Heathwood Lower School has used The Complete Literacy Solution from Renaissance since 2022. With a combination of Accelerated Reader, Star Reading and myON, the school has all the tools to promote reading engagement and practice and accurately assess pupils’ reading progress throughout the academic year.
By the end of the 21/22 academic year, we discovered that the pupils at Heathwood Lower School had read more than four million words on myON alone.
Following this phenomenal achievement, we got in touch with Headteacher Susanne and English Lead Paul to discover why the school implemented myON as part of their daily reading strategy and its impact on the reading engagement and development of the pupils at Heathwood Lower School.
Heathwood Lower School in Bedfordshire has been achieving great success with their reading programme, thanks partly to the adoption of myON. Despite being a small school with only 120 students, Heathwood strongly emphasises daily reading and recently revamped its library with the help of the PTA.
“It is like a Library, but you don’t get stuck in traffic, you can get books wherever you want and put them in your favourites.”
Pupil
By adopting myON, the school has unlocked Accelerated Reader (AR) book quizzes, allowing students to easily complete quizzes from home. The school has also implemented the sunflower scheme from AR, where students’ reading proficiency is tracked and represented by the growth of sunflowers throughout the library. Each time students complete an AR book quiz, they receive a petal for their sunflower.
“Students have been particularly excited about using myON at home to easily complete their AR book quizzes.”
Students have been particularly excited about using myON at home to easily complete their AR book quizzes. The staff also enjoys using AR and Star Reading data to track their student’s progress over the half-term break and identify which students may need more support or intervention.
The school’s reading data is impressive, with a clear student progress and development line. Heathwood’s school leaders review the progress data each month and use the information to provide appropriate intervention to students who need it and to set reading targets for those who can still achieve further.
“I love myON, my favourite subject is Reading. myON helps me search for a book rather than go to a Library.”
– Pupil
The instant and concise data from Star Reading assessments informs efficient intervention strategies for class teachers. Additionally, the “read aloud” feature of myON has proven to be a valuable tool for students with special education needs, allowing them to access and engage with books more easily.
“Overall, the adoption of myON has made reading more accessible for all students and has contributed to the school’s strong and sustained whole-school reading culture.”
“I love reading books, it helps me to learn new words; you can highlight them and look them up in the myON dictionary; you can make the text bigger so you can see it more easily.”
– Pupil
Overall, the adoption of myON has made reading more accessible for all students and has contributed to the school’s strong and sustained whole-school reading culture. Students can now choose their own books from the wide range of options that myON provides; all matched to their level of ability and interest. The school only regrets not introducing myON sooner and believes that if students are going to be using digital devices at home, they may as well be interacting with reading development programmes like myON.
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