Search Results for: 2024
Accelerated Reader and Redhill Academy Trust’s reading revolution
Redhill Academy Trust is building a reading culture that has transformed literacy across its 10 secondary schools, doubling national reading enjoyment levels. Discover how daily DEAR time, inclusive libraries, and student voice are helping to inspire young readers and create lasting reading habits. Read More
Q&A with author Jan Dunning on writing for YA readers
In July, some of us from the UK Content team were delighted to attend the London book launch for The Last Thing You’ll Hear, the second novel by YA author Jan Dunning. This was especially exciting because many of us have worked with Jan when she was a freelance quiz… Read More
Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day with novels in verse
Poem in Your Pocket Day, which is on the 10th of April this year, is a day when people celebrate poetry by carrying around a poem they’ve selected and sharing it with others. Non-narrative poems themselves are not usually quizzable for Accelerated Reader, as they wouldn’t form a true test… Read More
Fostering a Love of Reading: Insights from Tracey Frohawk
Tracey Frohawk, the Trust Librarian for Learning Without Limits Academy Trust in Leicestershire has been instrumental in implementing Renaissance Solutions like Accelerated Reader, Star Reading and myON across three secondary schools and two primary schools. Her practices have significantly boosted literacy and fostered a love of reading among pupils. In this blog, we explore how Tracey has created a vibrant reading culture, engaged pupils through responsibility, and supported all reading levels. Read More
Reading for nourishment: Insights from Jeffrey Boakye
Jeffrey Boakye is best known for his works that explore themes of identity, race, and social justice. His notable book, "Musical Truth: A Musical Journey Through Modern Black Britain," won the Accelerated Reader Quiz Writers' Choice Secondary Non-Fiction Award, highlighting his impact on readers and educators alike. Margaret Allen, Customer Advocacy Manager at Renaissance, interviewed Jeffrey on the benefits of reading and why our perspective on it needs to change. Read More
How to Spark a Love of Reading in Pupils
Recent reports show a worrying decline in pupils' reading habits. Our latest What Kids Are Reading Report found a 4.4% drop in the number of books read by over 1.2 million pupils across the UK and Ireland, from Year 1 to Year 11. Read More
SATs Paper Analysis
Back in 2021, we first shared some analysis we’d completed in a post entitled ‘ATOS & SATs – the perfect match’, which looked at the reading ability children required to comprehend the questions posed in the papers. For almost every year since both SATs and GCSE papers were available, we have continued to complete this analysis, and it is always well received by our customers – even if the results can be surprising. Read More
10 Cosy Winter Reads
As the days get shorter and the year draws to a close, we are all looking for ways to escape the winter chill. If you’re like any of us on the Content Team, you’ll try anything to keep the cold out and the warmth in. This year, why not grab… Read More
Transforming literacy across Learning Without Limits Academy Trust with Accelerated Reader
When I first came on board as the Trust Librarian for Learning Without Limits Academy Trust, one of my main challenges was to ensure that reading and literacy initiatives across all our schools were cohesive and effectively managed. Our CEO had worked with Accelerated Reader (AR) before and knew… Read More
Focus Skills Visualization
About Renaissance Focus Skills Available exclusively from Renaissance, Focus Skills™ are simply put the building blocks of student learning. Based on extensive research into how learning progresses in reading and maths from Reception to Year 11, Focus Skills provide a roadmap for closing learning gaps for all students. Critical Focus Skills are… Read More