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TheSchoolRun.com closure date

As we informed you a few months ago, TheSchoolRun has had to make the difficult decision to close due to financial pressures and the company has now ceased trading. We had hoped to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.

As a result, we now have to permanently close TheSchoolRun.com. However, to give subscribers time to download any content they’d like to keep, we will keep the website open until 31st July 2025. After this date, the site will be taken down and there will be no further access to any resources. We strongly encourage you to download and save any resources you think you may want to use in the future.

In particular, we suggest downloading:

You should already have received 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep. If you haven’t received these, please contact us at [email protected] before 31st July 2025, and we will send them to you.

We are very sorry that there is no way to continue offering access to resources and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Relaxation techniques for parents

Mum hugging son
Finding time to relax when you’re a parent is hard work but taking time out will make you feel calmer and boost your parenting confidence, too.

Work-life-parent balance

Recently, baby-carrier company Wilkinet released research confirming what every parent knows: being a mother is back-breaking. It highlighted how pregnancy, cuddling and carrying young children can put the pelvic muscles under stress, leading to backache for many years later.

Tot up the everyday tasks involved with managing a growing family – getting children up and ready on time for school, housework, shopping, taxi-ing, rushing to and from work, planning and making meal and getting the kids off to bed on time – and back-breaking takes on added meaning.

As parents, you often spend all your time looking after everyone else in the family and it can be easy to forget how important it is that you care for yourself, too.

Avoiding burn-out

International speaker and author on family life and relationships Rob Parsons says, “Parenting is a long-haul business. Don’t exhaust yourself.”
It sounds comical but is actually very good advice. “Have time apart from the kids,” says Rob. “If you give yourself completely, they get less.”

This isn’t very easy to do, of course. As parenting charity Parentline Plus points out, “Most of us have had a lifetime of being told it's selfish to think about ourselves and so we may not even know what we need, let alone be able to ask for it.”

But thinking about yourself doesn't mean not caring about other people – it just means caring for yourself as well as others.

“If you want to give your children what they need from you, you need to look after yourself too,” advises Parentline Plus. “You can't do the best for your children if you're running on empty.”

Tips to help you manage

  • Don’t feel guilty about wanting to take some time out for yourself to recharge your batteries. It may just be a long bath or soaking your feet while watching your favourite soap uninterrupted.
  • Think about your own interests and doing something for yourself once a week, such as an evening class or exercise session. Even small treats will make a difference, such as having a lie-in, reading a paper, going to the local gym, or meeting up with a friend. If you are a lone parent, you could ask a friend to babysit and offer to return the favour.
  • Book some time in for yourself rather than filling every available minute doing chores. Sit and read a magazine in your lunch hour rather than tearing around the shops or pop around to see a friend while the children are at school.
  • Be realistic – there's no such thing as the perfect parent - it's about doing your best and being good enough.
  • Ask for help – let other people know clearly and directly what you would like.