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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 cube numbers?

What are cube numbers?
We explain what cube numbers are and how the concept builds on prior knowledge of square numbers.

What are cube numbers?

A cube number is a number that is the product of three numbers which are the same. In other words, if you multiply a number by itself and then by itself again, the result is a cube number.

This diagram makes this concept clearer:


Cube numbers can be represented visually as 3D cubes of single, unit cubes. To write the mathematical formula for cube numbers we add a small 3 next to and above the number, for example: 23.

Cube numbers in primary school

Children start to learn about square numbers in Year 5. This learning is then consolidated in Year 6, when children are expected to know the notation for both square numbers (²) and cube numbers (³).  

They may be given the above diagram and asked to work out what the next three cube numbers are. In this case, they would be expected to realise that the next cube number is the result of 5 x 5 x 5, which is 125. The one after that would be 6 x 6 x 6 = 216.

Often in 11+ tests and secondary entrance exams, children are given a sequence of numbers like those above, and required to work out what the pattern is and how to continue it.