About Renaissance Focus Skills

Focus Skills are the most essential skills in reading and maths that students need to learn. They act like building blocks—if a student doesn’t master them, it becomes harder to learn more advanced topics later.

Think of Focus Skills as stepping stones—each one supports the next, helping students build a strong foundation. They are the key steps that support all future learning.

Focus Skills have been identified by education experts as the most essential learning priorities for students success. While they make up 20-30% of curriculum content, they are so important that they should receive more teaching time and practice than other skills.

By focusing on these key skills, teachers can close learning gaps more effectively and help students progress faster.

Critical

Focus Skills are fundamental to student understanding, involving concepts that students must master in order to advance to the next step.

Impactful

Because Focus Skills are prerequisites for future learning, focusing instruction on these skills provides the greatest return in terms of student growth.

Standards-based

Focus Skills are identified through a detailed study of US and UK curricula, ensuring they align with year-level and grade-level expectations across diverse education systems worldwide.

Focus Skills Vs. Skills

Using Renaissance Focus Skills

The video below will help you get the most out of Renaissance Focus Skills.

Choose the right Focus Skills for your curriculum

Focus Skills are available in two versions—one aligned with the UK curriculum and one with the US curriculum—so you can choose the most relevant set for your students. Each version provides a clear learning progression tailored to its respective standards, helping teachers prioritise the most essential skills.

UK Focus Skills

UK Focus Skills are designed to reflect the emphasis of the National Curriculum, ensuring teachers can focus on the most critical skills at each year level. They help streamline lesson planning and maximise teaching time.

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US Focus Skills

US Focus Skills align with state and national standards, providing a structured approach to skill progression. They support targeted instruction and help educators close learning gaps effectively.

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Focus Skills FAQs

Here are some frequently asked questions from a blog post on Focus Skills by Dr. Gene Kerns, Chief Academic Officer. If you’d like to read the full post, click the link.

What are Focus Skills?

Focus Skills are the essential building blocks of learning in reading and maths. These carefully identified skills represent the most critical concepts students need to master at each year group. Unlike regular skills, Focus Skills serve as fundamental prerequisites that directly impact future learning success. They’re backed by research and aligned with curriculum standards.

Why are Focus Skills important?

Focus Skills help educators make crucial decisions about curriculum priorities, representing the most essential 20-30% of learning content. They’re particularly valuable during educational disruptions or when teaching time is limited, as they clearly identify which skills are non-negotiable. By focusing on these core skills, teachers can ensure students build strong foundations for future learning, rather than developing gaps that might hinder progress.

How can teachers use Focus Skills?

Teachers can implement Focus Skills in multiple ways:

As a guide for curriculum planning and teaching prioritisation
To identify and address learning gaps from previous years
To support pupils performing below, at, or above year-group level
To ensure effective teaching across all learning environments (in-person, remote, or blended)
To make informed decisions about where to invest the majority of teaching time
As a tool for differentiated instruction and pupil assessment

How are Focus Skills maintained and supported?

Focus Skills are regularly updated to maintain alignment with current curriculum standards. Each summer, we review and update our learning progressions to reflect any changes to the standards. As part of this process, we may need to update the Focus Skills to help ensure they continue to reflect the intention and organisation of the standards.

A growing family of solutions

Our suite of solutions offers streamlined assessment, personalised learning, and reduced teacher workload. With products like Accelerated Reader, Renaissance Star Assessments, myON, Freckle, and Nearpod, teachers can quickly identify learning gaps, tailor instruction, and engage pupils. Our solutions promote equity and inclusivity, bridging the achievement gap and unlocking student potential.

Star Assessments

Computer-adaptive Star Assessments for reading and maths are used by over thousands of schools across the world.

Star Reading

Star Reading is a complete online assessment of your students’ reading growth. It shows you the skills they have mastered aligned with the National Curriculum.

Star Maths

Star Maths is a complete online assessment of your students’ mathematical skills, testing 50 skill areas in ten domains.

Star Early Literacy

Star Early Literacy allows you to accurately and reliably assess 41 skill sets in ten critical literacy and numeracy domains.

Accelerated Reader

Motivate, monitor, and manage student’s independent reading practice with Accelerated Reader and watch as students develop a genuine love for reading.

myON

A multimedia, cross-curricular teaching and learning tool that helps students/pupils acquire the essential skills to become fluent readers.

Freckle

Deliver engaging, differentiated maths practice and reward achievement.

Nearpod

Get real-time insights into student understanding through interactive lessons, interactive videos, gamification, and activities — all in a single platform.

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Focus Skills™