At Queensmead, reading is placed at the heart of our curriculum as it underpins a child’s understanding of the wider world and provides a pathway to cultural capital and experiences. The design and intent of our reading curriculum is to promote the skills and strategies that ensure pupils leave Queensmead as independent readers and confident speakers, who feel comfortable within environments where books are discussed and enjoyed.  Our teaching of reading can be broken into four main areas: Synthetic phonics, Shared and Guided Reading and the development of our pupils' love of reading.  

The systematic teaching of reading underpins our reading curriculum and supports pupils' development as readers. A range of comprehension strategies are taught to all pupils to support their understanding and comprehension of texts and their ability to confidently approach any new vocabulary. Across the academy, children are heard reading as individuals and in groups. Shared and guided reading sessions use a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts to develop the children’s word recognition, fluency, prosody and comprehension skills.