Our new Learning section: need your feedback, please

Hi NerfHerder and others, we have created all the Learning articles for Mumsnet in response to a lot of feedback (both from Mumsnet, through our schools, and from parents directly) that parents are desperate for more information about how to help their children at school.

We commissioned all the articles from scratch from authors who are educational advisers and experts (many of whom are also parents themselves), and who are keen to do a thorough, professional job.

Alongside the articles, we have selected free resources that parents can use with their children. We plan to expand this every month, with animations, e-books and online activities.

We do not promote Pearson products in any of our articles. Yes, there's a link through to a shop where you can look for books for your children, but you can easily choose not to go there. If you do, hopefully you will find that the packs are really great value and that they are the kind of books that you and your children will really enjoy reading. We tried to be really careful about what we selected for the shop. We have only picked a very small list of books that we think are the most right for use at home. Just have a look - hopefully, you'll find that these are different to the 'normal' reading scheme titles.

I hope this helps. I know Pearson?s big, but we are passionate about education and committed to developing the best learning resources for children. And in the small team that I work in, we are keen to get this right for you.

Please keep feeding back.

sarah- Perhaps the marking fiasco referred to could have been earlier issues, such as the 2003 problem for EdExcel (owned by Pearson), or perhaps the 2004 issue with AQA (Pearson responsible for distributing papers and collecting results data).
Not as bad as ETS Europe's efforts, true, but not negligible to those who were being assessed at the time

That aside- I don't like the 'learning' section of MN sponsored by a company making profit from education any more than I'd like the 'weaning' section to be sponsored by heinz, or the 'health' topic sponsored by Bupa.
People come to MN for help, advice, experience- they don't want those responses clouded by paid-for product placements.

Could you consider heading the articles with a caveat like "Advertisement feature" -- as I think that newspapers are required to do when they have adverts that look like editorial content? Are there any equivalent regulations for 'online magazines' which is what Mumsnet seems to be outside of the actual talkboard?

The whole aura of Mumsnet-supplied advice (e.g. the 'Mumsnet Rules' and of course the content of the talkboard) is that it is 'by parents for parents' and of course as advertisers you want to make use of the sense of trustworthiness that generates. But really it is eroded and cheapened by the equivocation of adverts with Mumsnet content.

Hi, I'm one of the team in Pearson working with Mumsnet on the Learning section. Thanks for all your feedback - it's really useful and we're taking it all into account as we develop more articles. Please keep on commenting as well.

Over the year, we're planning to cover lots of other primary school subjects and topics - maths is planned for June, we're looking at Early Years over the summer, and Assessment and SEN in the Autumn. It would be great to know what you'd like to see in the Learning site as well. We want to make sure that it's as useful as it possibly can be.

ChateauRouge, you're right, there was a problem with marking in 2008 - but they were marked by another company, not Pearson. Since then, we've delivered the tests successfully, and will be again this year.

So, thanks again, and keep your feedback coming, Sarah

Ex literacy co-ordinator,primary teacher.Have been out of teaching for 6 years so speaking as a mum now.Had a very brief look,not for long.

I have to say I pretty much agree exactly with what Chateau said.My 3 were all fluent free readers in rec/early Y1.I've never ever done a work sheet,test or anything else with them. All I did was read masses of real books and support the schools Letters and Sounds scheme (which is fab).

Kids need masses of good quality real books. Scheme books are bad enough(albeit necessary early on) in school let alone at home or pre-school . You're in real danger of turning kids off reading before they've even started school.

The sound buttons are quite a good idea as I've lost count of parents asking how to say sounds, 'l" sounds funny to me though,you may want to get that checked.I haven't listened to them all.

What I'd like to see is less of Pearson to be frank,they're a company churning out books to make money.If you must include some scheme books then a variety please not just one company.I except phonic scheme books have their place early on however kids have varying tastes,they need a variety.

I'd rather see a book list of real books that fit into the levels at school ie Red- Dr Seuss The Hat in the Cat ??? etcThat way kids are reading real books and not duped into thinking they can only read scheme books.There is a list which schools use(or there was).It's frequently requested on the education page and Mrz? has posted sections of it.If you ask her/him nicely she/he may give you more info. Said Mrz seems very knowledgeable and up to date so would be a good person to ask re opinion on this page.

Obviously if you're only interested in making money much of what I've just said won't be much use .

I thought the info about the new word & non word phonics test useful, it was a clear explanantion. Until it got to this:

How can I help my child prepare for the test?

Phonics flashcards

Evaluate what your child already knows. Using phonics flashcards, ask your child to identify each letter sound. Then you can practise the letter sounds that your child finds difficult or doesn?t yet know.

Why would you do that, if the test is to see how effective the phonics teaching within the school is?

It is just going to get way out of control like SATs have

I found the information on phonics interesting. Didnot feel that i had to buy any products advertised . Handy to have information in one place. But having 3 children already through the phonics phase, and 1 just starting it, I feel i have phonics overload , but it may be helpful for those starting on the path to reading.

Ok, have had a look.

Phonics section - I am not interested in phonics activities for my children. I don't think they need extra phonics work. Firstly, this is covered at school. Secondly, phonics are not the be-all and end-all of learning to read. If I felt my children needed extra help with literacy I would not use phonics worksheets.

Reading section - I do not need any support with reading activities, or choosing books for my children. I do need an extra storey on the house to house all the books we have, but I'm guessing Pearson can't help with this.

Activities section - 'Help your children get to grip with phonics'...as explained, I'm not interested in phonics. 'Free e-books' - I'd rather use free paper books from the library.

Primary education section - At last, something useful! I find the MN boards packed with useful information. And they have no agenda to sell me pointless phonics stuff either.

The list of phonics sounds was soo useful. Dd is in yr2, dyspraxic and really struggling with reading. I didn't learn phonics at school so have no idea of how to sound out the words until now. Thank you very much for greatly reducing the frustration tantrums at home reading time.

Reminds me a bit of those bookselling stalls they sometimes have in the school hall, or the brochures children are sometimes given at school, so that the schoool can get commission for selling the books. It rams home the idea that 'supporting your child's education' translates into 'buying stuff'. It just makes me want to throw the moneylenders out of the temple; it makes me want to halt the colonisation of our children's development by marketing interests. One of the attractive features of MN is finding a non-commercial sphere for information - but of course it isn't really.

Ah- you Cat said what I wanted to... just much more succinctly

DD's now in secondary but this wouldn't have helped me when she was in primary. She loves books because dh and I do. She is a fluent and avid reader because she's been read to since the day she was born. Phonics was a waste of time with her too, but the school pushed it so, angst-ridden and ill as I was, I pushed it. Luckily I stopped and read her good books until she was reading them herself. If I had come across this then, it would have compounded my feelings of confusion, misery, distrust of my instincts and inadequacy.

Wouldn't it be better to compile the advice that's already here? Surely with such a fantastic and varied resource available to you it's unnecessary to go outside? You could give percentages of people who recommend a particular resource, point to old threads, current threads and so on. It's more work for you, but ultimately results in better advice for everyone coming here.

It's just an advert isn't it. As soon as I read the phrase "Mumsnet have teamed up with ..." I just think, oh, another advert.

Doesn't seem to work on my phone :( will check it out on the laptop soon

Well I'm not too bothered about the reading thing, but what I would find very useful is an idea of likely topics that will be covered in each year and likely vocabulary/themes.

Too much emphasis on Pearson - very commercial looking page, not very 'Mumsnet'. Really don't need another website asking me to buy something. The link to the Mumsnet education talk bit was most useful for me - as ever, other MNers are a goldmine of brilliant (and brilliantly silly) advice and news.

The info on 7-11 readers was interesting but nothing I haven't read or heard before so not sure if I'll be going back.

P.S. Will be telling my mum 'bout Gransnet!

Unless you are home-educating, or learning about phonics to support your child yourself I'm not sure I see the point. This is what they do in school. As a parent, and a teacher I wouldn't use any of this. It's much better to talk to your children, read with them, do things with them... not worksheets.

There are thousands of websites with similar resources (and better ones). Why is MN trying to do what other sites already do very successfully?

Mine are well past the learning to read stage now, but I thought it might be useful to include a section on books for young fluent readers. Mine finished the reading scheme before the end of year 1 and I struggled to find challenging books that were still age-appropriate. Not G&T, just good readers, iyswim.

Okay, some positive feedback here: it's good for people who don't know anything about learning so as a basic quite, well done :)

For those of us who are already doing it, it's a bit basic - for example, it needs links to home education support groups, it needs information on what will happen in school - what the bloody hell are the 'what colour book is your kid on' question needs answering for one. Oh and that is such a source of angst isn't it? Link it back into talk with a learning support thread.

I in particular struggle to find science (KS1 and preschool level) sourcebooks. And would welcome more info on what is in the NC at this level.

Similarly maths. There's a lot of link ins to other bits of the site (including local Mumsnet) which could be done.

couldn't access through my phone, but I am assuming it is based on the english curriculum? If so, no use to me in scotland...

I found dd only learned to read once we stopped doing phonics so I for one won't be using it with the boys.

dd has come on in leaps and bounds since I've stopped forcing her to sound everything out and just sat with her and supplied the word she needed before she began to struggle.

She now sits down and reads 30/40 page books independently and loves reading whereas before Christmas she couldn't understand what on earth we were asking her and couldn't read at all due to the idiotic phonics system.

Its not really relevant to me as we are in Wales. Different curriculum to England, and as my DC attend a Welsh medium school they learn to read in Welsh first and then in English later (Year 3), by which time the teaching methods are different to Nursery/Reception.

So completely irrelevant really.

I think it's more like an advert than a MN guide. It doesn't have the MN 'feel' that the rest of the site does. I was hoping for something written in the same way as the MN books or the child development e-mails and was disappointed tbh.

I hope it works out well for you but I can't see myself going back for another look anytime soon. Sorry.