Yahoo News Welcome to lockdown academy: how talented UK celebrities became the nation's homeschool heroes
Doing PE with Joe Wicks? That’s only first period.
Just because (home-)school is about to break for imaginary Easter holidays, that doesn’t mean ripping up the timetable — try a new one: Grammy award-winner James Bay wants to be the nation’s new music teacher, former Countdown whiz Carol Vorderman is offering free maths lessons, and Jamie Oliver is live-streaming home economics classes from his kitchen — you get to eat the homework.
Welcome to lockdown academy.
9am: PE with Joe Wicks
Classroom: YouTube
Class summary: The floppy-haired fitness guru, aka his Instagram handle @TheBodyCoach, has quickly become coach to the world: more than 800,000 households from as far afield as Brazil, South Korea, Jamaica and India dial into his early-morning HIIT sessions, streamed live from his living room and featuring moves from squats to kangaroo jumps. The videos have raised more than £80,000 for the NHS so far.
Marks out of 10: 9
Student’s report: 800,000 people can’t be wrong. Wicks’s Poldark looks and even better abs might be a hit with the mums, but he isn’t afraid to be a big kid, demonstrating Superman moves with sound effects and launching fancy-dress Fridays last week (he was Spider-Man). The sweetest part? He pretends to be as out-of-breath as the rest of us.
10am: Music with Myleene Klass
Classroom: Instagram and YouTube
Class summary: Like Wicks, Klass has grand plans: “I want to be the nation’s music teacher!” she declared, announcing Myleene’s Music Klass last month. The mother-of-three and ex-Hear’Say singer runs family classes at 10am on Mondays and Fridays, plus a “lullabies for little ones” session at 6.30pm on Wednesdays. No instrument needed.
Marks out of 10: 9
Student’s report: Klass pitches it just right: she claps out rhythms on pots and pans and drums out Frozen on the piano, but doesn’t shy away from proper teaching. Talented daughters Ava and Hero join lessons on terms like piano and forte and hold up emoji posters on the difference between major and minor. Extra star for cuteness: every Wednesday she serenades baby son Apollo to sleep with lullabies on request.
10am: Science with Konnie Huq
Classroom: YouTube
Class summary: The former Blue Peter presenter is putting on lessons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, promised to be “low-tech but fun”. So far, subjects have included baking cookies with only three ingredients, science experiments with H20 (a glass of water) and making a code wheel.
Marks out of 10: 7
Student’s report: You won’t get BBC video quality or effects but you will get the Konnie Huq appeal. She involves her sons in the experiments, and uses things you’ll have around the house. Episode six is a child-friendly coronavirus explainer, worth a watch if your kids are feeling anxious or confused.
11am: Reading with David Walliams
Classroom: Soundcloud
Class summary: Kids adore Walliams’s books and now the comedian and author is reading extracts in 20-minute sessions from his World’s Worst Children collection at 11am daily, to be found on a Soundcloud recording via worldofdavidwalliams.com. They’ll be available for free for 30 days.
Marks out of 10: 8
Student’s report: If you’re stuck at home with kids you might relate to Walliams’s humorous tales of dastardly children. The downside is you can’t see his facial expressions because it’s audio-only. The upside is that means it’s a 20-minute break from screen-time.
11.30am: Dance with Oti Mabuse
Classroom: YouTube, Instagram and Facebook
Class summary: Latin and ballroom classes from Strictly Come Dancing professional Mabuse and her husband Marius Lepure. Each kids’ session is themed, from Shrek to Mary Poppins, and for parents there are adult classes nightly at 7.30pm.
Marks out of 10: 8
Student’s report: Full marks for fun. Mabuse has dressed as the Artful Dodger for an Oliver! Special and routines range from Disney to the Greatest Showman. They’re all on her Instagram highlights if you miss a live session.
2pm (or anytime): Maths with Carol Vorderman
Classroom: themathsfactor.com
Class summary: The ex-Countdown whiz normally charges £2 a week for access to her online academy but it’s free for children aged four to 11 until schools reopen. The site features more than 1,000 videos.
Marks out of 10: 8
Student’s report: Expect child-friendly Vorderman charm: the Countdown star smiles through long multiplication and sings fractions.
3pm (or anytime): History with Dan Snow
Classroom: YouTube
Class summary: The BBC history buff explores a new topic every day, from the First World War to modern pandemics, and speaks to special guests. His aunt, Oxford professor Margaret MacMillan, dialled in last week.
Marks out of 10: 6
Student’s report: The YouTube classes have an element of static Skype news interviews, but tight T-shirt-wearing Snow makes up for it with enthusiastic hand gestures and a chatty style.
4pm: Adventure with Ben Fogle
Classroom: Instagram and YouTube
Class summary: Every afternoon, the father-of-two dials in from Adventure HQ (his children’s treehouse) for a live chat about trips to the wilderness, living primitively and how families do homeschooling around the world.
Marks out of 10: 8
Student’s report: An antidote to cabin fever straight from a cabin. Fogle pairs his hiking scarf with an old-school teacher’s sweater for tales of crossing oceans and summiting Everest.
5pm: Guitar with James Bay
Classroom: Instagram
Class summary: The singer-songwriter has put on his former teacher’s hat and is hosting free Instagram Live tutorials from his bedroom. Each afternoon he teaches a different one of his songs. You’ll need a guitar.
Marks out of 10: 9
Student’s report: Bay says his lessons are suitable whether you’ve been playing guitar “for ages or for five minutes” and takes things slow, performing the song first before talking you through tuning your strings, chord shapes and finger-picking.
5.30pm: Cooking with Jamie Oliver
Classroom: Channel 4
Class summary: No scrappy Instagram Lives for Oliver: he has scrambled together a shiny new Channel 4 series in less than a week. The 30-minute daily show, Keep Cooking and Carry On, tells how to pull together easy, nutritious meals from kitchen staples.
Marks out of 10: 9
Student’s report: Oliver doesn’t dwell on the miseries of lockdown: he tells viewers “we can do this” and gets straight to work. Of course, most of us don’t have a kitchen as beautiful and well-stocked as his, but the premise of the show is just right: “Store cupboard ingredients are your best friend right now.” Tips such as putting your half-used chillis in the freezer for grating over things are just what you need to know as an anxious amateur cook in quarantine.
5.30pm: Choir with Gareth Malone
Classroom: YouTube
Class summary: The choirmaster keeps the nation singing through quarantine. His new virtual choir, The Great British Home Chorus, takes place each night “to keep the spirits up”. Songs so far include You Are My Sunshine and I’m Still Standing. He sends out an email with the songsheets an hour or so before.
Marks out of 10 : 9
Student’s report: One for all the family. Malone’s YouTube chorus works differently from other virtual choirs in that you can’t see the other singers, but that’s because there are so many of them. More than 50,000 households dial into the livestream every night, in which you see Malone and guests like Mel Giedroyc in their living rooms. He’s asking members to send in their recordings and plans to stitch them all together into one soundtrack.
