Accelerated Reader

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Welcome to Another Exciting Year of Reading!

Get ready to dive into new worlds, meet unforgettable characters, and unlock amazing rewards along the way. This year, Accelerated Reader is all about making your reading journey fun and rewarding. As you smash your targets and challenge yourself with new books, you’ll have the chance to collect badges, win prizes, and earn special rewards throughout the 2025–2026 school year. So, grab a book and let the adventure begin!

What is Accelerated Reader?

Accelerated Reader (AR) is a programme designed to make reading more fun while helping you grow as a confident, independent reader. Every time you finish reading a book, you can test how well you understood the story with one of the book quizzes, and you will be able to track your progress to see how far you’ve come and work towards your personal targets. In addition to the book quizzes, you will find short, non-fiction articles with quick quizzes if you want an extra challenge.

How does Accelerated Reader Work at our School?

At Cecil Jones, AR is an important part of your reading journey. We understand that reading affects all aspects of learning and we strive to create a positive culture of reading for our students. To support our pupils, we have a wide range of reading books available to borrow for a 28-day period that pupils can then test their knowledge on Accelerated Reader. Our library is frequently updated and pupils are able to vote for books that they would like to find in our library catalogue.

All Year 7 and Year 8 students take weekly reading tests on Accelerated Reader during PM registration, and sometimes during library lessons. These tests help to give students a reading age and recommended reading level which will help them to progress with their literacy skills. This data is shared with students, parents and staff to ensure an understanding of levels and how we can assist students to become the best readers they can be. To ensure that everyone chooses the most suitable books, we use a colour-coded system. This helps guide students to the books that are right for their level. Take a look at our labelling system below.

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A Strong Reading Culture

At our school, reading is at the heart of everything we do. We believe that the more opportunities you have to read, the more confident and skilled you will become. That’s why reading isn’t just part of Accelerated Reader — it’s built into the whole school day.

Start every lesson with reading – For the first five minutes of every lesson, every day, students read in silence. This quiet time helps you focus, develop good reading habits, and enjoy books regularly.
Weekly library lessons and class readers – Once a week in English, each class has a chosen class reader that they enjoy together. Sometimes you’ll go to the library, where you can explore other books and may also have time to complete Accelerated Reader quizzes.
Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) – Every Thursday during PM registration, the whole school takes part in DEAR. For around 15 minutes, everyone stops what they’re doing and reads — creating a community where reading is celebrated together.
Reading buddies – Some students will be paired with older and more experienced readers, who can support and encourage them to improve their reading skills.
Small group reading sessions – There are also opportunities to work in small groups with English teachers to get extra support and build confidence.

Star Reader – Each season (Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer), students will take the Star Reading test to track their reading progress. The test generates a reading age and an updated ZPD (reading range), helping students and teachers set personalized reading goals.

Monthly reading themes and challenges – Starting this September, we will also be running monthly reading challenges. These challenges often connect with international, national, and local days, weeks, or months of celebration, or might also link to the season, the time of year, or current events happening around us. Each month will bring a new theme and challenge to inspire your reading journey. Take a look at this month’s challenge!

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But remember, reading doesn’t stop at the end of the school day. Every book you pick up at home is another step in your journey as a reader. And the best part? You can keep quizzing at home too! Click on the link below, and log into your account to use AR at home.

https://global-zone61.renaissance-go.com/welcomeportal/1895437

Rewards

Alongside testing we also combine a reward and success system which recognises personal targets and inter-tutor competition. When students pass a book quiz, the word count of that book is added to their total word count. Totals are updated weekly and students can also check their own progress in their account. If pupils are in-between reads, they are able to read a variety of articles, and complete a quiz. If they score 100% in the article test, this will increase their word count.

Top Readers from each form, Top Tutor Groups, and Top Improvers are celebrated in the weekly bulletin, newsletter and assembly.

Individual badge winners are updated regularly to help us show recognition for all their hard work and progress as a Reading Champion! These can be found towards the back of the weekly newsletters on the school’s website.

There are many more prizes and surprizes to celebrate your participation and successes, so… Read! Read! Read!

Word Count Prizes: