Home » Women And Education

Women and Education

New Free Website Supported by Best-selling Author gives Parents Guidance to Help Children Read

Best-selling children’s author GP Taylor is supporting the launch of a new free book-search website designed to get parents involved with their children’s reading. The Accelerated Reader BookFinder website www.arbookfind.co.uk from Renaissance Learning offers instant impartial guidance to help parents find the right books to suit their children’s reading levels and interests.

GP Taylor, author of the Shadowmancer series, commented: “It is shocking that a fifth of UK children are still leaving primary school unable to read. Parental involvement is the key to helping children learn to read and develop a life-long love of reading. The new AR BookFinder website will go a long way in helping parents to feel confident about finding the right books for their child – whether that’s non-fiction, fiction or fantasy!”

The AR BookFinder website enables parents, teachers, librarians and children themselves to search for books by topic, difficulty level, age range, literary awards and subject matter as well as locate fiction and non-fiction titles.

For example, you could look for fantasy/imagination fiction books which feature mermaids suitable for 8 year-olds. Once you have created a list of required books it can be printed out and taken to a library or bookshop – the book details include the ISBN reference number making it easy to order books in the store or online.

Despite Government initiatives such as Every Child a Reader, which aims to improve literacy standards in schools, 20% of pupils are still failing to master basic English by age 11. Ensuring that children are reading books which are at the right level for them is a really important part of helping youngsters learn to read.

Books which are too easy or too difficult can result in children becoming bored and disinterested in reading. Subject matter is also really important; if children are not engaged with what they are reading then they will struggle to improve.

Renaissance Learning (www.renlearn.co.uk) is dedicated to improving children’s literacy through its Accelerated Reader programme currently used in over 74,000 schools worldwide. Accelerated Reader is a software programme designed to test the reading level of each child, ensuring they are reading books which are at the correct level of difficulty to help them improve their reading skills.

Parents can also input these specific levels into the new AR BookFinder website to search for suitable books, ensuring that their child’s reading at home is in line with their learning at school.

James Bell, Director of Professional Services, Renaissance Learning UK commented: “In the National Year of Reading we wanted to find a way to really get parents involved with their child’s reading and we feel that the AR BookFinder website, which is accessible to anyone, will be a good guide for parents and will go a long way to making them feel comfortable about selecting the right books for their children.

"AR BookFinder is also a great tool for schools and can help them to best decide how to stock their library. This year we are working with the National Literacy Trust, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and a number of best-selling authors to reinforce the message both in schools and with parents of the importance of helping those children struggling with reading and also developing reading skills at a young age."

Did you know that if you were a registered user you could add this article to your clipped articles folder?

Welcome to the world's first Bee School!

Rowse, the UK’s leading honey packer, has announced the launch of www.beeschool.co.uk; a comprehensive online education resource to help teachers, children and parents learn more about bees and the honey making story from flower to fork.

Easy to download, the free resource will help children’s learning at key stage one, encouraging an interest in honey, the honeybee and the environment.

Working hand in hand with teachers and expert education consultants, Rowse Honey has developed the downloadable teaching resources in line with the national curriculum.

The creative and interactive tool helps teachers and children understand the fascinating story behind honey in an entertaining and educational manner, with a selection of worksheets which focus on Science, History, Art, Literacy, Numeracy, Geography and Music.

Stuart Bailey, Chairman at Rowse Honey, comments:

“With the environment and nature playing such an important role in the natural foods that we eat, Rowse really wants to teach children about the wonderful and fascinating story of honey from an early age.

"At Rowse we want to garner an interest in nature, the honeybee and how honey is produced from beekeeping to the various types of honey available from around the world.”

Rowse Honey has also developed these education materials in light of the current bee crisis – a topic which is dominating the news agenda.

The world has recently seen a dramatic decline in the population of honeybees, due to disease and poor weather conditions, which are relied upon to pollinate £165million worth of the UK’s food crops.

The resultant impact on honey has been acute with reduced production signaling English honey may run dry by Christmas. The materials are therefore also designed to stimulate interest in and encourage awareness of the honeybee’s contribution to the food chain in England and the rest of the world.

There are currently very few comprehensive materials available to teachers about honey and the recently publicised plight of the honeybee.

The Rowse Honey education materials are available to download from the Rowse website www.rowsehoney.co.uk or direct from www.beeschool.co.uk.