The annual ‘What Kids Are Reading Report’ from learning and assessment provider Renaissance Learning reveals the number of books read by children this year has increased again year on year, while comprehension levels remain high.

The study of over 1 million pupils across the UK and Ireland shows that pupils read 11% more books than the previous year. The books they read matched the increased difficulty found in last year’s report and comprehension levels stayed the same as achieved in 2021.

Reading enjoyment

Additionally presented in the report are findings from a survey of 42,502 pupils by the National Literacy Trust (NLT). Previous data from the NLT found that children’s enjoyment of reading was at an all-time low at the beginning of 2020 but that this trend was reversed dramatically during lockdown – where reading for pleasure increased for the first time since 2016.

While this year’s enjoyment levels have not quite reached the heights they did during school closures (56%), the latest NLT data continues to show an improvement on pre-pandemic levels with just over half of children and young people aged 8-18 still saying they enjoyed reading either very much (21.6%) or quite a lot (29.9%).

Primary to secondary slump

In primary school pupils read harder books as they get older, but during secondary school this declines. Older pupils in secondary school were still reading the same difficulty of books as upper primary pupils. Pupils in primary schools also consistently showed a much higher quality of comprehension when reading (79% to 83%) than pupils in secondary schools (67% to 73%). And this comes despite secondary pupils reading books that were only as difficult as those the primary school pupils were reading. It is striking how, from Year 7, the difficulty of favoured books declines sharply, with the transfer to secondary school having a significant effect even on highly motivated readers.

Favourite books and authors

From 2021 to 2022 there was little change in most popular authors in primary schools, except Julia Donaldson became a little less popular and Roderick Hunt bounced back to a degree. Jeff Kinney, David Walliams and Roald Dahl remained popular. J. K. Rowling re-emerged as a top five most popular author.

Readers can vote for their favourite books after finishing the book. J.K Rowling dominates the list of favourite books within primary schools, with her Harry Potter titles taking the top 3 spots. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows comes out on top, with Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban second, and Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix third.

There are more changes in secondary schools, Rick Riordan has been knocked off the top spot this year and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson takes the crown as the favourite book read by secondary pupils. All of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series also entered the top ten for the first time.

The ‘What Kids Are Reading Report’ was written using Renaissance data analysed by University of Dundee academic Professor Keith Topping. Professor Keith Topping, the principal author of this report, is also the author of the upcoming publication about AR Improving reading comprehension of self-chosen books through computer assessment and feedback: Best practices from research.

Professor Keith Topping comments: “As schools return to something like normal, Accelerated Reader has continued to maintain and even increase reading activity in children and young people. We see clearly from the evidence that time spent reading books is crucial to improved reading skill, an essential transferable skill for the future. Children with high quality comprehension of real books also perform better on tests of reading skill. This is excellent, but more attention to communicating favourite books between peers would increase it even further.”

John Moore, Managing Director of Renaissance UK and Australia said: “The past year has continued to be challenging as pupils adjust to post-pandemic life and most return full time to school. We know books and reading have provided millions of pupils with comfort and escapism and we’re delighted to see this passion continuing, with pupils overall reading 11% more books over the last academic year.

“At Renaissance we understand the important role reading plays not only in a child’s learning, but also in their overall development and wellbeing. Books have never been more accessible than they are today, from visiting local libraries and bookstores to accessing books on myON or Accelerated Reader. This report highlights how important it is that everyone has access to a wide range of books that ignite their own personal passions so each child gets the most out of the opportunities for development that a love of reading can embed.”

Dr Christina Clark, Head of Research at the National Literacy Trust, comments: “The National Literacy Trust are delighted to contribute to this annual report with Renaissance Learning. It is heartening to see in our research that more children and young people said in 2021 that they enjoy reading compared with early 2020.  Our data also suggests that Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader (AR) programme can be a valuable tool for sustaining the enthusiasm for reading during lockdown, as we found that more children and young people who use AR said that they enjoy reading, and that this is particularly the case for boys."

A copy of the full report can be found here: www.whatkidsarereading.co.uk

With 75% of UK state secondary schools signed up to the National Theatre Collection, ten additional productions will now be available to schools, colleges and educational establishments from today in partnership with Bloomsbury Publishing and ProQuest, part of Clarivate. These ten new productions will complete the second Collection, making 50 titles available to the education sector worldwide.

I’m not afraid to admit my love for Shakespeare. It fascinates me how his prose and poetry can still resonate in society centuries after its intended audience were first exposed to his work. I also appreciate the stylistic sophistication of the 19th Century fiction, with the vivid descriptions and intricacies all finely laid out like a fine-dining suite: a feast of refinery, debauchery and social injustice for all to see.

Primary school teachers keen to secure better outcomes in English can now access the new improved ReadingZone Live website, featuring over 1,000 videos of famous children’s authors discussing their writing process, the reasoning behind it and why and how they developed their characters – exciting viewing designed to encourage children to put themselves in the shoes of the author and to develop their own writing skills.

In recent weeks, I’ve found the idiom ‘how long is a piece of string?’ has entered my daily vocabulary. With parents, students, teachers and even Joyce next door all asking ‘how long will this last, do you reckon?’, it seems the monotony is getting to everyone. Throw into the mix the demands of home learning and progress concerns, and we’ve got a seemingly endless summer of stress coming our way… so how can we ease that stress, and dare I say it, even try to enjoy some of this time? 

The current education system in England has found itself under increasing scrutiny for the one-size-fits-all nature it has adopted, with many believing the focus on rigid testing is having a detrimental effect on students’ wellbeing and progress in schools. This has culminated in Ofsted shifting its focus on assessment in the new inspection framework to introduce a more personalised, balanced and inclusive approach that prioritises ‘intent, implementation and impact’. 

Your own continuing professional development (CPD) is absolutely vital to you as a teacher. Working in education is not a job that you just turn up and ‘do’: with ever-changing examination specifications, curriculum re-mapping and emerging research that causes us to revisit the way in which we teach, you cannot afford to disregard the importance of self-investment.

But training costs, right? Wrong! Granted, the squeeze on budgets grows tighter by the year, and schools often look to larger organisations to host or run their INSET, but this often has a whole-school focus, which may not always completely match up to or accommodate for your own professional development goals. However, there are a range of time-effective approaches that you can use to direct your own professional development this year.

Read for impact

I aim to read a small number of books with an educational focus each year, and this number has lessened with each year that I teach. I also look back and feel that perhaps a great deal of what I have read was simply wasted time. Why? I was not as focused, and I didn’t embed certain ideals or concepts within my own teaching as a result. In addition, some of the books that I picked up were perhaps not relevant to my role at the time. For instance, reading a book about leadership may be interesting at best, but if leadership is not an area that I want to pursue in the near future, is that the best way to spend my time?

Meek's take on reading is fascinating. Would be brilliant to collate a list of books based upon narrative experimentation for this alone: pic.twitter.com/aVr5LEpcvD

— Kat Howard (@SaysMiss) February 15, 2017

Now, I try to use two strategies when selecting reading for professional development: What is the focus? How will I use it? Read with a specific aspect of your teaching that you want to improve upon in mind or become more informed towards. Consequently, consider the practical ways that you will implement what you have read. This doesn’t need to be a monumental change; it may simply be a resource created that uses a particular model. Evidenced-based teaching need not be a laborious piece of action research, but can just take the shape of trying something out then reflecting upon it afterwards. You will find that you have made the purpose of your reading meaningful, additionally weighing up how effective it is on a day-to-day basis within your practice.

A summary of how I have use evidenced based teaching to streamline my practice and #ReduceMyWorkload #TENC18 #teamenglish pic.twitter.com/Yt1KoJq6AI

— Kat Howard (@SaysMiss) July 14, 2018

Look local

When seeking out ways to improve as an English teacher, particularly when it comes to subject knowledge, I have found a secret treasure-trove of outlets locally to assist me. From visiting National Trust properties for contextual knowledge, to public lectures at local universities to broaden my authorial understanding, there are a range of ways to grow your learning bank without straying far from home or attending a large, costly conference.

Out walking dusk today! @nationaltrust #teacher5aday pic.twitter.com/M6iPm7NX2P

— Kat Howard (@SaysMiss) December 27, 2016

Over and above that, setting up visits to local schools is a fantastic approach to specific CPD that will reap reward in both budget and time; in my experience, the professional discussions and relationships that evolve from such visits are so valuable. You may go with a particular focus related to the professional goals outlined by yourself at the start of the year, and walk away with so much more than that, with someone at the end of an email for guidance and support to boot.

Build a network

Working as a teacher lends itself easily to working in isolation: losing your days to planning, teaching and marking, with the interactions with colleagues being brief greetings in the corridor or directed meetings that have a specific agenda. However, collaboration is key to successful to personal progression, and if you have a particular goal in mind for the year ahead, share it with those around you. This will act as a starting point to exploring if others would like to team up in working on a project or research over the year ahead.

Collaboration will save the teaching profession! More here ⬇️ https://t.co/FIiqNlu3JK

— Kat Howard (@SaysMiss) July 20, 2018

For example, as an English teacher, I enjoy connecting with Maths or ICT teachers when piloting a new idea; usually because their skills are useful, but to have a cross-curricular view of how a strategy or approach would work outside of my own subject is really beneficial when evaluating.

Alternatively, you may coordinate a whole-school role and would like to support in how others in a similar role approach certain challenges or obstacles. Twitter was a fantastic place to seek out other literacy coordinators when I first took up the post; sharing action plans or discussing how we could collaboratively work on initiatives was fantastic for time-saving, mutually advantageous CPD.

Source a coach - and coach in return!

Peer coaching is quite possibly the most valuable method of professional development that I have undertaken during my time as a teacher. As a result of the fantastic coaching provision that the MTPT Project provided to me during my maternity leave, I am nearing the end of my first year as a coachee and will shortly receive accreditation that I can then use to direct appraisal discussion for this year. When setting up LitdriveCPD, a free coaching tool for the approaching academic year, my inbox was full of nervous-yet-enthusiastic teachers, excited and willing to sign up but worried that they didn’t have the required skills. Yet, as teachers, we coach every day: students, feedback provided to colleagues, ourselves even.

Find someone, either within your own school or one that you may network with locally, and see if they would be interested in informal peer coaching for the year. This could simply be three discussions over the year, with the focus upon you both forming your own goals, then exploring how you may work towards achieving them. The coaching role could be as detached or involved as both parties feel is necessary or appropriate, but the process of sounding out ideas with someone else working within the teaching profession could be really powerful to aid both your growth as a teacher, but someone else’s as well.

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

Have you ever found yourself marking the same pupil responses over and over? You asked them to be creative; you asked them to use their imagination. Instead, they regurgitate countless clichés onto their pages, leaving you wishing you hadn’t bothered.

“The sky was blue.”

“Really?” I thought, as I read this for the thirty-second time. Now, I get that the sky is blue, but it can be so much more. Vocabulary can be a sticking point when it comes to creativity. You can only create using the knowledge that you have. Therefore, if you have a limited vocabulary to begin with, chances are that the sky will remain blue and your creative writing will remain dull. I had two problems that I wanted to tackle that week. My classroom was as dull as the pupils’ writing - could I kill two birds with one stone?

The solution came during a discussion with our specific educational needs expert, classroom assistant Lisa Heart. As a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, she was leafing through one of his books and explaining to me how she loved his descriptions of colour.

“Theo, what a great thing tone and colour are! And anyone who doesn’t acquire a feeling for it, how far removed from life he will remain!”  - Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo

If only our pupils could describe colour like Vincent Van Gogh, we thought… and an idea sprang!

The set up

With Van Gogh as our inspiration, we wanted to create a classroom that inspired through colour. We wanted to create a room that felt like you were entering an art gallery. It should inspire conversation and ooze with rich vocabulary that would be easy to pick up and use. Lisa headed off to the local B&Q to gather every colour that the paint companies had to offer. She also worked on creating mini colour charts that included gradients of the main colour palletes linked to objects and feelings. We collaborated to create our classroom of colour, complete with images for stimulation, colourful materials as a talking point and examples of writing that went way beyond “The sky is blue.”

The introduction

Standing at the classroom door, I held a box full of pebbles. On the board was the question: “What colour is your pebble?”

Each child was handed a pebble as they entered the room and asked to consider their starting question. When I took in their responses, they consisted of grey, black and brown. How inspiring!

On each desk was a colour chart card. I asked the children to take hold of these. They had 30 seconds to write down the colour on the card before passing it on and writing down the next colour again and again. Their pages began filling up with words like ruby, sapphire, dazzling, powder, opaque and so on. After a few minutes, I asked them to stop and compare the colours on their pages to the colours they had chosen for their pebbles. They could see the difference. They recognised the need to gather more vocabulary for their colours. Stage one was complete.

The exploration

To see how real writers used colour, the children explored different stories, plays and, of course, the letters of Van Gogh. How did other writers use colour in their work? They experimented with images that we found online and tried out the new vocabulary gathered from the colour charts. It was important to allow the children freedom to explore, but equally as important to critique their creations.

Some children had produced wonderful descriptions: “The opaque water shimmered a silvery sheen against the coral moon.” Others needed work: “The so snazzy, antique gold was pinky purple in the blue light.” Some had thrown the whole paint pallet in without consideration of the effect upon readers. By listening to each other’s descriptions and exploring the effect that it had on us as listeners, we were able to develop some special and unique sentences.

Practice, practice, practice

At least once a week, we would have a go at describing different images as a starter to our lessons. Success came when they began asking me if they could get out of their seats to use the walls. They would get handfuls of colour charts to choose appropriate vocabulary for their descriptions. They would read the examples and use them to form their own sentences and I even found adaptations (not copies) of Van Gogh’s work in their own writing. If we had only one colour lesson and the colours had gone back into a box, never to be used again, we would not have had as much success as we did. We had to practice!

About one month after creating the colour room, I once again gave every child a pebble asking, what colour is your pebble? The responses this time were astounding. Those children could work for Dulux! They had stopped seeing the obvious first answer and were now drawing upon a much richer vocabulary to describe the everyday. The vocabulary was not limited to their writing either. The colour room inspired conversations about the colour of characters’ moods in novels, choices made by Shakespeare to characterise through colour and exploring how writers used colours differently.

The colour room was a platform for accelerating creativity through sparking conversation, practising new vocabulary regularly and creating a safe space to experiment and explore. Collaborating to create a space that allowed creativity to grow was a joy! The next time you read the words, the sky is blue… look up at your classroom walls and ask yourself, could you collaborate to create a colour room that inspires? We did and we loved it!  

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

I’ve been teaching one to one literacy for years now. I recall saying to parents (and I inwardly cringe at this memory) that spelling isn’t really that important and skills like reading, planning and understanding exam and essay questions should take priority. Spelling is something which can be overcome by spell check and predictive text. It is a waste of time learning how to spell, as it is the one skill - in my experience - that is the hardest thing to crack.

Pupils who struggle with spelling may get a rule for how to spell a word one week, only for said rule to disappear the week after. It can even happen in the same piece of writing. It is such a laborious process, and for pupils who find many elements of literacy difficult, spelling seems the easiest one to drop and avoid. However... avoiding spelling is doing the child or young person a complete disservice. Although it may be true that spell check will help in the future, that doesn’t change the classroom they are returning to; where they are likely to still handwrite their answers, have their presentation, grammar and spelling marked, and participate in group activities where they may have to write.

Spelling is therefore a must, but what do you choose to focus on? The general approach in the classroom is Key Stage lists and learning a few words a week. For children who need to see a word more frequently, and revisit those words regularly, this approach is not effective for long-term retention. A missing component of this approach is the understanding of that word and seeing it in context. Year 2 lists contain words such as improve and sure. Year 6 has some humdingers like hindrance and sacrifice.

I am a fervent supporter of developing a child’s vocabulary and enriching their communication skills with an increased lexicon, but how much time is invested in exploring these words? Children may perform well on spelling tests but not apply these words to their writing, which is surely the end goal?

One approach can be to support the teaching of the class lists, but breaking them down in more detail, understanding their meaning, using them in context and repeating them frequently. Still, this approach doesn’t feel quite right. Although it is reinforcing the class teaching and therefore has more curriculum relevance, it does not feel specific enough to the child or young person I am working with. It is likely that if they struggle with spelling that the age-appropriate list is too difficult for them, and that they will have missed a lot of key words.

Perhaps the teaching of key words is the way forward, with teaching becoming more tailored to the child, but it’s still not quite there or right for some of my pupils. I then discovered the most commonly misspelt word list. Surely if you can crack these, then you’re onto a winner. The bonus of using this word list is it’s not age-specific, it has a finite number of words on it, and the pupil can self-identify those that are tricky. Bingo! And what’s more, the words are popular and can be used in a variety of subjects. The one teensy drawback is that someone, somewhere has compiled it. I have no assurance that these are, in fact, the most commonly misspelt words. Putting that limiting thought to the back of my mind, I press on using these words to teach spelling.

Having looked at the ‘what’ and the next thing to tackle is the how.

I am conscious that spelling is most of my pupils’ Achilles heel, and having to struggle to spell words in front of anyone can be inhibiting. My first technique is therefore active, fun, and starts with a high success rate. This may take some explaining, but I will do my best.

Using up to 10 of the words chosen, write them on Post-its and, when the pupil is out of the classroom (this works best during a one to one), stick the words around the room. The pupil has to write the words on a whiteboard or large piece of paper without removing the word from its spot. They can revisit and look at it as many times as they need. When they have written them all, they can check their accuracy and hopefully tick them all off as correct. You collect the words as they check their work.

Next, you create a map of the room (technical drawing expertise is not necessary, nor is a huge amount of detail), making sure you include any furniture on which a word was placed. When complete, the pupil then marks with an X where the words were. Hopefully, they will look around the room and maybe even revisit places to jog their memory, visualising the previous set up.

Okay, everyone still with me? This is about memory and recall, and can be applied to revision strategies too. Once they have done this, the final step is to try and recall where the words were and spell them correctly. At this stage, the spelling is only part of a fun activity; the expectation and pressure have been completely lifted as their attention is on remembering the location of the words. I have found this to be the most fun I’ve had teaching spelling and pupils’ accuracy on this final activity is high. They leave having spelt words they’ve previously struggled with and had a really enjoyable, fun lesson. Follow-on activities around finding the words in text, writing them in shared stories and writing definitions can all then be explored.

Essentially, any method of identifying words - be it through assessment, word lists or key words and the subsequent instruction in learning how to spell - has to suit the child that you are working with. Some need to go right back to basics with phonic instruction and building words, whereas others appreciate the etymological approach. It is absolutely necessary* to know your pupil. Always keep in mind what works for them as an individual, all the while making fun and creativity a priority.

_{*Here's a spelling mnemonic for this ever-tricky word: 'Never Eat Crisps Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young'}

Want to receive cutting-edge insights from leading educators each week? Sign up to our Community Update and be part of the action!

“What is the one thing you have all done without thinking about it - without questioning why you are doing it?”

This is the question Andy Daly-Smith, a senior lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, asks the 40+ school leaders in the room. There are various responses, some more sensible than others, till the answer, “sitting down” is offered.