Reading Intent

At Abbey Mead, we take pride in providing our pupils with a rich and inspiring learning environment where imagination and creativity thrive.

Our carefully structured phonics curriculum ensures that every child develops the essential skills and knowledge to become confident, enthusiastic readers with a genuine love for books. We believe that reading opens doors – not only to academic success, but also to cultural, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual growth.

Early reading and phonics are a key focus in our school improvement plan and are prioritised across all teaching and learning. We recognise that many children join our Nursery and Reception classes with limited vocabulary and comprehension skills.

That’s why our commitment is to give every child the strongest possible start in their education. We do this through the effective teaching of systematic phonics and by embedding a vocabulary-rich curriculum that supports language development and nurtures a lifelong love of reading.

How we support Reading at Abbey

Phonics

The school follows The Partnership Phonics Scheme to help children develop their reading and writing skills from an early stage. As their understanding of decoding becomes more competent, our focus changes to comprehension and the understanding of what is being read.

For more information about our Phonics scheme, please click on the link below to Early Reading and Phonics.

Shared Reading

Shared reading is a whole-class activity where the teacher reads a text aloud to the pupils. The chosen text is often at a higher level than the students’ current reading ability. This approach introduces them to more engaging and challenging material, helping to develop key skills such as inference and deduction. Together, the class works through a comprehension task or question type, and the teacher later reinforces these skills during guided reading sessions.

Guided Reading

At Abbey, every pupil takes part in an adult-led guided reading session within their class on a two-week cycle. These sessions are designed to strengthen reading skills through carefully planned activities that match each child’s age and reading stage. Teachers use this time to provide focused support, helping pupils develop confidence and deepen their understanding of texts.

Accelerated Reader

Accelerated Reader is an online program used to monitor reading practice and progress in KS2. Pupils complete individual quizzes, which help determine an appropriate reading range for each child. Within this range, pupils can select their own books from the library, encouraging independence and fostering a love of reading.

Building Reading Miles

Each class has access to a diverse range of books carefully selected to reflect pupils’ interests and inspire a love of reading. Our novel-led curriculum ensures that children experience high-quality texts that form the foundation of their learning. In addition, we provide themed collections linked to half-termly topics, giving pupils the opportunity to explore subjects in greater depth. By offering variety and choice, we aim to build reading miles and nurture lifelong readers.

How you can support your child with reading at home

All children take home a levelled reading book. For pupils in Reception and Year 1, this is a phonetically decodable book aligned with their phonics learning. Pupils in Years 2 to 6 receive an Accelerated Reader (AR) book, unless they are currently receiving phonics interventions. In addition, every child selects a book from our school library to enjoy at home with an adult – encouraging shared reading and a love of stories.

To promote regular reading at home, we run a reading incentive program. Each time a child reads at home, they earn a Dojo point as recognition for their effort. For our EYFS pupils, parents are encouraged to share a photo of their child reading at home via Dojo. Children in KS1 and KS2 are provided with a reading diary to record their progress. Please ensure that pupils read daily and that parents or carers sign the diary to confirm each session. This partnership helps foster a consistent reading routine and a love of books.

X (Twitter)

Look out for reading tips for parents and challenges which are shared on X once a month that you can partake in as a family at home! We would love to see you upload pictures of your family challenges on X. Make sure to tag us @AbbeyMead_TMET

Useful Reading Links:

Reading tips from BookTrust
https://www.vooks.com/
https://www.getepic.com/
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/library-page/