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On the 4-5th October 2007, Renaissance Learning UK held its first ever National Conference at the SAS Radisson Hotel near London's Stansted Airport. The two-day conference was attended by a total of 250 people including Terry and Judi Paul - founders of Renaissance Learning Inc., Sir Cyril Taylor - Chairman of the Schools and Specialist Academies Trust and a number of well-known UK Children's Book authors including G P Taylor and Malorie Blackman, plus Renaissance UK staff. Forty sessions were presented throughout the two days and included: Developing a Personalised Reading Programme for Gifted and Talented Pupils, Assessment for Learning with Instant Reading Ages and NCL Levels for All Your Pupils - with the most popular session being: Developing Effective Reading Aloud and Paired Reading Strategies for Emergent/Struggling Readers, presented by Dr. Allen Thurston from Dundee University.

Malorie Blackman's Speech - Author of 'The Stuff of Nightmares' - published in October 2007 and also Renaissance Learning's 10,000th quiz!

A Gala Dinner was held on the Thursday evening and was attended by all. A raffle took place with proceeds of £262 going to the National Literacy Trust. The prizes were well received and included an iPod nano donated by MicroLibrarian, £100 worth of book vouchers donated by Scotia books plus many more. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves dancing the night away.

Gala Dinner - held on Thursday 4th October.

The conference was a huge success and the feedback has been extremely positive with 61% of attendees saying they will definitely come back next year and some even naming it the best conference they had ever been to. The conference was so well received, that we've already had bookings for next year - to be held from 9-10th October 2008.

Closing the Attainment Gap through Personalised Reading Practice with Janet Collins

If you were fortunate enough to attend the National Conference 2007, but have not yet filled in our Feedback Form, please do so and you will be in with a chance to win an iPod nano!

Sir Cyril Taylor

Sir Cyril Taylor GBE, former Chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust opened the National Conference on 4 Oct 2007.

What the press said about his keynote speech:

Reading tests must be fit for purpose
The Independent, 4 Oct 2007

Silent reading in schools encouraged
ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers), 4 Oct 2007

Schools 'must tackle the literacy problem'
Guardian Unlimited, 4 Oct 2007

Schools urged to test reading skills at 11
Telegraph.co.uk, 5 Oct 2007

	Reading test urged for all new secondary pupils The Independent, 18 Oct 2007

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	Fill in our Feedback Form If you were fortunate enough to attend last years conference, but have not yet filled in our Feedback Form, please do so and you will be in with a chance to win an iPod nano! Online Feedback Form »