Online learning resources

Smartphone free childhood

We’re not anti-tech we’re pro childhood!

We agree that instead of growing up slowly, children are being pulled into a digital world built to keep them hooked. The impact on their development, mental health and relationships runs deep.

We support our children being device free as much as possible and do not allow phone use in school. The longer parents wait to give children smartphones, the more time they have to learn, grow and develop away from addictive algorithms and the anxiety machine of social media. Together we must reject the broken narrative that childhood mediated by screens and algorithms is the only way forward.

Smartphone Free Childhood isn’t about banning tech or turning back time – it’s about giving children more of what really matters: time, connection, and freedom to be kids.

Online learning at home

Children love using technology, and there are some fantastic apps and websites which can support your child’s learning at home. There are a multitude of websites and apps out there, but we have chosen just a few of our favourites.

Websites

Thinkuknow is an education programme from the CEOP, a UK organisation which protects children both on and offline. The content is arranged by age and has lots of advice, videos and games for both children and their parents / carers. This is a must to ensure your child can have fun online, whilst also being aware of knowing how to protect themselves from the potential risks.

The London Grid for Learning (lgfl) has an enormous amount of content. Busy Things and the j2e Tool suite are particularly good. They include a wide range of support for many subjects including computing, maths and grammar. We especially like the spelling and times tables support on j2blast.

BBC Bitesize covers both key stage 1 (KS1) and KS2 (KS2) for a wide range of subjects. It is a fantastic resource which covers all subjects. It is particularly good for support with topics and science. It has videos, games and loads of interactive content.

Oxford Owl for home is useful for understanding the curriculum objectives. It also has lots of great interactive maths resources which support the Inspire Maths your child is covering at school.

The National Numeracy Website is a really great website with lots of useful resources. It is designed to raise standards of numeracy across the country for both children and adults and it has specific areas for parents who want to help their children.

At Belmont, we strongly believe that screen time needs to be monitored. But we also believe it can be great fun when it involves thinking. If your child has access to an iPad or tablet at home, they can access all the above websites, but here is a list of our top 5 apps to support cognitive development whilst having fun:

Your child has an lgfl login, you can access the portal here: EASY LOGIN

While we have made every effort to ensure that these websites are relevant and appropriate, we would strongly advise that children are supervised whilst accessing the internet. If you have any problems with these sites, or find a great one you think we should add to the list, please do let us know.