About Us

In September 2018, the Department of Education designated 32 schools across the country as English Hubs (increased to 34 schools in 2019). Burley and Woodhead CE Primary in Burley-in-Wharfedale is one of four English Hubs based in Yorkshire. We work in partnership with schools in Bradford, Craven, Richmondshire and Hambleton to promote a love of reading and excellent teaching of early language and systematic synthetic phonics.

The support offered by the English Hub focuses on the following three areas:

• Age appropriate phonics provision - 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
• Early language development- providing evidence based approaches to early language development and closing the word gap
• Promoting a love of reading

Our five Literacy Specialists have been recruited from a number of schools across Bradford and North Yorkshire. They are all outstanding current practitioners with experience of supporting teachers in developing phonics and early language provision. Find out more about them in the Literacy Specialist section.

We run showcase events at a number of locations across Bradford and North Yorkshire. Any current showcase events will be shown under the Showcase events tab above, latest information and will appear in the diary below.

The support the English Hub can provide includes:

• Two free places per school at Showcase events, including a contribution towards supply cover costs (each event will showcase an aspect of early language and reading)
• Support completing a reading action plan with further opportunities to access funding for training or resources
• A free full day audit of your school’s early language and reading provision carried out by one of our Literacy Specialists and support with action planning
• Up to 6 days of school-to-school support led by one of our experienced Literacy Specialists

Any school can request support from an English Hub. However, if there is more demand than capacity, hubs will select schools to support based on the school’s capacity to improve, the level of the need for support and the level of disadvantage of the children at the school.

If you have attended a showcase event, more information can be found under training links.