Many families end up with a learning-app graveyard on the family iPad: one app for letters, another for phonics, a third for times tables, something the school recommended, an 11+ subscription, and whatever else looked promising one evening. None of them know about each other, several charge every month, and the child opens perhaps two of them.
There is a calmer approach. Pick a small number of apps, one for each job, that follow the actual shape of primary school in England, and keep them for years rather than weeks. This guide walks through that setup from Reception to the 11+, names good options at each stage, including our own and other developers', and suggests the questions worth asking before you install anything.
Primary school runs for seven years, from Reception to Year 6, and the skills build in a fairly predictable order. Letter formation and early counting come first. Phonics and number bonds dominate Year 1. Times tables take centre stage in Years 3 and 4, ending with the Multiplication Tables Check in June of Year 4. Year 6 brings the KS2 SATs in May, and in areas with grammar schools, some children also sit the 11+, usually in September of Year 6.
The apps that help most are the ones that follow this progression. A maths app that only covers Year 3 is useful for one year; one that runs from Reception to Year 6 is useful for seven. The same thinking applies to handwriting, reasoning and creative work.
The BFG apps mentioned below share the same answers: each unlocks with a single purchase rather than a subscription, none needs an account, none shows adverts, and practice stays on your device. That is a deliberate set of constraints, and it rules out a lot of the loud end of the children's app market. It is also not the only sensible choice, which is why other options are named at each stage.
Correct letter formation is one of the most under-rated early skills. Children who learn to start each letter in the right place and move in the right direction can write neatly later without thinking about it. Children who don't often build habits that become hard to undo around Year 3, when the amount of writing jumps.
Inkla is our handwriting practice app for iPhone and iPad, used with an Apple Pencil or a finger. It shows clear models and formation steps in print and joined cursive, then gives feedback after each attempt on shape, spacing, line control and rhythm, with pressure feedback where the input device supports it. Practice grows from letters into words, sentences, silly stories and postcards, and parents can follow practice history and export a PDF summary. It can also be used to practise writing in seven other languages, which suits bilingual families. It is free for seven days, then a one-time purchase.
Other good options exist. Letterland's apps pair letter shapes with its well-known characters, which is ideal if your child's school uses Letterland. Writing Wizard is a flexible tracing app for younger children. A good paper handwriting book and a pencil remain excellent too.
For phonics, use whatever scheme your child's school follows, such as Read Write Inc. Phonics or Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised. Mixing two approaches at home and school is a common reason early readers stall.
Maths is where the graveyard grows fastest. The curriculum is densely sequenced, from number bonds and place value to fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio, and many apps cover only one slice of it.
Arithmetix is our primary maths app. It covers Reception to Year 6 with more than 50 topics matched to each child's year group, a daily plan that mixes new work with reviews, and difficulty that follows the last few sessions. Times tables have their own area, including an MTC-style Ready Mode with 25 questions and six seconds each. A small pet that thrives when practice gets done gives children a reason to come back, and parents see which topics need attention. It is free for seven days, then a one-time purchase that covers every child on the device.
DoodleMaths is the best-known alternative and runs on a subscription, although many schools provide it; we compare the two in detail in DoodleMaths or Arithmetix? Times Tables Rock Stars is often provided by schools and is excellent for multiplication speed. White Rose Maths workbooks are a strong paper option. Whichever you choose, pick one and stay with it; switching maths apps every year is like switching schemes every year.
Not every family is doing the 11+, and the format varies by area and school. Many tests combine some mix of English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning. Verbal reasoning leans on vocabulary and word logic; non-verbal reasoning is about shapes, sequences and spatial thinking that the rest of the curriculum barely touches. Starting gently in Year 4 or early Year 5 usually works better than a rush in the final months.
Cognithix is our 11+ practice app for children aged 9 to 11. It covers English (vocabulary, spelling, grammar, punctuation, comprehension and cloze), verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning and language aptitude, with daily plans, hints and explanations, timed tests and mock exams, and progress parents can follow. Questions are generated on the device, so there is always fresh practice. It does not cover 11+ maths, so pair it with a maths resource that goes beyond the KS2 curriculum. It is free to try, then a single unlock that covers every child profile.
Atom Learning is the best-known 11+ platform and covers maths as well as English and reasoning, on a monthly subscription. Bond and CGP workbooks remain strong paper-based choices, and many tutors still build around them. An app's advantage is volume and feedback: plenty of practice, with the weak question types flagged quickly.
If your child wants to learn an instrument, a piano app is an inexpensive way to test the interest before committing to lessons. A few months of self-paced practice usually tells you whether it will last.
Keystrike is our piano practice app, designed for iPad first and also available on iPhone and Mac. It starts with an orientation stage covering posture, hand shape, finger numbers and the layout of the keyboard, then moves through graded lessons with sight-reading, rhythm, ear training, scales, chords and real pieces. It works with a USB or Bluetooth MIDI keyboard, the on-screen piano, or an acoustic mode that records a real piano and analyses the performance when you finish. Its grades describe its own progression rather than an exam board's, so a teacher is still worth having later. New users get three days of full access, then a single purchase unlocks the app.
Simply Piano and Flowkey are the established alternatives, both with large song libraries on a subscription. They suit children who want to play familiar songs quickly; a graded path suits children who want a foundation that lasts.
A setup made entirely of structured practice will wear a child out. The balance is open-ended creative time with no scores and no levels.
Doodlebee is our drawing and colouring app for the whole family. Children draw any shape, tap inside to fill it with colour, and watch their characters walk, dance or wave; colour in pages by hand; turn their stories into storybooks that are read aloud; and make music with loops, beats and instruments. Grown-ups get their own profile, and colour-by-number pages and mandalas make it a calm corner for them too. Everything is saved to each person's gallery on the device, there are daily time limits for children, and a grown-ups-only area protects purchases and settings. It is free to start, and one purchase unlocks everything for the family with no subscription needed.
Toca Boca's apps remain a favourite for imaginative play, Procreate is a superb one-off purchase for older children getting serious about drawing, and a box of crayons still does the job beautifully.
You don't need every app. What helps is thinking of the setup as a small system:
A family using subscription apps for the same coverage can easily spend a significant sum every month while the children are at primary school. That doesn't make one-off apps better; it means the long-term cost deserves an honest look.
Children's practice data is personal, and the simplest protection is not uploading it in the first place. The BFG apps in this guide keep profiles and progress on the device, with no accounts to create or logins to manage. The trade-off is real: progress doesn't sync between devices, so a new iPad starts fresh unless you restore a device backup. Some of the apps let you export what matters, such as Inkla's PDF summary or a Keystrike backup file.
Whatever you install, ask where the data goes. If the answer is "to our servers", that is not automatically a problem, but it is worth knowing before your child starts.
If you are starting fresh, choose one app for the stage your child is at now and use it for a month before adding anything else. The most common mistake is installing four learning apps in one weekend, none of which gets opened a week later.
If you already have a graveyard, keep the one app at each layer your child has opened in the last fortnight and delete the rest. The nagging feeling that you should be using all of them costs more than the apps did.
Whichever apps you choose, the structure matters more than the brand: a foundation, one practice spine, optional branches, a creative counterweight and a clear answer to where the data lives.