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Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

Problem solving exercises for SATs

Boy concentrating on work
Problem solving is something we do constantly. Help your child develop their skills with our top activities to get them prepared for their SATs – and problem solving in everyday life.

You may think that problem solving is reserved for maths lessons. However, the ability to decipher and disentangle problems is, in fact, a vital part of your child's educational experience across the curriculum. 

Children will be asked to use problem solving skills to provide responses to a variety of different questions in many subject areas, both in their SATs and in day to day learning.
Problem solving requires multi-level thinking, asking the pupil to dismantle a question into a series of sub-questions, leading them to a variety of possibilities which need their consideration and analysis. Exploring all possibilities, using strategies and developing ideas and methods are important aspects of problem solving across the Key Stages.
 
Bring out the natural problem-solver in your child with these activities designed to help them get a head start at home.

Key Stage 1

Give your child a scenario, such as going to the park – what might happen, what might they see? Ask them to compose a story about it and provide them with a variety of different objects or props they could include. Encourage them to consider the structure of the story, such as the beginning, middle and end.
They could then begin by drawing out a cartoon strip. When they are ready to start writing, they can use this to refer to. They can then add more detail and choose from a range of vocabulary to build up the story. This form of problem solving will help them explore different ideas to come to a unique answer.

Key Stage 2

Provide your child with a brief, such as ‘I need a musical instrument which makes a variety of different noises and can be played in different ways'. On the table have a selection of different materials, such as elastic bands, dried pasta or beans, empty plastic containers, sticky tape, string, glue, and paint.
 
Your child can then select from these materials and decide how they can produce an instrument which answers your brief. They will explore different methods to reach an end result. Get them to explain how they carried out the task.
A great way to help them use problem-solving skills and get them thinking about budgeting, healthy eating and planning, is to ask them to have a go at cooking a meal for the family. You could supply a selection of recipes and then provide your child with a budget which you feel is appropriate and accompany them to the shops. They will need to think about how many people will be eating, any dietary requirements, and the budget they must stick to.
 
Once ingredients are bought, they will need to think about the timing of preparation and cooking, and follow the instructions on the recipe, problem solving as they progress. It’s a fun activity and will give your child the confidence to make independent choices.