TheSchoolRun.com closure date
As we informed you a few months ago, TheSchoolRun has had to make the difficult decision to close due to financial pressures and the company has now ceased trading. We had hoped to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.
As a result, we now have to permanently close TheSchoolRun.com. However, to give subscribers time to download any content they’d like to keep, we will keep the website open until 31st July 2025. After this date, the site will be taken down and there will be no further access to any resources. We strongly encourage you to download and save any resources you think you may want to use in the future.
In particular, we suggest downloading:
- Learning packs
- All the worksheets from the 11+ programme, if you are following this with your child
- Complete Learning Journey programmes (the packs below include all 40 worksheets for each programme)
You should already have received 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep. If you haven’t received these, please contact us at [email protected] before 31st July 2025, and we will send them to you.
We are very sorry that there is no way to continue offering access to resources and sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.
What is a bar chart?
What is a bar chart?
A bar chart displays information (data) by using rectangular bars of different heights.
A bar chart has a vertical axis with numbers on it, and a horizontal axis showing values of something that has been investigated.
Using bar charts to record data in primary school
As part of teaching data handling, teachers will usually ask children to investigate something by asking the other children in their class about it. This could be a favourite fruit, cake, animal or country. Older children may be asked to investigate opinions about something, for example school dinners or school uniform. Children then record the information they find using a tally chart.
Pictograms are used in Key Stage 1 to introduce children to bar charts.
The next step is for children to colour in blocks on a ready-made axis to show information they've gathered:
In Key Stage 2 children will start to produce their own bar charts on squared paper.
- First they need to think about what is going to go on each axis.
- They then need to look at their numbers and make sure their vertical axis goes up as high as the biggest number.
- They need to work out whether the numbers on the vertical axis are going to go up in 2s, 5s or 10s and position the numbers correctly.
- They then need to work out how wide each bar needs to be. (It is very important that bars are drawn all the same width).
Children need to be able to interpret bar charts by answering various questions. Example questions might be:
How many more children liked bananas than oranges?
Which was the least popular fruit?
How many children were asked altogether?
They also need to be able to produce bar charts on a computer. Usually, teachers will dedicate a few ICT lessons to showing children how to produce bar charts relating to information gathered in a maths lesson.
Later on in Key Stage 2, children need to start producing bar charts with grouped discrete data.
This bar chart was drawn up after a class of Year 6 children recorded data on the heights of everyone in the class. Instead of having a bar for every single measurement, they instead grouped the measurements. Children in Year 6 would need to be able to understand this bar chart and also be able to gather and present data in a similar way.
Children may be asked questions similar to the following about a bar chart like this one:
Kathleen is 142cm tall. She said: 'I am in the most common height range in the class.' Is she correct?
Robert is 132cm tall. He said 'I am the shortest child in the class.' Is he correct?
