. Audio books can be a great way to enjoy great stories even if there is a reluctance to read. For younger readers or those who find reading harder reading the text while listening to the audiobook can be a good way to build confidence.

All stories are free to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.

OpenLearn (opens new window) (click on the Free courses tab)

A range of study materials from beginner level to advanced study. You can download free course in multiple formats including word, pdf, kindle and ebook.

To give just one example, If you want to improve your Maths knowledge they have a comprehensive introductory programme to guide you through decimals, fractions, percentages, geometry, graphs, formulas and much more with step by step guides, lots of real-world examples and weekly quizzes. The programme is in two parts each designed to take 3 hours per week for 8 weeks. Brush up your own knowledge while your child(ren) work along and brush up theirs!

Those Maths programmes are at:

There are a huge number of courses at Beginner, Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Levels, some taking 1 hour to complete and others 50+ hours.

If you create an account you can even earn OU 'Badges' for completing units!

Planet eBook (opens new window)

Welcome to Planet eBook, the home of free classic literature! The latest version of the site, with its mobile-friendly design and multi-format eBooks, attempts to make our collection of eBooks available on all devices. These tend to be older texts as they are out of copyright but include some well-known classics such as Kidnapped, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein.

Project Gutenberg (opens new window)

To encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.

A huge number of texts available from a massive list of authors. Texts are available in multiple languages too.

Mary's Meals - The Shed that Fed activities (opens new window)

Mary's Meals are delighted to share an activity pack for children based on excerpts from the bestselling book 'The Shed That Fed A Million Children', written by our founder Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.

Through these stories, children can travel with Magnus from the Highlands of Scotland to the heart of Africa, where they will meet some of the people who inspired our work to feed hungry children in schools.

We've included questions alongside each passage, encouraging children to think about the lives of others their age around the world.

ScotRail (opens new window)

ScotRail have created a page with some fun activities for pupils based around their stations and rail safety.

Virtual Tours

With museums and art galleries being closed the opportunities to get out of the house and to marvel and the ingenuity and creativity of the human brain are a bit limited.

Fear not! The following museums and galleries offer free online tours and exhibits. Why not spend an hour virtually wandering through each of the following list and seeing where that might take you?

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

A fixture in Chambers Street since 1866 the National Museum holds collections of national and international importance, preserving them, interpreting them and making them accessible to as many people as possible. You can tour the museum using Google's Street View (opens new window).

British Museum, London

This iconic museum located allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artefacts on the virtual tour.

Explore the British Museum, London (opens new window)

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Google's Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim's famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.

Explore the Guggenheim Museum (opens new window)

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.	Explore the National Gallery of Art (opens new window)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.	Explore the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (opens new window)
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul One of Korea's popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google's virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.	Explore the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (opens new window)
Pergamon Museum, Berlin As one of Germany's largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer - even if you can't physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artefacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.	Explore Pergamon Museum (opens new window)
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you're actually wandering its halls.	Explore Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (opens new window)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum - the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.	Explore the Van Gogh Museum (opens new window)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.	Explore The J. Paul Getty Museum (opens new window)
Uffizi Gallery, Florence This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy's most famous families, the de'Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de'Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world.	Explore the Uffizi Gallery (opens new window)