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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.

Video: Handwriting posture and seating advice

Handwriting posture and seating advice video
A step-by-step video guide to establishing a good seating position for comfortable handwriting, with expert advice from the National Handwriting Association and an explanation of why postural stability is vital for children.

The correct posture is essential for good handwriting. Occupational Paediatric Therapist Catherine Elsey from the National Handwriting Association explains why postural stability is so important and gives parents a step-by-step guide to correcting and improving the way a child sits to write.

How to sit correctly

Good handwriting depends on far more than just the position of your child's hand; the way they hold their entire body plays a part, too. 

Common problems with children's posture when writing include:
 

  • Slouching, with the spine rounded
  • Sitting on an adult chair with the feet dangling, or wrapped around the chair legs
  • Swinging on the back or front legs of the chair
  • Resting their arm on the desk, and their head on their arm
  • Sitting a left-handed child on the right of a right-handed child, so their arms clash

Poor posture when writing means that your child's body has to work extra hard to maintain stability. This causes excess muscle strain and effort, and can make handwriting uncomfortable and more difficult. 

The best posture for handwriting involves your child:
 

  • Sitting with a straight, extended back: tell them to imagine someone is pulling upwards on a string connected to the top of their head
  • Sitting with their feet flat on the floor, not dangling. If their feet can't comfortably reach the floor, put a box just in front of the chair for them to rest their feet on
  • Sitting with their ankles, knees and hips all at 90 degrees

This position gives your child optimum core strength and stability, and makes handwriting more comfortable.