EYFS Best Practice in Schools: Gauging the progress of English Hubs

English Hubs were first announced in 2018 as part of the Government's commitment to raise literacy standards and ensure that all children can read fluently and with understanding.

The flagship 34 hub schools, chosen for their ‘excellent’ phonics teaching and their proximity to areas of high need, focused on supporting disadvantaged children in Reception and Year 1 that were slower to progress in reading than their peers.

Five years on and their remit remains broadly the same, but with children's reading attainment dipping to below 2018 levels, the disadvantage gap continuing to widen post-pandemic, and strong evidence for the benefits of early reading intervention to improve children's life chances, the Government has committed a further £24 million to widen the scope of schools eligible to apply for funding through its new Accelerator Fund.

Announcing the investment as part of its education recovery package last October, Education Secretary Kit Malthouse said it is ‘imperative’ that the Government supports schools to help to instil a ‘love of reading’.

HUB AIMS

English Hubs have three aims: to develop early language and close the word gap; to develop early reading through the use of systematic, synthetic phonics (SSP); and to promote a love of reading throughout the school.

The 34 chosen hub schools, which engage with local schools to pass on good practice, are currently delivering intensive support to more than 1,000 partner schools, reaching approximately 50,000 pupils in Reception and Year 1, according to the latest figures from the Department for Education (DfE).

When they first launched in 2018, English Hub schools provided showcases to schools which would travel in to learn more about best practice for teaching phonics and general reading and writing engagement. They have since moved on to visit schools to audit their reading provision, offer advice based on lesson observations and provide an action plan.

The four levels of support on offer range from intensive, which includes up to nine days of bespoke support from a literacy specialist over two years, focusing on embedding quality-first phonics teaching and a strong reading culture into their school, to medium, which involves targeted support, CPD and workshops focused on teaching of early reading.

Schools that sign up to either of these get Resource funding, another strand, which enables them to receive match funding of up to £6,000 to purchase programmes, resources and training to support early reading. Schools receiving support from an English Hub must also follow an SSP programme from the DfE's validated list.

The final level is the Accelerator Fund for English, which includes funding to adopt a DfE-validated phonics scheme and focused training to implement it successfully.

INCREASED UPTAKE

Since the implementation of the Accelerator Fund, there has been a resurgence of interest and self-referrals, according to Dr Elaine Allen OBE, executive head teacher and English Hub strategic lead at St John Vianney (SJV) Catholic Primary School and English Hub in Blackpool (pictured right), who was appointed chair of the English Hub Council in 2020.

‘The Hubs have access to DfE funds to support the implementation of an SSP. Once schools are aware of this, they normally make contact. However, I still feel there are a lot of schools who don't know what we can offer and that all our support is free.’

‘However, with the increased investment from the DfE, we are able to support the majority of schools referrals at present, providing they meet the criteria for funding,’ she adds.

Rebecca Dwyer, full-time hub lead at the Knowledge Schools Trust, says the Accelerator Fund means they are able to support a ‘much wider range of schools’, including junior schools and special schools, as well as schools that might previously not have met the eligibility criteria for help.

As part of the Government's attempt to readdress the balance caused by Covid disruption, the Accelerator Fund was launched as part of the education recovery package in 2021, with a £4 million targeted fund in 60 local authority districts, supporting 450 schools to adopt a DfE-validated phonics scheme with training to implement it successfully.

Further investment will now see this rolled out nationally to up to 680 additional schools, with an extra £3.8 million targeted to expand the English aspect of the programme and help boost literacy.

Schools given priority for support generally include those with:

• Lower than the national average percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check in their most recent results.
• A higher-than-average proportion of pupils reading below age-related expectations.
• A higher-than-average proportion of children eligible for Pupil Premium.
• Ofsted judgment of Requires Improvement or ‘inadequate’
• A high proportion of groups considered hard to reach, such as those with English as an Additional Language, etc.
• Schools referred by local partners (e.g., a National Leader of Education).

The Accelerator Fund is also delivered via the Early Endowment Fund (EEF) to help ‘broaden access to evidence-based programmes and targeted support’, a DfE spokesperson says, as well as through maths hubs, which ‘continue to develop and scale-up numeracy programmes’.

MEASURING THE IMPACT

The importance of improving reading standards for a child's future academic achievement, wellbeing and future success has received growing recognition over the past two decades.

The National Curriculum, published in 2013, outlines the requirements for all maintained schools to teach reading using systematic phonics, and the Phonics Screening Check (PSC), introduced in 2012, indicates how many children are on track.

In the first check since before Covid, figures published by the DfE last October show that the national proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in Year 1 fell from 82 per cent in 2019 to 75 per cent last year. PSC data for schools supported by English Hubs in 2022 is yet to be published but is being ‘worked on’, a DfE spokesperson says.

PHONICS AT THE HEART

During the early phase of the programme, an English Hubs training centre was established to train and advise 180 teachers appointed by the Hubs to become literacy specialists. At the time, the DfE came under fire for awarding the contract to run the centre to the commercial phonics provider, Ruth Miskin, who devised the Read Write Inc. (RWI) Phonics programme.

The debate was further fuelled when the EEF, which fully endorses and recommends the use of ‘high-quality, structured’ phonics when implemented as part of a wider literacy offering, released findings showing that children aged four to nine who participated in the RWI phonics programme on a daily basis made, on average, an extra month's progress in reading compared with children in the control group.

However, the EEF urged caution on interpreting the findings because the evaluation was beset with problems, including a second trial being cancelled because of the pandemic.

Research carried out by the UCL Institute of Education, suggests that teaching of reading has been less successful in England since the use of synthetic phonics was adopted.

This prompted an open letter to the then education secretary Nadhim Zahawi last January, calling on the Government to amend its policy to centre on a ‘wider range’ of approaches to teaching phonics and reading. This would then enable teachers to use their ‘own judgement’ about which is best for their pupils.

CASE STUDY: St John Vianney (SJV) Catholic Primary School and English Hub

Dr Elaine Allen OBE, executive head teacher and English Hub strategic lead (pictured), dedicates at least one day a week to running the Hub, which involves working with schools and other curriculum Hubs in the North-West, as well as marketing the Hub.

In 2020, she was appointed chair of the English Hub Council, which consists of representatives from the DfE and other Hubs.

She says, ‘It's an exciting role, as I have some influence on the strategic direction of the programme and it enables me to keep up to speed with relevant research on how to get children reading as fluently as possible to aid their comprehension.

‘Of course, this also relies on their word knowledge, too.

‘Our Hub has grown from strength to strength. Although at first the responsibility seemed a little daunting, I'm delighted we decided to apply.

‘It's wonderful to see the good work we are doing to support the quality of teaching of early reading, as well as enabling schools to develop a whole-school reading culture.

‘At the time of application, we had several excellent teachers of early literacy and it was quite straightforward to appoint a Hub lead and three internal literacy specialists. As time has gone by, we have increased our internal and external capacity, selecting and skilling up literacy specialists based in other schools across the region.

‘The schools we support use a range of validated SSPs. We use Read Write Inc. which is a good programme that was being used when I joined the school in 2013.

‘All validated SSPs should be effective if implemented correctly, but in my experience, some are easier to implement than others so it often depends upon the expertise of the school staff as to which one they choose.

‘Reading daily with children is vital and we do this every day throughout school. Children enjoy being able to just listen to a story without it being linked to questioning and round-robin reading.

‘Developing quality talk in the early years is also crucial, as is making a strong start in the teaching and learning of phonics in Reception, from day one.

‘We actually make this strong start in our nursery, through introducing several of our Set 1 sounds when the children are ready. Developing all aspects of phonological awareness is of course vital in the early years.

‘It is also important to situate the teaching and learning of phonics in a rich reading culture so that children get to hear stories and understand the pleasure in learning to read.

‘They also can see what reading can do for the imagination and how it can develop a curious mindset.’

• SJV English Hub | St John Vianney Catholic Primary School (stjohnvianneys.co.uk and Twitter @SJVEnglishHub)
  
  

EYFS perspective

When it comes to reading, phonics is a ‘tool in the toolkit’, according to Ruth Swailes (pictured), school improvement advisor and local authority early years strategic lead for Wirral.

‘Most teachers readily accept that phonics is an effective way to teach children to read as part of a wider toolkit. But phonics does not equate to reading. It's about decoding words and it needs to be taught with reading for meaning alongside.

‘Communication, language and literacy underpins everything. One of my concerns is that early years classrooms are so focused on phonics schemes and keeping up with the scheme that they don't have time to focus on conversations: the serve-and-return and sustained shared thinking that takes place through high-quality interactions, role play and small-world play. These areas are sadly being pushed out for phonics schemes. And if we don't get communication and language in place by age six-and-a-half, DfE statistics show that it will impact on children's reading, writing and they are more likely to develop behaviour problems.

‘If we want to improve children's reading and writing, communication and language has to underpin it, not just phonics alone. The danger is that there are only so many hours in a school day and if 60 per cent of those hours are being taken up with phonics and reading, something has to give.

‘We have a small window of opportunity to get the important things in place. But phonics isn't time-sensitive.

‘There is nothing to say that knowing 44 phonemes by the age of five has a significant impact on long-term educational outcomes, but there is significant research to show that communication and language skills, self-regulation and executive function skills by this age does.’

• Ruth Swailes is the co-author with Aaron Bradbury of Early Childhood Theories Today, published by Learning Matters
  
  

CASE STUDY: The Knowledge Schools Trust

The Knowledge Schools Trust (KST) English Hub, based at the West London Free School Primary in Hammersmith, is currently supporting 24 partner schools on an intensive basis and hundreds of schools through its free, continuous professional development offer and funding routes.

Rebecca Dwyer, full-time hub lead, oversees the day-to-day running of the Hub, leads on training and CPD and supports the team of literacy specialists.

She says, ‘We’re helping schools with funding and support to improve their provision for early reading. In particular, there has been a growing focus on supporting schools with purchasing and implementing SSP programmes as the DfE introduced their validation process in 2021.

‘As a Hub we can support schools with funding to purchase an SSP, but we can also support them with regular visits from our team of expert literacy specialists to ensure it is taught to the highest quality possible, ensuring the best outcomes for pupils.

‘Much of our work is in Reception, as it is crucial children make a strong start when they first join primary school. These pupils benefit through the support and CPD given to the teaching team working with them on a daily basis to teach them phonics and to develop their spoken language. As a result of English Hub funding, they are also able to read books that are closely matched to their stage of learning so they can develop reading fluency.

‘All of our CPD is free for any school to attend and lot of it is online so we are able to help lots of teachers and school leaders through this. We find that schools are really keen to work with us and are really appreciative of the external and professional support we are able to provide to them. In the current climate of tight school budgets, head teachers are very appreciative of the funding and free, high-quality CPD.

‘We can support schools with choosing an SSP and then help them to fund the associated training and resources. We also provide audits to schools so they can do a “health check” on their early reading provision. For schools we work with intensively, our literacy specialists provide support to school leaders and teachers in all aspects of their teaching. A typical literacy specialist day would involve watching lessons together with the phonics lead, coaching teachers, delivering training, modelling teaching, meeting with the head teacher and action planning. They are really productive days that schools tell us they benefit a lot from.

‘We have an audit tool developed by the English Hubs programme that we use to support schools with a “deep dive” into their early language, phonics and reading provision. It has strong links with the Education Inspection Framework and the EEF's research into literacy so schools know that it provides robust, up-to-date and evidence-informed support.

‘I would encourage all schools to get in touch with their local English Hub as they may be able to access support.’

• www.englishhubkst.org and @englishhubkst
  
  

MORE INFORMATION

• The Education Hub
• Gov.uk:Choosing a phonics teaching programme
• Key stage 1 and phonics screening check attainment
• Nursery World
• EEF
• Gov.uk: The reading framework