Know IT All for Parents

Websites

Now that you know your way around the internet and the web, here’s our list of websites for children of all ages and their parents. We’ve got lots of educational and information sites and quite a few that are just fun to visit, too.

Each site has been checked for its suitability for children however web content changes frequently and sometimes new owners may take over a web address. We recommend that you review all of these sites before you let your children use them.

To visit one of the sites click on the red link with the website address, the website should appear in the same window. If it doesn’t, look at the bottom of your screen where it may be hiding! The other way of visiting these sites is to type the address given into the address bar of your web browser and press Return or click on Go. Some of the sites may only work with the latest versions of the most popular browsers, internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera, so you will need to decide whether you want to update your computer. Some may ask you to install extra programs, like the Flash Player from Macromedia.

The sites listed here are in English, although some do have versions in other languages.

Please Note: These website links are provided for illustrative purposes only, and Childnet does not seek to endorse any particular product or site.

Websites for Primary-aged children (5-11 years)
Websites for Secondary children (11-16 years)
Websites for children of all ages
Websites for parents and carers

Sites for Primary-aged children (5-11 years)

BBC
The BBC Website is a good place to start. It has three sections for children: CBeebies, CBBC and Schools. Within the site at www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/help/safesurfing is a Dongle the Rabbit cartoon that, in a fun and effective way, shows younger children about safe surfing.
www.bbc.co.uk/children

Braids and Beads
This is the site for an exhibition focusing on the braid and bead work creations of Jacqui Carey and items of adornment from collection of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. The ‘Maths Adventure’ explores shape and pattern.
www.molli.org.uk/bb

Brain Teasers
This site from publishers Houghton Mifflin gives children a choice of three new problem-solving activities each week. Children can try different levels depending on how clever they are feeling! This website is suitable for children 7–15 years old.
www.eduplace.com/math/brain

Grid Club
The Cybercafe on this educational website is a good place for kids to learn about internet safety. It is interactive and uses Childnet’s SMART rules.
www.gridclub.com

Quiz Hub
This website includes interactive learning games, puzzles, quizzes, and science information. It is suitable for primary age children.
quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm

Recyclezone
Developed by Waste Watch, this site looks at the world of waste. It isn't just about recycling, it has some useful online activities for younger children.
Although this site is called recyclezone, recycling is only one of the things that can be done about waste. The site talks about the 3Rs - reduce, reuse, and recycle.
www.recyclezone.org.uk

Shefton Museum of Greek Art and Archaeology
The Museum site has an excellent introduction to the Greeks and their world aimed at schoolchildren.
www.ncl.ac.uk/shefton-museum

Fact Monster
This site from publishers Pearson contains information about people, sports, the world, fun facts, science and more. There are links to a homework centre, word of the day, today in history, a dictionary, an encyclopaedia, an almanac and an atlas. It is suitable for young people aged 7 years and up.
www.factmonster.com

NASA Earth Science Enterprise
This site contains interactive games based around earth science. Topics include plate tectonics, natural hazards, air and water. The games featured are word searches, drag 'n’ drop puzzles, and quizzes. It is suitable for upper primary and lower secondary age pupils.
kids.earth.nasa.gov

Spelling with the Spellits
This website offers a fun way for your child to improve their spelling. It has been designed by the BBC for children aged 7-11 years.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/home_flash.shtml

Websites for Secondary children (11-16 years)

AccessArt
Access Art is a ‘resource bank’ for pupils and students, including online art workshops. Some material is free and some has to be paid for.
www.accessart.org.uk

Alien Language
Alien Language is an online computer assisted learning site, designed to support the teaching of ‘Parts of the body’ in English, French, Spanish and
German to school children aged 11-14, although it could be used by a child of any age.
www.alienlanguage.co.uk

Biodiversity and Climate Change
A site from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre with support from the BBC and BP, looking at the science behind climate change.
www.wcmc.org.uk/climate/home.htm

BrainPOP
This US website includes health, science and technology content based on animated movies. It includes an excellent parents section and is suitable for young people aged 8-18 years.
www.brainpop.com

Chertsey Museum
The website of Chertsey Museum includes a virtual museum tour and a selection of interactive educational games. The collection ranges from
Runnymede social history and ancient relics to fantastic fashions and
artistic expression.
www.chertseymuseum.org.uk

Children's Compass—British Museum
The British Museum's children's compass provides a guide to the museum's riches for a younger audience, including a selection of virtual tours of the collection—some especially for younger children—and lots of information related to the National Curriculum at all levels.
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/childrenscompass

D&T Online
Design and Technology online, supported by the government IT agency BECTA, offers free access to a wide range of design and technology (D&T)
materials, resources and software for pupils to use as they engage in design and technology activities as part of the National Curriculum. Mostly for older children, there is some stuff for younger visitors.
www.dtonline.org

E4S Education for Sustainability
Education for Sustainability is a government-funded project largely aimed at providing teachers with lesson planning materials on the sustainable use of water, textiles and timber resources and issues surrounding waste management. The material is also useful for parents.
www.e4s.org.uk

EuroTurtle
Supported by the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, this site looks at sea turtle biology and conservation.
www.euroturtle.org

The Flour and Grain Education Programme
Funded by the Flour Advisory Bureau, this site is about wheat, barley and oats, three of the most important cereals used in our diet. It includes
recipes, games and notes for teachers.
www.flourandgrain.com

Formula One Maths
This site accompanies the KS3 maths course from publishers Hodder and Stoughton, and is more useful if your child uses the books at school. The
site contains lots of material, tests and teaching guides.
www.formulaonemaths.co.uk

Fuelling a Revolution
This site is about the network of 35 Heritage Woodlands in South Yorkshire and the project to restore them. It includes an interactive history of
the woods.
www.heritagewoodsonline.co.uk

The History of Health and Medicine in Kent
This website looks at the creation of the NHS and the history of health and medicine in Kent.
www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/history/medhist/index2.html

Life Bytes
Life Bytes is a Health Education Authority website which gives young people aged 11-14 facts about health in a fun and interesting way. It covers issues such as smoking, drugs and sex and relationships.
www.lifebytes.gov.uk

Long Shop Steam Museum Education Web Site
The site for the Steam Museum in Suffolk is largely concerned with activities around visits to the museum itself but also has a lot of useful resources for KS2/3 history and geography students.
www.longshop.care4free.net/education.html

Maths Skills Trainer
This free site from Skills Trainer has over 1000 games to test and improve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills. You will need to
register in order to use it.
www.skillstrainer.co.uk

Math Sphere
Math Sphere is a commercial education company that sells CDs and other training material. The site has a selection of games, worksheets and other
materials that can be printed out for free.
www.mathsphere.co.uk

The Museum of Science and Industry
in Manchester
The Museum is located in the oldest passenger railway buildings in the world and tells the story of the history, science and industry of Manchester—the world's first industrial city. The site has a virtual tour, an education section and some games and puzzles for children.
www.msim.org.uk

Mythstories Museum
A large collection of myths and legends from the Morgan Library in Shropshire, but beware the rather irritating background music on
each page!
www.mythstories.com

National Museums and Galleries of Wales
The Learning centre on the museum site, available in Welsh and English, has a range of activities and a lot of educational materials to download and use.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/learning

National Museums of Scotland
There are several museums linked from this site, including the Museum of Costume and the Museum of Flight. All have educational sections with a wide variety of games, learning materials and other resources.
www.nms.ac.uk

The Newspaper
The website for the online newspaper for young people, available to schools in print on subscription. The site has lots of news stories, features and other things to read.
thenewspaper.org.uk

The Peace Museum Bradford
Website for Bradford's Peace Museum, with details of exhibitions, a virtual museum and resources to download.
www.peacemuseum.org.uk

Potatoes for Schools
Set up by the British Potato Council, this site has lots of potato-centred games and resources.
www.potatoesforschools.org.uk

Pyrrha's Roman Pages
An assortment of Roman topics and ideas from a schoolteacher who teaches Classics and wants to share her love of the roman world.
www.pyrrha.demon.co.uk/indexp.html

Physics 2000
An interactive exploration of modern physics from the University of Colorado in the US, this site includes material on ‘Einstein's Legacy’, how CAT scans work and lots more. Also available in German and Spanish.
www.colorado.edu/physics/2000

Radiation Protection Division
The Government's Health Protection Agency radiation site is mostly about staying safe, but has some useful things for younger people, including
‘The Risk Game’ and Sunsense, a guide to protecting your body from
the sun.
www.hpa.org.uk/radiation

raftarget.com
A site developed by the Royal Air Force to support maths studies for KS3 and KS4, teaching young people about what the RAF does at the
same time.
www.raftarget.com

Redrow Learning Web
A site from building company Redrow that looks at how we all live and how we decide where to build houses. It also includes a safety section on building sites.
www.education.redrow.co.uk

Royal Observatory Greenwich
All sorts of great astronomy facts and projects from this world-
famous observatory.
www.rog.nmm.ac.uk

SchoolNet Global
This is the world's biggest children's collaborative project; over half a million young people in 34 countries have created a huge treasure chest of
55,000 unique and individual pages on their lives, families and communities.
www.schoolnetglobal.com

Sport England
Sport England supports sport at all levels and for all ages, with lots of useful information on their website and even details of how to apply for funding for sports projects.
www.sportengland.org

SportScience and Engineering in Education
This site looks at sport science, and the role played by engineering, science and technology in sports today.
www.cookeassociates.com/seesite/index.htm

Sun Block 99
Young scientists investigate the sun, with support from teachers and university researchers [the new site, www.suntrek.org, launches soon].
www.sunblock99.org.uk

SymbolWorld
A site created by Widgit Software, dedicated to people who use symbols in their daily lives. It has material for all ages and includes personal
contributions, stories and learning materials.
www.symbolworld.org

Symmetry and Pattern: The Art of Oriental Carpets
A site from the Textile Museum exploring the maths behind carpets and how symmetry and pattern combine to make beautiful objects.
mathforum.org/geometry/rugs

Techniquest
Techniquest is a science discovery centre, designed to engage people of all ages in science through interactive exhibits and live demonstrations. Their
website has a range of virtual exhibits and projects.
www.tquest.org.uk

timelinescience
An interactive timeline of the last thousand years of scientific thought
and development.
www.timelinescience.org

Tyne and Wear Museums' collections online
Imagine provides interactive access to over 15,000 images of exhibits from museums in the Tyne and Wear area.
http://www.imagine.org.uk

Websafe Crackerz
Websafe Crackerz, is a site developed by MSN aimed at teenagers, which covers the full spectrum of safety issues from how to deal with junk mail or spam to how criminals and abusers operate. It's based around a game in which players have to crack an online safe containing stolen web safety information.
www.websafecrackerz.com

Thinkuknow
This website is an internet Safety website by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP). It is like a virtual police station where young people can make a complaint or report if someone is trying to abuse them online.
www.thinkuknow.co.uk

Websites for children of all ages

10 Downing Street: Young People's Site
The Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street in London, with lots of history and an opportunity to tell the government what you think.
www.youngpeople.pm.gov.uk

Active Science
A science site developed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Active Science covers all areas of science with interactive games and
puzzles. It has material suitable for children of all ages as well as worksheets and information for parents.
www.activescience-gsk.com

APBI Resources for Schools
A website developed and supported by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, this website uses interactive content to encourage
student interest in science and to support teaching in primary and
secondary schools.
www.abpischools.org.uk

Barking and Dagenham Bridges Project
This site, created and run by the education department at the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, is all about bridges and features work
undertaken as part of a project by local schools. It also has lots of technical information about bridgebuilding and is suitable for pupils of all ages.
www.bardaglea.org.uk/bridges

British Standards Education
The British Standards Institute has an education section on its site with some interesting, if rather standards-oriented, activities and worksheets.
www.bsieducation.org/Education/default.php

Cable & Wireless Childnet Academy
The Childnet Academy was a competition for young people where they could develop projects or exciting online ideas to benefit other children.
Although the Academy is not running at the moment, this website has links to lots of other inspiring sites designed by children.
www.childnetacademy.org

CensusAtSchool
Supported by the Royal Statistical Society, this site allows students to explore statistics and sampling by collecting and disseminating real data for use by teachers and pupils in data-handling, ICT and across the curriculum for learning and teaching.
www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk

Countryside Foundation for Education
The Countryside Foundation for Education has provided access to outdoor learning opportunities for up to 20,000 school children every year through
a series of countryside visits to farms and estates across the UK. The site has a limited range of activities for younger children, but also lists farms
that welcome school visits and has lots of information for teachers that parents would find useful.
www.countrysidefoundation.org.uk/index.htm

Energy Chest
Energy Chest is part of the National Grid for Learning, developed with support from Esso UK, an ExxonMobil subsidiary. It's for pupils aged 8-14
years and looks at energy in buildings and the environment as well as energy sources. It has information on energy and its use, curriculum
activities, notes for teachers and a library of links to other energy and environmental sites.
www.energychest.net

Explore Parliament
Explore Parliament is the official education website for Parliament, with lots of information about how laws are made, the buildings themselves and the history of the UK Parliament. There is also a teacher's centre.
www.explore.parliament.uk

How Stuff Works
How Stuff Works is an online publishing company widely recognized as a leading source for clear, unbiased, reliable explanations of how everything
actually works. There is a great computer section with explanations of everything from viruses to how the search engine Google works. A great site for your child’s homework.
www.howstuffworks.com

Lichen Projects
The British Lichen Society's lichen projects site has a wide range of projects for children to do, in and out of school.
www.thebls.org.uk/proj.htm

Music:ed
Music:ed is a site for music education, featuring a variety of projects with lots of background information. It also has useful links to other online
music resources and websites.
www.musiced.org.uk

Nature
This website accompanies the American PBS television series ‘Nature’ and features a selection of activities designed to inform young people
about wildlife. The activities include a photo safari, jigsaw puzzles, a virtual race, hiking the Himalayas, swimming with whales, making an insect mask, taking a tour of India, diving into a virtual tide pool, and learning Gorilla Sign Language. It is suitable for young people 7 years and up.
www.pbs.org/wnet/nature

The Red Box
The Red Box, named after the briefcase the Chancellor uses on Budget Day, is an interactive site that teaches young people about how the
government raises and spends money and the choices that have to
be made.
www.redbox.gov.uk

Romans in Sussex
The site from the Sussex Archaeological society gives an in-depth look into how people may have lived in the Sussex region during the later Iron Age,
the Roman period, and early Anglo-Saxon times.
www.romansinsussex.co.uk

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
(RSPB): Teaching
The charity's website has an excellent education centre to help children who are doing a school project or if they just want to learn some amazing
things about birds.
www.rspb.org.uk/youth/learn/index.asp

The Memory Store
The Memory Store uses the archive of the John Lewis Partnership to explore what shops were like a hundred years ago and how they
have changed.
johnlewis.ebcnet.co.uk

Think Leadership
Use this site to carry out an environmental assessment of your child’s school or to access information and links to sites about environmental
sustainability.
www.thinkleadership.org.uk

Track Off
Track Off is the campaign to educate people, especially young people, about the dangers and consequences of railway crime. The Track Off
website is owned and funded by the Rail Safety and Standards
Board (RSSB).
www.trackoff.org

Virtual Solar System
This site has lots of information about the planets
and the solar system.
www.solarsystem.org.uk

Virtual Victorians
Developed by Tiverton Museum, this site looks at all aspects of life in Victorian Britain and includes virtual artefacts and a ‘day in the
life’ feature.
www.victorians.org.uk

21st Century Citizen
A site from the British Library which explores issues around what it means to be a citizen in 21st century Britain. There are lots of resources as well as a teachers area.
21citizen.co.uk/live/citizenship

Websites for parents and carers

AbilityNet
AbilityNet helps disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting their computer equipment.
www.abilitynet.org.uk

Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League helps fight anti-Semitism, extremism and hatred. They have a free filter that you can download called the ‘hate filter’ which protects children from known hate sites. They also have a section called ‘A Parents Guide to Hate on the Internet’.
www.adl.org

Chat Danger
This website can be used for teenagers. It focuses specifically on the risks in all interactive services where young people can meet with other people,
including chatrooms, mobile phones and online games. It has lots of case studies and good advice.
www.chatdanger.com

Childnet’s Kidsmart
Kidsmart has a parents’ section with a range of advice and resources. There are two versions of the parents’ seminar which can be watched and listened to as well as fact sheets on specific issues like spam.
www.kidsmart.org.uk

DFES
For more information on how to protect your child from cyberbullying see the following website run by the Department for Education:
www.dfes.gov.uk/bullying

GetNetWise
The GetNetWise website has lots of useful safety information, including a selection of reviews of filtering tools. You can search according to what
you want to block or control. If you select the privacy section at the top of the page, you will get to some great ‘how to’ step-by-step tutorials showing exactly how to change the settings in your browser. There are also video clips of two experts talking about safety issues which are
worth watching.
www.getnetwise.org

Kidscape
For parents, guardians or concerned relatives and friends of bullied children, the charity Kidscape offer a hotline for advice with trained for counsellors. The Helpline is available on 08451 205 204 Monday-Friday from 10.00am-4.00pm.
www.kidscape.org.uk

Parentscentre
Parentscentre is a government run website for parents on how to help with your child's learning, including advice on choosing a school and finding childcare. The site has a very comprehensive internet section, which Childnet helped to write, as well as recommended websites for all age groups.
www.parentscentre.gov.uk

GetSafeOnline
GetSafeOnline is a new website which focuses on online security and protection issues. It contains advice about firewalls, spyware and antivirus protection as well as how to protect your child.
www.getsafeonline.org

ZoneAlarm
Another way to stop advertising services like popups is to install a firewall. Products such as ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall and Tiny Personal Firewall will let you know when software on your system is trying to send data out to the internet and block it. And although this may sound like an extreme solution for your home PC, a firewall is arguably the best ongoing protection against this kind of invasion of privacy. You can download ZoneAlarm for free from the internet.
www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

Quick
This site has a useful checklist to help children think about whether a website is trustworthy. Go through it with your children and also see the
parent centre website for advice on this subject.
www.quick.org.uk

Google Toolbar
The Google toolbar is a useful add-on to your web browser that can
block pop-ups.
toolbar.google.com

Windows Live Toolbar
The Windows Live toolbar is a useful add-on to your web browser that can block pop-ups.
toolbar.live.com/?mkt=en-us

Yahoo! Toolbar
The Yahoo! toolbar is a useful add-on to your web browser that can
block pop-ups.
toolbar.yahoo.com

Ad-Aware
Spyware is designed to go unnoticed. Lavasoft's Ad-Aware is a program you can download to look for spyware and adware on your computer and delete it.
www.lavasoftusa.com

Windows Defender
Spyware is designed to go unnoticed. Microsoft's Windows Defender is a program you can download to look for spyware and adware on your computer and delete it.
safety.live.com/site/en-US/center/cleanup.htm