Coronavirus: Doncaster teacher shares her advice and online resource recommendations for parents whose kids will be at home from next week

From Friday, March 20 schools in England will shut for pupils who are not the children on key workers or classed as vulnerable, as the government introduces a variety of measures in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Georgina Costello is a secondary school math teacher at Outwood Academy and says the decision to close schools to a large proportion of pupils has been a ‘big shock for everybody’.

She said: “I’ve got year 11’s in despair because their GCSEs have been canceled.

“For them, this will be the end of their secondary school experience, they will leave on Friday and that will be it.”

Georgina said: “Obviously it’s impossible for everybody to home school their children but I would say that the most important thing to do is to keep some semblance of a normal routine.

“Maths and English are key areas to focus on during this time.”

Georgina said that all of the teachers she knew are rallying to give extra support to their pupils and their parents.

“Teachers will be working to the best of their ability through email and the phone to provide support to children but it absolutely is not going to be the same as when they are in school,” she said.

“We can send home resources and contact them to help but not every child will have the internet or a laptop to be able to do the work.”

Georgina recommends these online resources if you are looking for ways to occupy children: BBC bitesize, Study wise, Mr Barton Maths, Adventure Academy (app), Maths is fun, TED-Ed, Simple homeschool, Reading eggs, Khan academy, Exploratorium, NASA for students, Project Gutenberg, Duolingo, Steve Spangler science, Homeschool.com, Xtramath, The learning network, How to smile, PowerMyLearning, Discovery education, The school run.

“It’s not just the academic side of things these children will be lacking - school is a safe, warm environment with access to support and food,” she continued.