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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 numeracy home education resources

Best numeracy home schooling resources
Boost your child's confidence with all aspects of maths with our pick of the best home education numeracy resources: games, hands-on activities, video explanations, online lessons and downloadable workbooks, all available to access for free.

Best online maths video lessons

Oak National Academy

Looking for an online maths video lesson for your child, delivered by a UK teacher following the national curriculum? Oak National Academy's lessons are comprehensive and easy to follow and each video (which can also be viewed with a sign language interpreter) is complemented by mini quizzes and activity suggestions. 

Oak National Academy is a collection of high-quality online lessons for Reception to Y10 pupils, backed by the Government and created in response to the coronavirus lockdown.

Best magical maths tricks and illusions

Murderous Maths

The Murderous Maths books by Kjartan Poskitt are packed with tips and tricks to turn ordinary children into maths geniuses, and loads of fiendishly clever Murderous Maths resources are available online, too! 

We love the maths illusions, puzzles, tricks and games section (who wouldn't want to read minds, do lightning-fast calculations or just make their friends feel silly?) – can you master the missing digit trick or the prime numbers trick?

Best maths learning songs

 

NUMBEROCK make animated maths videos and educational songs for kids, covering concepts like rounding numbers, angles, ordering decimals, 3D shapes, place value, times tables and long division.

You can also learn to count up to 100 in six different languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Portuguese. 

Best interactive maths games

Topmarks maths games

Topmarks' numeracy games make maths practice fun – and they're all free to play.

For KS1 choose from ordering and squencing numbers, counting, odd and even numbers, place value, odd and even and simple addition and subtraction. For KS2 the focus is on multiplication and division, shapes, measures, data handling and problem solving.

Best for football-themed numeracy

 

Combine sport and learning with free football-themed maths videos and learning materials for 5 to 11-year-olds from the Numbers game, supported by Santander UK, football freestyle duo The F2 Freestylers and Twinkl.

The maths content reflects the national curriculum; every week's activities focus on a different numeracy theme, such as times tables or telling the time. Children can earn certificates by completing special challenges at the end of each theme.

Best for hands-on maths fun

 

Become a flexagon master with Kjartan Poskitt's fully-illustrated book of mathematical models to make, Flexomania. Download it for free and learn to make wonderful flexagon designs including the Prison Escape, the Magic Hat, the Witch's Purse and the Treasure Chest Puzzle. All you need are scissors, coloured pens or pencils, a glue stick or some Blu-tak and you'll be amazing your family and friends with your marvellous, ingenious maths models!

Best for mathematical challenges for all abilities

NRICH

NRICH is collaboration between the Faculties of Mathematics and Education at the University of Cambridge and provides thousands of free online numeracy resources for ages 3 to 18.

The focus is on offering challenging and inspiring activities, designed to develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills. The rich mathematical tasks build children's confidence and their ability to apply what they know creatively in unfamiliar contexts. ‘Low threshold high ceiling’ resources are accessible to all learners – this isn't one-right-answer maths, but numeracy challenges to encourage exploration and discussion.

Best for understanding maths terminology

TheSchoolRun Numeracy Glossary

From area to word problems, TheSchoolRun's primary-school numeracy glossary offers a complete parents' guide to all the maths concepts children are taught in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. Brush up on your own mathematical skills, clear up homework confusion and understand exactly what your child is learning at school by reading about analogue clocks, BODMAS, long division, polygons, triangular numbers and lots more!

The glossary is completely free to read online, but if you'd like to download all the information and store it on your own computer for reference, a 250-page eBook version, TheSchoolRun Maths Glossary, is on sale for £4.99 in TheSchoolRun Shop.

Best for step-by-step primary maths explanations

 

If your child finds it helpful to watch step-by-step, worked through examples of the maths techniques they're using at home, look through Mr Walton's maths videos on YouTube.

Column subtraction, Roman numerals, measuring perimeter, equivalent fractions – it's all explained in a calm, methodical voiceover, with Mr Walton explaining what he does as he completes each operation. Best of all, if your child isn't sure they can rewatch each video until they feel confident!

Best for downloadable maths workbooks

STEM Learning: Starting Investigations

STEM Learning offers a huge range of activities that parents can use at home to help children develop their science, technology, engineering and maths skills. 

The maths offering includes lots of downloadable maths packs: Spectrum Maths books from the 1990s (on investigations, data handling, games, algebra / shape and space and number skills), BEAM (Be a Mathematician) activities and Mathematical Challenges for Able Pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 from the National Numeracy Strategy. If you're looking for big collections of maths resources, all available for free, STEM Learning is a great website to explore.

Best for role-play gaming maths

 

Prodigy is a maths game which can be aligned to the UK curriculum (as well as the curriculum in the US, Australia, India or Canada).

It looks just like a role-player game, with battles and challenges to complete, but progress is dependent on solving maths problems which target individual learners' weaknesses. Playing is free (though paid-for Premium Memberships give access to extra in-game features) and the game environment doesn't allow for any social interactions, so it's safe for children to use unsupervised.

Best UK money maths programme

Money Twist

Money Twist is an online home-based learning course for KS1 and KS2, created by MyBnk, a UK charity. The free programmes are designed to help children set positive money habits and mind-sets from an early age with videos, activities and quizzes. For older children the aim is to boost kids' money management confidence with sessions on budgeting and saving.

Best for developing a positive attitude towards maths

 

You don't need to be a maths expert to support your child's learning, and your positive attitude towards numeracy can make a huge difference. Help your child develop number confidence and boost their ability to use numbers in everyday life with free resources from National Numeracy. Download maths year-group activities for primary school age children and get lots of ideas and support in the Family Maths Toolkit.

You can also help your child find the maths in everyday life with books such as the Ruby Redfort series by Lauren Child and numeracy video games such as Star Dash Studios, where the player is a runner on a movie set, experiencing their first job in the film business.