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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to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.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:

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.

What is a paragraph?

Paragraph
Paragraphs are sections of text, used to structure writing to make it clear and easy to read. We explain how the use of paragraphs is taught in KS2 and how you can help your child improve their writing by using paragraphs at home.

What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a section of writing consisting of one or more sentences grouped together and discussing one main subject.

New paragraphs are either signalled by an indent (where the text starts some way into the line) or by leaving a line blank.

How are paragraphs used?

Paragraphs help to structure text; every new paragraph starts on a new line. We start a new paragraph to signal that the person, place, time or topic of the sentences has changed.

In fiction text, paragraphs are usually used to mark breaks in time. A new paragraph may also be started if the point of view switches from one character to another. 

In a non-fiction text, a paragraph is a group of sentences that usually all have one theme in common.

In primary school texts will often have a five-paragraph structure:
 

  • Paragraph 1 is an introduction
  • Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 focus on three specific (and different) points
  • Paragraph 5 is a conclusion

When are children taught to use paragraphs?

Children start to use paragraphs in Year 3. This is a skill that can often get forgotten by an enthusiastic child desperate to get all their writing down!

A good way to encourage children to use paragraphs in a story is to introduce this idea at the planning stage. A story map or story mountain with boxes can help children to think about each paragraph before they start writing:

     

A good way to encourage children to use paragraphs when writing a non-fiction text is to give them a spider diagram with sub-headings for making notes on.

A spider diagram encourages children to arrange their notes into separate boxes according to theme. This means that when they come to write their notes up into sentences, they will know that their text needs to be split into four different paragraphs.

Teachers often find that when children write a first draft of their writing they forget to split their writing into paragraphs. This is why writing a first draft is a good idea, as it is a chance to correct and improve the structure of a piece of writing.