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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: Tripod grasp quick trick

Tripod grasp quick trick video
Make sure your child holds their pencil correctly every time they pick it up with this quick trick, as outlined in our video by National Handwriting Association Occupational Paediatric Therapist Catherine Elsey.

How to get a good pencil grasp every time

The dynamic tripod grip is the ideal hand position for comfortable, fluid handwriting. Help your child establish it with this quick trick, which will help them position their fingers correctly every time they pick up a pencil.

  1. Place the pencil on the work surface in front of your child, with the point towards them.
  2. Tell your child to pinch the pencil between thumb and first finger, in the place where the point joins the shaft.
  3. Your child then needs to lift their hand and, with the other hand, flip the blunt/eraser end of the pencil upwards and toward their body so that the shaft rests on the middle finger, behind.

This helps create the perfect pencil grasp, where the tips of the thumb and first two fingers can move freely, the ring and little finger are tucked away, and the thumb and fore finger form a nice, round, open space (called the 'web').