Renaissance

Renaissance is a leading provider of cloud-based assessments for over 1.5 million students of all ages, in more than 6,000 schools in the UK & Ireland.

Renaissance Accelerated Reader and Renaissance Accelerated Maths programmes personalise practice for every student, motivating them to make progress and allowing teachers accurately to monitor their growth.

Renaissance Star Assessments for reading, maths and early learning incorporate learning progressions developed by experts at NFER – so they identify not only the skills students know but also the skills they are ready to learn next..

For more information, visit www.renlearn.co.uk or email answers@renlearn.co.uk.  

Latest Offers

Free access to myON this summer!

To help ‘keep students reading’ all summer long no matter where they are in the UK and Ireland, we are offering free, limited access to thousands of enhanced digital myON books and myON News articles throughout the holidays.

What’s more, no matter where your school is located, your students will also receive exclusive access to a Publisher Pack from either Sweet CherryCranachanFirefly Press or O’Brien Press, depending on your location. Plus, we will be awarding students’ certificates of participation and prizes to schools in each country!

To register for your free access all summer - follow this link: https://www.renlearn.co.uk/free-summer-reading/

Testimonials

Accelerated Reader & Star Reading North East

The Rydal Academy, Darlington

AR has significantly increased pupils enthusiasm for reading. It guides daily curricular reading, clubs, homework and is now ingrained in the schools practices.

Since introducing AR Reading ages and SATs outcomes have improved. Pupils are now enthusiastic readers. Plus, Star Reading has supported our planning, SEN identification and tracking We use it to specifically identify gaps in learning.

We have gone from a school of reluctant readers to reading over 130 million words a year.

Accelerated Reader & Star Reading North East

Rose Wood Academy, Middlesbrough

The biggest impact we’ve seen since introducing AR & Star Reading has been the number of children taking quizzes and the recognition of high impact, quality texts for reading. It helps with learning as teachers can print off a whole class diagnostic report once a week which is shared with children.

Since introducing Accelerated Reader we’ve noticed that children are more keen to read - wanting to score well and really thinking about their responses.

Star Reading has supported our staff mostly due to the accuracy on tests and knowing which children to target for interventions.

Both Accelerated reader and Star Reading have had a great impact on reading in school so far and the tests and in school rewards we give based on these outcomes help children to want to become better readers.

Accelerated Reader & Star Reading North East

Nunthorpe Academy, Redcar and Cleveland

Using STAR testing we are able to monitor all KS3 students' progress and easily identify students who need some form of intervention. This means we're able to keep a forward momentum throughout KS3 and help continue the good work begun at Primary. Through AR we are able to monitor that students are actually reading 20 minutes per day as instructed (combination of lessons, form time and homework) and that they are reading within their ZPD. The impact is seen throughout the school in all subjects and all year groups as they progress through the school.

We needed a far more efficient way of discovering students' reading ages without simply giving them all the same paper test which did not differentiate for ability and was also incredibly time consuming to mark. On top of this, once we knew the reading ages we need a simple effective way of knowing whether students were actually reading or simply taking a book for the lesson, reading the middle and replacing it - never reading a book from beginning to end.

All students in KS3 are STAR tested at the beginning of every term. Students have one literacy lesson per week where they read and their quizzes are monitored by the class teacher. Students are able to quiz during their literacy lesson and have access to Kindles for quizzing in the school library every day.

A huge increase of books being loaned from the library. It's no longer uncool to carry a book around school as all KS3 students are required to have a book. A big increase in interest around books - conversations about which books are interesting or easy or funny, etcetera.

We use the Screening Reports to help identify students who need intervention. We use the Growth Reports to monitor students' progress. For intervention groups we use the Reading Dashboard to identify which areas they need help with.

It has raised the profile and importance of literacy across the whole school, raised the literacy skills of students across the school and made reading more than just acceptable - students now see it as fun and get excited about new books and author events

myON Ticks all the Boxes

St John’s Catholic School & Sixth Form College, County Durham, have been using myON, the digital library from Renaissance, since 2021 to support the reading development strategy of all students across key stage 3.

 

St John’s School & Six Form College – myON Impact Report

Since August 2021, the students at St John’s Catholic School & Sixth Form College have read more than 30,000 minutes of myON digital books, equating to more than 5.5 million words read!

Following these amazing statistics, we got in touch with Learning Resource Centre Manager Linzi, who explained how myON had become such an integral part of the school’s reading routine.

Linzi explains:

I was asked to trial myON to feedback to the schools within our multi-academy trust. Following the success and impact myON had with our students, we now use it all the time, including during a weekly timetabled reading lesson with Year 7. In this lesson, students can choose whether they want to read a book in the library or read their digital texts on myON.

 

St John’s School & Six Form College – myON Impact Report

With myON, I can also set projects for intervention groups. Setting the projects guides students to more subject and age-appropriate books. I believe that getting students engaged in their reading and helping contextualise their learning is the key to success with myON.

“Getting students engaged in their reading and helping contextualise their learning, is the key to success with myON.”

myON allows me to support my small nurture groups. For example, we were doing a project on the Holocaust, so I looked at the relevant texts on myON and assigned them to the group using myON projects to facilitate the learning.

I’m also surprised by how many students use myON at home. When we had children who were isolating, it was easy to set reading assignments and specific texts to read on myON to support learning from home; this was especially beneficial if students didn’t have books at home, which many of our students don’t.

Our students find myON incredibly easy to access and use. I’ve set up all their profiles with the same usernames and passwords as their Accelerated Reader accounts. Therefore, students have the same login credentials to access their entire reading profile. So now, all the information about their reading age, development, book interests and suggestions are all in one place.

“For reluctant readers and those who aren’t typically enthusiastic about reading, myON is an amazing tool.”

For reluctant readers and those who aren’t typically enthusiastic about reading, myON is an amazing tool. It works like an Amazon or Netflix profile; when they log into their myON profile, they can see which books they’ve read and have book suggestions given to them.

Furthermore, because we have myON linked to Star Reading, students will also find their current ZPD range and reading progress information within their profile. Having this information available encourages students to take ownership of their reading development.

Sometimes I think there is a stigma attached to using a library, especially for some boys and they have no motivation to come into the library, pick a book off the shelf and just start reading; but now if they’re reading on a computer, reading becomes more accessible and exciting for them.

“Now they run into the library, grab a Chromebook, open up myON, and are engaged for the whole hour!”

I have to say it’s mostly boys who are excited to read with myON, and it’s mostly the boys who said in September that they hated reading! Now they run into the library, grab a Chromebook, open up myON, and are engaged for the whole hour! Even more satisfying is listening to them recommend books to their friends.

 

St John’s School & Six Form College – myON Impact Report

Many of our low-level readers enjoy using myON and the audio function. We’ve got headphones in the library so students can listen and follow a text as the words are being said aloud. In addition, the corresponding words are highlighted as they’re read by the narrator, which can be slowed down or sped up to meet the student’s unique requirements. This is a great function for our EAL students too.

I also encourage students to use the tools on myON, allowing students to highlight words if they need a specific colour overlay for reading. Similarly, students know that they can click on any word within a myON text and view a dictionary definition and a thesaurus of synonyms for the respective word.

“For a secondary school, myON has ticked all of the aims that we had as a school by promoting reading for pleasure and encouraging students to read more non-fiction.”

At the beginning of every term, I hold a reminder session for students showing them how to use all of the various helpful tools and features in myON. This top-up session ensures every student gets the most out of myON for their own individual needs.

The key to myON’s success in our schools is that students and staff have been shown how to use it correctly and that everyone is aware that myON isn’t just for use in the library or during English lessons – it’s a cross-curricular tool. Our MFL teachers love the books that students can read and listen to in Spanish.

I also wanted to encourage students to read around the topics they are studying. So, for example, if students are studying something in history or science, I can recommend and assign informative non-fiction texts on that subject for further reading.

I’m confident that our students who don’t have access to books at home will have an opportunity to read throughout the summer with myON. What’s more, I can monitor how much reading engagement they’re generating throughout the holidays.

 

St John’s School & Six Form College – myON Impact Report

For a secondary school, myON has helped to fulfil our requirements of promoting reading for pleasure, encouraging students to read more non-fiction and supporting learning across the curriculum.

To find out how your school can use myON to support your reading development strategy, click here.