The Mead Community Primary School was designated as a lead school for English in April 2014.

English is the driving force behind the school’s outstanding curriculum provision and standards are high. This was recognised in an English Survey Inspection in February 2013, in which the school was judged as outstanding in all areas. A further visit from HMI followed in April to ratify prior judgements and identify best practice.

Our most recent full inspection in February 2014 also judged English to be outstanding.

Partnerships with English Heritage and Lego-Education support innovative storytelling practice being developed and shared across the collaborative of schools.

Inspection evidence confirms the school’s own rigorous monitoring of teaching, which is of a very high standard in English and underpins pupils’ outstanding progress… Leaders are exceptionally well informed about local and national developments. As a result they are at the cutting edge of local and national initiatives. Ofsted

Archie the reading dog

Archie is a flat coated retriever who has been helping to encourage children at The Mead Primary school in Hilperton to read aloud.

Reading with Archie helps children become more confident when reading because he is non-judgmental.

Children can be nervous when reading to others in the group. Reading with a P.A.T. dog is far less stressful and helps the children feel less self-conscious. Children very quickly look forward to their reading experience.  The Read 2 Dogs scheme improves children’s reading and communication skills. Read 2 Dogs companions are Pets As Therapy (PAT) dogs who volunteer with their owners to come into school as reading companions for children.

Before coming into school Archie was assessed to ensure that he was suitable to become a Pets As Therapy (P.A.T) registered dog. The Read 2 Dogs scheme is one of the ways P.A.T dogs are used to support others in the community.

Children’s authors

We are lucky to have the most amazing authors visit The Mead Primary School. They make reading real, and by meeting the authors and hearing about their experiences, children are able to relate better to the stories being read to them. Books start to become even more intriguing and exciting.

Our authors have given the children ‘snippets’ of a story or recounted an experience that might have been used in their book which will help the children to get ‘hooked’ and want to read more.

Children realise that books are written by ordinary people and that they themselves might aspire to write their own books one day.