As a parent or a teacher, deciding what Apps are suitable and beneficial to download onto iPads to aid learning can be a daunting process. There are thousands of apps to choose from in the Apple Store, so it can be difficult to know what is best.

To make sure that everything that pupils access is suitable and educational, as well as cost-effective, we asked the Link ICT technicians to suggest the most popular apps they are asked to deploy within the Primary and Secondary schools they support.

Primary Schools  

  • Duolingo ABC: Learn to Read – Free – With fun activities and miniature lessons, learning phonics and sighting words becomes effortless. The cartoon-like imagery also helps to keep pupils engaged. 
  • TT Rockstars – Free application but subscription is required – Practice your Times Tables daily with this simple-to-use, gamified multiplication and division app. 
  • Reading Eggs: Learn To Read – Free – Interactive literacy application with the alphabet and spelling games, phonics activities and lots of storybooks to read to assist with reading development and even has a subsection for developing maths skills too. 
  • Clevershare 2 – Free – Connect your iPad device to a Clevetouch interactive touchscreen to stream content, such as videos, pictures, and files, as well as mirror your screen to assist with your teaching and for easy viewing for pupils. 
  • Chatterpix – Free – Bring anything to life and bring out your creative expression with ChatterPix! Use your device to upload or capture an image and simply draw a line for a mouth and make it talk! 
  • Puppet Pals HD – Free – Use your creativity to build unique shows with your own voice and sound effects! The possibilities are as big as your imagination can go! 

Secondary Schools 

  • Duolingo – Free – Another good language app that helps to teach pupils different languages. With over 40 different languages to learn, the bite-sized lessons with gamified education help to make learning another language simple and fun! The app allows you to practice speaking, reading, listening and writing other languages. 
  • Microsoft Office 365 apps – Free – Have access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in one app and create documents, spreadsheets and PowerPoints on the move. Use the cloud storage to store and save them too. 
  • Stop Motion Studio – Free – Easy to use, simple interface app, that helps student unleash their creativity side by creating their own stop motion videos. 
  • Microsoft Translator – Free – Another great app from Microsoft, with over 70 languages to translate to, communication becomes simple. it is an easy way to translate at speed using the Split section, which is especially important with many schools having such a diverse background of pupils. Can also be used offline without an internet connection. 
  • BBC Bitesize – Free – Make revision interactive with free revision guides and flashcards to be used on the go, for revision wherever you are. 
  • Kahoot – Free – Create your own engaging quizzes for anything you would like for all to feel engaged and to learn something new! There are also lots of already available quizzes, created by other users, that are ready to play. 
  • Google Earth – Free – Gain a new perspective on your surroundings. Explore the whole world and its wonders from your device. 

There are so many other, different education apps within the Apple app store. Apple even has its own ratings on the store with sections for the ‘Top Free Apps’ and ‘Top Paid Apps’, so you can also see what others iPad users are downloading and read their feedback in the reviews before making your choice.