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Essential Resources for Sixth Form
Essential Resources for Sixth Form
Hatchett Learning's A-level Review magazines help:
Deepen understanding: Offer up-to-date articles on key topics from subject specialists.
Enhance exam skills: Provide exam-style questions, case studies, and revision advice.
Encourage independent learning: Expose students to cutting-edge research and real-world applications of their subject.
These are the first step you should take to achieve better grades and prepare for university-level study.
Simply sign in with your school Google account or click here.
Massolit features video lectures from subject experts aimed at secondary school students. These help in in several key ways:
Deepen Subject Knowledge: The lectures provide in-depth, high-level content that goes beyond the standard curriculum, helping you develop a more sophisticated understanding of your subjects. This is especially useful for those aiming for top grades or preparing for university interviews.
Targeted Revision: Students can find lectures and courses tailored to their specific exam specifications, allowing them to focus on the exact topics and texts they need to revise.
Independent Learning: The bite-sized format of the videos makes it easy for you to engage in self-paced, independent study. You can watch lectures at your own pace, pause to take notes, and re-watch complex sections. The platform also offers features like quizzes and worksheets to test their understanding.
Bridging the Gap: Massolit's content helps bridge the gap between school-level and university-level study by exposing students to academic concepts and styles of thought from leading scholars. This can make the transition to higher education feel less daunting.
We have a subscription for English Literature, Psychology, Sociology and Economics.
Issues Online is an interactive resource containing articles, infographics and information on hundreds of important topics, using images, graphs, infographics, videos and glossaries to help students digest information. Issues Online will help you conduct your own research and think critically about sources and information. Printed magazines are available in the Library, with the entire collection online.
Quarterly print & online magazine for A Level students of English language, literature and lang/lit. Log in with username: ricky-emag and password: Ricky2024
Financial Times — Sign up for a free FT account and download the myFT app. This is essential reading for A-level Business and Economics, as well as EPQ.
Under check if your school is already registered, enter 'Rickmansworth School', select, then enter your school email address.
JStor — is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students which provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
With a free personal JSTOR account, you can read up to 100 articles online for free every 30 days. Find out how to use your free reads with a personal account.
Churchill Archive for Schools provides an extensive range of resources written by leading history teachers to help build students’ skills and confidence in using primary sources.
Churchill Archive for Schools also provides students with an accessible and exciting entry point into the complete Churchill Archive, with access to 800,000 pages of documents.
Go to http://www.churchillarchive.com and log in with username: rickmansworth and password: churchill.
Free access to the National Theatre Collections, drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality archive recordings. never previously seen outside of the NT's Archive https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/browse-collections.
Go to https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/ and log in with username: 8Yp!0Tw%z& and password: 3Gh&7OG!ns
Resources for learning and reading online from Hertfordshire Libraries
Resources for learning and reading online from Hertfordshire Libraries
Join Hertfordshire Libraries
Join Hertfordshire Libraries
Having a library card can really support you with both reading for pleasure and research. All staff and students are eligible to join Hertfordshire Libraries for free.
Libby offers over 370 magazines online free, including the New Scientist. Simply download the Libby App and log in with your library card number and PIN.
PressReader offers free daily newspapers and magazines from around the world including The Guardian and The Telegraph and The Economist magazine. Download the PressReader app and log in with your library card number and PIN.
The Economist provides a comprehensive, international perspective on current affairs, politics, and business. It goes beyond headlines to offer in-depth analysis and context, which is vital for academic success and personal development.
Reading the Economist will help develop your critical thinking and writing skills. The articles are known for their rigorous, evidence-based arguments and clear, sophisticated prose. Reading it regularly will help you:
improve your essay writing through learning how to structure arguments, use evidence effectively, and write with clarity and conciseness
enhance your critical analysis, through examining multiple sides of an issue forming your own informed opinions
Available via PressReader
New Scientist provides a fantastic resource for science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) subjects. Its accessible yet authoritative content makes it perfect for bridging the gap between what's taught in the classroom and the cutting-edge research happening in the real world.
You can develop your critical thinking and analytical skills, engage with the throgh read
New Scientist isn't just about facts; it often features articles that explore the ethical, social, and philosophical implications of scientific progress. This is a crucial skill for university-level study.
Available via Libby
Theory Test Pro is a highly realistic online simulation of the UK's driving theory test. It contains all the official test questions licensed from the DVSA, as well as online version of the Highway Code, realistic hazard perception videos, translation into over 40 different languages, and speach-enabled tests so you can listen to the questions. Free access with a Hertfordshire Library card.
Online Reference Library — free access with your library card to the following online resources:
Britannica online encyclopaedia - an edited and more authoritative source than Wikipedia
Credo Reference for research projects
Oxford Reference for dictionaries & bibliographies (including the Dictionary of National Biography)
Who's Who (and Who Was Who)
Public Information Online for all UK parliamentary papers
UK Reference Centre - full text general reference publications, including journals.
Ask a Librarian — submit your question and receive an answer from an experienced professional librarian
To access these free resources you must log in with your Hertfordshire Library card!
Free access to over 30 million academic articles from a huge range of journals. Subjects include art, architecture, business, engineering, history, languages, politics, philosophy, mathematics and the sciences. (Only available in Libraries)
Online version of the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica, available for Students (age 10-15) and Adults (age 15+). An edited and more authoritative source than Wikipedia
(Use your library card number to login)
An illustrated collection of biographies of over 55,000 men and women who shaped Britain, from earliest times to present.
(Login with "hertsb" & your library card number)
Definitions of words and phrases with expert guidance on style, usage, grammar and spelling. Now includes French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Arabic and Portuguese dictionaries.
(Login with "hertsb" & your library card number)
The definitive English dictionary that lists the meanings, history and pronunciation of over 500,000 English words.
(Login with "hertsb" & your library card number)
A selection of searchable reference titles on a variety of subjects. Includes encyclopedias, dictionaries and books of quotations.
(Login with "hertsb" & your library card number)
More essential resources for Sixth Form
The Conversation — independent news and views from the academic and research community. With access to independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism, it will help you have a better understanding of current affairs and complex issues
Staircase 12 — excellent resource for anyone applying for Oxbridge, or Russell Group universities:
Resource Hub — lectures, podcasts & articles Reading Bank — essential book reviews
Subject guide to further reading — for Oxbridge applications
Explore the Museum of the World with the British Museum and Google
The World Factbook provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities, prepared for the US Government by the CIA.
British Library — search the main catalogue, and find free content online including e-books, e-journals, and databases from the collection.
Digital Public Library of America — discover more than 40 million images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.
ONS — the national statistical institute, responsible for collecting and publishing official statistics related to the economy, population and society.
The National Archives — home to millions of historical documents, known as records, which were created and collected by UK government and law courtsdepartments and major courts of law.discover more than 40 million images, texts, videos,
House of Commons Library — politically impartial policy analysis and statistical research, free for all to read. Explore quick-read articles, in-depth research, and interactive data visualisations.
Europeana — Discover inspiring cultural heritage from European museums, galleries, libraries and archives
Wellcome Library Digital Resources — Thousands of items from the collection have been digitised and cover a wide variety of topics, including mental, sexual and public health and genetics.
DirectGov — is the Official HM Government website for citizens.
Digital Bodleian — The Bodleian Libraries’ digital collections have more than 650,000 freely available digital objects on offer, from political cartoons and campaign posters to ancient manuscripts.
My HE Plus — Created by the University of Cambridge, the HE+ website brings you exciting supercurricular resources created and written by Cambridge students and academics that help you to explore subjects beyond the classroom.
Open Access Resources
Google Scholar is a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature, across many disciplines and sources
Microsoft Academic is similar to Google Scholar. It covers journal titles, conference proceedings and many research topics
DOAJ — a community-curated list of open access journals which aims to be the starting point for all information searches for quality, peer-reviewed open access material
CORE — Core aggregates all open access research outputs from repositories and journals worldwide, making them available to the public and facilitating free unrestricted access to research for all
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) — Open access, free academic articles. Includes science, philosophy, history, and literature
High Wire (Stanford University) — HighWire’s Intelligent Publishing Platform supports over 3000 journals, books, reference works
ScienceOpen — ScienceOpen is a freely accessible search and discovery platform that covers over 46 million Open Access articles and article records
Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) — more than 200 open access, online, peer-reviewed journals covering a wide range of academic disciplines
Digital Commons Network — brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide, curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions
IntechOpen — the world's leading publisher of Open Access books Built by scientists, for scientists. Currently over 4300 books
EconBiz — an academic search portal for journals, working papers, and conferences in business studies and economics
Cambridge Core — includes some open access content
Wiley Open Access — authoritative peer reviewed open access journals across many research disciplines
Elsevier Open Access Journals — peer reviewed open access journals which are published by Elsevier
Project MUSE — offers open access (OA) books and journals from several distinguished university presses and scholarly societies which are freely available to libraries and users around the world
White Rose Research Online — offers shared, open access repository from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York
ERIC — Institue of Education Science resources Information Centre. Use the options to choose "Peer reviewed only" and “Full text available on ERIC”.
Other open access resources
Other open access resources
DOAB — Directory of Open Access Books
Open Textbooks — from Open Educational Resources
Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of open access journals
Access to Research — gives free access to a wide range of academic articles and research in public libraries in the UK. Subjects include art, architecture, business, engineering, history, language, politics, philosophy, mathematics and sciences. You can access the search facility online and some articles are open access but to download other full text articles you need to log on to a computer in the public library (visit Croxley, Oxhey or Rickmansworth Libraries)
ICS Libraries — a useful and regularly updated collection of Open Access databases, ebooks and audiobooks, copyright-free images and copyright-free sounds available from the ICS Inter-Community School, Zurich.
Other useful sources of open access journals include:
Free Medical Journals — find medical journals online, free and in full-text.
Omicsonline — free access to scientific journals.
ABC-Chemistry — directory of free journals in Chemistry
Search - alternatives to Google
www.refseek.com — RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than five billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers.
www.worldcat — A search on WorldCat.org delivers a single set of search results that integrates information about relevant library resources to support your information needs.
link.springer.com — Search for research articles, academic books and more
www.bioline.org.br — Bioline International is a not-for-profit scholarly publishing cooperative committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries.
repec.org — RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) is an initiative that seeks to enhance the dissemination of research in Economics and related areas.
science.gov — Science.gov provides access to millions of authoritative scientific research results from U.S. federal agencies.
Online Lectures
Gresham College — many of these lectures are useful for A-Levels, and also for career and study decisions, for personal statements, for ‘stretch and challenge’ and for those taking the EPQ.
Hay Levels — over 200 videos on Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences featuring speakers such as Richard Dawkins, Germaine Greer, Colm Toibin, Hannah Critchlow, Jim Al Khalili and Martin Rees.
Students aged 16–25 can access even more inspiring short films from Hay Festivals by signing up to Hay Festival Compass.
Exploratorium is a public learning laboratory exploring the world through science, art, and human perception.
MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses
MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses
Future Learn — learn new skills online with world-class universities and industry experts. Develop your career, learn a new skill, or pursue your hobbies with flexible online courses.
edX - access 2500+ online courses from 140 institutions.
Coursera — try a free course today from one of 200+ world-class universities and companies
Alison — one of the world’s largest free learning platforms for education and skills training. Alison is a for-profit social enterprise dedicated to making it possible for anyone, to study anything, anywhere, at any time, for free online, at any subject level.
Open Learn — free learning from the Open University, with 1,000 free courses, interactives and videos.
Open Education Resources
Open Education Resources
OER Commons — offers a single point of access from which to search, browse, and evaluate resources in a growing collection of over 50,000 high-quality open education resources.
Dimensions — covers millions of research publications connected by more than 1 billion citations, supporting grants, datasets, clinical trials, patents and policy documents.
World Digital Library — makes available online, free of charge, multilingual primary source materials from all countries and cultures.
Math.com — is dedicated to providing revolutionary ways for students, parents, teachers, and everyone to learn math.
Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations
Open Access Theses and Dissertations — an open access repository of graduate theses and dissertations from more than 1,100 colleges, universities, and research institutions.
EBSCO Open Dissertations — a free database of more than 1.2 million electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.
EThOS — A British Library database of more than 500,000 doctoral theses
DART-Europe E-theses Portal — provides researchers with a single European Portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
Datasets
Datasets
Google Dataset Search — search engine that helps researchers locate online data that is freely available for use.
Kaggle — a subsidiary of Google is a platform of over 19,000 public datasets and 200,000 public notebooks.
Pew Research Center — makes its data available to the public for secondary analysis. Users need to create an account for free.
Data.gov — aims to improve public access to datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the U.S. Federal Government.
Quandl — the premier source for open, commercial, and alternative data, serving investment professionals.
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