The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) recently reported heavy criticism from members regarding the English Key Stage 2 SATS tests, for failing to feature elements of fiction in any of the reading or writing papers. The article published on the NAHT website on 18 May 2011reports a claim that when there is significant emphasis on fiction in the English curriculum, the failure to include narrative writing in the tests, in which boys do not historically perform as well as girls, "smacks of political interference and a bid to increase tests scores".

Do problems at secondary schools reflect on the entry process or wider issues? 

12 parents (the first 2 parents of children in each year group - 1 to 6) taking part in our poll below will win a free 3 month subscription to the right2learn service.

As a father of 3 children who have all been through the 11 plus selection process for grammar school in Kent, and the founder of an online service which aims to support parents in identifying and addressing their children's learning needs, the subject of transition from primary to secondary school, and in particular pre entry exams, is one that I have confronted both personally and professionally on many occasions.

Teachers conduct time saving APP assessments with easy to implement online assessments from Right2Learn:

• Consider significant evidence of pupil's attainment via our online assessments

• Review the evidence online for individual children and the whole class

• Record judgements of children's performance against individual assessment focus and overall subject level at Low, Secure or High along with supporting evidence

After detailed consultation and feedback from a large number of schools using the existing online assessment for learning service, the Right2Learn APP Assessments Online offer a reliable and time saving means to support teachers in their structured approach to APP in-school assessment.

Achieving the right balance of supporting children with their homework is one of the many major challenges faced by parents. However, for schools this can also present its challenges. I have lost count of how many times I have heard from other parents that schools have "got it wrong" or "don't know their child's needs" or asked "why does my child have to do so much dreaded homework?"

One of the questions regularly raised by parents in discussions with right2learn teachers relates to how to provide the right level of support for children with their homework.

There is no quick answer to this question, and of course the right approach will vary for each child, both with regard to their homework and their overall education at school.

The apparent inconsistencies in marking of Standard Attainment Test (SATs) papers for children aged 11 years recently reported by the Daily Mail raise once again the extremely contentious subject of how children's progress is measured, and also how the achievements of schools are evaluated.

In a nutshell, the Right2Learn service enables parents to directly support their children's learning and boost their performance in Maths and English. Parents may subscribe on a monthly basis to the service, and stop whenever they wish. Access allows parents to deliver a series of bite size assessments at home to their child, via the internet.

Children's challenge seeks out the write stuff

THE nation's schoolchildren are putting pen to paper in the hunt for the next JK Rowling. They are being challenged to come up with winning stories by online assessment company Right2Learn and High Street bookseller Waterstone's. Hundreds of pounds in book tokens are on offer to find the country's young writing talent.

The story writing competition came about as a response to an Ofsted report which highlighted standards of written English in primary schools, recommending that teachers use resources such as the internet to improve writing skills.

A short story called “Finn the Fish” involving a whale and a sea monster, written by a former year one pupil of Wittersham CE Primary School in Kent, was recently voted the outright winner in the latest Right2Learn creative writing competition.

In our first short story writing competition, children between the ages of 5 and 11 were invited to submit their entries online to Right2Learn, on the theme of "The best day ever..."

All entries were then displayed in their age groups on the Right2Learn website, and visitors to the site were invited to vote for their favourites in each year group.   

View the entries for the right2learn children's short story writing competition here, and vote for your favourite!

Voters are invited to nominate their favourite entry online for each year group (1 to 6) before 16 July 2010.

The entry in each year group with the most votes after the closing date will receive £20 in book vouchers for the child, and £40 in book vouchers for the school.

Amidst reports of dramatically rising numbers of pupils being taken out of private schools by parents who can no longer afford the fees, it was sadly inevitable that an increasing number of parents would face disappointment on “National Offer Day” and not receive their first choice secondary school for their child.

The recently launched “National Numeracy” charity was reported to claim a large proportion of the working population in England only have primary school maths skills, which adversely affects their ability to find jobs or perform essential tasks, such as paying household bills.