The 13 Best Resource Websites for Online Tutors

Being an online tutor certainly has its advantages: working from home, flexible hours, and meeting students from around the world. However, it does have its drawbacks: work-from-home burnout (the struggle is real!), unexpected noise that disturbs lessons (thank you, neighbours), unstable internet connection 🙄 and the sheer vastness of online material to choose from when prepping for lessons. 

Sometimes the luxury of choice can be a curse, but we’ve found the best resource websites for tutors so that when it comes to getting ahead for your online classes, you’re sorted!

Best online tutor resource websites: preschool (3-5 years)

Teaching preschool children can be tough because not only do you need to educate them but before that, you need to hold their attention. Check out these sites which infuse learning with fun, and sometimes, games.

1. British Council: LearnEnglish Kids

💡Also suitable for primary school (5-11 years).

• Pros

This site is really a saviour for teaching English – it has so many helpful resources in one place and it’s super-simple to navigate. From word games and stories (with videos AND transcripts) to phonics practice and songs, this website will provide you with many lessons of material. Plus, if you’re sharing your screen with your student, it’s bold and colourful to look at! Extra bonus? It’s free!

• Cons

It’s not updated very often so once you’ve used everything (and believe us, it’s possible), you may need to go into revision mode by going back and recapping on already-taught pages or, take your teachings elsewhere.

2. Twinkl

💡Also suitable for primary school (5-11 years).

• Pros

Maths challenges, alphabet games, vocabulary matching and more – Twinkl has got all you need to stimulate those early years students. And if sharing your screen is not an option, you can print the materials off and show them over your webcam. 

• Cons

To use Twinkl you need to pay for a membership but if you’re self-employed, you may be able to claim the payments as business expenses.

3. Baamboozle

💡Also suitable for primary school (5-11 years).

• Pros

This site embodies ‘fun’ with a capital ‘F’. Featuring over 750,000 games, the beauty of Baamboozle is that the games have been made by tutors so there’s a level of mutual understanding and appreciation right there. It’s also free and you can filter your search by language and by ‘new’, ‘featured’ and ‘popular’ games.

⏯️ Sidenote: while we know lesson time is not just for games, it’s going to happen where your student runs out of steam and their concentration levels plummet – this is where the games come in. A quick game is also handy to use as a lesson warm-up, or if you have some time at the end once you’ve covered everything

•  Cons

You can’t filter by age or level, so you’ll need to use your judgment as to what games are suitable for your students.

Best online tutor resource websites: primary school (5-11 years)

With primary school level, you’ll need to up the ante with your materials. Luckily, there are many paid and free sites for tutor resources, and we’ve got just the ones for you.

4. tutorTube

• Pros

Spanning science, maths, history, social studies, language arts and educational songs, you can search 1000s of useful videos, audios and more on tutorTube. Within each subject, you can also delve into specific topics – hello, multiplying decimals 🥴 – and age levels, such as ‘high school’ and ‘elementary’.

• Cons

Some of the videos are of teachers teaching, so unless you want Inception vibes in your lesson, you’ll need to have a good browse for the lessons that are material only, teacher not included. 

5. Powtoon

• Pros

If you want something done, sometimes you need to do it yourself. For the super-creative tutors out there, you can make your own movie-based lessons at Powtoon. Bring any subject to life by simply choosing a template and creating engaging videos for your students. 

• Cons

It’s not free but with membership starting at about £4 a month, it’s not going to break the bank either. Plus, if it’s engaging your students and helping them learn, it’s best to see this as an investment.

6. Flocabulary

• Pros

Wow, we wish that we had been taught lessons in rap when we were at school! 😎 Lucky for you, Flocabulary offers just that. Besides offering the usual suspects – maths, science, literature and social studies – there’s also the choice to share current events with your students via ‘The Week in Rap’. In a nutshell? Entertainment for both student and tutor – we 🤍 this.

• Cons

For individual tutors, monthly membership starts at around £8 so it’s a little pricier. However, if that’s the cost of teaching perpendicular lines via rap, we think that’s money well spent!

7. Jumpstart

💡Also suitable for preschool (3-5 years). 

• Pros

When planning lessons can feel like a headache, Jumpstart is at your rescue. Featuring simple plans across maths, science, history, geography, social studies and reading, even if you’re just using the lesson plans for ideas instead of the full proposal, it’s some help! 

However, if you’re all set for your lessons and you’re just in need of accompanying material, Jumpstart has enough worksheets, games and activities to spruce your class up.

•  Cons

Is it the best resource website for online tutors? Not quite. Is it close? For sure! Aside from wanting more materials – and there’s already a fair bit! – we couldn’t think of a con, so what are you waiting for?

8. Classroom Secrets

💡Also suitable for preschool (3-5 years).

• Pros

With a wonderfully organised front-page menu, you can choose between EYFS (early years foundation stage), Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, or you can choose by school year going up to year 6. Within each stage, subject topics are divided into different terms – spring/summer/autumn, although we’re not sure where winter is 🤔 – and there are different lessons behind each topic. As an added bonus, the site is clear and easy to navigate.   

• Cons

Only a selection of the resources is free for a short trial period and then you’ll need to pay for access to all materials. Membership comes in at £5.31 per month (or one year for £54.50), which is a bit more than a large Starbucks and you’ll be getting much more for your money than a caffeine kick. 

9. Primary Resources 

• Pros

Containing a burgeoning bank of resources donated by the kind and lovely people of the world, Primary Resources is much akin to a treasure trove of teaching materials. Every subject is covered, including P.S.H.E, R.E and I.T and the best part – because GoStudent loves the small things that make life easier – is that next to every resource is a symbol that indicates whether the lesson is a Word doc, PowerPoint, PDF or Publisher – amazing!      

• Cons

Because Primary Resources relies on donations from the public, the materials are, of course, not consistent with each other and there’s definitely a homemade feel to some of them. Therefore, some lessons may be much more useful than others; we recommend you have a sort through ahead of your lessons to avoid being left with a red face. 😳

Best online tutor resource websites: secondary school (11-16 years)

We’re sure you remember the sudden jump from primary school to secondary school – “how did everything suddenly get so difficult?”, you thought. To counter this, we’ve got some awesome sites for you to use with your students so that their secondary years are a little less mind-boggling. 🤪

10. BBC Teach

💡Also suitable for primary school (5-11 years).

• Pros

History, geography, English, science, maths and Spanish – they’re all here and more! You can filter between primary and secondary years, and the material is mainly video-based which will – hopefully – keep interest levels high.

• Cons

While there is a plethora of ages, levels and subjects to choose from, the material behind each is not so extensive. Nevertheless, the content is great, so we advise using each video across more than one lesson so that you really make the most of what BBC Teach has to offer. 

11. Teach It

💡Also suitable for primary school (5-11 years).

• Pros

• Cons

12. British Library

• Pros

If it’s from the British Library, you know it’s going to be good – and it is! Discover free teaching resources across English language/literature, geography, history, history of art, music and religious education – all sorted by ages, but there are markedly more lesson plans for ages 11 and up. Each lesson plan is thoughtful, inventive and has links to other valuable texts which should make for interesting discussions with your student.

• Cons

There’s a lot here but it’s certainly not exhaustive, so it would be wise to make each lesson plan last if you can. 

13. National Geographic

• Pros

A large collection of interesting and thorough lesson plans accompanied by stunning photography, National Geographic will have your student spellbound. Not only do many of the lessons have tabs for ‘objectives’, ‘vocabulary’ and ‘preparation’, but they’re also labelled with their content type: idea, video, article, activity, map etc. 

• Cons

You can see how many lesson plans there are per subject and, of course, there are far more geography and science ones than any other. But if you’re going to choose any site for those subjects, make it this one.

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