Recent Press & Web Coverage

SecEd: Sleepover raises much needed funds

Secondary school students from the UK and America joined together in a sponsored transatlantic "sleepover" to raise money for their schools.

On Friday (May 16) pupils from Woolwich Polytechnic, a boys' comprehensive in London, linked up via video-conference with two high schools in Louisiana as part of a project that aims to give pupils on both sides of the pond an insight into school life in another country and learn more about other cultures.

The project also aimed to encourage reading, with all three schools using Accelerated Reader - an online reading tool.

After the event, Beverley Humphrey, Learning Resource Centre manager and learning gateway co-ordinator at Woolwich, told SecEd: "It went fantastically well. Our boys really enjoyed talking to the Americans, and learned a lot in the process."

MirandaNet: Using Accelerated Reader to raise standards in Literacy

by Bernadette Feery

My research of Accelerated Reader and Think.com has finally come to an end.and what an experience! Within my proposal I did predict that the children would enjoy and learn from this experience - but I did not apprehend how successful it would be.

It was an instant success in terms of encouraging children to read and a positive change had occurred within their attitude towards reading. They were enthusiastic to read, to take the quiz and then to write about it on Think.com. At first it was a selected number of pupils who participated, but the other pupils were constantly asking to participate and stressing how 'unfair' it was - so we adapted the plan to allow the entire class to participate, although I will only focus on those I planned to.

I would like to think that my study provides supporting evidence of the effectiveness of e-learning in a networked ICT set up within a large junior school. Our aim has been to provide opportunities for children to work closely with myself, colleagues, helpers and their parents – motivated by the use of the Accelerated Reader software inspiring high-quality learning and promoting enjoyment whilst improving reading standards.

THE NEWS: Pompey star gets a new sort of booking

by Jenny Haworth

Teachers at a secondary school were astounded when pupils were so engrossed in their books that they hardly looked up when a Pompey footballer walked into the room.

Midfield player Richard Hughes paid a visit to Warblington School in Havant to help celebrate the success of a new reading scheme.

Mr Hughes went into the library in the Southleigh Road school on Thursday to see how the scheme works, but some children were so absorbed in their books they did not even notice he was there.

IF YOU CAN'T READ, YOU CAN'T LEARN

RSA Risk Commission Conference on October 31^st 2007
Remarks by Sir Cyril Taylor GBE

"20% of English 11-year old children do not master the literacy skills needed to achieve the required level 4 at key Stage 2 and that amounts to 120,000 children, and 26% of 14 year-olds don't reach the standard expected in English. Even worse, only 67% of 14 year-old boys achieving the target level 5 at Key Stage 3. That means nearly 100,000 14 year-old boys do not have the required reading and writing skills. In the 2005 National Reading Campaign survey, 20% of the children taking part reported their parents did not help them to read."

"These worrying statistics are of even greater concern because literacy is so important to general learning. It's been estimated that 75% of academic success is predicted by reading ability. As David Blunkett said: If you can't read, you can't learn. Or learn much history. Even science and maths ability depend on one's ability to read. If you can’t read the maths problem you can't solve it. Children must know how to read in order to be able to read to learn."

TES Online: Revolution of talk and new technology

Scottish Learning Festival 2007, SETT, Glasgow
by Douglas Blane

"Take a look around," said Laurie O'Donnell, director of learning and technology at Learning and Teaching Scotland. "What strikes you most is not the technology. It's the groups of teachers talking."

For Arthur Lynas, who teaches at Kelvindale Primary in Glasgow, one talking point was the advances in technology: "Things have moved on a lot since last year," he said. "I like all the new stuff for the Smartboard, and the software on reading and writing from Smart Learning a different company.

"But I've spent most time so far on Accelerated Reader. This uses a computer program to learn what level a child is reading at, then finds books that match their reading level exactly. It's a great idea. A lot of kids don't read because they can't find books at the right level."

HERALD & POST: The reading festival

by Paul McNamara

A year after starting a radical new reading programme [Accelerated Reader by Renaissance Learning], Denbigh Junior School has received an award from the scheme's backers after experiencing dramatic results.

Kerry Sullivan, learning resource coordinator at the school, in charge of running the scheme, is pleased with the Model Library Certification.

The school is overjoyed with the programme's success. Deputy Head Janet Wells said: "We could only hope that the scheme would take off as well here as we'd seen it at other schools."

DAILY MAIL: Adding fun to learning maths

by Susan Elkin

"It's a brilliant way to make sure that each child has really understood a topic such as subtracting money or the relationship between multiplication and division", she* says.

* Christine Shreeves, maths co-ordinator at St Andrew's Primary School in Hitchin, Hertfordshire

SLEAFORD TARGET: School takes lead in reading revolution

"We want to see every pupil reading and enjoying books every day."

Gill Enstone, the school's librarian, said that lending of books had increased by at least 100 percent since the school introduced Accelerated Reader. "The library is becoming central in the learning environment," she said.

DAILY MAIL: Learning to love a good read

by Susan Elkin

Every day of six weeks, 70 pupils at Warblington school have been reading books silently in the library for half an hour. It was part of an experiment to try to improve reading standards at the school in Havant, Hampshire.

It seemed to work - at the end of the six weeks, almost three-quarters of the 11-year-olds had improved their reading by a whole grade on a special scale devised by the National Foundation for Educational Research. Some had shot up by three levels.

The pupils were using Accelerated Reader which uses computer quizzes to monitor reading. So evident were the benefits that parents of those not in the group began to complain that their children were missing out.

NORWICH EVENING NEWS: Pioneering plan for reading is a big hit at school

by David Bale

A pioneering reading intiative which aims to encourage more youngsters to read has been such a success, staff from one school are being flown out to Florida to pick up more tips.

Costessey High School is one of just 19 schools nationwide which has been piloting a new American initiative called the Accelerated Reader Scheme.