Littlehampton school wins national award for positive approach to reading

River Beach Primary School received the Outstanding Achievement Award for primary schools at the annual Renaissance Learning Awards in London.

Dave Ayers, head of school, collected the award at a ceremony in Canary Wharf, beating more than 100 other schools to the prize.

He said: “We are incredibly proud to have won the award. The staff and children have worked very hard on generating such a positive reading culture across the school and it’s nice to receive this recognition.”

This new award for 2019 was for the school that demonstrated the most significant impact Renaissance products had made to accelerate learning, at both primary school and high school level.

River Beach has been using the Accelerated Reader programme, which promotes reading for pleasure, since 2015.

Judges said: “This school won the award because of the notable impact Renaissance products have had on transforming the reading culture and approach to assessments within the school, resulting in Ofsted recognition and increasing the use of Renaissance products across the trust.”

River Beach has seen a significant improvement in reading results since introducing the programme and staff said the children’s love of reading had continued to rise.

Pupils who read more than a million words in a year become Reading Millionaires and children who have achieved that level said they ‘read all the time’ and the love it.