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to keep our content available through a partnership with another educational provider, but this provider has since withdrawn from the agreement.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

What is a simile?
A simile is a comparison phrase which finds similar characteristics in two objects and compares them, always by using the words 'like' or 'as'. Writers often use similes to make their writing richer and give the reader a really good picture of what is being described. For example:
The spilt milk was like a lake.
This simile is used to show that the amount of milk spilt was large and spread across a surface, just like a lake.
The similes in this passage are highlighted in bold:
How are children taught to use similes?
In Key Stage 1, children are encouraged to use adjectives to describe people and places in their stories.
In Key Stage 2, teachers start to guide children in using similes. A good way of doing this, is to show children a picture from a story they are studying.
They may ask them to choose something from the picture (for example, the moon) and then ask them what it looks like. Children may come up with ideas like: a plate, a coin or a face.
A very simple simile could be: 'The moon was like a face'. The teacher could help the children develop this by asking: How is the moon like a face? They might then come up with a better simile such as: 'The moon was as pale as a face', or 'The moon shone like a happy face'.


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- KS1 & KS2 workbooks
- Bursting with fill-in prompt sheets and inspiring ideas
- Story structure tips, style guides and editing suggestions
Teachers will often ask children to look at poetry and find the similes in poems. This is a good way of encouraging then to use similes when it comes to their own writing. A teacher may develop a child's writing by encouraging the use of similes through marking.
For example, if a child wrote the following:
A teacher might encourage the use of similes by writing the following questions next to the writing:
- What could you compare the creaky sound of the steps to?
- What could you compare the open door to?
Similes can be difficult to construct and children need plenty of time to think them over.
How are similes and metaphors different?
Similes are often connected to learning about metaphor (a comparison which suggests what something is like by comparing it to something else, but isn't literally true) as they are both forms of figurative language. Metaphors don't use the words 'like' or 'as'.
Simile: My brother is as greedy as a piglet.
Metaphor: My brother is a piglet.