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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.

Best learning songs

Children learning through singing
Could songs and music help your child learn and remember English, maths and science facts? We pick our favourite learning songs, covering everything from adverbs and angles to onomatopoeia and photosynthesis.

Can you perform the alphabet song? Sing multiplication tables to music? Chant the names of the kings and queens of England, set to a tune? Is singing a song easier than reciting a list of facts? For most of us, children and adults, it is.

Songs are brilliant learning tools in the primary-school classroom, and often used to great effect. Music helps us memorise facts (presented as catchy lyrics) in a fun way.

Singing keeps us alert and helps the brain to assimilate information by presenting information as parts (the individual facts) and a whole (the song itself, which includes lots of facts about a topic). A study published by International Journal of Science Education, Leveraging the power of music to improve science education, examined over 1,000 students to compare their understanding and engagement in response to 24 musical and non-musical science videos.

The students preferred the music videos and scored better on tests when they'd seen them; the research results also hinted that videos with music might help students remember the information presented to them better in the long term.

From number facts to grammar definitions and science explanations, we love the songs that help us master every subject. Here are some of the learning songs we love, with links to YouTube channels so you can hear more and pick your favourites:

Phonics songs



Phonics sounds are often introduced with songs and actions in Reception; the Jolly Phonics system is commonly used in UK classrooms. All the hugely popular songs from Jolly Phonics are now available in one iTunes app, which includes the actions too.

Maths songs

 

NUMBEROCK produces educational songs and videos for kids, with a focus on maths. Didn't think it was possible to sing about calculating area or graphing coordinates? Think again!

 

Times tables songs



There's a huge range of multiplication music available. We love teacher Mr DeMaio's times-tables covers of classic songs.

Science songs



The alternative rock band They Might Be Giants have produced loads of brilliant science songs and videos (one of their albums is Here Comes Science); listen and learn on their YouTube channel.

Human biology songs



From teeth to bones, liver and heart, Kids Learning Tube has lots of human anatomy tunes to help you undertand the inner workings of the body.

Grammar songs



For songs about parts of speech (presented as animated characters), head to Grammaropolis.

Literacy songs



UK primary-school teachers Mr A, Mr C and Mr D wrote and performed all the literacy songs on the Literacy Jukebox; you can also see their videos about hyperbole, synonyms, onomatopeia and more on their YouTube channel.

Geography songs

History songs



The musical sketches in CBBC's Horrible Histories are some of the best. You'll find loads of classic songs, including the English Kings and Queens Song, on the CBBC Horrible Histories website.

Schoolhouse Rock songs



Schoolhouse Rock was a 1970s Saturday morning educational cartoon series in the United States. The songs cover history, science, times tables and grammar and are definitely worth searching for on YouTube.

The most impressive learning song ever!



"Just" the elements of the periodic table, recited to a famous Gilbert and Sullivan tune by American singer-songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer. A fantastic watch / listen... and why not challenge your child to have a go and join in yourself?