Florence's home learning

Your lessons.

81 lessons across fourteen subjects — to read, listen to, and play with at your own pace. Pick anything that looks interesting. There's no order you have to follow.

Maths 6

Coordinate geometry, percentages, ratio — and what the numbers really mean

Area, Perimeter & CirclesPerimeter is the walk around the edge; area is the space you'd carpet. Two very different questions about one shape — and a circle answers both with t Averages & What a Chart Really ShowsAn average is a single number that stands in for many. But there is more than one kind — and the kind you pick can quietly change the story a chart te Percentages in Real LifeA percentage is just a fraction with the same bottom number every time — a hundred. Once you see that, the sale rail, the savings account and the rest Ratio & ProportionA ratio isn't about how much there is — it's about how much of one thing there is for every bit of another. Once you hear it that way, the paint pot, Straight-Line GraphsAn equation like y = 2x + 1 is a promise about points. Every pair (x, y) that keeps the promise lands on one straight line — and once you can read tha The Coordinate Grid & MidpointsA French philosopher lay in bed one morning, watched a fly on the ceiling, and worked out how to describe exactly where it was using only numbers. Tha

Science 6

Cells, atoms, forces, electricity and the machinery of life

Atoms, Elements & the Periodic TableThe chair, the air, the onion, you — all of it is built from a small set of tiny pieces. Learn the pieces, and the whole material world starts to make Cells & the MicroscopeEvery living thing is built from cells. A man in London found them in a piece of cork in 1665, and biology has not been the same since.Electricity & CircuitsElectricity is moving charge. Give it a complete loop and it flows — and on the way round it can light a lamp, turn a motor, warm a wire.Photosynthesis & RespirationA plant builds sugar out of air, water and light. Then every living cell — the plant's, yours — burns sugar back to air and water to stay alive. Two r The Heart & CirculationIt started beating before you were born and it has not stopped since. Today: how the heart moves blood around a whole body, loop after loop, all day, The Particle Model & States of MatterAll matter is built from tiny particles, far too small to see. How tightly they're packed and how fast they move is the difference between ice, water

English Literature 6

Close reading, and a whole term inside Romeo & Juliet

OzymandiasA traveller finds two stone legs and a shattered face half-sunk in the sand. The king they belonged to once ruled the world. Now there is nothing arou Romeo & JulietA city at war with itself. Fourteen lines that give the ending away. A brawl in a hot street. And two strangers who meet, and speak — and find they ha Romeo & JulietFourteen lines give the ending away. An old feud keeps the swords out. And in one hot afternoon in Act 3, everything that was going to go wrong, does.Romeo & JulietIn this play the two are never far apart — a wedding and a feud, a kiss and a sword, all in the same few days. Today we follow how Shakespeare keeps p Romeo & JulietA letter that never arrives. A few minutes' timing in a tomb. Two deaths that finally end a feud. Today: what makes this play a tragedy, and how Shake The Tell-Tale HeartA narrator who swears he is sane, while he describes something that isn't. A house at midnight. A single watchful eye. And, under the floorboards, a s

English Language 6

Writing that a reader can see, hear and feel

Building Tension & AtmosphereHow writers slow time at the crucial moment, turn weather into mood, and leave you on the edge of a thing you can feel coming. The quiet machinery of Descriptive Writing & the SensesA man stands in the fog and you can almost taste the cold air. Description is not decoration — it is the writer handing you their five senses, one at Persuasive Writing & RhetoricTwo and a half thousand years ago, in Athens, people worked out the rules for winning an argument with words alone. The rules still work — and once yo Show, Don't TellA painter never writes "they were cold". He paints tired dogs, bent backs, and a white valley — and you feel the cold yourself. Writers can do exactly Writing from a pictureGive a writer a sentence to start from and they freeze. Give them a picture and they walk straight in. This is how you read an image, and turn it into Writing Great DialogueGood dialogue is the fastest way to bring a character to life — and the easiest place to give yourself away. Two lines of speech can do what a page of

History — The First World War 6

How the world walked into war, lived through it, and out the other side

The First World WarFor four years, two armies faced each other across a few hundred metres of churned ground. They could not go forward, and they would not go back. So t The First World WarAfter four years, the guns on the Western Front fell silent at eleven o'clock on the morning of 11 November 1918. This is the story of the last year —The First World WarWhile soldiers fought abroad, the war reached into every kitchen and workshop in Britain. It changed what people ate, what they were asked to do — and The First World WarA heap of dry kindling needs only one spark. On a June morning in 1914, in a city most of Europe could not have found on a map, the spark landed.The First World WarA continent of empires, armies and old rivalries. The peace looked solid. Underneath, Europe had quietly arranged itself so that one quarrel could pul The First World WarThe First World War brought weapons the world had never seen — the machine gun, vast artillery, the tank, the aeroplane. They changed how the war was

Geography 6

The restless Earth — its plates, rivers, coasts, weather and life

Biomes & EcosystemsTrace a finger from the equator to the poles and the living world changes beneath it — steaming rainforest, then dry desert, then green forest, then f Climate & Weather SystemsOne is what the sky is doing this afternoon. The other is what the sky tends to do, year after year, in a given place. Tell the two apart, and the who Coasts & ErosionThe coast is the busiest building site on Earth. Every wave that breaks is either tearing rock away or carrying sand somewhere new — and over time tha Earthquakes & Living with HazardsAn earthquake is the Earth letting go. Two great plates of rock have been straining against each other for years — and in one violent moment they slip Plate Tectonics & VolcanoesSlowly — a few centimetres a year, about the speed your fingernails grow — the surface of the Earth is sliding about on a sea of hot rock beneath it. Rivers & the Water CycleEvery river is part of a loop that never ends. The same water that falls on a Welsh hillside this morning has been a cloud, a sea, a glacier and a rai

Spanish 6

First words, spoken aloud — and how to get by in Spain

Daily Routine & Telling the TimeHow to tell the time, and how to talk through a day in Spanish — getting up, getting ready, going out. A clock, a few verbs about yourself, and three Food & Ordering in a CaféWhat you like, what you'd like, and how to ask for it politely — in Spanish. A handful of foods, two small verbs, and you can sit down at any café and Hobbies & Free TimeIn Spanish, almost every conversation reaches the same warm question — what do you like? Today you learn to answer it, in your own words, about your o La familia: Family & Describing PeopleToday you can name your family in Spanish, say how many brothers or sisters you have, and describe what someone is like — their hair, their eyes, thei My Town & DirectionsThe places in a town, how to say what's there and what isn't, and how to ask the way and follow it — in Spanish. A handful of places, one little verb,Numbers, Age & Talking About YourselfYour name, your age, where you're from, where you live — in Spanish. A handful of numbers and three small verbs, and you can introduce yourself to any

Design & Technology 6

Materials, mechanisms, electronics and iconic design

Electronics & SystemsA night-light that comes on when the room goes dark. A doorbell that buzzes when you press it. Every gadget is the same shape underneath: it takes som Iconic Design & the BauhausA chair, a lamp, a map of the Underground. Some designs are so right that they never go out of fashion. This is the school that decided beauty and use Materials & Their PropertiesA spoon, a bike frame, a drinks bottle — each one is a decision. Someone matched a material to a job. This is how that choice is made.Mechanisms & MovementPull a lever, turn a handle, push a pedal — and somewhere a movement changes its mind. A mechanism is the part that takes one kind of movement and han Sustainability & Eco-designEvery object you own was once raw material, and one day it will be something else again. A thoughtful designer pictures that whole journey before draw The Design ProcessEvery object near you began as a problem someone decided to solve. A designer doesn't guess the answer — they follow a path, and the path loops back o

Religious Education 6

Belief, practice, and the big questions

Big Questions: Good, Evil & SufferingOne of the oldest questions people have ever asked — and there is more than one thoughtful answer. Today we look at them calmly, side by side, and you Buddhism: Key Beliefs & PracticesBuddhism began with one man's long search for the cause of suffering — and what he found was not a god to worship, but a way of living. Around half a Christianity: Key Beliefs & PracticesThe world's largest faith, with around two billion followers, grew from the life of one teacher in the Middle East. This is what Christians believe, a Islam: Key Beliefs & PracticesIslam is followed by close to two billion people — almost a quarter of everyone alive. At its centre sits a single belief: that there is one God, and Judaism: Key Beliefs & PracticesJudaism is one of the oldest living faiths on Earth — a story of one God, a people, and a promise kept across thousands of years. At its heart sits a Right and Wrong: How We DecideEvery day brings small choices about what's fair, what's kind, what's honest. This lesson is not about being told the answers — it's about the differe

Computing 6

How a machine turns the world into ones and zeros

Algorithms & Thinking Like a ProgrammerA computer has no common sense. It does precisely what you say, in the order you say it. Learning to think in steps — clear, ordered, unmissable — is An Introduction to PythonA program is a recipe a computer follows, step by step, without ever guessing. Python is one of the friendliest languages for writing those recipes — How Computers Represent DataA computer has no words, no pictures, no music inside it — only millions of tiny switches, each one on or off. From those two states alone, it builds How the Internet WorksWhen you open a page, nothing travels in one piece. Your message is chopped into tiny parcels, each finds its own way across the world, and they are r Logic Gates & How Circuits ThinkUnderneath every decision a computer makes are tiny gates that answer one kind of question — true or false. String a few together and a machine of swi Staying Safe OnlineThe internet is yours to use — for school, for friends, for everything you love. A few quiet habits keep it that way, and they're easier than they sou

Artificial Intelligence 6

How thinking machines came to be — from a Victorian's dream to the AI you can talk to today

The Dream of a Thinking MachineA hundred years before the first computer, two people in Victorian London imagined one — and wrote its very first program.Turing's IdeaOne machine that could be any machine, the codebreakers of Bletchley, and a question still open: can a machine think?What's Inside the BoxHow the room-sized machine became the one in your pocket — what a CPU, memory and storage each do, and why speed matters.Why Everything ExplodedA grain of rice, doubled across a chessboard. Why computers, and then AI, grew so powerful so suddenly.The First Artificial BrainIn 1958 a machine learned to tell patterns apart, the headlines soared, then winter came. Hype versus reality.How a Machine Learns from ExamplesThere is no neat rule for what a cat looks like. So we show the machine thousands of examples and let it find the pattern.

Personal Development 6

Emotions, growth, healthy habits and good friendships — gently

A Growth MindsetA small word at the end of a sentence changes everything. This is a lesson about being kind to yourself when something is hard — and about how the bra Friendships, Kindness & BoundariesGood friendships are warm and two-way. Kindness is small and often. And a boundary — saying "no" or needing space — is a kind, healthy thing, not a me Money, Saving & BudgetingA calm, practical look at where money comes from, where it goes, and how a little plan can help it stretch. No maths to dread here — just a few useful Self-Esteem & IdentityA gentle look at identity — all the pieces that add up to a person — and at self-esteem: the quiet way you treat yourself. This is not a test of you. Sleep, Exercise & a Healthy BodyA quiet look at three of the kindest things you can do for your body — letting it rest, letting it move, and giving it what it runs on. None of this i Understanding Emotions & How We Respond to StressEvery emotion you have — the light ones and the heavy ones — is a signal carrying information. This is a quiet look at what they are, and at how the b

Cooking & Food 6

The science of food, where it comes from, and a good plate

Balanced Nutrition & the Eatwell GuideFood is fuel, building material and repair kit — all at once. This is how the body uses it, and how the UK draws a balanced plate.Food Around the WorldWhy does so much of Asia eat rice, so much of Europe eat wheat, and so much of the Americas eat maize? The answer is written in the land, the weather Kitchen Safety & Food HygieneMost of cooking safely comes down to four quiet habits and a steady hand. Learn them once, and the kitchen stops being somewhere to worry about — it b Planning & Cooking a Balanced MealA good meal is mostly decided before the pan is even hot — in the plan. This is how to bring the Eatwell plate to life: choose it, time it, and cook i The Science of Cooking with HeatA raw egg is clear and runny; a cooked one is white and firm. Nothing was added — only heat. This is the chemistry behind every pan, oven and grill.Where Food Comes FromEvery meal has a journey behind it — a field, a season, a lorry, a shop. Once you can read that journey, you can choose it.

Music 3

The elements of music, on the page and in the ear

How a Film Score Builds EmotionA film score works on you quietly — guiding your heart long before you notice. We'll listen to one of the great ones: Howard Shore's music for The Lor Reading Basic NotationWritten music is a map of sound. Once you can read the five lines and the spaces between them, a page of dots turns into a tune you can follow with yo The Elements of MusicEvery song you love is built from a small handful of ingredients — how high, how loud, how fast, how it moves. Once you can name them, you can hear th

For Florence. Made with care, and added to each week.