Practitioner Resources
This area aims to provide you with links to hundreds of sites with information and resources, many of which are free, that you can use to plan your lessons. We welcome your suggestions; do email us at admin@eastmidlandscpd.co.uk with additions for this list or to notify us about broken links.
All Categories
skillsworkshop.org |
| Adult Basic Skills Resource Centre for students and tutors. 1000's of resources to print off or download. |
| http://www.skillsworkshop.org/ |
Teaching and Learning Measures |
| Resources here include: Measurement Websites; The History of Measurement; Scheme of Work; Worksheets; Measure Questions for discussion; Images and Webquests. |
| http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=511 |
BBC Skillswise |
| Improve your English and maths with Skillswise. Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games to help improve your skills. |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/ |
One Stop English |
| Over 7,000 resources, including lesson plans, worksheets, audio, video and flashcards for English language teachers. |
| http://www.onestopenglish.com/ |
English Zone |
| All sorts of resources to help teach English. |
| http://english-zone.com/index.php |
Embedded Learning Portal |
| This site contains the online versions of the Skills for Life Materials for Embedded Learning. These embedded teaching and learning materials are designed for use by teachers: vocational teachers and trainers, Skills for Life teachers, teachers working in community, employability and health settings and employability programmes. |
| http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/embeddedlearning/index.cfm |
Word Games |
| As well as games find e-books, book reviews and quizes. Use the teachers' area to find and create your own materials. |
| http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/index.html |
Count On |
| Maths Games for all ages. Introduce your learners to Sudoku or get them to enter 'Who wants to be a Mathonaire?' |
| http://www.counton.org/games/ |
Skillsheets |
| Books of photocopiable worksheets designed to teach basic literacy and maths in a straightforward way. |
| http://www.skillsheets1.freeserve.co.uk/ |
Read On - Write Away! |
| ROWA! have over 10 years experience of working with hard to reach learners. |
| http://www.rowa.org.uk/ |
LLU+ Teaching and Interactive Resources |
| LLU+ Numeracy Interactive http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/lluplus/resources/interactiveresources.shtml Free, customisable templates for practising numeracy skills. Designed to be used in a blended approach to learning, they provide tutors with an additional resource to enhance classroom delivery.
Numeracy Resources |
| http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/lluplus/resources/numeracyresources.shtml |
Gapfillers |
| Gapfillers is an E-learning site for advanced learners of English to improve English skills. 15 minutes each day; a new word by email or sms, short grammar quiz and up-to-date video news. English language practice through podcasts, Youtube, video, interactive English grammar quizzes - all with answers and explanations. Now over 5,000 exercises archived, |
| http://www.gapfillers.co.uk/ |
Keyskills 4 U |
| Student and Trainer website. |
| http://www.keyskills4u.com/ |
BBC Bitesize |
| Includes some useful resources for english and maths, KS3. |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks3bitesize/ |
Do Something Different |
| ‘Do Something Different’, a set of resources for career changers and for those who help them. this site aims to give an holistic approach to jobsearch. Learners may need support with exercises. |
| http://www.careerchange.org.uk/ |
nrich maths |
| On this website you will find thousands of our free mathematics enrichment materials (problems, articles and games) for teachers and learners from ages 5 to 19 years. All the resources are designed to develop subject knowledge, problem-solving and mathematical thinking skills. The website is updated with new material on the first day of every month. |
| http://nrich.maths.org/public/index.php |
Raising Standards Guides |
| These Raising Standards Guides, produced by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit, are intended to help practitioners and managers improve the quality of teaching and managing literacy, numeracy and language provision by using the five Common Inspection Framework questions for their particular context. |
| http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/raisingstandards/ |
Film Education |
| Free resources which includes film clips, Teachers' Notes and a range of activities. Although designed for Primary and Secondary education why not try the Film Library for the complete collection of downloadable film study guides, activity sheets for ideas that you could use with your learners. |
| http://www.filmeducation.org/index.php |
Quick Reads |
| Search the Resources for podcasts, downloadable tutor notes and weblinks to help learners make the most of Quick Reads. |
| http://www.niace.org.uk/quickreads/user/lpresource.php |
Adult Literacies Online |
| Very wide range of resources available for literacy, numeracy and esol. |
| http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/CCC_FirstPage.jsp |
BBC RaW |
| Four main topics: Words, Numbers, Money, Computers. All contain many, many resources, games, quizzes, stories and competitions to use with your learners. |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/raw/ |
Campaign for Learning - Resources |
| Resources for Family Learning, Workplace Learning and helping yourself or your staff plan for the future in the Live Long & Prosper resource section. |
| http://www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk/cfl/resources/index.asp |
NCETM - Resources |
| Explore interesting and innovative resources designed to help you with your teaching. Reflect on how they have made a difference to your professional development, or discover how the resources can be used across your school or department. |
| http://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources |
Key Skills Support Programme |
| A wide range of resources and publications produced during the lifespan of the programme are still available to download. |
| http://www.keyskillssupport.net/teacandlearresoa/ |
Money Made Clear |
| Moneymadeclear from the Financial Services Authority. Impartial information and tools to help you work out what’s right for you. This website has plenty of free resources and useful information including: step by step guides, a jargon buster, budget calculators and staying safe against scams. |
| http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/ |
Money Matters to Me |
| Money matters to me can help your learners to understand financial matters that are relevant to them and help them to take control of their money on a day to day basis. A wide range of information is available and the different approaches to using the site may provide relevance at different times of life. |
| http://www.moneymatterstome.co.uk/ |
*doughuk |
| *doughuk has detailed information about nine aspects of Personal Finance that are specifically relevant to young people aged from around 14 to 24 or so. |
| http://www.doughuk.com/welcome.cfm |
Symbol World |
| This site is dedicated to people who use symbols. It has material for all ages, which includes stories, learning materials and 'eLive' an on-line magazine especially for older readers. |
| http://www.symbolworld.org/index.htm |
English Banana |
| Thousands of resources including worksheets, quizzes, lesson plans, clipart photos and games that can be used to support the teaching of English. |
| http://www.englishbanana.com/index.html |
Maths Games |
| Interactive maths games to play online or download. Includes: Mathionaire, Countdown, The Weakest Link, Jigsaw, Decanting puzzle and many more. |
| http://www.subtangent.com/maths/games.php |
Rhyme Zone |
| Type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more. Also find poetry, quizzes, quotations and famous documents. |
| http://www.rhymezone.com/ |
Newsround |
| CBBC Newsround/Teachers. News based teaching ideas. |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/default.stm |
Advice Resources |
| If you work for an information, advice and guidance service in the UK, this is the website for you. |
| http://www.advice-resources.co.uk/ |
Literacy |
| http://www.teachit.co.uk/ |
The Internet Picture Dictionary |
| Browse by letter, category and in different languages. |
| http://www.pdictionary.com/ |
Lookcover |
| Teachers and learners can create their own lists or adapt and choose from built in lists to practice spelling. |
| http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/lookcover/lookcover.html |
Interactive Numeracy Materials |
| Produced by LLU+, this page provides access to free, customisable templates for practising numeracy skills. Designed to be used in a blended approach to learning, they provide tutors with an additional resource to enhance classroom delivery. |
| http://www.rkl.org.uk/llu/index.asp |
Multiplication.com |
| Interactive maths games and resources. |
| http://www.multiplication.com/ |
AplusMath |
| Includes interative games and quizzes for learners to test their maths skills online. Create and print your own set of flashcards online using the Flashcard Creator! See the Worksheets section, where you can print worksheets to practice offline. |
| http://www.aplusmath.com/ |
Learn English |
| LearnEnglish is a portal that links to all of the British Council's websites for teachers and learners of English - just one web address to remember. Includes: |
| http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish.htm |
BBC Learning English |
| Plenty of useful resources to inspire learning. |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ |
Activities for ESL/EFL Students |
| Quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to help you learn English as a Second Language (ESL). This project of The Internet TESL Journal (iteslj.org) has thousands of contributions by many teachers. |
| http://a4esl.org/ |
London Online |
| E-learning for Basic Skills and ESOL. Really easy to use online resource covering the topics of Friends, Health, Jobs, Neighbourhood and Shopping. |
| http://www.talent.ac.uk/londononline/welcome/home/index.htm#menu |
Parapal Online |
| This site contains a variety of interactive English exercises. They are designed to improve listening, writing, reading, vocabulary and grammar skills. It also includes software for schools and teachers to use. |
| http://www.parapal-online.co.uk/ |
SEN Teacher |
| Free special needs teaching resources. Lots and lots of free resources, which can be downloaded or printed. They include games, puzzles, activities and templates for things like certificates and photocards. Also links to other useful websites. |
| http://www.senteacher.org/Home/ |
Skills for Access |
| The comprehensive guide to creating accessible multimedia for e-learning. |
| http://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/resources.php |
Hot Potatoes |
| The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is freeware, and you may use it for any purpose or project you like. It is not open-source. |
| http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ |
Read Please |
| Text to speech software. |
| http://www.readplease.com/english/downloads/ |
Natural Reader |
| Text to speech program, NaturalReader enables you to experience listening to any text on your PC. You can use this software to create resources or record your sessions for assessment or for your own CPD purposes. |
| http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.htm |
Audacity |
| You can use this software to create resources or record your sessions for assessment or for your own CPD purposes. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to: Record live audio; Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs; Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together; Change the speed or pitch of a recording; and more! |
| http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ |
Open Doors |
| This part of the website showcases examples of how others have used museums, libraries and archives with Skills for Life learners, in order to inspire your own ideas and planning. From here you can also access the Learning Resources Library, providing a repository for resources and lesson plans. |
| http://www.mlay-skillsforlife.org.uk/ideas.php?id=7 |
Image Manipulation Program |
| The GNU Image Manipultion Program - for tasks such as photo retouching or image authoring. |
| http://www.gimp.org/ |
The British Dyslexia Association |
| On-line store where you will find lots of useful technology and information. |
| http://www.bdastore.org.uk/ |
CTAD - Teaching and learning materials |
| Teaching and learning materials. |
| http://www.ctad.co.uk/content/view/92/168/ |
Learn About Money |
|
Life Academy is an educational charity that is concerned with life planning and adult education. Learn about money looks at issues such as debt, long term savings and pensions. Work through the modules in any order, however it is suggested that you start with the short modules on Attitudes to Money and Different Life Stages, then look at Money Management and Saving & Borrowing before visiting the more advanced Investment, Saving for Retirement and Taxation. A workbook and CD-ROM are also available. No personal information that you may enter as part of the modules is stored. |
| http://www.learnaboutmoney.org/index.php |
Its Your Move |
| This site has some free resources aimed at supporting people who are homeless, to give them the financial capability to break free from the cycle of poverty and prepare for employment. Training in this area focuses on day to day budgeting; paying bills; dealing with debt; accessing welfare benefits; choosing the right financial products. Click on the files to download lesson plans and a wide range of activities. |
| http://www.itsyourmove.org.uk/Home |
Reading for Life |
| Lots and lots of free stuff, including reading ideas and activities to try out for adults, families and practitioners. |
| http://www.readingforlife.org.uk/home/ |
Get On |
| Advice for learners to help them brush up their maths and english skills. |
| http://www.dfes.gov.uk/get-on/ |
The National Literacy Trust |
| Use this page to find resources. |
| http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/pubs/professionalresourcs.html |
The Reading Agency |
| An independent charity which inspires more people to read more. Find out more about their reading products and resources. |
| http://www.readingagency.org.uk/adults/ |
Jobcentreplus |
| Has some useful links and some downloadable information. |
| http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/index.html |
Tools Library |
| On these pages you can access, download or order the latest versions of a range of skills check (formerly known as screening) and initial assessment tools, suitable for working with Skills for Life learners in different contexts. They are available in both hard copy and electronic versions as required. Clicking on the links will take you to the download and ordering pages for the different versions of the tools. |
| http://www.toolslibrary.co.uk/index.htm |
Afasic |
| Afasic seeks to raise awareness about children and young people with speech and language impairments. |
| http://www.afasic.org.uk/index.htm |
Speechmark |
| Practical resources for therapy & education. Speechmark publish high-quality, practical resources for teachers, health professionals and parents. |
| http://www.speechmark.net/ |
Guroo |
| Guroo produces learning resources for students aged 14-19 studying Functional Skills, ALAN and Key Skills in English, Mathematics and ICT at Entry level, level 1 and level 2. |
| http://www.guroo.co.uk/ |
Puzzlemaker |
| Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print your own puzzles such as a customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more—using your own word lists. |
| http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ |
The Big Tree |
| The Big Tree is designed for people working with and supporting people with learning disabilities, including social carers, teachers, web developers, family members and advocates. It is dedicated to sharing information and ideas about multimedia and what it can do for the learning disability community. |
| http://www.thebigtree.org/ |
Interesting things for ESL students |
| A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language. Some resources will need to be adapted to suit an adult learner. |
| http://www.manythings.org/ |
Skills Workshop |
| A huge database of free worksheets and handouts for Adult Basic Skills Students. |
| http://www.skillsworkshop.org/workshee.htm |
Their Reading Futures |
| Resources, ideas and case studies for reading activities with children, young people and families. |
| http://www.theirreadingfutures.org.uk/index.html |
whichbook.net |
| Whichbook gives readers an enjoyable and intuitive way to find books to match their mood. |
| http://www.whichbook.net/default.aspx |
Skills for Families |
| Family literacy, language and numeracy programmes. Search Materials for the FLLN suite of resources. The site also includes professional development. |
| http://www.skillsforfamilies.co.uk |
Booktime |
| Booktime is a national programme that promotes reading for pleasure and encourages family engagement in shared reading at an important transition stage in children’s learning and development. Includes resources, downloads and recommended reads. |
| http://www.booktime.org.uk |
The BT Better World Campaign |
| Free resources to help young people, teachers and parents with speaking and listening skills. |
| http://www.btbetterworld.com/ |
Move On |
| Move On provides you and your learners with mini tests, practice tests, learner quizzes, case studies and a wealth other information. |
| http://www.move-on.org.uk/index.asp |
Skilled to go |
| Developed by the Office of Fair Trading. Skilled to go offers a teachers toolkit to help develop transferable consumer skills. Modules include Buying & Selling, Technology, Utilities. |
| http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/partnership_working/consumer-alliance/resources/toolkitfront/ |
Picture That Dictionary |
| This talking picture dictionary was designed to help people with dyslexia, specific learning difficulties and poor readers, however it can also benefit people who are learning English as a foreign or second language, as the site allows you to hear the pronunciation of each word in an English accent by a native English speaker. All words within the dictionary have a photograph to help identify each word. Every word has a written breakdown, highlighting any unusual soundings and all words have a spoken breakdown giving the pronunciation by a native English speaker. |
| http://www.ipicthat.com/ |
Science: So What? So Everything |
| This website aims to introduce you to a range of interesting science stories alongside opportunities to participate in science, through events, career advice or by doing your own science experiments. Also, view Questions Kids Ask for some Family Activity sheets. |
| http://sciencesowhat.direct.gov.uk/ |
Reading Zone |
| Everything you need to know about children's books and authors. Search Family Zone by age group for Reading Tips, Books We Love, Media (which includes activity sheets) and much more. |
| http://www.readingzone.com/home.php |
Your Money Matters |
| Help the Aged project that helps older people to better manage their finances by providing basic money management and debt advice. |
| http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb/AdviceSupport/FinancialAdvice/Budgeting/YourMoneyMatters/ |
Your Future |
| Find Courses for learners and use this website tool to create Progression Routes to Careers in: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Rutland, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire |
| http://www.yourfuture-eastmidlands.co.uk/ |
Skills for Life Core Curriculum |
| The core curriculum online, an interactive tool that you can search, reference and cut and paste to create your own documents. Save information in your own portfolio and print out when ready to support your lesson plans. |
| http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/sflcurriculum |
Maths takes you there |
| Maybe you are an IAG worker or ULR looking for some inspiration, or a community leader who would like to get people to start thinking about numeracy? As a learning provider you may be looking at new ways of engaging adults; here you'll find useful information and materials to support you. Try a Scrambles as a little practice. |
| http://www.esilverchair.co.uk/index.html |
The Six Book Challenge (2010) |
| The Six Book Challenge invites less confident readers to read six books and record their reading in a diary. They are supported with incentives and rewarded with a certificate when they complete the Challenge. If you're a new reader please join in. If you want to run the Six Book Challenge see the materials on offer and read about how to do it. |
| http://www.sixbookchallenge.org.uk/index.html |
Learning through unions |
| Information on learning agreements, IAG, working with providers, Skills for Life, funding, ICT...and more. |
| http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/index.cfm/ltu/ |
What makes a good a resource? |
| Part of the NCETM website, this micro-site is a place where you will find some interesting resources and ideas for lessons. The activities are written and devised by real teachers determined to find better ways of teaching mathematical ideas and topics. |
| http://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/20309 |
Skills for Life Improvement Programme |
| A wide range of resources developed as part of the SfLIP are still available to use from this website. |
| http://sflip.excellencegateway.org.uk/ |
Raising Standards Guides |
| The Guides have been designed to help you as teachers, trainers and managers to improve the quality of your work with learners in literacy, numeracy and language. Based on the Common Inspection Framework, they will help you look at what you need to do to achieve success with your learners, how you can go about it and how you will know you have succeeded. Teachers, trainers and managers often know what they have to do but are not always sure how to tackle change. Each contextual Guide in the series of thirteen - eleven available at present - helps to bridge the gap between understanding generic advice on improving quality and taking effective action in the learning context or setting that is specific to you. The Guides (in PDF format) can be downloaded from this page on the SfLIP website. |
| http://sflip.excellencegateway.org.uk/resources/newpage.aspx |
Brain Games |
| Gives your learners the opportunity to practice their skills and by using the scenario of the olympic games allows learners to challenge one another. Results can be shared with teachers to record progress. |
| http://www.braingames.org.uk/ |
WikiReadia |
| WikiReadia is a searchable and editable online encyclopaedia of good practice in reading. As reading is a huge field the number of articles and topics is potentially huge and this is a chance to gather together and share good practice in reading for all audiences (whether that is young children, adult learners, readers in the workplace or setting up a library the list is almost endless). |
| http://www.wikireadia.org.uk |
Guide to choosing dyslexia-friendly books for kids. |
| Produced by Waterstones and Dyslexia Action for the National Year of Reading 2008. |
Dyslexia and Learning Styles Screening for the Workplace |
| Dyslexia screening tool. An interactive resource available on the LLU+ website. |
| http://learningstylesid.co.uk/lsdys_for_workplace/ |
Functional Skills Support Programme |
| These resources have been produced to support the introduction of functional skills and are available for download from this site. These guides are essential handbooks for managers and practitioners, providing practical help and advice to enable the reader to move forward with teaching and learning strategies or the management of functional skills. You will need to register to access these documents. |
| http://www.fssupport.org/resources |
chat about |
| Chatabout is an online network for emergent reader groups created by The Reading Agency. They invite anyone already running or wanting to run reading groups for adults with literacy needs to join.
This online network is designed for Chatabout members to share ideas, views and information about reading groups for this audience. |
| http://chataboutreading.ning.com/ |
WebWise |
| The BBC's guide to using the internet. |
| http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/ |
Teen Cash Class |
| This guide isn’t just for teenagers. It’s for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals about handling their money, getting the best deals, and avoiding being ripped off. Full details of the class are available as a pdf. |
| http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/Teenagers-cash-class |
Building financial capability in the UK |
| Financial Capability is about being able to manage money; keeping track of your finances; planning ahead; choosing financial products; and staying informed about financial matters. Download a range of free tools and resources, tailored to various groups of learners, to them help improve their financial capability. |
| http://www.cfebuk.org.uk/home.shtml |
online basics |
| Online basics is a free, easy to use course that will help learners get started using computers and the internet. Online basics includes five short modules. How to use a mouse and keyboard, how to email, and how to search for information and stay safe online. |
| http://www.onlinebasics.co.uk/ |
Please note that the eastmidlandscpd website is not responsible for the content of the sites listed here and their listing is not intended to be an endorsement.