S Y E A R What Kids Are Reading ANNIVERSARY www.whatkidsarereading.co.uk I T I O D N E 2018 E D N I T I O 963,678 4,364 UK Primary & Secondary children schools Discover B O K S regional O variations 18,044,078 222,325,703,048 words Reflections Most read Titles on Reading YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5 YEAR 6 YEAR 7 YEAR 8 YEAR 9-11 from popular children’s Authors Top schools share Jeff Kinney Roald Dahl Roald Double Down Double The Twits The Roald Dahl Jeff Kinney The Gruffalo The Roderick Hunt John Steinbeck John David Walliams David The Magic Finger The Roderick Hunt Roderick Hunt Roderick Of Mice and Men Of Mice and David Walliams David Julia Donaldson Diary Kid: of a Wimpy their reading Gangsta Granny Gangsta Village in the Snow Village in the The Midnight Gang The Village in the Snow Village in the Diary Kid of a Wimpy Village in the Snow Village in the successes Pick up your FREE Summary of the Key Findings! The Book-Reading Habits of Pupils in British and Irish Schools 2018 A summary of the findings of an independent study by Professor Keith Topping Professor of DownloadEducational the andfull report Social for Research, at www.whatkidsarereading.co.uk School of Education, University of Dundee. whatkidsarereading.co.uk Contents Introduction: Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK 3 About the Author, Professor Keither Topping 4 Foreword: Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust 5 How It Works 6 More about Renaissance Accelerated Reader 7 Summary of Key Findings 8 School Spotlight: Scoil Chríost Rí , Ireland 9 Reflections on Reading: Tom McLaughlin 10 Section One: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often 11-15 Reflections on Reading: Piers Torday 16 Section Two: Overall Popularity of Authors 17 Reflections on Reading: Julian Clary 17 School Spotlight: Florence Melly Community Primary School, England 18 Reflections on Reading: Gerard Siggins 19 Section Three: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often 20-21 Accelerated Reader Best Practices 22 School Spotlight: Mountain Ash Comprehensive School, Wales 23 Reflections on Reading: A.F. Harrold 24 Section Four: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often 25-26 How an Accelerated Reader Quiz is Written 27 Reflections on Reading: Alex Wheatle 28 Section Five: Most Read Non-Fiction Books 29-30 Reflections on Reading: Holly Bourne 31 Section Six: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading 32 School Spotlight: The Telford Park School and Telford Langley School, England 33 Section Seven: Voting for Favourite Books 34-36 Reflections on Reading: Julie Mayhew 37 Section Eight: Regional Variation in Reading Habits 38-39 Reflections on Reading: Peter Usborne 40 Full Conclusion and Recommendations 41-44 Appendices -Appendix A: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Overall Summary 46 -Appendix B: Books Kids Are Reading Most Often: Top 20 Titles for Boys and Girls in Years 1-11 47-55 -Appendix C: Most Popular Authors 56-57 -Appendix D: Books High-Achieving Kids Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 58-64 -Appendix E: Books Struggling Readers Read Most Often: Top 20 Titles in Years 5 – 9 65-69 -Appendix F: Most Read Non-fiction Books: opT 20 Titles in Years 3 – 9 70-76 -Appendix G: Developmental Trends in Fiction/Non-fiction Reading 77-80 -Appendix H: Voting for Favourite Books: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 81-90 -Appendix I: Regional Variation in Reading Habits: Top 20 Titles in Years 1 – 11 91-99 *Introduction, Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK Welcome to the 10th edition of the What Kids Are Reading report! We’re proud to present this 10th anniversary edition: the largest study of its kind into the reading habits of schoolchildren from across the UK and – for the first time – The Republic of Ireland. Conducted by Professor Keith Topping, this year’s edition features data from almost 1 million children from well over 4,000 schools. Together, over the last academic year these children read more than 18 million books and 222 billion words. So, on average: Just under 19 books each 230,712 words per student Congratulations to them for their achievements! Professor Topping’s research again provides unique insight into literary trends across year group, region, gender, non-fiction classification and ability. We’d also like to thank the celebrated authors who have taken the time to provide their reflections on reading, and the featured schools for sharing their literacy experiences. These schools represent a range of communities, and each of them has excelled in their approach to reading. Their successes include being shortlisted twice at this year’s Renaissance Awards, being one of the earliest adopters of Accelerated Reader in Ireland, and achieving extraordinary reading age growth in a short space of time. Professor Topping’s research again provides a variety of unique insights, but also raises some pressing questions. The breadth and ambition with which primary school children read is encouraging, but again the stalling of reading progress on secondary transfer highlights the importance of reading encouragement, support and enjoyment throughout children’s education. Genuine concerns remain about children’s ability to access the curriculum in secondary school. We hope these findings are of use and interest. We welcome your thoughts and hope you’ll share them with us – you can get in touch on: Twitter: @AccReader Facebook.com/Accreader Be sure to use #WKAR18 to join the discussion. Dirk Foch, Managing Director, Renaissance UK 3 *About the Author, Professor Keith Topping Keith Topping is Professor of Educational and Social Research at Dundee University. His published works exceed 300 (books, chapters, peer reviewed journal papers and distance learning packages), with translations into 12 languages. Prior to entering Higher Education he worked for a number of Local Education Authorities and for Social Services and Health. Keith’s own main research focus is Peer Learning (including peer tutoring, cooperative learning and peer assessment) and other forms of non-professional tutoring (e.g. by parents, assistants or volunteers) – in core skills (e.g. reading, spelling, writing, thinking skills, science, mathematics, information technology) and across subject boundaries, in all sectors and contexts of education and lifelong learning. He also has interests in computer aided assessment, peer assessment and formative assessment. Renaissance UK is a leading provider of educational software for pupils of all ages and abilities. We use advanced technology to engage students with learning, motivate progress, and empower teachers. Renaissance Accelerated Reader is used by more than 1.3 million students at over 5,500 schools across the UK and Ireland. By personalising reading practice using over 31,000 online quizzes, Accelerated Reader encourages a lifelong love of reading for pleasure. Renaissance Star Assessments for reading and maths use short, computer-adaptive tests to personalise testing across all ages, accurately place students, and cut down teacher workload. 4 *Foreword, Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust BookTrust is dedicated to getting children reading. We know that children who read are happier, healthier, more empathetic, and more creative. They also do better at school. Diana Gerald joined Book We get children reading in lots of different ways, but our Trust as Chief Executive in priority is to get children excited about books, rhymes and March 2015 from the Ark Schools Group, who stories. Because if reading is fun children are much more run schools in some of the most disadvantaged likely to want to do it. areas of the country. Diana joined at an important time in the development of BookTrust We’ve learned that starting early and involving the whole as it continues to build on its work to transform family is the best way to get children reading, so that’s lives by getting children and families reading, where we focus most of our work. Babies love books and and reinforces its position as one of the rhymes, and reading together isn’t just great for babies’ leading voices on reading. Diana has a deep brain development; it’s also a wonderful way for families understanding of the role that education plays to bond and spend time together. Reading with young in creating opportunity, which is at the heart of children also gives them the best chances in life by making BookTrust’s work. it more likely that they’ll enjoy reading themselves, as well as preparing them for school. Reading with children in their first few years leads to better educational attainment throughout their school life. But as children grow up, the pressure is on to find books that engage and excite them and keep them wanting to turn the pages; even families who love reading sometimes need a bit of inspiration or might struggle to know what to read. That’s why reports like this are so important, and why our website is jam-packed full of family-friendly book reviews and information. It’s also why we’re proud to run campaigns like Time to Read aimed at getting families to find just ten minutes a day to read. We want every child to have the best possible start in life. It’s why we work with schools, local authorities, publishers, authors, celebrities, bloggers and companies like Renaissance Learning to get the message out there that reading is fun, and that reading matters. Children who read do better in life whether that’s educational attainment, confidence, communication skills, wellbeing or health. Simply put, reading matters. And together, we can really make a difference. 5 *How It Works Renaissance Accelerated Reader is currently used in a small sample of text as with other formulae.