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.
Homework tips for children with dyslexia
Homework can be a frustrating and upsetting experience for dyslexic children and their parents on a daily basis. Try these tips to make it a more productive experience.
1. Check it’s reasonable
First of all, remember that the purpose of homework is to practise something that your child is already familiar with. If homework is too difficult, you should discuss this with the child’s teacher. Don’t allow your child to become frustrated because homework tasks are beyond their skills or take too long. Setting smaller amounts of work and/or allowing extra time will often help.
2. Establishing a homework routine
Develop a daily homework routine – a written or visual plan put in a prominent place is ideal. It should include an agreed plan as to what happens after arrival home from school, with some flexibility to take into account after-school activities. Work out the best time for your child to do their homework. Keep in mind that they may be very tired after school if they’ve had to work harder than their peers so they may need a break before starting homework.
Daily reading is essential too, as lots of practice is required for students with dyslexia to master literacy skills. Read aloud with your child when they are becoming frustrated. This helps them to understand and enjoy what they are reading and it still helps them to learn. Your child can also read along with books on tape or CD – look through our tips to help dyslexic children enjoy reading for more ideas.
3. Getting started
Chunk homework into manageable parts with breaks between tasks, as dyslexic children can become discouraged when faced with large amounts of work. Encourage your child to produce quality work rather than rushing tasks.
Go over homework requirements to ensure your child understands what to do. Read instructions aloud when you know it is hard for them to decode them accurately. If necessary, practise the first example or two with them.
Help your child to generate ideas for writing tasks and projects before they start work. If necessary, revise vocabulary that they may need. Sometimes you may help to develop a writing plan. When necessary and appropriate, handwrite (scribe) for your child so that they can get their ideas on paper more accurately.
Encourage them to present work using their personal strengths - for example, they could use pictures if they are good at art.
4. Checking and monitoring work
Help your child to learn editing, self-monitoring and checking skills so they can go over their own work more independently as they get older. For example, a simple checking process like COPS can be helpful when proof reading work:
Check for: C = Capitals O = Overall appearance P = Punctuation S = Spelling.
Teach your child to use the computer for work as they get older. Show them how to use a spell checker and encourage them to learn touch typing skills on a typing tutor program.
Give your child lots of praise as they complete homework tasks. Be specific about what they have done well.
(With thanks to the British Dyslexia Association)
