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.

Money saving tips for Christmas

As we all know, Christmas can be incredibly expensive. As much as you might look forward to it, you might also dread it a little too – and that’s a shame. We asked wellbeing author, award-winning blogger and children’s therapist Becky Goddard-Hill to help with advice on how to save money whilst making special Christmas memories.

Christmas can be overwhelming when you start thinking about all the expenses ahead: food and entertainment, gifts and parties, visits to Santa, wrapping paper, new outfits, school fayres, Christmas Eve boxes and advent calendars.

But it doesn’t have to be like this! It’s perfectly possible to have an absolutely awesome Christmas without overspending.

Here are five fabulous ways to make Christmas special whilst saving money.

1. Presence over presents

You can make Christmas really special by giving your family big dollops of your energy and attention. Playing games together, decorating the tree to Christmas songs, making Christmas crafts and going for family walks to look at Christmas lights are the kind of things kids remember forever.

Being present wins over giving presents every time. A happy, connected and engaged parent makes for a happy child, and giving your time costs nothing but makes a valuable deposit in the memory bank.

It’s been repeatedly proven that experiences bring more joy than possessions, so the more involved you are in experiencing Christmas (rather than simply paying for it), then the happier you and your family will be.

2. Get creative with your card giving

A lovely, thoughtful festive email with family news and photos can be sent to all your family and friends. This replaces the need for cards and stamps and endless post office queues. It is a lovely way to reconnect properly with loved ones and catch up. It saves you both time and money.

You could also check out Pinterest and get great ideas for creating a family advent calendar together, or you can make free advent calendars online with your own fun family photos and videos.

3. Making, baking and creating

Handmade gifts are infused with love and care and family members adore receiving these. Get your kids baking shortbread, making paperweights out of stones and potting bulbs. Making gifts keeps your children entertained and saves you cash, too.

Kids could create unique decorations like a Christmas garland from forest finds or mini-pinecone tree ornaments. Simply paint pinecones green and attach pom poms for baubles!

4. Remember that fun can be free

Christmas has so much free fun potential. From carol singing and nativity plays to community light events and wondrous window displays, there is plenty of cost-free entertainment to be had.

Spending a fortune on two hours at a pantomime is not necessary – why not put on your own instead?

And, instead of pricey Christmas Eve boxes, why not make new traditions like playing charades, watching a movie on Christmas Eve with homemade popcorn or reading The Night Before Christmas. It will cost you very little and be just as special as a box full of expensive stuff no one really needs!

Don’t just jump on the Christmas bandwagon: it can be costly. Instead, think about what your family loves and create fun experiences you know they will enjoy without the price tag.

5. Consider long-lasting gifts

When buying your gifts, think about how long they will actually last. Ask yourself if the gift will entertain your child long term or be a one hit wonder. Value for money is important.

A stash of drawing paper and pens will keep them busy long term, but the latest fashion accessory might be out of favour within weeks. A Rubik's cube can puzzle them for weeks (or years if they're anything like me!) but a duvet set featuring their favourite pop stars may soon feel old.

Christmas can still be very special without the added cost. You just need to think a little bit outside of the (Christmas Eve) box!

Low-cost Christmas activities

Becky's book, A Year of Craft and Play, provides an activity a week for the whole year. It encourages kids to get outside and play games or make items using completely free things that you can find in nature. This is an example of a gift with long-term play potential.

You can also download free seasonal activities on TheSchoolRun.

Worksheet finder

TheSchoolRun offers parents thousands of printable and interactive worksheets, covering every aspect of the primary curriculum. These are available to our subscribers but you can try a few for free here:

Tutorial finder

In each interactive tutorial, our digital teacher explains the method, shows you examples and then gives you a chance to practise what you've learned. Find out more.

Tutorials are available to TheSchoolRun subscribers only but you can try for free: Learning the 4 times table, Long multiplication and Finding multiples

Learning pack finder

If there is a specific area of learning your child needs support with, our packs offer information, advice and plenty of engaging practical activities. Written by teachers and experts and exclusively available to TheSchoolRun subscribers, learning packs (each 50+ pages long) are fun as well as practice-packed.

How to use TheSchoolRun

Testimonials

Trustpilot 5* review

- Dids on Trustpilot

Having taught in primary schools for 40 years I still found your support a useful tool and a source of new and helpful information. You made my tutoring sessions a fun and successful way to learn. Many many thanks for being there for me.

- Patricia, Essex

Thank you for all your extraordinary materials that have made working with my Year 6 child such a pleasure.

- Yolanda, London

This is an excellent resource, for anybody looking to understand more about the curriculum that your children are studying and add some extra support at home. Highly recommended by a parent of two children who uses this from Reception to Year 4.

- 5-star review on Trustpilot from Anne-Marie Allman

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