The following sites are child-friendly and have copyright permissions for educational use.
This site is managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland and contains resources for primary and lower secondary education. It includes a collection of royalty-free illustrations and photos on topics such as seasons and the environment, the human body, numbers, signs and people from history.
VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) online resource
Although primarily aimed at further and higher education, this website offers a searchable archive of visual arts images which may be of interest to older pupils. Covering subjects such as art and design, photography and fashion, materials can be used for personal educational and research purposes only in accordance with the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988). You will need to register to use this resource.
ArtMagick is a non-profit virtual art gallery displaying a selection of works from more than 300 artists from the art movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The British Pathe digital news archive covers news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970. The site offers a free stills preview facility for all users, and UK maintained schools can download all content free of charge for use in the classroom.
CHILDE (Children’s Historical Literature Disseminated throughout Europe)
This project, funded by the European Commission’s Culture 2000 program, promotes wider and more open access to images of early children’s books in Europe. The site contains 1,000 digitised images from books published up to 1890.
Provided by RM, this website provides access to collections of clipart, sound and video, categorised by primary or secondary education. This is a subscription service.
This National Geographic website provides access to an online photo gallery, organised by topic.
The main purpose of this site is to provide free access to new satellite imagery and scientific information about Earth. Images are generally free to use, unless copyright statements indicate otherwise.
The North Chadderton School Global Community Zone provides listings of public domain images.
The PastPix website provides a source for historical images, with access to approximately 20,000 original photographic subjects from the 1850s onwards.
This is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students, consisting of thousands of images that have been donated by teachers, students and amateur photographers.
Image sites which should be used with caution
The following sites provide a good source of images for use in the classroom but should be used with caution – these sites may provide access to full web search facilities, or may contain links to advertising or age-inappropriate content.
This website provides excellent pictures of animals and life on Earth. The ARKive Education subsite also provides access to a range of multi-media resources for teachers and educators, and a selection of educational games.
This American website provides access to free clipart, colouring page, fonts and worksheets for teachers.
The Clip Art Warehouse contains thousands of clip art images, which are mostly free to use.
The Free Digital Photos website provides free photos of a range of subjects which can be used for teaching aids, newsletters and homework.
The Graphics Gallery provides a range of free resources grouped by various subject and seasonal categories. However, some content and links from the site may be inappropriate for children and young people, and so might be best used as a teacher resource only.