Local Offer - COVID-19

Specialist Teacher Advisory Service (STA)

All STA Team members are available during term time and the team have collated a number of resources and activities for children who have hearing or visual needs that you may find helpful at this time.

You should already have contact details for the specialist teacher allocated to your child but if this is not the case, please contact iow.localoffer@IOW.gov.uk.

Resources for Children and Young People with Visual Impairment

RNIB Counselling service provides emotional support including counselling for sight loss.

Doorway Online this touch typing course includes a collection of free and highly accessible educational games that learners will find easy to use independently. Each activity has a range of accessibility and difficulty options.

Dance Mat Typing is provided by the BBC and provides touch typing for children.

In this course, there are 12 stages divided into 4 levels that will help you learn typing from scratch. Even though you don’t have any clue about typing now, you will become a “typist” who can type fast without looking at the keyboard when you finish all the tasks in these 12 stages.

National Literacy Trust are offering free literacy resources for learning at home in their Family Zone. Here you will find ideas and guidance for fun, simple activities that will engage your children at home, whilst also benefiting their reading, writing and language development.

Twinkl.co.uk provide free resources for all age ranges including school closure activity packs for Early Years and Primary school children.

Circle Time Fun provides enrichment classes for children up to 8 years old. You can watch on-demand or participate live from home this includes Yoga Adventure, Interactive Storytime, Baby and Me Yoga, Family Cooking, Playing with Colours and Sing-Along.

Resources for Deaf Children and Young People

Elizabeth Foundation Pre-school for Deaf Children - Let's Listen and Talk have made their Let’s Listen and Talk Programme available for free.

There are 3 programmes: baby, toddler and pre-school. Your Teacher of the Deaf can support you through each lesson either by phone or by video link.

Frank Barnes School for the Deaf provides BSL signed stories

National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) have produced a story to help explain Coronavirus (PDF, 1.48 MB, 12 pages).

The NDCS is a great source of information and support for all things related to deaf children and this Blog post for families during Coronavirus pandemic may be particularly helpful during this time.has a local group which you follow on Facebook. There is also an Isle of Wight Deaf Childrens Association Facebook page which is a good way to connect with other parents.

BSL Links

The British Sign Language Currently the website is asking people to pay what you can. It is experiencing unusually high demand and you may be in a long queue but there are free resources easily available.

NDCS Family Sign Language provides a sign language programme based around family routines and language used by and with children.

BritishSignLanguage.com This website provides video clips of BSL and is full of resources including a BSL dictionary, games and flashcards.

BSL Zone provides TV programmes for children in BSL.

Deaf Books provides books, posters, flashcards (see Products tab) with some free downloads for cubs, scouts, brownies and guides.

ITV Signed Stories You can download the app for free and there are 145 children’s books signed. There are 10 books that are free and others costing as little as 99p.

Other education/fun resources recommended for use with deaf pupils while at home

Brainpop You will need to setup an account to access the range of movies, worksheets, make a video, quizzes, all relating to a range of topics on offer.

White Rose Maths (complete video activities and answers)

Oxford Owl provides tips for parents on home learning and also outdoor learning activities, activities for reading/English/Maths for children from pre-school to Year 6. The site can be explored by age/ability and incorporates all the characters that our children love from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme

Diary Zapp encourages children aged 4 to 10 years old to write and draw about their day using digital characters. They can earn rewards that are unlocked on the site – the more they write the more they earn and can share their pages with friends and family inside a parent-controlled network

Widgit Symbols Online Free trial for parents provides software titles have been used in classrooms, healthcare settings and at home for more than 30 years to create a wide variety of symbol materials. Join thousands of teachers, parents and professionals and start creating your own symbol materials with one of our easy to use titles. Widgit Online uses high quality, streaming text-to-speech to read your resources aloud. Create your symbol resources and access them from anywhere with an internet connection.

National Literacy Trust provides free literacy resources.