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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.

How to create a good homework/life balance

Little girl with stacks of books
School and homework can take up a large portion of every day. In addition, more hours are dedicated to extra-curricular classes after school and at weekends. As much as many children love learning, they need down time too. Camilla Chafer investigates how you can strike a balance.

A love of learning may come naturally to your child but too much and it could be detrimental to their education. Like most of us, children find doing too much of one thing can rapidly become boring or frustrating. So, it is important to find the balance between them enjoying studying and simply enjoying being a kid, whether that means racing around the garden, watching some TV or playing a game purely for the fun of playing it.

In a study conducted by the London University’s Institute of Education, researchers found that homework can cause problems in family life, with rows superseding any educational benefits. The research also found that children can begin to resent the amount of time set for homework in relation to free time.

Guidelines set by the Government recommend, “A good, well organised homework programme helps children and young people to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful, independent lifelong learning. Homework supports the development of independent learning skills, so enquiry and investigation are seen as part of the learning process.”

The study also found that the highest achieving schools had pupils who spent more time on learning activities at home. But they also suggest that homework should not get in the way of other clubs, such as sports and music.

The study recommends that every school has a clear homework policy available to parents that set out guidelines as to what is expected, what is manageable and what is educationally beneficial. Knowing what is expected should help you set time apart for homework, play and family time, ensuring that none encroaches on the other so that you can make and maintain a healthy study/life balance for your children.

What can you do to achieve the right balance?

  • Pinpoint exactly how much homework is being allocated from school and discuss how much home time should be allotted to it so it does not feel like a never ending task.
     
  • Be on hand, but not hovering, if your child needs help so that they don’t spend too long in frustration at a task. However, don’t be tempted to get too involved.
     
  • Combine homework with trips to museums, galleries and other places of interest. Children soak up facts and figures and this can benefit topical class work.
     
  • Don’t have an extracurricular activity planned for every day. Let your child know there is free time where they can choose what they do.
     
  • Ensure your child enjoys the classes and activities they take, if they aren’t learning anything or enjoying it, ask yourself if it is worth the time, money and effort.