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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.

Do boys learn in a different way to girls?

Boy doing maths work
Research shows boys are lagging behind girls in reading, writing, maths and science. If the teaching is the same, is gender the issue? Emily Organ explores boys' achievement in the classroom.

Boys’ underachievement at school is not a new problem. In 1995, Ofsted identified the issue in its report The Gender Divide. Since then boys have caught up slightly and there have been a number of educational programmes and initiatives to improve boys’ performance at school. Still, the education system doesn’t seem to be helping boys in the way it does girls.

How do boys learn best?

In a study of boys’ achievement at secondary school, Ofsted pinpointed a few factors: “Boys tend to respond well to teachers who set clear limits and high expectations, direct work strongly, show enthusiasm for their subjects, use humour and reward good work. There is evidence that boys are rather less inclined than girls to learn from indifferent teaching.”

“Boys in particular seem to value individual attention and tend to work harder when they know they are being monitored closely. They respond well when given help to organise their coursework and to plan their revision.”

What to do if you’re worried about your son’s learning

As a parent it can be worrying to think your son may not be working to his full ability at school, especially if the teaching style there school doesn’t play to his strengths. However, you can do plenty to support his learning.

In an Ofsted study, it was found that in primary schools where boys achieved more the schools worked closely with parents in developing their child’s reading and writing skills. “Some schools encouraged parents to join pupils at homework clubs ... and this gave parents additional insight into the tasks being set and the approach to writing development or the teaching of spelling,” stated the findings.

If your child is at a school which doesn’t appear to work closely with parents, speak to your child’s teacher or head teacher or put your concerns to the school governors. It may be possible to put a scheme in places where parents volunteer at school.

There’s also anecdotal evidence to suggest the dominance of female teaching staff in primary schools may help girls’ learning more than boys’. So schemes which encourage dads or grandfathers to get involved could help provide role models for boys. According to Ofsted, “Extra-curricular activities make a significant contribution to boys’ views of school.” So after school clubs run by male teaching staff or dads could be beneficial.

Every child is different

It can be argued that it’s slightly simplistic to divide learning differences between boys and girls. After all, each child is different.

“Studies on gender suggest that there are indeed differences between the way boys and girls learn, this however does not give the entire picture,” says Mary Blake, Educational Consultant at ePace. “New advances in technology are giving us increasing knowledge about how the brain processes information. It is therefore beneficial to look at how each individual, regardless of gender, processes, retains and recalls information. Teachers can then look at the most effective way of reaching the learning potential of every child in the class and advise parents about ways they can support their child’s learning at home.”

By being supportive of your children’s learning style, you can help your child achieve their best – whether boy or girl.