June 6, 2025

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In this episode, our host Margaret Allen is joined by Gary Hillyard, Headteacher at The Carlton Academy - part of the Redhill Academy Trust. Gary has been in education for 22 years and led the secondary reading strategy across the 10 secondary schools in the trust for the last 8 years.

We explore Gary's journey from bookseller to teacher and his deep commitment to developing a trust-wide culture of reading. He emphasises the importance of authentic reading experiences, emotional engagement, and cross-curricular literacy to foster lifelong reading habits.

Sign up for our ‘What Kids Are Reading Report 2025’ report, featuring insights from over 6,700 schools and 1,200,000 students in the UK and Ireland using Renaissance Star Reading and Accelerated Reader data: https://uk.renaissance.com/resources/wkar-2025/

If you’d like to get in touch, please email us at: podcast@renaissance.com

Education

English

United Kingdom

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IN THIS EPISODE

Margaret Allen

Gary Hillyard

Education

Reading

Literacy

Multi-Academy Trusts

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