In September 2018, the DfE officially launched the English Hubs project. 34 English Hubs were appointed across England to support schools to deliver excellent early language and reading in EYFS and Key Stage 1, including age-appropriate phonics and essential next steps.
Hub schools were selected on the following criteria:
- 90%+ of children reached the expected standard in the phonic screening check over the last 3 years
- Ofsted rating of good or outstanding, with an ‘effectiveness in leadership and management’ rating of at least good
- Consistently high EYFS good level of development
- Consistently high KS1/2 attainment
- Capacity to support other schools
All support offered by the hubs will promote the Department’s thee priority areas:
- Early language development: providing evidence-based approaches to early language development and closing the word gap in school-based early years settings, including appropriate use of formative assessment;
- Age-appropriate phonics provision: encouraging best practice in systematic synthetic phonics teaching from school-based early years provision to the end of Key Stage 1, and as the primary reading strategy throughout the school. This includes
- Encouraging fidelity to a single systematic synthetic phonics programme;
- Supporting the effective use of decodable books in the early stages of learning to read, as a way of establishing phonics decoding;
- Supporting effective practice in formative assessment in relation to phonics/early reading.
- Promoting a love of reading: encouraging reading for enjoyment by supporting whole school reading approaches, reading to children at least once a day and encouraging reading at home, developing teachers’ knowledge of appropriate children’s literature.