HeadteacherChat’s Review of BoomReader (formerly Go Read)

Read the full review below...

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How does BoomReader describe their product?

BoomReader is a digital reading record designed to replace paper reading diaries.

BoomReader provides a digital solution for logging reading for parents, children and school staff. Everybody can log reading in seconds and know that the records build across the entire time a pupil is in a school. Parents can see a variety of reading activities from school and children have a long term record of their reading they can look back on.

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Schools staff at all levels can see engagement with reading simply and use this to support home and school reading.

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What does it enable you to do?

BoomReader (a 2021 BETT Award Winner) has been created by former teachers and senior leaders in school who understand the importance of reading for every child. It was set up with the sole aim of improving the way schools and parents/carers record children’s reading – the books they read, the frequency, opinions on books read, and difficulties they may have encountered. It also provides a child’s reading journey over their entire time at a school.

For schools, BoomReader provides an environmentally-friendly option. Whole-class and group-reading sessions can be easily added by the teacher to all children’s records in a matter of clicks. Useful data is available both for the class teacher and subject leaders, but this is neither over-complicated nor overwhelming for busy teachers. Data analysis is also useful for sharing with stakeholders. Training videos, regular webinars and pdfs are available to help staff maximise the features within the app.

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Schools can add their own books/reading schemes to the existing, extensive BoomReader database and build their own reading band system to support the wider reading strategy for school. Many of the book titles for popular reading strategies are already available on the platform making it so easy to add books for children. Teachers can see progress made over the years as a child moves through the different bands

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After a school subscribes, parents receive a personalised letter. Multiple parents/carers can log in, and adults at home can have one account for multiple children in the household. Parents can easily add comments indicating books completed and words that were tricky. The instructions for parents/carers are written in very easy-to-follow instruction with screenshots to assist. Both parents and pupils are able to add books, including those from home or library books.

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Children can log in up to twice a day and they have the option to review a book when completed. BoomReader supports schools with engaging parents and children with reading challenges, including the national competition known as the GoReadathon. Winners receive book tokens, trophies and other prizes.’

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Class dashboard

This shows a brief overview of each child in the class. An individual child’s record can then be accessed and checked/added to by any member of staff working with a child.

Daily update

Teachers can, at a glance, check any updates such as messages from home indicating a book has been finished and needs changing, issues the child may have had with specific words etc, or comments from a TA who has worked with a child that day. This immediate update means that staff can respond quickly without having to trawl through an entire set of paper records.

Reading record

This page gives a class overview of the number of books completed and the number of times a child has read at home/school over a time period chosen by the teacher, which is then compared with the same date in the previous year (see pink and grey bars). This allows teachers to see, at a glance, which children are currently reading less frequently (and can therefore become a focus), but also indicates those children who are reading significantly more or less. This can potentially be evidence that a particular situation has improved for a child, or might alert staff to an issue now that wasn’t present or apparent last year.

What are the benefits of using BoomReader?

1. No more lost or damaged paper diaries!
2. All reading records are stored centrally for easy access
3. Simple data to measure engagement with reading
4. Easy-to-use for staff, parents and children
5. Affordable- £1 per pupil for a yearly subscription

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Testimonials:

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In summary, HeadteacherChat recommends BoomReader because:

We think that BoomReader is a great idea. We love the fact that it is easy for teachers, parents and children to use.

It saves time as teachers don't have to wade through a class set of records to find what they need. You can even see a child's reading journey through the whole school!

Not only that, but it also provides useful data for teachers and leaders to act on.  

‍Lucy Coy, CEO HeadteacherChat, October 2022

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