Useful Resources
Virtual Library
Kirklees Council Updates & Advice
Kirklees Libraries: Join the library to instantly access eBooks and audiobooks
Kirklees Transcription Service Podcast for Browsers.
Kirklees Transcription Service Podcast for Smartphones.
Libby: A how-to guide for our eBook and audiobook app.
How to install and use the Libby eBook app on your iPad
How to install and use the Libby eBook app on your Android tablet
How to change your font and colour settings on Libby & Overdrive
Libraries Connected – #LibrariesFromHome: showcasing the best digital services from public libraries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Online Catalogue: Access your account, search for and reserve books.
Online Resources: Please note, only some of these are available from home.
PressReader: Access digital magazines and newspapers from around the world.
PressReader how-to: Hints and tips for using Pressreader with your Kirklees Library account.
Reviews: A collection of book reviews from staff and customers
Who Else Writes Like…?: Designed to answer the perennial question “I’ve read all the books by this author, who else writes like that?”
Social Media: You can find Kirklees Libraries on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest
Wellbeing
Kirklees Libraries: Men into Books - book recommendations for Mo-vember from the men and boys of Kirklees Libraries - staff, readers and volunteers.
Alzheimer's Association: Tips for Dementia Caregivers
BBC News: How to protect your mental health.
British Heart Foundation: 10-minute living room workout
British Heart Foundation: strength and flexibility exercises
Children's Commissioner: The children's guide to Coronavirus
Community Links: Continuing mental health and wellbeing support.
Cosmic Kids: yoga, mindfulness and relaxation for 21st Century kids.
Emerging Minds: Advice for parents and carers.
Every Mind Matters: Mental health advice and support from the NHS.
Good News Movement: Heart-warming stories from around the world
Health Innovation Network: Activities for Older Adults During COVID19.
Home Workouts for Seniors: Two different workouts for seniors at home from Joe Wicks.
Kirklees IAPT: Coronavirus update.
Kirklees Wellness Service: Supporting people to live healthier, happier lives and to feel more able to look after themselves.
Kirkwood Hospice: Coronavirus update - changes to normal services.
Mencap - The voice of learning disability: Advice and support, including information about Coronavirus.
Mental Health at Work: Support for key and essential workers.
Mental Health Foundation: Looking after your mental health during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Mind: Coronavirus and your wellbeing.
Music For Dementia 2020: Creative tips and activities to help everyone in isolation, using music as a unifying language.
National Autism Society: Tips and resources for autistic people and their families.
NHS Apps Library: Apps and online tools to help you manage your health and wellbeing.
NHS Coronavirus (COVID-19): The latest information and advice from the NHS.
NHS Coronavirus Resources: Information and resources about the Coronavirus. Available in a wide range of formats.
NHS Fitness Studio: Choose from 24 online exercise videos to keep you moving.
NHS Live Well: Advice, tips and tools to help you make the right choices about your health and wellbeing.
P.E. with Joe: Daily P.E. Lessons from Joe Wicks
Pennine Domestic Abuse Partnership: COVID-19 information from PDAP
Rethink Mental Illness: Managing your mental health during the Coronavirus outbreak
RNIB: Latest COVID-19 news from the RNIB.
Royal Voluntary Service - Virtual Village Hall: Themed online activities designed to beat the boredom of isolation.
Sport England: How to stay active while you're at home.
Support to Recovery: Wellbeing pack 1
Thriving Kirklees: local health and wellbeing providers working together to support children, young people and their families to thrive and be healthy.
Well-Bean Cafe: Offering mental health support via telephone to anyone in Kirklees.
Working Together Better: Mental health resources in Kirklees.
World Health Organisation: tips for keeping physically active at home
Wriggle at Home: Bite-sized creative dance sessions for families.
Young Minds: What to do if you're anxious about Coronavirus.
Creative Children
Arts & Music
64 Million Artists – Create to Connect: Creative challenges to try at home.
A New Direction: Keeping creative at home.
Arts Award: Ideas for delivering the Arts Award remotely
The Arty Teacher: Art home learning inspiration and projects.
Canopy Creative Network: Remote still-life drawing sessions for all ages.
Crafts Council: Craft projects for home school.
Creative Kirklees: Online opportunities.
Creative Scene: Writing activities for children from Guy Hargreaves.
Creative Scene – Young Brigantia Artists Online: An opportunity for your artwork to feature in a digital exhibition.
Curly Cath: Music, dance and sensory play for 0-5 years.
Fun Palaces: Tiny revolutions of connection.
The Glucksman – Creativity at Home: Daily creative projects to try at home.
Guitar Lessons from Fender: 3 months of free guitar lessons.
Kids Art Projects: Simple projects with objects that can be found around the home.
Kids in Museums: 10 museum activities to keep children entertained
Made with Music: Virtual music classes for early years.
Music Tots: Singing and movement for babies and toddlers aged 0-5.
Pippa Pixley: Online draw-a-long and paint-a-long guides
Playful Portraits: An activity book from the National Portrait Gallery.
Rob Biddulph: Online drawing sessions #DrawWithRob
Round Your House: Resources for young creatives from The Roundhouse.
soundLINCS: Music ideas for Early Years.
Tate Kids: Art activities and projects for children.
We talk Makaton: Weekly Makaton signing choir sessions
Books & Reading
#Storyw@lks: Reading fun from home with Kirklees Libraries.
Anderson Press: Free resources, videos and activities
Barrington Stoke: breaking down barriers to reading. Accessible dyslexia-friendly fiction.
Bloomsbury: Resources to download and links to your favourite authors’ websites.
Books for Keeps: The children’s book magazine online
Books for Topics: Book lists for primary school children, sorted by topic and year group.
The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain Children in Lockdown
British Library: Discovering children’s books
The Call of the Wild: Radio 4 reading of The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Chicken House Books: A small, highly individual children’s book publishing company
Coronavirus – a book for children: a free information book explaining the coronavirus to children
Cressida Cowell’s Creativity Summer Camp: A week of events to inspire families to embrace books, reading and creativity at home.
DK Stay Home Hub: learning resources, ideas and inspiration for your time at home!
Egmont: A selection of children’s websites from publisher Egmont.
Goodnight with Dolly: Bedtime stories with Dolly Parton.
Hachette Schools: Online learning and reading resources.
Hamilton: Free English Resources
Hoglets: Free online story and drama classes
Hometime from Book Trust: Enjoy storytime with free online books and videos, play games, win prizes, test your knowledge in book-themed quizzes, or even learn how to draw some of your favourite characters.
Just Imagine: Blog posts, podcasts and reviews promoting excellence in reading, writing, and oracy.
Literacy Wagoll: encouraging reading, writing and other literacy skills in the classroom and at home.
Love Reading: Book reviews, recommendations and competitions.
Ministry of Stories: Writing inspiration and projects for children.
New Writing North: Getting started with your writing.
New Writing North: Writing from home workshops.
Nosy Crow: A small, independent, children’s publishing company.
Penguin: Articles, games and activities
Peters: 100 books recommended for parents of children of all ages.
Phonics Play: Games to help with learning phonics.
Puffin Books: bringing stories to life and inspiring you to share stories.
The Reading Realm: Free home learning packs, author interviews and other reading resources.
Reading Zone: book extracts, recommendations, author information and reading activities.
Serial Mash: Guided reading books, resources and activities.
Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books: Weekly virtual story time sessions in partnership with Andersen Press.
Staying Home: Sally Nicholls’ latest book, inspired by her family’s time in lockdown.
Toppsta: A children’s book review website with over 11,000 reviews from children, parents, teachers and librarians
Walker Books: Book and author information.
While We Can’t Hug: A story about physical distancing.
Words for Life: The National Literacy Trust’s website for parents.
World Book Day: Stay-at-home ideas and resources
Learning at Home
Ask a Librarian: Message board from Great School Libraries. Find resources, advice and support.
Canal and River Trust: Explorers – learning from home.
CBeebies: Games for kids and early years activities
CfSA: Free resources for every subject, from EYSF to Key Stage 4.
Classroom Secrets: Free resources for school closures.
CLPE: Free resources from the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
Easy Indoor Activities for Kids: 50 ideas for activities at home.
Family Zone: Useful resources from the National Literacy Trust.
Girlguiding UK: Adventures at home.
Hungry Little Minds: Simple, fun activities for kids, from newborn to five.
Memrise: Free online learning packages for a range of languages.
Minecraft: Free educational content on Minecraft Marketplace.
National Geographic Kids: Discover, learn and play.
National Trust: 50 activities to do in your back garden.
NewsWise: from the National Literacy Trust. Helping Key Stage 2 children to navigate the news.
Oxford Owl: Resources to help primary school children learn from home.
Pobble 365: Daily images and activities to help with writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Premier League Primary Stars: Free home learning resources for school closures.
Scholastic Kids Club: games, activities, competitions and giveaways
Scholastic Learn at Home: Projects to keep kids reading, thinking and growing.
Scholastic Printables: Free printable worksheets to help with learning at home.
Scouts: The Great Indoors.
Shakespeare Week: Kids’ Zone – activities for children.
Teacher’s Pet: Free home learning resources available to download.
Teaching Ideas: Thousands of free classroom activity ideas and downloadable resources.
Teachit Primary: Home learning resources for EYFS, KS1 & KS2.
Teachwire: Resources for children in Key Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Tiny Happy People: help develop your child’s communication skills.
Twinkl: Free resources for home learning. Suitable for children of all ages.
Live Streams
Cannon Hall Farm: Live streams from the farmers at Cannon Hall Farm.
Museum Tours: A collection of virtual museum tours from around the world.
National Parks Virtual Tour: Take virtual tours of 5 USA National Parks.
Maths, Science & Technology
British Science Association: Community group activity packs.
British Science Week Activity packs: Free activity packs on the theme of ‘Our Diverse Planet’
James Dyson Foundation: 44 engineering and science projects for children aged 7+
Purple Mash: Computing and digital skills for KS1 & KS2.
Raspberry Pi: Digital making at home projects with a different theme each week.
Science Museum: Science games and apps to help with your learning.
Science Museum Learning Resources: Learning resources and experiments to try at home for children of all ages.
Scratch: program your own interactive stories, games, and animations.
STEM learning: Free resources for home-learning of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects.
Sumdog: Games to practice maths and spelling.
Virtual Cyber School: Online cyber security challenges from Cyber Discovery.
Your Favourite Authors
Authorfy: Free author videos and writing resources
Chris Bradford: Virtual author talk at 10am on Friday 10th April.
Cressida Cowell: Reading some of her favourite stories
Elevenses with the World of David Walliams: Every day at 11am, listen one of David Walliams’ World’s Worst Children stories for free.
Jacqueline Wilson Interview: Vlogger Nikki Lilly interviews Jacqueline Wilson for CBBC
J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter at Home. Bringing Hogwarts to you.
Julia Donaldson Adaptations: Animated films based on the much-loved children’s picture books.
Kwame Alexander: Watch Kwame Alexander read his book, ‘The Undefeated’.
Lunch doodles: Draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing with illustrator, Mo Willems.
Scottish Book Trust: 80 Authors Live events to watch from home.
Creative Adults
64 Million Artists – Create to Connect: Creative challenges to try at home.
All The Web’s A Stage: A live-stream fundraiser by artists, for artists.
Alternative Classical Mixtape: A Spotify playlist featuring tracks from performances cancelled due to Coronavirus.
Art is Where the Home Is: Artist activity packs.
BBC Arts: Culture in Quarantine.
BBC History Extra: Podcasts, articles and information.
BBC Writers Room – InterConnected: Your opportunity to write a short script with the chance to have it produced by the BBC
Berliner Philharmoniker: Access to over 600 orchestral concerts.
The Bookshop Band: A concert of book-recommendations for lockdown reading
British Library Sounds: Explore recordings of music, spoken word and human and natural environments.
Canopy Creative Network: Remote still-life drawing sessions for all ages.
Cheltenham Jazz Festival: a virtual one-day festival streaming for free.
Connect Festival: a theatre show, a music festival and a soap-opera rolled into one, made up of five individual online episodes.
Creative Crafts: Virtual art and craft exhibitions to enjoy from home.
Creative Kirklees: Online opportunities.
Creative Scene – Brigantia Artists Online: An opportunity for your artwork to feature in a digital exhibition.
Culture to Your Couch: arts you can experience at home from The Space.
English Touring Opera: Learn how to sing with opera singers.
Fun Palaces: Tiny revolutions of connection.
Great British Home Chorus with Gareth Malone: the chance to contribute voices and instruments to an ambitious digital music project.
Guitar Lessons from Fender: 3 months of free guitar lessons.
HOOT Creative Arts: Collective music making at home.
Horsecross Arts: Daily moments of culture, chat, cookery and community.
Invisible Arts – Actuality: providing an immersive augmented reality experience
LBTV: past performances, creative workshops, live Q+As, masterclasses and backstage access from The Lawrence Batley Theatre.
Make Music Day: A global celebration of music. Get involved online.
Memrise: Free online learning packages for a range of languages.
Metropolitan Opera: Daily streaming of previous opera performances.
Museum Crush: An exploration of different objects and artefacts from Museums around the country.
Museum Tours: A collection of virtual museum tours from around the world.
National Parks Virtual Tour: Take virtual tours of 5 USA National Parks.
National Student Drama Festival: A free, online drama festival with workshops, discussions and online content.
National Theatre at Home: A different performance to stream each week.
Royal Academy of Arts: video tours, interviews, exhibition highlights, revisit popular events and creative inspiration. Watch, Make, Read.
Royal Opera House: a programme of free, online content.
Royal Voluntary Service – Virtual Village Hall: Themed online activities designed to beat the boredom of isolation.
The Shows Must Go On: a full-length musical streaming every Friday at 7pm.
Social Distancing Festival: Livestreams from artists who have had shows or presentations cancelled due to the need for social distancing caused by Coronavirus.
The Sofa Singers: free, weekly online singing sessions.
What’s On Stage: Stage shows, musicals and opera you can watch online now for free
Staying Safe
ASCEL – Keeping Children Safe Online toolkit – information sheets on online safety released fortnightly.
Kirklees Community Response: Request support or offer to help support your community.
Kirklees Council Updates & Advice
Latest Government response to COVID-19
NHS Apps Library: Apps and online tools to help you manage your health and wellbeing.
NHS COVID-19: Up-to-date information from the NHS.
NHS Coronavirus Resources: Information and resources about the Coronavirus. Available in a wide range of formats.
NSPCC – Online safety: Advice for keeping children safe online.
Public Health England: Cleaning Guidance
Public Health England: Accessible information and advice available in accessible formats including BSL, Braille, large print and audio.
Safe Space Campaign: Hestia and Boots announce safe space scheme for victims of domestic abuse.
Scam Warning: Useful tips from Action Fraud.
Thinkuknow: Advice for keeping children safe online.
Which?: Coronavirus advice from Which?
Making Reading Fun
#Storyw@lks: Reading fun from home with Kirklees Libraries.
100 Novels That Shaped Our World: Selected for the BBC by a lineup of panel of leading writers, curators and critics.
Audible: Free audiobooks from Amazon.
DK Stay Home Hub: learning resources, ideas and inspiration for your time at home!
Epic!: Digital Library for kids aged 12 and under. Featuring books, learning videos, quizzes & more. (Free 30-day trial)
Europeana: access to millions of books, music, artworks and more.
Faber & Faber: New online programme announced.
First News: A weekly newspaper aimed at 7 to 14-year-olds.
Google Play: A selection of free eBooks and audiobooks.
Open Culture Audiobooks: A selection of free audiobooks.
Open Culture eBooks: A selection of free eBooks.
Project Gutenberg: A selection of free eBooks.
Reading Friends: Resources for staying connected. Brought to you by The Reading Agency.
#ReadingWomen: A digital bookclub celebrating the Women’s Prize for Fiction
Virtual Reading Groups: Different virtual reading groups for all ages and tastes
Learning Resources
Alison: Over 1000 free online courses
BBC Bitesize: Learning resources for children and young people
Citizens Online: Resources from around he web to help you stay in touch with family, friends or colleagues – or to help you to help others.
Digital Unite: Digital guides for health & wellbeing and staying connected.
Future Learn: Free courses from Future Learn
Harvard Free Learning: Free courses from Harvard University
Learn My Way: Free courses to improve digital skills
Open Learning: Free courses from The Open University.
