Let Sir David Attenborough homeschool your child with BBC Bitesize's new online school
As parents prepare for another month of homeschooling their children, both the BBC and the government launch new online schooling initiatives
BBC Bitesize has launched a daily homeschooling curriculum catering to children from Y1-Y10 - and the offerings are extremely tempting.
Not only are there daily homeschooling lessons across a range of subjects, organised by school year - but there are also plenty of celebrity guest teachers to make homeschooling all the more interesting (and perhaps give parents a much-needed break for a cuppa?).
In addition to fractions and times tables, learning about the Ancient Egyptians and the solar system, the roster of over 200 teachers includes some famous faces educating the kids in their areas of expertise - spot them in the hundreds of online lessons scheduled for the next 14 weeks.
You'll notice Man City footballer Sergio Aguero teaching counting in Spanish, Mabel and Liam Payne lending their talents to music and reading lessons, Doctor Who's Jodie Whittaker helping to teach online lessons and Professor Brian Cox telling kids all there is to know about gravitational fields.
Dr Who's Jodie Whittaker turns online tutor for your kids. Photo: BBC/Ben Blackall
Danny Dyer - a direct descendant of King Edward III's - will be offering history lessons on Tudor king, Henry VIII, while Sir David Attenborough will be teaching kids about oceans and animals. A week-long Musical Big Read will feature celeb story times with Mabel, Anita Rani and Oti Mabuse - who's also teaching kids how to dance in lockdown via YouTube vids.
Every aspect of BBC Bitesize Daily has been developed with educators, and some, like national favourite, Mr Burton, from Educating Yorkshire, will also be hosting daily lessons for the kids from 9am, on BBC iPlayer and BBC Red Button. The days are helpfully broken down into a few different subjects, eg Maths, English and Geography, so parents and kids can follow a bit of a schedule.
Photo: CBeebies
In other exciting BBC-related news, Tom Hardy will be reading bedtime stories to tots on CBeebies for a week, from April 27th. The lessons are taking place in his garden, where he'll be joined by French bulldog, Blue.
For the musically inclined, BBC Ten Pieces has launched two new initiatives to get kids tapping into their inner classical musicians.
Ten Pieces at Home will run for 10 weeks to start, with weekly online films and activities to introduce children to a range of classical pieces as they create art inspired by the music. Connecting the Dots will link kids still attending school with BBC musicians for exciting one-off workshops.
For government-sanctioned home schooling, check out Oak National Academy - the online learning platform was created by 40 teachers and launched to help ease the burden of homeschooling on parents. Funded by the Department of Education, it provides video lessons for students which last an hour each, with three hours of schooling a day for primary students and four hours for secondary students.
The handy resource will either schedule your child's schooldays for you (just search by year group, from Reception - Y10), or you can select specific subjects and classes for your child to take to complement any other schoolwork they already have.
