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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.

What are improper fractions and mixed numbers?

What are mixed numbers?
We explain what improper fractions and mixed numbers are and how the relationship between them can be taught to primary-school children.

What are improper fractions and mixed numbers?

A mixed number is made up of a whole number and a fraction. For example:

An improper fraction is one that is 'top-heavy' so the numerator is bigger than the denominator. For example: 

The relationship between mixed numbers and improper fractions can be best explained through the diagram above. These two shapes have been cut into four pieces. We can either express the amount of the shape we have as a mixed number: (1 3/4) or as an improper fraction (7/4).
 

Working with mixed numbers and improper fractions in KS2

In Years 5 and 6 children need to start to be able to see equivalence between mixed numbers and improper fractions.

  
In the diagram above 8/3 is equivalent to 2 2/3.

In the diagram above 10/3 is equivalent to 3 1/3.

Converting improper fractions into mixed numbers

What is 16/5 as a mixed number?

  • Divide the numerator by the denominator (16 ÷ 5 = 3 R 1).
  • Your answer is the whole number and your remainder becomes the numerator of the fraction next to the whole number, so your answer is 3 1/5.

Converting mixed numbers into improper fractions

What is 2 7/8 as an improper fraction?

  • Multiply the whole number by the denominator (2 x 8 = 16) and then add the numerator (16 + 7 = 23).
  • This answer becomes the numerator; the denominator stays the same: 23/8.