In the spring of 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) identified and invited over 900 eligible schools to apply to become an accredited English Hub as part of a new national initiative to drive up standards in literacy.
Following a competitive application and selection process, the DfE announced the designation of the inaugural English Hubs in Autumn 2018. Our lead school, Whiston Worrygoose Primary School, was successfully designated as one of only 34 English Hubs in the country and was previously branded as Learners First English Hub. Whilst under Learners First management, the English Hub thrived and continues to deliver high quality support and training for teachers and leaders.
This year begins a new chapter for the team as Whiston Worrygoose English Hub transfers management to White Woods Primary Academy Trust and allows for even more opportunities and collaboration within and beyond the 16 Trust schools positioned across Rotherham.
The lead school continues to demonstrate high quality first teaching across the English Hub remit and maintained an ‘Outstanding’ Ofsted grading in the Autumn of 2021 which accurately reflects the true determination that each staff member has to ensure that no child leaves the school unable to read regardless of their background, needs or abilities.
We are excited to share more information about the support and resources available and how schools can continue to access and contribute to the work of the English Hub under White Woods PAT.
Support provided by us focuses on the following three areas:
- Early-language development and ‘closing the word gap’.
- Age-appropriate phonics: encouraging fidelity to a single systematic synthetic phonics programme and supporting the effective use of decodable books in the early stages of learning as a way of establishing phonic decoding.
- Promoting a love of reading through a focus on reading aloud, encouraging reading at home and developing teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature.
As your chosen English Hub we will ...
'... promote a love of reading and support schools across the country to provide excellent phonics and early language teaching. Literacy specialists within each hub will provide tailored support to schools.
This will include running events to showcase excellent practice in teaching reading and working with local schools to develop their practice’.
Department for Education (DfE), October 2018
