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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.

Cooking with kids: the educational benefits

Parent cooking with child
Cooking with children has some great educational and health benefits, from practising maths skills to exploring different ingredients. We take a look at what your child could learn in the kitchen.

With the huge variety of processed food out there, it’s easy to think that no one really bakes anymore.

But, in fact, the latest figues suggest over 70 percent of consumers do bake. And with a massive selection of yummy recipes widely available to suit every dietary requirement and taste, there really is no excuse not to head to the kitchen for some foodie fun.

Bake and learn

Getting the children cooking offers loads of great learning opportunities.

  • Health and safety skills – your child gets a ‘hands-on’ experience of the need to practise good hygiene in the kitchen. They also learn about safety, identifying the things that are hot, sharp, or electrical and learning to be careful.
  • Maths skills – weighing, measuring, mixing, timing, and sometimes even estimating. Your child will be using loads of mathematical skills in their baking (and probably won’t even realise it!).
  • Science – learning about ingredients and mixtures, chemical reactions (a cake rising), and the processes the ingredients go through to become the end product.
  • Food knowledge – baking gives practical examples of ingredients, such as eggs, sugar or butter. Your child can learn about where they come from, and how they get to your table. They can experience ingredients in their raw form, and learn to identify new and unusual products. Hands-on cooking and tasting help children explore different fruits and vegetables by comparing their tastes and textures before and after cooking.
  • Literacy – reading a recipe and putting its advice into practice isn’t as easy as you might think. For a child, reading the recipe and then actually following the instructions can be challenging. But the prospects of a yummy cake at the end is certainly motivation for them to try!
  • Social skills – if they are cooking with friends or siblings, it is a great way to help them learn to share, take turns, and be patient. They will also take great pride in offering around their handiwork once it’s ready.

The benefits of getting children cooking really speak for themselves. In our current tough economic climate, home baking can make pennies go further, making the most of leftovers, and store cupboard staples, instead of one-serving ready meals.

And although often associated with naughty cakes and pies, home baking can be a step towards healthier eating by cutting out the hidden fats, unnecessary high salt content, additives and preservatives found in convenience foods. By home baking your food, you are in control of your ingredients and can choose healthier options.