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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.

Storytelling support for Key Stage 1 children

Boys giggling over a book
Help develop your Key Stage 1 child's storytelling skills with these great activities.

Activity 1: Visit the library

If they are not already members of a local library, take your child along and sign up (for free!) today!

A library provides access to a wide range of books and materials, which can be used to help research homework, as well as to explore the wonderful pleasures of reading.

Sit down and read to them, or let them read to you. Once they have begun to read for themselves they should read as widely as possible, all kinds of stories and non-fiction. It will widen their horizons and inspire their imagination.

 

Activity 2: Developing an opinion

If they really like or dislike a book, encourage them to identify why. Is it the story line or the characters? Who is their favourite character in the book? Perhaps the story goes too slow or too quick for them?

This ties in with the National Curriculum; children of this age are encouraged to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction and to comment on characters and ideas.

Activity 3: Creating a storyboard

Storyboarding will encourage both creativity and literacy.

Divide a piece of paper into six or eight squares with room underneath for some words. Stories are drawn using a sequence of pictures, accompanied by simple sentences explaining what is happening. This is particularly useful for reluctant writers, since it does not require them to write too much at any one point. However, it does mean they have to do some writing, think logically and material has to be produced in sequence – all skills that will be useful in school.

Storyboarding will increase familiarity with spelling simple words, as well as encouraging them to try out new ones. Finding ideas for storyboarding is not difficult – your child could write about animals (their pets perhaps?), a place they have visited, a fairytale character or a sporting star.

Cut out a picture with some people or animals in from a magazine or travel guide and ask the simple question, “What happens next?” What happens when the people or animals start moving? Where do they go? Have they hidden from someone? Are they having a treasure hunt? Has someone got lost?

Discuss the idea with your child, using a few leading questions. This will give the basis for a story that the child can then illustrate on their storyboard.

Sign up for personalised story-telling

Madame Kalamazoo’s Magical Mail , delivered via email by the National Theatre, is a series of daily, interactive stories set in children’s own homes, featuring the children themselves as the main characters. 

Sign up for free to receive daily emails from a rarely-seen storyteller called Madame Kalamazoo. The mysterious racconteur knows children's names, makes them laugh and takes them on daily imaginative adventures. If they choose to, children can go a step further than simply reading their magical mail and can contribute artwork to help move the stories along in an act of collective storytelling with other children across the country.