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to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.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.
Simple science activities to try today

Helping children to acquire language, maths and creative skills tends to come easily to parents, but science is another story. Many of us didn’t do well at science at school, so we feel we might struggle to share our (limited) knowledge. But never fear, you can easily bring science to life at home.
A great hub for home-science explorations, packed with videos and free guides to exploring chemistry and physics with children, is the Royal Institution's ExpeRiment site.
Experiments to try at home


Download fantastic science resources today!
- Experiments And Science Fun pack
- Science Learning Programme for each school year
- All the instructions, questions and information you need
Make a Feely Book
- Card – A4, you could fold each sheet in half to give you four separate A5 pages.
- Scraps of fabric, paper, foil, card – anything you can find.
- Glue – PVA (often called 'school glue' in shops).
- Gather all the scraps of material together and talk about them. What colour are they? What different textures are there and how do they feel? Are some materials heavy or light, thick or thin?
- Talk about what the different materials would be good for. Is there some plastic that would be good as an umbrella or coat?
- Draw some simple pictures on the card – big and simple ones are best.
- Help your child to select the best materials to stick on each picture.
- You could write words about colour, texture and what the materials are used for on each page.
- Put the finished product with your child’s other books to show that the things you create together are just as valuable as those bought in shops.
Make an egg bounce
The science behind this experiment is explained in the free ExpeRimental factsheet; the acid in liquids like orange juice and vinegar reacts with eggshells and make them dissolve, leaving the inside of the egg intact.
Grow your own cress
- Cress seeds
- Damp kitchen paper
- Two plates or saucers (or two lids from margarine tubs)
- Sprinkle the seeds on to some damp kitchen roll placed on two plates. Keep one plate on the windowsill and put the other plate into a dark cupboard. Water both plates regularly to keep them damp.
- Once the cress has grown (it only takes a few days) have a look at the differences between the two plates. Discuss how the cress grown in the dark is yellow/brown in colour and bending to try and find some light. This shows that the seeds need water and sunlight to grow.
- Put the plate of cress from the cupboard onto the windowsill and continue to water it and see what happens to it now that it’s in the sunlight.
- Use the cress you grew on the windowsill to make sandwiches. Use this as an opportunity to talk about favourite foods and to explore the different shapes you can cut sandwiches into (try squares and triangles, but also make use of some biscuit cutters).
Make a flame jump through the air
A downloadable guide to this experiment, which helps children understand the chemistry of why a candle burns, is available on the ExpeRimental webiste.