Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For the week 20th–24th April.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 1
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Blog posts for: Age 11
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 2
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 27th April–1st May.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 8
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 15th–18th June.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 3
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 4th–8th May.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 5
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 18th–22nd May.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 9
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 22nd–25th June.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 7
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 8th–11th June.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 6
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 1st–4th June.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 4
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 11th–15th May.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 11
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 6th–9th July.
BBC Bitesize lesson support: Week 10
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 29th June–2nd July.
BBC Bitesize lesson support
Additional support for BBC Bitesize daily lessons, including free activities. For week 13th–16th July.
Comprehension
Find out how reading comprehension is taught throughout primary school, and take a look at our books, advice, and free activities to help at home.
What do the KS2 SATs scores mean?
Education expert James Clements explains what the KS2 SATs are, how scaled scores work, and what you can expect to hear from your child’s school.
Learning at home: Learning to read
Education expert James Clements runs through everything you need to keep your child’s reading skills developing during the school lockdown.
Children’s dictionaries – how to find the right dictionary for your child
Find the right dictionary for your child with these four useful tips.
Grammar & punctuation in Year 6 (age 10–11)
Learn how grammar and punctuation is taught in Year 6 and find out how to support your child at home, with lots of fun ideas and free activities.
Free eBook library: 100s of eBooks to practise reading
Help your young child learn to read, and love to read, with our eBook library, containing hundreds of free eBooks. Developed for children aged 3–11.
Help with times tables
Learning times tables can be fun! Help your child learn their times tables with our free top tips, videos, quizzes and worksheets.
500 Words: Black Lives Matter – how are British children responding to the emerging themes and issues in their writing?
Almost 6,000 children entered the writing competition in July 2020 and Oxford University Press’ analysis shines a light on children’s insight, empathy, and imagination when writing about race. Find out more.
Learning at home: Organising the day
Education expert and writer James Clements offers up 4 different approaches to structuring your child’s day learning at home.
How to write your best story ever!
Christopher Edge, author of ‘How to Write your Best Story Ever!’, shares his top 10 tips to help your child write amazing stories.
Learning at home: Reading to learn
Education expert James Clements talks about how children who are already confident readers can get the most out of their reading.
Oxford Levels: How to support your 7–11-year-old’s reading development
Find out how Oxford Levels and levelled readers can support and develop your child’s reading skills even after they’ve learned how to read.
Reluctant readers
From ‘thinking outside the bookbag’ to reading for a purpose, children’s author and mum of three Isabel Thomas shares some great advice on helping reluctant readers get excited about books.
Struggling readers
Worried about your child’s reading? Help is at hand! Jean Gross CBE gives her expert advice on how to support children who struggle with reading.
Fun maths games and activities
Have fun practising your maths skills with these games, activity sheets, and videos.
Not your typical books for boys
An alternative list of recommended books for boys. Perfect for boys who are looking to read about something other than football or jokes about bottoms!
2018 Oxford Children’s Word of the Year: Plastic
Plastic has been revealed as the Children’s Word of the Year by Oxford University Press for the BBC 500 Words Competition. British children have once again shown themselves to be fabulously inventive, funny and socially astute.
Summer reading for kids: recommended books
From island adventures to stories about twin detectives, here’s our list of favourite children’s books to read this summer.
Looking forward to the summer term: tips to help boost your child’s learning
What can we do to help our children to make progress over the term ahead? James Clements shares his tips to help boost skills and knowledge.
How to help your child bridge the word gap between primary and secondary school
Students with a limited vocabulary – or word gap – struggle to understand what is being taught at school. Find out how you can help your child at home.
Get number confident on National Numeracy Day
Get involved with National Numeracy Day 2021 and help your child’s confidence grow, with our top tips and free maths activities.
Moving on up (to secondary school)!
This year, the uncertainty around schools reopening could make moving up to big school even more daunting than usual. Here are our top tips on how to prepare.
Encouraging boys to read
Gary Wilson gives his expert advice on getting boys to read, including tips on motivating reading habits and encouraging independence.
Learning at home: The tricky business of screen time
Keeping your child’s screen time manageable can be tricky, especially at the moment. Education expert James Clements gives us his top tips.
Learning at home: What would they be learning at school?
Education expert and writer James Clements explains what your child would be learning at school, and how we can use (or not use) the curriculum at home.
How to edit your 500 Words story
Finished a first draft of your short story and not sure what to do next? Read Christopher Edge’s top tips for polishing your story to perfection.
Science at primary school
Science at primary school is practical and exciting. Children love the chance to learn through being totally hands-on and finding things out for themselves — the perfect way to understand the world around them.
Building kids’ resilience and confidence
How do you help build your child’s confidence and resilience? Teacher and child psychologist Jean Gross CBE shares her tips for helping children believe in themselves, and discusses how you can encourage them to be determined and enjoy challenges.
Maths is everywhere!
Maths expert Louise Pennington shares her advice for developing your child’s maths skills during school closures by exploring maths in the real world.
4 fun ways to develop characters for a short story
Every story needs a star! These four fun activities will help any aspiring author dream up some page-turning protagonists.
Learning at home: What can we learn from teachers?
Education expert James Clements talks about the lessons we can learn from teachers about helping your child to learn at home.
How to help your child with mental arithmetic
Building confidence in maths early on will pay back many times over. Get tips for developing your child’s mental arithmetic skills.
Bond SATs Skills
Prepare your children for the Key Stage 2 SATs with Bond SATs Skills workbooks, developing core maths, comprehension and English skills.
Inspire the author in your child with the BBC 500 Words Competition 2020!
Oxford Dictionaries for Children has teamed up with BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words – the nationwide competition to find the most talented young writers in the UK!
Money skills in a digital age
How to develop an understanding of money and healthy money habits in our children when there are fewer opportunities for them to see the real and physical exchange of cash.
Using music for social and emotional development: Family activities from Amani Project
We’re working with Amani Project to help you make music and make change this summer! Get involved and complete the weekly activities to earn badges and find out more about Amani Project’s important work combining the power of music for children’s social and emotional development all around the world.
Developing reading skills as your child gets older
Once your child has mastered phonics and word-reading, where do they go next? Here are our ideas to keep your 7–11-year-old’s reading skills developing.
Money, money, money
Money isn’t everything, but being ‘good with money’ is undoubtedly a useful life skill. Read Fiona Lazenby’s top tips for practising using money with your child.
Story sparks: find inspiration for your short story
When you look down at a blank piece of paper, inspiration can seem a long way away. Here are Christopher Edge’s top tips for coming up with story ideas.
Creative writing
Are you a budding David Walliams or the next J. K. Rowling? Find top tips, videos, activities, and books to help unleash your inner author.
11+ and entrance exams explained
11+ tutor and writer Michellejoy Hughes explains what the exam involves, how marking works, and what you can do to help your child prepare.
Top five tips for creative writing at Christmas
From storytelling games to alternative Christmas stories, encourage your child’s creative writing during with our top tips for creative writing at Christmas.
Reading for pleasure: Ten ideas to inspire your child to read more
Reading for pleasure is so important in developing vocabulary. Use these ideas to inspire your child to keep on reading as they get older.
Bond Brain Training for Kids
Fun puzzle books to develop children’s vocabulary, maths, and problem-solving skills. Find out more about the books and try some free logic puzzles.
Countdown to the KS2 SATs: week one
Advice from James Clements about how you can help your child to do their very best in the KS2 national tests, and how the assessments can be approached so that they’re a positive experience for everyone involved.
Five ways to improve maths home-learning
Maths expert Andrew Jeffrey shares five easy-to-implement strategies that can make a positive difference to our children’s maths learning at home.
How to choose a book for ages 7–11
Literacy adviser and ex-librarian Beverley Humphrey offers her expert advice on how you can help choose the right book for your 7–11 year old.
Christmas activities for children
Get into the festive spirit with our Christmas activities, including lots of crafty ideas for making decorations!
Learning at home: Buying yourself some time
Education expert James Clements shares his ideas for keeping the children busy – in a constructive way – when you need to be getting on with something.
Jon Burgerman: Everybody Worries (free eBook)
Inspired by conversations with his parent friends who weren’t sure how to explain what is happening right now to their small children, Jon Burgerman created this free eBook.
Common reading issues
Tackle common reading problems with our expert advice on supporting struggling readers, engaging reluctant readers, and encouraging boys to pick up a book.
Summer games and activities
Find activity ideas and book recommendations to keep the kids busy this summer.
How reading programmes can help junior readers
Once your child has mastered decoding, it can be liberating to choose whatever books they like – but there are still benefits to structured reading schemes.
Establishing a reading habit for the summer holidays and beyond
There are so many reasons to read with your children, this summer holiday and beyond. Read Mary Hamley’s tips on how to encourage a daily reading habit.
Teaching maths at home
Mathemagician Andrew Jeffrey suggests ways you can support your child’s maths development at home without needing to be an expert.
Fun Christmas activities for 9–11 year olds
For older children, why not encourage them to use the events of the festive as inspiration for some Christmas creative writing? Or challenge their crafting skills with a range of paper craft activities? Alternatively, they could always knit their own polar pug…
Spooky books for children to read this Halloween
From seriously spine-tingling stories to tales about the silliest of spooks, our collection of Halloween reading recommendations is packed full of books to entertain 2–12 year-olds on long, dark autumn nights.
Book of the Month: The Island That Didn’t Exist
Set out on an island adventure where you’ll meet wild children, uncover scientific secrets, and join a battle to protect the future of the planet!
Writing a thank you letter
Practise handwriting by writing a thank you letter to someone who has helped you during lockdown – like a teacher, a family member, or a healthcare worker.
Reading for pleasure
Not only does reading for pleasure improve children’s well-being, but it can be directly linked to children’s success at school and beyond. Get tips and book recommendations to encourage your child to read more.
Inspire the author in your child with the new 500 Words: Black Lives Matter Competition!
Oxford University Press is proud to be partnering with the 500Words: Black Lives Matter story-writing competition. Our language experts collect and analyze every story received to better understand children’s language and inform learning, so get your pens at the ready!
Stories from the road less travelled – children’s books that celebrate diversity
Every child deserves to see lives like their own represented in powerful stories. Cerrie Burnell shares her favourite children’s books that celebrate diversity.
Project X Alien Adventures
An award-winning reading series for children ages 4–11. Follow the action-packed adventures of Max, Cat, Ant, and Tiger as they journey through space!
Learning at home: lockdown tips for parents
With UK schools closed again, we’ve pulled together some of our most popular blog posts from the first lockdown to help you support your children’s learning at home.
Help your 10–11-year-old child learn
Tips and activities to help your 10- or 11-year-old develop maths and literacy skills at home.
Learning at home: Making a start
Educational expert and writer James Clements gives his 3 top tips of how to get started with teaching your child at home.
Learning at home: Things to get ready for next week
Education expert and writer James Clements suggests 6 practical things you get get ready over the weekend for next week’s learning at home.
Learning at home: How to prioritise sharing a book
Education expert and writer James Clements talks about the importance of reading to your child to boost their educational success in all sorts of ways.
Printable Numicon shapes
Don’t have Numicon shapes at home? Download, print, and cut out these free Numicon shapes.
Brushing up on mental arithmetic in Key Stage 2
Louise Pennington shares ideas to help your child work maths problems out in their head without having to write anything down.
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