Frequently asked questions

About subscriptions
Teaching with busythings.co.uk
Accessibility and SEN
Not a school or nursery in England?
Interested in helping us to sell busythings.co.uk?
Technical issues

About subscriptions

What does a subscription include?


For your subscription period (1, 2 or 3 years) you have access to our subscription service with its ever-growing bank of games (123+), PDF resources (66+) and clip art, a powerful letters and sounds worksheet maker and analytical tools. You may use it on any number of computers within your school, nursery or organisation’s premises and staff homes for the purpose of lesson planning. Home access for pupils is not included.

Can I show my trial around?


Do please contact us if you wish to show other interested organisations for the purpose of assessing our product. It is always best for other organisations to request their own free trial by filling in the online form, as once a paid-for subscription commences use of this login is for your school, nursery or organisation only.

Who is already using busythings.co.uk?


Nurseries, primary schools, SEN schools and home users throughout the British Isles and overseas are subscribing to our site. The London Grid For Learning provides access to busythings.co.uk for nearly 90,000 primary children across Greater London. Over 25 libraries in Australia currently offer access to their members.

How do I turn my trial into a paid-for subscription?


Click My Account at the top of this page and login using your school username and password. You can review and extend your subscription within this area and also change your email preferences.

What does a trial subscription include?


A trial subscription allows full access to our subscription service as described above for a limited period of 28 days.

How much is a schools and nurseries subscription?


A school and nursery subscription costs £200 for one year, £360 for two years and £510 for 3 years.

Do pupils need their own logins?


No, but you can set them up if you wish.

Your pupils can all use the default school login as the number of pupils logged in at any one time is not restricted. Logging in in this way will give them access to the whole site – though you can turn off the Teacher buttons by pressing T on your keyboard.

Creating individual pupil logins means that you can select games and adjust their settings to suit that particular pupil. Logins can be created not only for individuals, but for groups or whole classes.

Can parents and pupils access busythings.co.uk at home?


Free home access for pupils and parents is only available for school subscriptions taken out before the 1st September 2011. The new subscription price of £200 per year does not include free home access for parents and pupils. Please see the Home Users section of this website for futher details.

Teaching with busythings.co.uk

Is busythings.co.uk suitable for all skill levels?


The site features three basic levels: Nursery, Reception and Advanced. Should you want to, you can refine the settings further.

Will busythings.co.uk help me meet curriculum objectives?


Each game comes tagged with the curriculum objectives it supports. Games can be searched for by these criteria. At the moment the curriculum references are taken from the English EYFS and National curriculums, but links to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will follow.

Can busythings.co.uk be integrated into our learning platform?


Yes, busythings.co.uk can be easily integrated into your learning platform. We can provide a link which will enable you to log on directly through the learning platform. This means the games are just a click away and you can be safe in the knowledge that the children are playing the games within a secure area.

Is busythings.co.uk suitable for use on an interactive whiteboard and/or touch screen?


Yes, all the games are suitable for whiteboard or touch screen or have a whiteboard setting. busythings.co.uk can be set to whiteboard mode which is suitable for both whiteboards and touch screens.

Can I monitor how my pupils are using the site?


Yes, busythings.co.uk provides the teacher with analysis of logins and games played.

Accessibility and SEN

Is busythings.co.uk suitable for switch users?


Yes, switch mode is available and is fully configurable.

Are the games suitable for children with special educational needs?


Our games are used in several special schools and the majority of games are configurable to suit different abilities. However, since needs are very diverse, the best thing is to take out a free trial and assess its suitability for yourself.

Not a school or nursery in England?

My school does not use the English curriculum. Can you cater for us?


Currently we only provide links to the English curriculum. However we are currently working on linking busythings.co.uk games to the Foundation Phase for Wales, the Curriculum for Excellence (Early Level) for Scotland, and Curricular Guidance for Pre-School Education and the Primary Schooling Foundation Stage for Northern Ireland. In the meantime you can use the Teacher Search tool to find games by key words such as ‘addition’ and ‘phoneme’.

Is busythings.co.uk suitable for non-English speaking schools?


The main interface has English text but most of the games do NOT have spoken audio. The few that do can be hidden if you wish. The literacy section is in English but this can be hidden too. Why not take out a free trial and assess the suitability for yourself? In the future we plan to make an international version of the site that will be language free.

We are in another English-speaking country. What provision is there for us?


You will find that busythings.co.uk is quite easy to adapt to any teaching programme for young children. Why not take out a free trial and assess its suitability for yourself?

I am an individual not a school or nursery. Do you do special prices for home users?


Click here to go to the home user section of our website.

Is busythings.co.uk suitable for TEFL?


Our literacy games were not designed with teaching English as a Foreign Language in mind but we would suggest you take a free trial to judge for yourself.

We are in Australia. What provision is for us?


Busythings is available to the Australian public through a growing number of libraries. Contact us or ask at your library to find out if busythings is available to you at home. If not Home User subscriptions and School subscriptions are available to customers all over the world.

My school does not wish to subscribe but I would like it for my own family. What can I do?


You can take out a home user subscription. Click here for details. £29 buys you full access for a year.

Interested in helping us to sell busythings.co.uk?

I would like to act as a busythings agent in my own country. What should I do?


We are looking for entrepreneurs who know the educational and home markets in other countries and who can act as agents for us. Please email rachel@busythings.co.uk to discuss possibilities.

We are a reseller of software. Do you sell through resellers


We do sell through resellers. Please contact us on +44 (0)1332 364963 to discuss the possibility of an arrangement.

Technical issues

What technical support is available?


Technical support is available on here or you can call us between 9.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday on +44 (0)1332 364963. Alternatively you can email duncan@busythings.co.uk with your query.

Can I log in without typing my username and password?


If you want to allow your children to access busythings.co.uk without typing your username and password, create a shortcut to:

http://www.busythings.co.uk/BusyThings.php?username=XXX&password=YYY

you will need to substitute your own username and password in place of XXX and YYY.

Please ensure that these links are not made public. They should only be used locally (as a shortcut in your browser on or your desktop) or placed in a secured area of your website/learning platform.

I have forgotten my username and/or password


Click the 'Log in' button in the top left of this screen, then click the '?' button. Enter the email address you used to register your busythings.co.uk account and click 'Send'.

Alternatively, contact Q&D Multimedia either by email (judi@busythings.co.uk) or by telephone (+44 (0)1332 364963).
Copyright © Q&D Multimedia Ltd 2011