Top 50 places to find FREE teaching resources

Posted on 2 April 2020

Originally published in August 2019, we’ve re-visited this post to include some updates in light of widespread COVID-19 school closures.

Free teaching and learning resources are a great tool for saving both time and money in your classroom whilst keeping children engaged with fun and diverse activities linking to the curriculum. Collaboroo have searched the internet for some of the most diverse and engaging free teaching resources out there online. So here goes…

1. Resource Bank
   Of course! We don’t want to show off but we have some great teaching resources and ideas here on Scholastic Resource Bank across all of the Primary curriculum subjects and EYFS areas. While a membership is required for our entire range of resources, we make as much as possible free to download!
   

Free Maths Resources

Primary Maths Resources on Resource Bank

1. NRich Maths project is created by Cambridge University and features Maths resources to enrich learning, including games and activities.
   
2. STEM Learning Maths resources consists of visual resources, activities and games designed to support the new curriculum. They are conveniently organised by topic and year groups.
   
3. The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics provides Primary assessment materials for each Primary year group to help teachers to make a judgement on which pupils have acquired mastery. They include questions, tasks and activities mapped against key topics of the Primary curriculum.
   

Free English and Literacy Resources

Primary Literacy Resources on Resource Bank

1. The Literacy Trust provide a range of literacy resources for Primary and Early Years, some of which are free, including downloadable resources that use the latest trends to promote literacy. These activities could be used in the classroom or library or set as homework.
   
2. The Centre for Primary Literacy has created a number of free teaching materials aimed at helping to raise the achievement and attainment of children in literacy in an effective and sustainable way. They include reading and writing scales and teaching sequences.
   
3. Royal Shakespeare Company help you to bring Shakespeare to life in your classroom with a range of innovative resources that are available on their website, including teacher packs, interactive whiteboard resources and image and video galleries.
   
4. The Poetry Society has a collection of learning resources including lesson plans and free downloadable poetry resources created by poets with extensive experience of working in schools. They cover a wide range of key stages and aspects of poetry and are searchable by theme, key stage or topic.
   
5. The Betjeman Poetry Prize is a competition for children aged 10-13. The website will help children to create their entries with a number of free resources including ‘Easy steps to edit a poem’ and a lesson plan for Key Stage 1 and 2 using ‘A bay in Anglesey’ by John Betjeman.
   
6. Most Primary School children love reading David Walliams books. The World of David Walliams features a school zone with teacher packs to go with downloadable resources, lesson plans, activities, challenges, downloadable posters and exclusive audio clips to go with each of his books.
   
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is also a popular choice for primary aged children. The Wimpy Kid club website features some fun, focused and curriculum linked resources for teachers.
   
   

Free Cross-Curricular Teaching Resources

1. The Film Space has a range of interactive film based content available for download with resource activity sheets for primary aged children. It includes popular films such as ‘Wallace and Gromit’, ‘How to Train your Dragon’ and ‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’ .
   
2. Premier League Primary Stars aims to inspire primary children in everything from English and Maths to teamwork and sport. Their free curriculum linked resources for schools include PE resources with some fun games to play, PSHE resources covering challenging topics such as resilience and diversity.
   

Free Science Teaching Resources

Primary Science Resources on Resource Bank

1. STEM Learning has thousands of science resources for primary teachers including downloadable worksheet to fit with different topics in the primary science curriculum.
   
2. Primary Science Teaching Trust website features free resources to bring new ideas to the science classroom with ideas for practical enquiry and lots of ways for children to engagement directly wth scientific processes and concepts with practical experiments.
   
3. The Marine Biological Association has a handy Educator Zone which features lots of fun and useful resources including ID guides and cards, activity sheets, printable resources and images and videos.
   
4. Royal Society of Biology has some free activity resources covering diverse areas of Biology that can be downloaded and used for school events.
   
5. The Irish Marine Institute website has an area for Teachers Resources including teacher planning guides for learning about the marine environment. There are also presentations, checklists and downloadable PDF posters.
   
6. NASA has a hub of educational resources with the aim to inspire, engage, educate and employ the next generation of explorers. Whilst their teaching resources are aimed at US schools, there is lots to inspire primary aged children particularly if working on a space topic. They also have their own YouTube channel.
   
7. Natural History Museum website has high quality activities developed jointly by educators with the Museum scientists. They can be used whether or not you have taken children on a visit to the museum.
   
8. Science Sparks is a blog that aims to make science fun for children and features a range of ideas for practical science for Primary and EYFS including downloadable printables.
   
9. Library Science Online is an article that explores the free STEM-based educational materials and resources that can be provided by public libraries.
   

Free Environment Teaching Resources

1. Young People’s Trust for the Environment have arrange of learning resources for teachers about the environment and sustainability including lesson plans for Rain forests, local environment, sustainable development, fair trade food and food waste.
   

Free Geography Resources

Primary Geography Resources on Resource Bank

1. National Geographic have a well thought out range of classroom materials organised in a modular system with activities, lessons and units of themed lessons.
   
2. Ordnance Survey have education resources for teaching geography including interactive games, quizzes, challenges, downloadable worksheets, video guides and tests.
   
3. Global Ocean have an education pack for teachers which will inspire children to join the fight against plastic pollution. It includes fun activities for the classroom, easy to follow ideas for reducing plastic footprint and curriculum links for lesson planning.
   

Free History Teaching Resources

Primary History Resources on Resource Bank

1. Gelligaer Community Council have a number of information and worksheets available relating to Gelligaer Roman Fort. They also cover other aspects of Roman history including the life of a Roman soldier, Roman recipe and Roman Soldier equipment.
   
   Free Physical Education Resources
   PE Resources on Resource Bank
   
   
2. This Girl Can is a campaign by Sport England. They have worked with Association for Physical Education to create resources which can be used to bring ‘This Girl Can’ into your school. The resources include six themed workshops focused on the campaign’s emotional themes and featuring flexible and interactive tasks.
   
3. The PE Shed aims to provide physical education resources to people all around the world. It’s mission is simple: To make Physical Education teaching simple, fun and engaging.
   
4. BBC Super Movers provide fun video content-led ideas to inspire children to be more active throughout their day and learn while they move. Videos are targeted at different age groups and include famous faces from the worlds of football, children’s television and music.
   

Free Art Resources

Primary Art Resources on Resource Bank

1. National Gallery of Art offers a variety of resources and programs to teachers to foster understanding and a lifelong connection to art.
   

Free Computing Teaching Resources

Primary Computing Resources on Resource Bank

1. Digital Learning for Wales have a number of useful lesson resources available from their website including slides about ‘online friendships’ for primary children and education packs for Safer Internet Day.
   
2. UK Safer Internet provide a range of teaching resources including lesson plans, films, games, quizzes, drama activities and more.
   
3. Childnet International also has a mission to help make the internet a safe place for children. It supports teachers in teaching about internet safety with school packs, toolkits, activities and printable leaflets.
   
4. NSPCC work with schools by providing lesson plans, classroom guidance and leaflets to help teachers and practitioners keep children safe online. They also provide curriculum links for their Share Aware teaching resources.
   
5. All You Need is Code aims to promote coding through a mixture of online and offline, real-life activities, with a view to establishing coding as a key competence within every education system in Europe. The lesson plans that they have created were part of an online course ‘ How to teach computing: an introduction to concepts, tools and resources for primary teachers’.
   
6. Code Club supports a nationwide network of volunteers and educators who run free coding clubs where young people aged 9-13 build and share their ideas, learning along the way. The code club projects are step by step guides for learners to follow and create animations, games, websites and more.
   
7. The Raspberry Pi projects website features loads of Raspberry Pi projects to get you started with Raspberry Pi. The fun ideas are categorised by type including making robots, music, websites, games and digital art.
   

PSHE/Citizenship Teaching Resources

PSHE Resources on Resource Bank

1. Carex provide some useful resources on their website through the ‘Hands up for Hygiene Education programme’ which helps to teach children how, when and why they should wash their hands in a interactive and motivational way.
   
2. BBC Children in Need provide resources for schools for disability awareness lessons. The Pudsey themed resources include activity sheets and lesson plans.
   
3. UNICEF help teachers to bring human rights into the classroom their their rights respecting teaching resources many of which are free including 21 assemblies for primary schools.
   
4. British Red Cross have a range of teaching resources to help enrich curriculum subjects and connect human crisis with human kindness. You can explore the resources by age and topic.
   
5. Parliament have some teacher resources, assembly resources and lesson plans to help teachers with teaching on a range of subjects relating to parliament including history and citizenship.
   
6. Grow Your Own Potatoes project launched in 2005 and was one of the first primary school based growing projects. This hands on approach helps children to learn about growing potatoes and that potatoes are a healthy food. The teaching resources available include 12 potato based lessons.
   
7. Public Health England provide a variety of classroom resources to get kids to move more during the school day. The activities are suitable for a range of different ages and include shake up toolkits, worksheets and certificates.
   
8. Oxfam have a good range of resources to assist teachers in teaching about global citizenship. They can used both in the classroom and for the whole school and help pupils to understand their world and make a positive difference in it.
   

Charities with Free Teaching Resources

1. Water Aid has a variety of materials for teachers including films, games and songs that can be used to teach about water with links to a range of different curriculum subjects including Geography, Science, Citizenship and maths.
   
2. TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes being thrown away. It has a range of teacher resources to help educate children about the environmental and social cost of our clothes. It includes assemblies, discussion based and practical activities.
   
3. Sports Relief provide a variety of learning tools on their website including downloadable topic maps, games packs and assemblies.
   
4. Save the Children have created some downloads for schools for their Den Day. These include STEM challenges, teachers guides and geography resources.
   

EYFS Teaching Resources on Resource Bank

• Communication and Language
  
• Expressive Art and Design
  
• Literacy
  
• Maths
  
• Personal, Social and Emotional Development
  
• Physical Development
  
• Understanding the World
  
  We hope you find these resources useful! This blog was created in association with Collaboroo.