Our new Learning section: need your feedback, please

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Please can we get your musings on our new Learning section, which we've developed with Pearson.

It's going to build month-by-month to cover the early years and primary curriculum. It started with phonics and reading. Literacy is coming shortly, and then maths and other topics. As well as articles, there are videos, print-off activity sheets and eBooks.

So please have a browse, if you haven't already, and let us know what you reckon. We're all ears

Thanks v much everybody who has posted, we appreciate it. Pearson are also keeping an eye on this thread, and we're talking to them about your feedback and what we need to tweak/change etc.

And please feel free to add other comments, as and when.

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

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 .

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

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.

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.

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.