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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: Left-handed handwriting tips and expert advice

Left-handed handwriting tips and advice video
Left-handed handwriting tips and advice from the experts, with practical examples of the best way to position paper correctly and how to hold your wrist in the optimal position for writing. TheSchoolRun's new handwriting videos feature experts from the National Handwriting Association.

Advice and tips to help left-handed children with their handwriting, from Occupational Paediatric Therapist Catherine Elsey from the National Handwriting Association.

Handwriting tips for left-handed children

About 10 per cent of the population is left-handed, and while being a leftie doesn't prevent you from having beautiful handwriting, it's recognised that learning to write can be a more difficult process for left-handed children. This is because writing from left to right is harder: instead of pulling the pen across the paper, they have to push it, which can lead to problems such as a poor pencil grasp, smudged work, and arm strain. There are, however, some simple tips for helping your left-handed child get to grips with handwriting.

  • Position the paper correctly. Left-handed children should sit with their paper slightly to the left of centre, and angled downwards. This makes it easier for your child to see the nib of the pencil as they're writing.
  • Hold the pencil in the right place. Your child should pinch the shaft of the pencil, not the sharpened nib (but not too high - about 1.5cm from the tip) - again, this helps to prevent the hand from obscuring what your child is writing.
  • Use the right hand for stability. By placing their right hand flat on the right-hand side of the paper, your child can prevent the page from shifting about as they write.
  • Keep the wrist below the line. Left-handers often develop a hooked wrist position, where the wrist curls over the top of the pencil, so that they can see what they're writing - but this can make writing uncomfortable. Encourage your child to keep the pencil on the line, with the wrist below, to improve their vision, reduce arm strain and prevent smudging.
  • Sit lefties on the left. If your left-handed child sits to the right of a right-handed child, their elbows will clash as they write. 
  • Put a dot at the start of the line. When they're learning to write, left-handed children often naturally write from right to left. Putting a mark at the left-hand side of the line can remind them where to start writing.