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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: Pre-writing activities using scissors

Pre-handwriting activities using scissors video
Invest in a pair of child-safe scissors and try some of our pre-handwriting activities, as recommended by the National Handwriting Association experts in our video for parents. Who knew cutting and sticking fun could be so educational?

Experts from the National Handwriting Association explain how cutting and sticking activities can help your child's pre-handwriting development and how to make the most of 'scissor play' in preparation for starting to write in Reception.

How scissor activities help your child learn to write

The idea of letting your pre-schooler loose with a pair of scissors may strike fear into your heart, but scissor skills are vital to help young children acquire many of the motor skills needed for handwriting in the primary years.

Getting used to using scissors helps to develop the thumb web space - the circular shape (like an 'OK' sign) formed between thumb and forefinger when you hold a pencil.

Opening and closing the scissors helps children to build both stability and flexibility in the thumb web, and encourages the muscles of the hands to work separately.

Try these scissor activities to develop your child's fine motor control (not forgetting to supervise your child at all times!).
 

  • Give your child a sheet of paper or a paper plate and get them to snip a fringe around the edge
  • Draw straight, thick lines for your child to cut around
  • Ask your child to try cutting out a variety of shapes - circle, triangle, square
  • Let them practise cutting up different materials, such as cardboard, strips of wool, tin foil or drinking straws
  • Draw zigzag or wavy lines or spirals on paper for your child to cut along
  • Let them experiment with different types of scissors, such as pinking scissors