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.
Differences between positive and negative numbers
Can your child use the number line to work out the difference between these pairs of numbers?
What are positive and negative numbers?
Positive and negative numbers are a key concept in KS2 maths. They represent quantities with opposite directions or values.
Positive numbers are numbers greater than zero. They are usually represented without a sign (+) because it's assumed that numbers without a sign are positive.
Examples of positive numbers include 1, 2, 3, 100, 0.5, etc.
Negative numbers are numbers less than zero. They are typically represented with a minus sign (-) preceding the number.
Examples of negative numbers include -1, -2, -3, -100, -0.5, etc.
How do you find the difference between a positive and a negative number using a number line?
Using a number line to find the difference between a positive and a negative number is a visual method of learning that is often used in primary schools.
Here's how you can do it at home:
- Draw a number line
- Plot the numbers
- Find the distance (the difference between two numbers on a number line is the distance between their positions)
- Count the units: count the number of units (or steps) between the positive number and the negative number.
- Determine the sign: if the positive number is farther to the right than the negative number, the difference will be positive. If the negative number is farther to the left than the positive number, the difference will be negative.
How will this positive and negative numbers KS2 worksheet help your child?
This teacher-created resource was designed for KS2 children and provides a colourful and fun activity with a number line included. A clear and easy-to-understand example is provided first, and then your child is asked to use their number line to work out the difference between pairs of numbers. You will find the answers on the bottom of the page (so be sure to hide this after printing!).
Use TheSchoolRun to top up your child's maths knowledge or have a go at something more challenging, like our Adding negative numbers worksheet.
