Learning outside school articles
How to create a budding engineer
Engineering underpins almost every aspect of modern life. So what will your child learn about engineering and technology at school, and how can you encourage their enthusiasm? Lucy Dimbylow finds out.
4 ways to travel back to Roman London
Travel back in time 2,000 years and enter Londinium, a Roman city which stood where the capital does today. Bring the Roman empire to life without leaving the UK (and for free!) with a walk round Roman London, from Londinium's amphitheatre to the remains of the Roman Wall. Francesca Fenn of Step Outside Guides offers a few ideas for a Roman discovery day for KS1 and KS2 children.
5 at-home design and technology projects for primary children
Design and technology is part of the national curriculum. Teacher and parent Phoebe Doyle offers some practical D&T project ideas and suggestions to help your child get hands-on, boost their confidence and have fun (and make mess!) with materials at home.
5 primary school art projects to try at home
Art is part of the national curriculum and one of the subjects your child will be taught at school. Teacher and parent Phoebe Doyle offers some practical project ideas and suggestions to help expand their knowledge and experience at home.
Encourage a love of drama and the stage
Whether your child is a diva in the making or more inclined to be backstage crew, drama and acting could help develop skills that will offer a boost in many areas of life, says Lucy Dimbylow.
10 ways word puzzles can help your child
Crosswords, word searches and hangman aren’t just handy ways to keep your child quiet for five minutes; they could also boost their learning in some surprising ways. Here’s how…
Best time-teaching products
Great toys, books and resources to help your child learn to tell the time on analogue and digital timepieces, from clock face recognition to estimating time differences on the 24-hour clock.
Cool classics: Latin and Ancient Greek at primary school
If your child is often heard incanting Harry Potter spells, he’s probably familiar with a few Latin words already. But could Latin or Ancient Greek be on his school syllabus next year? Lucy Dimbylow looks at the benefits of learning classics, and how to get started at home.
Chess: the perfect game for kids
It’s free, portable, quiet enough to play anywhere and has powerful brain-boosting benefits for kids – and it’s fun, too. Here’s why you should get your child hooked on chess.
5 ways to raise an enterprising child
As parents we have a vital role to play in inspiring an enterprising attitude in our children, nurturing characteristics from an early age which will help them grow into happy adults. Lorraine Allman shares some easy, practical tips to help boost children's self-belief and confidence.
6 steps to a money-savvy child
We all want our kids to have the very best future, and ensuring they’ve got money sense is crucial to help make it happen. Mum-of-two and financial whizz Emily Richards shares a few down-to-earth strategies to equip your child with money management skills for life.
Handwriting practice: what all parents need to know
If you’re worried about your child’s handwriting and want to help them improve, you’re not alone – handwriting is an essential skill, but we all have to learn it, and it’s a very complex task. Legible, neat handwriting takes lots of practice – here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re working with your child at home.
3 brilliant London excursions for primary school children
A trip to London is a great way to see history. With almost every stone soaked in stories of the past, a day in the capital is a great way to make KS1 and KS2 history learning come alive. There are elements from every period of London’s past still visible in the city today if you know where to look – Francesca Fenn from Step Outside guides suggests a few things to see and do that bring the primary history curriculum to life.
Computer coding for kids
Could your child be a future computer programmer? It might sound unlikely, but teaching children coding is becoming more commonplace – yes, even in primary schools. So what do you need to know about helping your budding Bill Gates (or twenty-first century Ada Lovelace) to grasp this complex skill? Lucy Dimbylow finds out.
How to improve your child’s reading skills in KS1
Parents naturally want their child to read to the best of their ability, but often aren’t sure how to help them build on the skills they learn in class. Primary teacher Phoebe Doyle offers some expert tips on what your child needs to know to move to the next reading level.
13 ways to get children excited about geography
Boost your child’s natural curiosity about the world around us with some at-home geography fun. Teacher Jenny Cooke, creator of the Oddizzi website for primary school learners, shares her wanderlust tips to help you turn a rainy afternoon into an exotic adventure.
How to keep your child safe online
With technology advancing faster and faster, parents are finding it more and more difficult to stay on top of how their children are using the internet. We spoke to mum and internet-safety guru Pamela Whitby about what you can do to protect your child online.
Book-bored to bookworm: expert tips to get your child reading
Worried that your child always chooses screen time over books? Mum and teacher Phoebe Doyle asks the experts about turning your child into a busy bookworm.
How to create a reading-friendly home
Switch off the screens and help make reading a fun, relaxing and engaging pastime for your child by implementing these expert tips from primary school teacher and parent Phoebe Doyle.
Penpals: an engaging and lifelong learning activity
Revive the fading practice of letter-writing for your child through one of the penpal schemes available for students – not only can they practice penmanship, but they may make a friend for life!
Raising bilingual children
Like many skills, it’s best to start learning two languages as young as possible, but it’s not uncommon for parents to run into a few difficulties when raising bilingual children. TheSchoolRun offers advice and tips from parents who have first-hand experience to share.
Illusions and mind tricks: are your eyes fooling you?
Are you seeing what's really there, or is your mind tricking you? Professor Bruce Hood has three amazing illusions experiments to try, and explains more about how the brain works in his Royal Institution Christmas lecture.
Best educational TV for KS2 children
No need to turn off the TV and do something less boring instead if these are the programmes your children are watching! From news updates to historical dramas there’s plenty to keep 7 to 11 year olds interested – and learning new things – whenever they’re tuning into their favourites.
Best educational TV for KS1 children
Science experiments, simple equations, reading practice and first cooking skills, all wrapped up in appealing television formats – your child will be enjoying their screen time so much they won’t realise how much they’re learning. Here’s our pick of the best programmes for Year 1 and Year 2 children.
Best educational TV shows for EYFS
We all need to wind down after a day’s work, kids included – but who says relaxing in front of the TV can’t be a learning experience? We pick some of the best programmes to help four and five year olds with their phonics, counting, shape recognition and literacy.
9 fun writing projects to boost literacy skills
Stories aren’t just for reading – teachers regularly use a story as a starting point to engage children in many writing activities that cover a wide range of objectives. Here, education writer Phoebe Doyle gives you a few suggestions for doing the same at home.
5 unusual ways to help with spelling
Help your children improve their spelling skills with games and activities that build word-savviness in fun and interesting ways.
Simple science activities to try today
Science doesn't have to mean complicated experiments with chemicals and Bunsen burners. Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage can get involved in science with these fun, fast-results experiments. Sarah Cruickshank reports.
Writing practice: how to help your struggling child
Is your child’s handwriting a cause for concern? Help them to improve it with these simple activities.
Telling the time: how to help your child learn
Learning to tell the time is not an easy process, so to help you help your child we have broken it down into separate learning stages.
Everyday ways to make maths fun
Want to instil a love and appreciation of maths in your primary school child? You can with our practical suggestions to help make numbers fun.
Expert spelling tips for KS1 and KS2
Tutor and author of the best-selling Spelling Made Magic, Clare Winstanley, shares her practical tips and clever tricks to make spelling practice fun for KS1 and KS2 children.
Teach your child to read a clock
Reading an analogue clock is a tricky skill to master. Help your child get to grips with it with our teaching-time guide.
Simple experiments for KS2 scientists
Have you got a budding Galileo or Newton in the family? Help your child's developing scientific enquiries by finding out what they will be learning in science lessons and how to support their practice at home.
10 messy (but educational!) ideas for kids
Most kids love getting up to their elbows in stuff. Feeling, squidging, kneading, squeezing – it’s instinctive. What’s more, this sort of play is crucial for learning; it forms the building blocks of knowledge about the world, its materials and how they work. Whether they’re five or ten, watch them get really stuck in to these educational activities.
Supporting KS3 science at home
As KS3 science becomes more in-depth, your child will benefit from your support. Here’s what they’ll learn and how you can help.
Five steps to success in developing your child’s handwriting
In a world where technology is rapidly taking over, teaching children handwriting skills is still as important as it ever was. Best-selling author Bernadette Tynan offers five steps to handwriting success.
Handwriting practice makes perfect
Why is handwriting practice so important, and how can you help your child to learn? Find out in our guide.
How debating can benefit your child
From improving speaking and listening skills to building self-esteem, learning to debate could have many benefits for your primary-school child. Lucy Dimbylow finds out more.
Learning numeracy at home
All around us are a wealth of mathematical problems just waiting to be solved. Here’s how to help your child extend their numeracy skills at home.