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.
Handwriting practice makes perfect
According to a survey by the Institute of Education, handwriting practice across and inside schools is inconsistent. A quarter of schools had no policy on teaching handwriting at the time of the survey, and over half of the teachers questioned felt that they had not received sufficient training in the teaching of handwriting.
“Unless children learn to write legibly and at speed their educational achievements may be reduced and their self-esteem affected,” commented Professor Rhona Stainthorp, one of the researchers who carried out the survey. “Handwriting is an essential skill for everyone, even in this age of computer technology.”
Why is handwriting so important?
Being able to write legibly, fluently and quickly is essential in order to cope with tasks such as essay writing and note taking. And speed handwriting is important, too. It allows the child to concentrate on thinking through their ideas and arguments rather than on the effort to write.
At the start of a recent academic year, five per cent of 11 year olds in England moved on to secondary school with below average literacy skills – that means that almost 30,000 children would find it difficult to keep up with the demands of language learning, of which writing plays a key part.
The impact is long term, too. Figures show that of the pupils who reached level 4 or above in English at Key Stage 2 in 2001, nearly 70 per cent went on to get five good A*-C grades at GCSE, compared with only 11 per cent of those who didn’t reach level 4.
The Institute of Education says that poor handwriting impacts a child’s chances in further and higher education and may be just as much a handicap in the jobs market as poor reading and numeracy skills.
How can you help your child with handwriting?
There are lots of ways you can support your child's handwriting at home. Here are a few tips...
- Provide your child with a special handwriting book and pen. The book should be lined and kept neat at all times. The pen or pencil should only be used for handwriting practise, so it stays novel and exciting for your child.
- Encourage your child to write letters. Whether it's to a friend, family member or neighbour, keeping the art of letter-writing alive is a lovely way to help your child practise their handwriting skills.
- Give plenty of encouragement. Not every child will find handwriting an easy task to grasp, so it's important to offer plenty of support and be very patient. Try to identify areas or 'joins' that your child has difficulties with, and provide plenty of practise activities.
- Do imaginary handwriting activities where your child's finger becomes the pen and they trace the words in the air. You could extend this to a tray of sand or a steamed up window. It will make the task a lot more fun!
- Remember to think about posture – how your child sits when they write and where they position the paper on the table. Think straight backs, slightly slanted paper, and feet flat on the floor. No rocking back on the chair!
- If your child has difficulties gripping the pen, try a special easy-grip one. You can buy these in stationery stores.
Choose from lots of different handwriting worksheets, available to download and print out now, and read our handwriting practice guidance to help your child get the most from the practical activities you do at home.
