Back to school season is already upon us, and we know that educators everywhere are already feeling the strain. It’s a big deal this time around: as well as getting to know new classes, poring over new instructional materials or even just getting situated in a classroom for the very first time, you’ve been tasked with teaching in one of the most difficult and disrupted periods the education system has ever known.
...And that means you’re going to be thinking a lot about access to reading and learning.
It’s no secret that we’re currently living in an era of literacy crisis. Millions of students all over the country aren’t where they need to be in their literacy development due to the impact of pandemic school closures, and we’re reaching a point where these pandemic cohorts are in striking distance of the biggest exams of their lives. So now more than ever, reading needs need to be supported in a very widespread way if we’re to foster a learning environment where every student can achieve their potential.
But with budget and bandwidth concerns dominating the news, that doesn’t look like it’s going to be the easiest task this back to school season.
⭐Enter Scanning Pens’ Class Packs!
What is a reading pen Class Pack?
It’s ten of our award-winning reading pens in a box. It’s more cost-effective than buying ten single reading pens because with a Class Pack, we offer a bulk purchase discount, as well as a handy carrying case.
…But it’s more than that: it’s a chance for you as an educator to apply a tried-and-tested reading support strategy at a scale without breaking the bank, or putting yourself at risk of burnout as you try to support every learner using a different support system. The key lies in just how adaptable both C-Pen Reader 2 and C-Pen Exam Reader 2 are as reading tools—rather than requiring learners adhere to a one-size-fits-all support strategy, these pens are adaptable and allow learners to customise everything from accent and reading language to word pause and word delay.
And they’re as simple to use as a highlighter. Just move the tip of the reading pen across the words on the page to hear them read back for access to reading on a whole new level, as well as look up words in the dictionary, refresh word skills in practice mode, and create personalised revision banks using the pen’s handy scan-to-file functionality.
Why C-Pen?
Reading pens by C-Pen are trusted by teachers to support millions of learners all over the world. They’ve been the biggest name in the game for over two decades, and are developed alongside educator input to ensure that they’re able to tackle each and every reading pain point that a learner might experience, whether they’re in the classroom or at home.
These reading pens are designed to target reading needs across ability and age ranges, and support each and every learner who uses one—whether they have Special Educational Needs or not—toward confident and independent reading. And that has the power to make heading back to school a little easier on the soul for everyone.
10 ways a reading pen Class Pack makes back to school season simple!
1. Long, slow support hiring processes? No thanks.
Our most recent Scanning Pens UK Survey revealed that almost 70% of schools are still using at least one human reader. And that’s a problem when we know that there aren’t as many human readers out there as we need.
But reading pens can supply that demand for support at the point of need for a fraction of the stress. There’s no need for recruitment, and many learners actually feel more at ease using a reading pen than having a human reader because it removes the feeling of being singled out from their peers as they head back to school.
2. A Class Pack helps you cut costs, not corners!
Another way that a reading pen Class Pack can make your back to school prep easier is that it puts far less stress on your budget. A human reader for a single student can cost schools up to £15 - £20 an hour—which works out at around £19,000 for a 39-week school year. But a Class Pack puts reading support in your learners’ hands for a fraction of the cost, and with no ongoing salary commitments, and can be used year after year—meaning that you only pay once for a long future of targeted, reliable reading support.
3. More reading needs than ever means resourcing needs have to be on easy mode.
It’s a triple header: in 2023, schools experienced an 11.4% increase in EHCP requests fuelled by an uptick in awareness and diagnoses. They are also dealing with a whole-class reading skill slump as entire cohorts exhibit pandemic reading loss, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis is impeding reading progress for thousands of learners. Demand on this kind of scale takes a lot of time and effort to fill, and educators can burn out navigating every separate provision… unless you’ve got one easily-available reading support solution that’s customisable enough to support each and every learner, that is.
4. Build out provision on-demand!
When your reading pens aren’t all allocated to single students, it means that you can keep some back as part of a use-on-demand reading support toolbox for the whole class. A student’s reading needs can fluctuate in a big way across topic, energy level and what they’re working on, and having pens available to use on an intermittent basis ensures that there are no reading needs in the class that go unsupported, and no learner ever has to feel like there’s no provision for them on hand even if they don’t have a previously-identified need.
5. You get everything you need, all in one handy pack.
Because we know that it’s not always easy to find what you need at any given time when you work in a school, we’ve made sure that every Class Pack we send out includes a set of comfortable earphones for every pen inside, individual protective cases, and a snug, padded box for them to live in when they’re not in use.
6. A class pack means it’s easier to model and track progress.
When you implement any kind of reading support, it’s important to keep track of where it’s helping learners improve, how it’s being used, and what problems it’s actively solving for the learners in your care. Doing this on a broader scale with multiple units across ability ranges instead of just with isolated learners with pronounced needs can help create a whole-class reading support strategy for next year, plan your implementation, and know exactly what fix to apply when learners come to you with their own unique set of needs.
7. Break down barriers with a wide rollout!
When we embed assistive technology into the classroom in a big way, and it gets used by learners with a wide range of needs and preferences, we normalise it. That normalisation breaks down a lot of the stigma about using assistive technology in an educational setting, and refutes incorrect but damaging beliefs like using assistive tech is cheating or reading support is for kids who aren’t very smart.
8. You’re never on your own when you buy from Scanning Pens.
The start of a new school year can be isolating, and implementing a lot of new technology and getting to grips with a whole new set of students and their unique needs can make it feel even more so. Thirty or more learners are all looking to you for guidance often leaves you feeling like you’re more than a little in need of some guidance yourself.
But when you buy a reading pen Class Pack from Scanning Pens that means you’ve got access to all of Scanning Pens’ educator-developed implementation resources, planning advice, training, and even a team of education experts on hand to offer their advice when you need it. For us, it’s not just as simple as popping a pen in the post and calling it done: we know that we’re in the middle of a literacy crisis, and we want each and every learner going back to school to be able to achieve their potential. The best way to do that is to make sure you’ve got all the support you need.
9. Exam support gets easier than ever!
Class Packs are available with C-Pen Reader 2 and C-Pen Exam Reader 2 reading pens. That means whether they’re sitting SATs or GCSEs, and need an exam-locked Reader 2 or a dedicated Exam Reader 2, your learners can take a board-approved piece of reading tech into their exams as long as it’s been part of their Normal Way of Working. And with a Class Pack, there’s always enough to go around!
Support shouldn’t stop when learners need it most.
10. And with Scanning Pens, you can always test before you invest.
We know that school budgets have been getting tighter every year for a long time now. And we know that there probably aren’t many educators out there reading this who haven’t had to sit down at some point last year and do a few depressing mental calculations on the axis of cost vs. necessity. That’s why we believe that teachers need the ability to see reading support in action with their learners before opening their wallets.
Scanning Pens offers a FREE 30-day single-device trial to anybody working in an early years setting, school or college, so that you can see the benefits for yourself before making that all-important budget commitment. Claim your FREE trial here today!
Choose reading support that really makes a difference this back to school season
To find out more about the C-Pen Reader 2 Class Pack or the C-Pen Exam Reader 2 Class Pack, head on over to their homes at Scanning Pens.
You can also find out more about award-winning reading support from C-Pen, and check out what kind of reading pen best fits the needs of your setting in the Scanning Pens Pen Guide Quiz.
