English Hubs
ENGLISH HUBS
34 English Hubs were selected for their expertise in teaching reading and to support schools in their surrounding area. Hubs will promote a love of reading and help schools provide excellent teaching in phonics and early language. They will focus on supporting the slowest progress children in Reception and Year 1 and ensure every child is successful, regardless of background, needs or abilities.
WHAT ARE ENGLISH HUBS?
English Hubs offer support to local schools, academies and free schools to improve the teaching of phonics, early language and reading in Reception and Year 1.
Each English Hub has a Hub lead and Literacy Specialists and may offer:
Hub leads and Literacy Specialists receive training and ongoing support from the English Hubs Training Centre.
The English Hubs Council, including leading phonics experts and headteachers, provide a strategic overview of the English Hubs Programme and the work of the Training Centre.
FIND YOUR LOCAL ENGLISH HUB
The Teaching School Hub region's English Hubs are:
Springhill English Hub, Southampton
englishhub@springhillcatholic.net
Springhill Catholic Primary School is a DfE appointed English Hub to support other schools, to deliver excellent early language and phonics teaching. Their area covers Hampshire, the Isle of Wight. West Sussex, Mid Sussex and Lewes in East Sussex.
Training
The hub offer online training through the year including the popular Phonic Reading Leader Workshops. See 'Showcase Events' section below for further information.
Feedback from schools
"Thank you for yesterday's audit, the trainer was brilliant and our staff found her and her feedback really great, they really took everything that came back from her as constructive, they are now all so on board with this journey and that is hugely down to her."
"A huge thank you for all the support since 2019. We had Ofsted recently, ... phonics and reading were praised very highly."
"The process was supportive, you are clearly very knowledgeable in all things phonics!"
Drop them an email if you would like to go on the mailing list: englishhub@springhillcatholic.net
Photograph of Sandra (Hub Lead) and Bob Seely (MP) at the IOW Early Reading Event in June.
Showcase Events
Springhill Catholic Primary School are proud to be an English Hub school where they provide outreach and support to all schools, academies and free schools to improve the teaching of phonics, early language and reading.
Showcase Events
Showcase events will include:
1. Observing phonics in action on a normal school day
2. A question and answer session
3. A presentation on action planning, implementation, organisation and progress
4. How to choose and use resources effectively
5. Opportunities to meet individually and discuss action planning
(refreshments and lunch included)
Click here to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/springhill-english-hub-32307022115
Supporting Early Language Development (SELD)
A school improvement course, focused on ensuring the very best outcomes in early language development. Designed to equip teachers and leaders with a practical pedagogical understanding of both typical language development and also how to support pupils who are struggling with language acquisition. A copy of the course overview can be found here.
Booking information can be found here.
Reading for Pleasure: Transforming your school's reading culture (TSRC)
Evidence-based leadership CPD for primary English Leads. If your early reading is in a position of strength (at least 90%), we would like to invite you to join our TSRC group – do email us to ask for an application and more information (englishhub@springhillcatholic.net)
Whiteknights English Hub, Reading
hubadmin@whiteknightsenglishhub.org.uk
Whiteknights will be working with eligible schools in the south of England to assess their phonics provision, select and purchase a validated SSP programme. To apply for this support please complete this FORM.
As an English Hub they can support schools in a variety of ways:
- Invite schools to view best practice in action at our showcase events;
- Review and refine action plans;
- Carry out school-based audits of early language and reading provision;
- Offer bespoke in-school support run by our team of literacy specialists; and
- Fund or match fund schools to buy resources including commercial phonics packages and training.
You can register your interest here:
https://www.whiteknightsenglishhub.org.uk/our-offer/register-your-interest/
Light support offered to schools
Whiteknights are now in their third year of supporting schools as an English Hub and would like to welcome you into their school, albeit virtually, to see phonics teaching in action, hear the key messages of the English Hub Programme and access support.
Whiteknights are offering a free, showcase events for Head Teachers and Reading Leaders to learn about the work of the English Hubs, see phonics teaching in action and find out how you can access their support.
You can claim up to £160 per attendee (max two) in costs for supply cover to attend the virtual showcase if your headteacher attends the event and your school meets any two of the following criteria:
- lower than average percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the Year 1 phonics screening check in either 2018 or 2019 (82%);
- a higher than average proportion of pupils reading below age-related expectations;
- a higher than average proportion of children eligible for pupil premium in the school;
- Ofsted judgement of Requires Improvement or Inadequate;
- a high proportion of groups considered hard to reach such as boys; and,
- schools referred by local partners (e.g. NLEs, LAs, Opportunity Area teams).
Early reading and phonics audits
This is a supportive process which begins with a school-based audit of provision. The audit will be led by one of the Hub's Literacy Specialist and it will focus on areas such as the school’s phonics programme and consistency, use of decodable books, training of staff and reading for pleasure.
The audit may include but is not limited to:
- Support in writing a detailed Development Plan.
- A report which will identify successes and decide next steps.
Medium support offered to schools
Whiteknights are excited to reach out to all schools through our remote, medium-level support offer. Our webinars will be addressing different aspects of improving phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure to help all your pupils become confident readers.
To see which courses are currently in offer please CLICK HERE.
Whiteknights also run additional webinars in response to demand. Please follow the Hub on Twitter to see their upcoming events (@HubWhiteknights)
Intensive support offered to schools
Intensive support is at the heart of the English Hub programme where eligible schools can benefit from the highest level of support, which includes funding and bespoke school-to-school support from one of Whiteknight's Literacy Specialists.
Partner schools benefit from up to £6,000 towards the cost of phonics training, resources and decodable books as well as an assigned literacy specialist who provides up to six days school-to-school support.
Whiteknights are only able to offer this level of support to schools that meet two of the eligibility criteria below:
- lower than average percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check (82%);
- a higher than average proportion of pupils reading below age-related expectations;
- a higher than average proportion of children eligible for pupil premium (22.9%);
- Ofsted judgement of Requires Improvement or Inadequate;
- a high proportion of groups considered hard to reach such as boys;
- schools referred by local partners (e.g. NLEs, LAs, Opportunity Area teams).
If your school meets two of these and you would like to get involved in the English Hub programme, please complete a self-referral form by clicking on the LINK below and we will contact you shortly.
https://www.whiteknightsenglishhub.org.uk/our-offer/register-your-interest
Whiteknights English Hub - Events 2023-2024