How the reading log works

The rules, in the order you meet them

1. The teacher signs in with a passkey. Your phone or computer makes it with your fingerprint, face or screen lock. There is no password and no email address to give. A recovery code, shown once, adds a new passkey if every device is lost. Up to 10 passkeys.
2. A class. A label such as Room 4, the class's time zone, the term dates (at most 140 days) and the number of readers, up to 40. Each reader is a seat number and a nickname, Reader 7 until you change it. A nickname is one word, or a word and one initial, such as Maya R: a first name or initials, never a surname.
3. The slips. Each slip has a QR code, a class code of 26 characters and a family code of 10. A family code works only together with its class code. One connection that types 10 wrong codes waits an hour; the class itself is held only after 300 wrong codes in an hour from everywhere together, so one family's typos never stop the others. The class page shows the count. The family codes are shown once, when they are made; a lost slip is replaced with a new one, and the old one stops at once.
4. The family page. Scanning the QR opens the child's page for that visit; closing the page, or 30 minutes with no tap, ends it, so a shared phone never shows the last child. On the family's own phone, “Keep me signed in on this phone” keeps it open for 120 days from the last use, with a Sign out here link. After the term's last day, its last nights can still be ticked for 6 more days. The page shows one nickname, the last 7 nights, the streak and the total. A family never sees another child or the class grid, and never gives a name or an email address.
5. Which nights can be ticked. Every date is a calendar date in the class's time zone. Read tonight means today there; before 04:00 it means last night. A family can tick or untick today and the 6 nights before it, never a night that has not happened and never outside the term. The teacher can tick any night of the term up to today, for families who use the paper log.
6. One row a night. A second tap on the same night changes that night; it never counts twice. One night can be changed 20 times by a family; after that, the teacher changes it.
7. Skipped nights. No-reading days, and Saturday and Sunday when the class counts school nights only, neither break a streak nor extend it. A tick on a skipped night still adds to the total.
8. The streak. Nights in a row that are not skipped and are ticked, counted back from today if tonight is ticked, otherwise from yesterday. So a streak never drops during the evening before the family has ticked.
9. The total and milestones. The total is the ticked nights in the term. Milestones are 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 75 and 100 nights.
10. The grid. Rows of nicknames, Monday to Sunday, the streak and the term total, and a line such as 19 of 27 read 3 or more nights. It checks for new ticks every 30 seconds while it is open and in view.
11. Terms. Starting a new term ends the current one the day before. A term's ticks are kept 400 days after it ends; a notice comes first, and they are removed 7 days after it. Term dates must be within 1 year before and 2 years after the day they are typed. Between terms the family page says no reading term is open, and nothing is taken.
12. When saving is paused. The site runs on a free hosting allowance with daily limits. When it is used up a tick is answered with Saving is paused for now; the family's phone keeps the tick and sends it once, later, when saving works again.

Worked example

The week starting Monday 2 November 2026, in a class that counts every night:

• Ticks on 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 November. On the 7th the streak is 2 (the 6th and 7th; the 5th was missed). On the 8th, before anyone ticks, it is still 2. On the 9th, with nothing on the 8th, it is 0, and the copy says Ready for the next night.
• The same class with 4 November set as a no-reading day, and ticks on 2, 3 and 5 November: on the 5th the streak is 3 and the total is 3.
• A class that counts school nights only, with ticks on Thursday 5, Friday 6 and Monday 9 November: on Tuesday the 10th, before ticking, the streak is 3. The weekend is skipped.
• A tick made at 00:30 on 4 November goes to 3 November unless the family picks another night.
• A term that ends on 18 December 2026 refuses a tick for 19 December.

What it is not

• A record of nights your family marked as reading. It is not an assessment. It never measures reading level, progress or ability.
• Not a messaging app: families get no email and no messages, and the teacher's only email is an optional Monday summary.
• Not a school system: one teacher runs one class, under the school's own rules on pupil data.
• Readingtick is not affiliated with any school, publisher, reading scheme, library or reading-record app.