I spent the first three days of last week at the London Book Fair.

The Fair is an opportunity for publishers from all over the world to meet their international partners, agents and distributors. Exhibitors and visitors turned their collars up against the cold and rain and settled down at Earls Court to talk about books and do business.

For Rising Stars, the fair is a key time to build our relationships with the people in our nascent network of distributors and co-publishers, from Australia to Zambia. We now have agents covering over 30 countries throughout the world, selling our resources to international schools and schools in local education systems.

I’ve always enjoyed the book fair because it’s a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues from all corners of the globe, as well as do some good business with them. Even though I’ve worked overseas in Hong Kong and Southern Africa and been in international publishing in one way or another for nearly 20 years, there are still surprises and tales to tell. I found out recently that a bookseller I’ve dealt with in Jamaica for 15 years holds the post of Custos of Kingston, which means that he’s the first citizen of Jamaica and stands in for the Governor General when the GG is out of the country. We saluted when he arrived on the stand, and had a good chat about the test match in Trinidad and the coming series between the West Indies andEngland.

I also discovered that the grand opening of the biggest bookshop in Africa, which will open in Ghana in September, is likely to feature overstocks from a number of prominent publishers and that we should not expect any orders from the shop until they have cleared the old stock – some time in the next two years.

We’ve been on tenterhooks for the much talked-about new national curriculum in England and Wales, but spare a thought for teachers – and publishers – in Chile. Governments there rarely last much longer than two years, so the curriculum changes every two years, with new courses supported by a new or revised textbook at every level in every subject. Teachers in state schools have no choice of textbook – books are selected for schools by a tendering process, with a single title ordered for every school. And sometimes the publisher that wins the tender for, say, science in year 4 doesn’t necessarily win the tender for year 5.

Still, amidst all the economic gloom and the talk of e-books eating into print sales, it’s heartening to know that there is still demand for really good resources to support teachers and students throughout the world. Our reluctant readers series are selling in Kenya, Story Cards in Thailand, Challenge Cards in Jamaica, Switched on ICT is being published in an Australian version – and the sun has just come out.

Gill Budgell

Reading aloud is a natural part of the learning to read process for young children.

Just as young children express their thoughts in speech, sometimes rather socially inappropriately, so they also read aloud to facilitate the process of decoding in the early stages of learning to read. They learn to respond to a written letter with a sound and to say this sound out loud then helps them to make the association between grapheme and phoneme. When they then try to blend a series of sounds to read a word; to decode that word, then again it is crucial to hear those sounds. When they begin to read decodable texts they begin to hear how words sound next to each other and cumulatively, and before too long they are beginning to appreciate the meaning of what they are reading and once this happens they are set to discover the world of reading.

As children become more proficient and we seek broader and more challenging opportunities for them to engage with texts of all kinds we deploy a range of reading scenarios; paired reading,  buddy reading, reading in a group, guided reading, reading round the class to name but a few. Children support each other in their reading development and may be teemed up with a similarly levelled reader or with someone more or less advanced; any of these techniques build on the importance of sharing and understanding.

We also begin to use a wider range of text types so we find that young children love to join in with a repetitive refrain within a picture book; ‘Run, run as fast as you can…’ for example but as children develop confidence we may introduce play scripts to encourage a different type of reading aloud which involves physicality and engagement with others. Similarly, if children lack confidence then short , chunked texts with parts of differing reading challenge can be enormously supportive for less able or reluctant readers; reading aloud for these older readers is still necessary and helpful and plays are an obvious way to encourage this. We may also introduce reading aloud for presentations and recitals and in so doing encourage a different sort of reading aloud confidence and sense of performance.

As adults we read aloud to children too. We model good reading with pace, intonation, stress and with a sense of audience so that children understand and mimic what it is to be a proficient reader and develop good listening skills alongside. At home there is nothing quite like a one to one read aloud at bedtime and in school we yearn for that ‘end of the day’ story time  or that next chapter in the class novel,  which is now so often hard to find time for. But equally, we now have options with some wonderfully inspiring audio books and eBooks which in many ways, but not all, serve a similar purpose.

So don’t dismiss reading aloud whatever your age or the age of the children you are teaching. The physical act of voicing your reading requires different skills from silent reading, and hearing a text read aloud (with or without visuals) requires quite different skills from watching a film or TV version of a book. Children need the full range of experiences as indeed we still do!

Ann Bridgland

I was working with a great group of teachers a couple of weeks or so ago. It was a training day on providing stretch and challenge in the everyday classroom. Everyone was buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm and higher-order thinking was very much in evidence among the participants as our work together developed during the day.

One issue cropped up like a leitmotiv… but only lasted until coffee time, thank goodness! A certain reticence to ‘take risks’ in their classrooms back at school, because senior leaders ‘wouldn’t approve’ or because ‘Ofsted wouldn’t like it’.

We need to challenge this feeling, don’t we?  If we, as educators, are reluctant to take risks, even relatively small risks (like asking more challenging questions to ALL pupils, facilitating a ‘brain buzzing’ classroom environment) how can we possibly expect them to become creative, independent, enquiring thinkers?

We need learners who aren’t satisfied with just accepting ‘what is’ but who imagine ‘what if’.

Learners who use their knowledge and understanding to question why, to analyse ideas, to speculate on what might happen if…, to evaluate wisely events in the world about them. Learners who can exercise their creative thinking and who do not worry about whether there is a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ answer.

On that training day, we experimented with ‘think, pair, share’ approaches to explore some bells and whistles questions that really get to the bits of children’s brains that other questions don’t reach! Here are a few examples:

• What if plants could walk?
• What if the number 5 had never been invented?
• In how many ways could you ever be friends with your enemy? 
• How many weird and wonderful new words can you create that could be used in everyday language at home or at school?
• What if you were Prime Minister when all the computers in the country broke down at the same time?
• What colour is Saturday?
• What would happen if all our pupils’ brains were buzzing as a core part of the everyday curriculum?

Ann Bridgland is a leading expert on teaching the more able, having previously been a Senior Adviser for able, gifted and talented pupils and Lead Professional on the national G&T Programme.

Rising Stars has built its name on being a support to teachers. We make resources to help schools deal with changing government policies, increased demands for even better results and the shifting eyes of Ofsted inspectors. And in some cases we have even led the way. But right now the silence from DfE is deafening. Questions on the new Programmes of Study remain unanswered (and rumours of infighting abound) and as for government intentions for assessment? Well we can only speculate.

So we wait. Publishers, designers, authors, programmers, consultants, advisers at the ready… waiting.  And waiting about isn’t a great pastime for commercial organisations,  believe me.

The DfE have long relied on education suppliers and publishers to support their strategies and in recent years our role has been essential. But this time ministers are cutting it very fine. If they want our help to embed curriculum change and to help schools cope with change quickly then we need some clarity, and we need it soon.

Becca Law, Publishing Manager

As I write this I am knee deep in manuscript development for Switched on ICT for KS1, I’ve also been trying to book in a recording session slot for our Dockside eBooks, and have been testing some free stop animation software to make sure it’s easy to use for teachers.

As a Publishing Manager, these are just a few of the things I get to do at Rising Stars. Turning your hand to whatever is flung at you is part of the job. It can be stressful sometimes, but I don’t believe many people in educational publishing are lucky enough to be in the midst of so much creativity!

My days are always hugely varied. A couple of weeks ago, I went to visit Nicola Maher at Brookside Infants School in Harold Hill to try and get to grips with the challenges of working with Foundation and KS1 pupils. The visit was fantastic and, as so often is the case, I was blown away by the ability of the children, and the teachers! I talk to teachers a lot, by phone, email and face-to-face meetings. This is one of my favourite bits of my job: regular interaction with the end users of the products I develop.

My desk looks rather like a bomb site at the moment, with reprint copies, proofs, brochures and curriculum documents slipping over the edges. I’m terrible at throwing things away: I’m sure it will all come in useful at some point …

Switched on ICT QR code

Have you noticed the rise of the QR code?

These quick links to online content have become ubiquitous in advertising and marketing over the last few months, but have you tried one out yet?

All you need to do is load a free QR reader onto your smartphone and you can then scan the code and go straight to information on the latest film release, special offers or a company’s website. Once you start looking for them, you’ll see them everywhere in magazines, papers, even TV ads!

We’ve been using them here at Rising Stars since the start of the year as a quick route for schools to get to extra product information on our website. We even had temporary tattoos made of them for this year’s BETT show (they didn’t scan very well, but were a talking point!)

But now we’re hearing that schools are also starting to use them in class.

And you don’t need smartphones to do it - pupils can scan a sheet of QR codes with a web cam, using free downloads for the PC such as Quick Mark . There are also free sites such as Beetag where you can generate your own QR codes, so why not give it a try?

Helen Nelson, Marketing Manager

The Kindle

I am pleased to report that I really liked the Kindle. It was perfect for my train commute and I found the screen very easy on the eye.

However I did experience an unexpected problem in the form of my ten year old son.  Cameron is a reluctant reader – aside from the occasional Match of the Day magazine he would rather do anything but read.  I showed him the Matt Merton books that were loaded on the device because he has read these with me in the past and quite enjoyed them. 

When I went upstairs some three hours later I found Cameron sitting in my bed reading the Kindle. Not only that, he had migrated from Matt Merton to an unabridged version of The Jungle Book (way above his usual standard of reading material) and was most put-out when I made him put it away (it was 11pm!). He now tells me he wants a Kindle for Christmas.

At Rising Stars we have long discussed the link between e-books and re-engaging struggling readers and now I have seen the proof in my own house.   So I will be purchasing a Kindle after all, but I might have to fight my son for use of it.

Julia Garvey, Marketing Manager and Kindle lover

Andrea during a rare moment of calm!

So this is the Rising Stars blog!

It’s been a while in the making and the subject of lots of debate at Rising Stars. What should its focus be? Who should write it? Should we promote product on it or not? But after far too much over-thinking we have decided to let it be.

Most of the people at Rising Stars are mouthy (in a good way!) and this is a vehicle for them to just talk about their thoughts and ideas. And who knows, you might find it interesting to hear what the life of a Publishing Manager or a Marketing Assistant is like and read how Rising Stars is dealing with this changing world of education.

And you can help too. We are looking for guest bloggers who can help us.

Our friend Dawn Hallybone has kicked things off with her post on the new school year and what it means to her.

I’m typing this first post in a noisy cafe at Waterloo Station, waiting to meet Dave Smith from Havering and will then be on a train for a meeting with the London Grid for Learning. Wish me luck. Then I’m back for a marketing meeting before tearing home to see my eldest after his first day at secondary school. I’m sure I should be taking more time with this, drafting and rewriting, then rewriting again. But I figure there is no point giving the impression that my life is calm and collected, and I’ve been given a deadline.

So have a great start to the new year everyone. September always feels like it needs new year resolutions and mine is to blog. It would be great to hear yours.