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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 is an integer?

Integer
We explain what an integer is and how to explain the concept to your child, as well as offering some puzzles involving the term 'integer'.

What is an integer?

An integer is simply a whole number. This can be a negative or positive number; 0 is also classified as an integer.

How do children learn about integers in primary school?

When children start to learn about decimals (usually in Year 4), they will be taught that a decimal such as 0.3, 0.82, 0.1 etc, is not a whole number, it is a part of one whole. Numbers such as 8.3, 1.9, 2.63 are made up of whole numbers and decimals, so cannot be classified as integers.

A fraction is also a part of something (for example: 1/4 of a shape, 1/7 of a quantity) so is not an integer.

The word 'integer' is used in the Primary Maths Framework for teachers, however children do not necessarily need to know the definition themselves.

It is possible that more able children in Year 6 may be introduced to the term.

Number puzzles involving integers

Here is an example of a puzzle involving the term 'integer' that may be given to a more able Year 6 child:

Which integer do you multiply 0.9 by to make 5.4?

Here, a child could use their knowledge of the 9 times table to work out that 9 x 6 = 54, so 0.9 x 6 must equal 5.4.

Another good puzzle for a more able Year 6 child is:

How many ways can you make 1000, as the sum of consecutive integers?

Part of the purpose of giving children investigations like these is to test their ability to tackle a puzzle. However, another important reason for giving puzzles like this to children, is that it tests their knowledge of mathematical vocabulary. This puzzle requires them to know the words: sum, consecutive and integer.