At the moment, lots of us are looking for the best free GCSE resources for teens. After a year of disrupted learning, our teens need all the support they can, when studying and revising for their GCSEs.
My daughter recently completed her GCSE studies. The pandemic meant that she missed more than three months of classroom time. It’s a huge gap.
Flea attended virtual school, and had an online timetable that kept up with what she’d cover in school. In theory. But I’m aware that she wasn’t covering subjects with the same depth or thoroughness she’d have in a classroom. There was no teacher to offer immediate support if she needed help. So I’m encouraging her to use online resources to keep her learning fresh.
Today I’m sharing the best free online GCSE resources for parents. These are sites we’ve tried and tested, and offer some good variety. So if your child prefers quizzes, videos or lectures, there should be something to suit. Of course, we’re all watching the pennies right now. So all of these sites are free, or offer a free trial.
Best Free GCSE Resources 2021
Stairway Learning for Maths and Science
The Stairway Learning website specialises in free maths and science content. The site’s content is built around a “little and often” philosophy so there are short quizzes and learning modules that will keep kids engaged, and gives them quick feedback.
Stairway is designed for young people aged between 14 and 17, making it a perfect place to brush up on GCSE material. There are currently 15,000 registered users for the site’s free interactive quizzes and exercises. Free registration also means your progress is logged – so you can pick up where you left off on a previous visit.
Gojimo for 28 GCSE subjects
Gojimo is a free app giving quizzes to kids on their mobile device, providing access to 40,000 practice questions for GCSE and A-Level students.
The Gojimo app includes random tests, detailed explanations and diagrams. There’s also offline studying where you can download material to study in your own time – meaning the site won’t eat up your child’s mobile data. There’s also a tracker to mark your progress.
The app covers a huge range of 28 GCSE subjects, and the free content is interesting and attractive enough to keep teens engaged. A good all-rounder.
Revisionworld for all major GCSE topics
Revisionworld has free online lessons covering all major subjects at both GCSE and A-Level in subjects such as maths, french, biology and business studies.
Alongside the free interactive lessons and quizzes you’ll find tips on exam strategies and revision. There is also a library of past papers, which is a great tool when it comes to GCSE revision. In addition, the site has a tool that helps young people create their own revision timetable, and another that helps them apply to higher education.
TES Resources for GCSE worksheets
The TES is really a website for teachers. However, the Teaching Resources section is a great place to find resources for children struggling with GCSE study.
We’ve used the site to find free history worksheets covering things like the Cold War, history of slavery and rise of Nazism. Each activity is uploaded by a teacher. It’s a great place to find good quality questions, slideshows and similar. Not all the resources are free, but many are.
Education Quizzes for maths, english and science
It’s not the fanciest of websites but Education Quizzes is quite a fun approach to learning. The site offers a range of quizzes on both academic and non-academic subjects.
The site has paid subscriptions, but you can play up to 15 questions each day for free. This probably means doing 1 or 2 quizzes, depending on the subject. It’s a good way to review topics and break up the more serious study activities.
Seneca for just about everything
Seneca Learning is widely used by primary and secondary schools around the UK. Your kids are probably using Seneca in school but did you know that they can use Seneca at home, for free?
Register on Seneca as a student and you’ll find hundreds of interactive test papers covering virtually every topic and subject you can think of. The reassuring thing about Seneca is the content is so widely used in schools, and is created by teachers.
Rogers History
Tom Rogers is an experienced history teacher and he has a website that offers a range of interactive history courses for GCSE and A-Level history students that are free to enrol. Students can choose from courses on Germany 1918-1947, USA 1930-2000, International Relations 1815-1914 and Britain 1931-1951. Each course includes a series of online lessons plus supporting video material. It’s a fantastic GCSE history resource, and best of all it’s completely free!
Active History
ActiveHistory provides award-winning interactive simulations, decision-making games, self-marking quizzes, high-quality worksheets. The detailed site is exclusively focused on history, and run by a full-time history teacher. GCSE students can browse topics by period or by region/country. Core topics such as Britain between 1918 and 1940 are covered, along with courses on Germany, international relations, the Cold War and many more.
History Chappy
One more free GCSE history resource is the History Chappy. Not all the topics are current (the site content dates back a couple of years) but it’s a lot of fun for those topics still on the syllabus. We loved some of the site’s features, including an AI function that means children can “interview” Churchill. You can also take quizzes, play games and take virtual video tours.
The Science Teacher
Science is not my daughter’s favourite subject so we’re always looking for ways to make it more fun. The Science Teacher provides free access to teaching resources to help students grasp the underlying concepts of science. You’ll find a detailed library of resources for all GCSE topics, each supported by a lesson, worksheets and downloadable PDF diagrams.
Footprints Science
Great for visual learners,Footprints Scienceis a free revision site for GCSE science students. It has interactive quizzes focusing on animations, slides and diagrams. The site uses a timer alongside each question so you can see the fastest time each day. Great if you have a child who loves getting the top score!
S-Cool for french, maths and english
The S-Cool site is a free online library of revision quizzes for major subjects with basic games and activities. It doesn’t have online courses or worksheets but is a great way of reinforcing learning, and practice recall – really important in the run up to GCSE exams.
We’ve found it particularly useful for covering GCSE French revision, but all major GCSE subjects are covered and the content is all completely free.
Khan Academy, for GCSE maths
The Khan Academy is a US site so shouldn’t be relied upon as your only revision site for GCSE maths. But it does contains a huge amount of free maths resource that will be really helpful to GCSE students.
The site is run on a non-profit basis and has been offering a host of free study tools, remote lessons and daily class resources during the Covid-19 crisis. You’ll find maths lessons, notes, quizzes and detailed detailed tutorials. The site also has a massive library of free video content, including over 3,000 videos on maths/science.
French in a Click
French in a Click has some great free GCSE resources for language students. The core vocabulary section and the interactive dictionary are particularly useful, but there are also plenty of games and guidance for the different topics you will cover in class. The site has over 5000 audio clips, which can be fantastic for students to practice their French listening skills.
So there you have it. 12+ of the best free GCSE resources and websites for students during lockdown. If I’ve missed your favourite, do let me know in the comments!
