Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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https://schoolsweek.co.uk/firms-appoint ... ng-centre/
Firms appointed to run English hubs training centre

A firm run by a phonics expert championed by Nick Gibb will lead a new training centre to develop literacy specialists – as two more English hubs are announced.

Ruth Miskin Training will run the centre to provide training for up to 34 English hubs leaders and 180 literacy specialists.

The firm is run by Ruth Miskin, who was appointed a CBE in the New Year’s Honours and whose work on phonics has been praised by schools minister Nick Gibb.

The centre will focus on three priority areas: age-appropriate phonics provision; early language development; and promoting a love of reading.

The government said the appointment was made after a competitive tender process, and funding comes from the £26.3 million announced for English hubs by former education secretary Justine Greening last year.

The total number of English hubs has now also reached 34 after two more were announced today. Horsendale School in Nottingham will open the Flying High English Hub, and Heather Avenue Infant School in Norfolk will open the Wensum Trust English Hub.

Gibb said: “Our English Hubs programme is already helping children up and down the country benefit from the highest standards of teaching expertise. That is why I’m delighted to see two more hubs opening, helping to spread best practice in the teaching of reading.”

The Department for Education said literacy specialists will be given training in the principles for implementing all systematic synthetic phonics teaching; the conditions necessary for early language development; and habits that build a strong reading school.

They will also then receive specific training in the phonics programme the partner school is using; and in a new free language and storytelling programme.

The centre will be run in association with I CAN, the National Literacy Trust, Sounds Write, Jolly Phonics, Sounds Discovery, Phonics International and Floppy Phonics.

Miskin has also received government funding under the teaching and leadership fund and the opportunity areas scheme.

The work of the English Hubs and the training centre will be overseen by an English Hubs Council that includes leading phonics and reading experts and headteachers. The names are yet to be announced.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates appointed to run English Hubs Training Centre

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Ruth Miskin's announcement:
Announcement of the new English Hubs Training Centre

https://www.ruthmiskin.com/en/about-us/ ... ng-centre/

We are delighted to announce that, after a competitive tender process, Ruth Miskin Training has been appointed to run the new English Hubs Training Centre.

We will work in association with ICAN, National Literacy Trust, John Walker from Sounds Write, Sue Lloyd from Jolly Phonics, Marlynne Grant from Sounds Discovery and Debbie Hepplewhite from Phonics International and Floppy Phonics.

The English Hubs programme is made up of 34 schools with a strong track record in teaching children to read, as well as promoting a love of reading. The Training Centre will train and support 180 teachers, appointed by the hubs, to become literacy specialists. These literacy specialists will go on to support teachers working in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the UK. They will support local schools with excellent teaching in phonics, early reading, early language development and building a culture of reading in Reception and Key Stage 1.

The English Hubs Council, including leading phonics experts, reading experts and headteachers, will oversee the English Hubs and Training Centre.

For more information contact admin@englishhubstc.com, or call on 020 7043 2394.
Ruth Miskin, John Walker, Sue Lloyd, Marlynne Grant and I have known one another for many years. We all pioneered collaboratively to challenge officials when the National Literacy Strategy was rolled out in England with promotion of the 'searchlights' multi-cueing word-guessing model. We knew this multi-cueing was not based on the research findings, indeed multi-cueing word-guessing can cause or exacerbate dyslexia (that is, difficulty with reading at word level).

Thus, the National Training Centre in England is in good hands - people who have been serious educationalists for many years, who not only read widely about international research findings, who worked hard to draw attention to the flaws in, then, official guidance - but also people who have worked in schools and with schools, advising, training and supporting others in the field of literacy in the UK and internationally.

Watch this space!
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates appointed to run English Hubs Training Centre

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Nursery World features the English Hubs initiative, the National Training Centre and National Literacy Council - and the same critic, David Reedy, representative of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) who doesn't seem to have any real grasp on either the findings of research on reading or the goals of this latest Department for Education (DfE) initiative:
Phonics training company to run literacy centre

by Catherine Gaunt

The Department for Education has come under fire for awarding the contract to run a centre that will train Reception teachers to teach children to read to a leading commercial phonics provider.
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery- ... acy-centre
The contract to run the new English Hubs Training Centre and a national network of English Hubs across the country has been awarded to the training company run by Ruth Miskin who devised the Read Write Inc. Phonics programme.

The centre will be run in association with I CAN and the National Literacy Trust, as well as other phonics training providers Sounds Write, Jolly Phonics, Sounds Discovery, Phonics International and Floppy Phonics.

The English Hubs will offer free literacy support to local schools in school-based nurseries, Reception and Key Stage 1.

Ms Miskin has been praised by schools minister Nick Gibb and was awarded a CBE earlier this year for services to education.


What will the training centre and the English Hubs do?

The centre will train and advise teachers appointed by the hubs to become literacy specialists to support schools most in need.

The DfE said the centre would promote and share effective practice with a particular focus on language and literacy teaching in Reception. This would mirror the work of Maths Hubs, high performing schools which share their knowledge with other local schools.

The training centre will focus on three priority areas: age-appropriate phonics provision; early language development; and promoting a love of reading.

English Hubs are infant and primary schools appointed to support other schools to deliver teaching in Reception and Year 1 to achieve better outcomes for all pupils, with a particular focus on the lowest 20 per cent of pupils in the most disadvantaged schools. The first hubs started operating in 2018.

The programme is made up of primary schools chosen by the DfE for their strong track record in teaching children to read. The latest English Hubs to be named are Horsendale School in Nottingham, which will open the Flying High English Hub, and Heather Avenue Infant School in Norfolk, which will open the Wensum Trust English Hub, taking the number of hubs to 34.

The centre will train and support 180 teachers, appointed by the hubs, to become literacy specialists. These literacy specialists will go on to support teachers working in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the UK. They will support local schools with teaching in phonics, early reading, early language development and building a culture of reading in Reception and Key Stage 1.

The English Hubs Council, made up of leading phonics experts, reading experts and headteachers, will oversee the English Hubs and training centre.

The DfE said literacy specialists will be given training in the principles for implementing all systematic synthetic phonics teaching; the conditions necessary for early language development; and habits that build a strong reading school. They will also then receive specific training in the phonics programme the partner school is using and in a new free language and storytelling programme.


Concern over 'phonics-only' approach

However, the UK Literacy Association said it was concerned that phonics teaching was being prioritised over other methods of teaching children to read and that many of the partners listed were also phonics specialists who published commercial phonics programmes.

David Reedy of the UKLA executive committee said, ‘Although phonics is essential for early reading development, it is not sufficient to develop fully rounded young readers. In particular, it is not sufficient in helping children make sense of what they read, which is the prime purpose of reading. There is little indication in the announcement that comprehension will be a key focus.

‘UKLA is pleased that language development and reading for pleasure are mentioned but they seem to be an afterthought and to have less status than phonics instruction, whereas research evidence suggests that they are even more important for young readers when they enter school.

‘Ruth Miskin has been very successful in developing and promoting phonics teaching. However, there is less evidence that a phonics-only approach helps children to read all words accurately or, on its own, develops reading for meaning.

‘For example, common words such as "come" and "the" are not phonically regular and words like "read" can only be pronounced accurately in the context of their sentence.

‘Any training programme should reflect the substantial research evidence that shows a balanced approach to reading is the most effective. This would include attention to a range of word reading strategies, attention to comprehension and inference making, language development, engagement in reading as well as the reading experiences children bring with them from home.

'UKLA looks forward to seeing the details of the training programme which includes all of the above and more.’
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said, ‘Our English Hubs programme is already helping children up and down the country benefit from the highest standards of teaching expertise. That is why I’m delighted to see two more hubs opening, helping to spread best practice in the teaching of reading.

‘Reading and writing are the foundations of any broad and balanced curriculum. Our increased focus on phonics means more children are being equipped with these basic building blocks at the earliest stage, with 163,000 more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers than in 2010.’


Training centre and the early years

The contract to run the centre was put out to competitive tender last year, after the then education secretary Justine Greening announced that the centre would receive £26m to work with schools in challenging circumstances and help raise standards.

The tender document said that the DfE was ‘seeking to strengthen language and literacy outcomes in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). One strand of this reform, as set out in the government’s response to the primary assessment consultation (September 2017) is the reform of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP), which will include revising the Early Learning Goals to give a greater focus on supporting children in developing their vocabulary and core early literacy and language skills.

‘The Social Mobility Action Plan also sets out the importance of improving teaching in reception year to narrow the word gap between disadvantaged children and their peers so that all children have the building blocks to succeed at key stage 1 and beyond.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Here we go - the same old criticism of 'there's more to reading than just phonics' from David Reedy, representative of the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA).

This is not the first time I've had to address many of the comments David Reedy has made about the role of phonics for reading and the role of the Year One Phonics Screening Check which is statutory in England (since 2012). See the post below for links to the so-called 'debate' between David Reedy and me re the phonics check!
There’s More to Reading than Just Phonics

The latest DfE announcement shows literacy training is yet again failing to focus on many of the key aspects of teaching young children to read, says David Reedy..
https://www.teachwire.net/news/theres-m ... st-phonics

Let's take a statement of fact from Reedy's piece in Teachwire:
The DfE says the training will focus on three priority areas: age-appropriate systematic synthetic phonics provision; early language development; and promoting a love of reading.

The centre will be run in association with I CAN, the National Literacy Trust, Sounds Write, Jolly Phonics, Sounds Discovery, Phonics International and Floppy Phonics.
Do read the full piece - it's not long. However, which bit of the DfE's priority areas did Reedy not note -early language development perhaps - or promoting a love of reading?

And did Reedy not note that the organisations 'I CAN' and the 'National Literacy Trust' are involved with the training centre?

Further, Reedy notes this in his piece:
In research their research ‘How linguistically informed are phonics programmes?’, Roger Beard, Greg Brooks and Jaz Ampaw‐Farr write: The number and range of the linguistic errors in current phonics programmes pose a significant risk, not only to the implementation of the national curriculum, but also to the quality of teaching and learning of early reading… Inaccuracies in how GPCs [grapheme-phoneme correspondences] are referred to can only add to the difficulties that some children experience when learning to read.

This is a serious issue which most teachers are not aware of.

The offer of support from English hubs will be primarily for schools where scores on the phonics check are below expectations. Given evidence of inaccuracies in current phonics programmes, this puts less experienced early readers in an even more precarious position
.
Notably, however, the phonics programmes scrutinised by the Department for Education (DfE) for inclusion in the catalogues for the match-funded phonics initiative in England from 2011 to 2013 are the same programmes that have passed muster for this latest initiative. In other words, these are the highest quality programmes and associated training already fully scrutinised by officials.

What is very worrying indeed is that David Reedy seems so singularly unaware of the content and nature of these phonics programmes and their associated training and guidance. The programmes are not bereft of including common words with tricky or unusual spellings, they are not bereft of vocabulary enrichment and language comprehension - these are leading programmes.

How bizarre that Reedy writes in his piece:
Ruth Miskin has been very successful in developing and promoting phonics teaching, however there is less evidence that a phonics only approach helps children to read all words accurately, for example common words like ‘come’ and ‘the’ are not phonically regular and words like ‘read’ can only be pronounced accurately in the context of its sentence. Every teacher will recognise this.

In fact, there is new evidence that there are significant errors in current phonics programmes which need attention
.
What Reedy actually achieves in his piece is laying bare his lack knowledge and understanding of England's leading phonics programmes and the actual work of the programme authors. It looks as if he needs to get into some classrooms to see actual provision and achievements first hand.

It is also extraordinary that he sets 'phonics' up against 'comprehension' - it's the same old, uninformed nonsense that phonics detractors and critics come up with year after year - regardless of their country of origin. Australia faces this now with regard to the call for introducing a national phonics screening check.

It's high time that all these critics became fully informed about the realities of good phonics programmes and training, the role of phonics screening, and the consequence of the neglect of systematic synthetic phonics of the highest quality.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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As David Reedy has made himself topical again through his criticism of the DfE's latest initiative to improve literacy in the early years and infants, I'm including links to previous points I've taken up with Reedy in England:

https://phonicsinternational.com/reedy_response.pdf
Debbie Hepplewhite’s direct response to David Reedy’s suggestions expressed in the ‘Teach Primary’ magazine, April 2013: ‘The Great Debate – Is it time to ditch the Y1 Phonics Screening Test?’

“It is apparent that the teaching profession in England does not share a common understanding of the role of phonics in the teaching of reading or assessing reading. I consider that this is such an important issue, I am responding directly to the points raised by David Reedy in his section of the ‘debate’ in the ‘Teach Primary’ magazine where both of us contributed a different perspective. My comments are in red below. David Reedy’s article is in black below. Prior to the publication of the two pieces, I was not forewarned that my article was going to form part of a ‘debate’. ” Debbie Hepplewhite May 2013
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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Free schools leading the way with top primary school results

26th September 2019
https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases ... ol-results
Free schools in England are helping give six and seven-year-olds the basic skills they need for future success, as they outperform other types of school for the fifth year in a row.

Phonics results from the 188 primary free schools in England are 4 percentage points higher than in council-run schools.

KS1 assessment and phonics screening checks released today show nationally 82% of year 1 pupils are meeting the expected standard in phonics while 75% of year 2 pupils reach the expected standard in reading, 69% in writing, 76% in maths and 82% in science in their Key Stage 1 assessments.

The statistics show:

*82% of pupils met the expected standards in phonics – up from 58% in 2012
*This figure rises to 87% in mainstream free schools
*75% of year 2 pupils reach the expected standard in reading, 69% in writing, 76% in maths and 82% in science
*For mainstream free schools these figures rise to 79% in reading, 73% in writing, 79% in maths and 85% in science
*Girls outperform boys in both phonics and Key Stage 1 assessments
*London is the best performing area in the country in both phonics and Key Stage 1 assessments

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:

If children are to achieve their full potential it’s vital that they are given firm foundations to build on – and that’s what these statistics show is happening. It’s particularly pleasing to see free schools doing so well, illustrating the important role they play in the system.

Mastering phonics, which provides a solid foundation for reading, along with basic numeracy and literacy, means these pupils will be able go on to apply these skills in more and more advanced ways.

It’s because of the hard work of teachers and our keen focus on raising standards at the earliest stages of education that we’ve been able to see these results.
Free schools, introduced in 2010, are funded by the government but aren’t run by the local council. They have more control over how they do things.

Phonics provides pupils with the building blocks they need to read fluently and confidently, as well as aiding future learning and giving them the tools they need to express themselves. Other countries are looking to emulate the success of this approach, with policy makers in Australia currently piloting this screening check.

The government has invested in programmes to help raise standards in our primary schools. In 2018 we launched a £26.3m English Hubs programme. We have appointed 34 primary schools who will support nearly 3000 schools to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. This is on top of £41 million to follow the same approach to teaching maths as world-leading countries through the Shanghai Mastery for Maths programme. ‎This is on top of wider changes to the primary assessment system which will reduce unnecessary workload for teachers so they can focus on what really matters in the classroom.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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Revealed: Surge in LAs with falling phonics pass rates

Underlying data shows dramatic rise in number of local authority areas where Year 1 phonics performance dropped

by Amy Gibbons
https://www.tes.com/news/revealed-surge ... pass-rates
The number of local authority areas with declining Year 1 phonics pass rates rose to 83 this year, up from just six in 2018.

Today’s provisional statistics, published by the Department for Education (DfE), show a 14-fold increase in the number of local authority areas where pass rates dropped, as the proportion of 5- and 6-year-olds achieving the government’s expected standard by the end of Year 1 fell nationally for the first time.

Of the 147 LEAs with available data, 83 (56 per cent) recorded a decrease in the proportion of pupils passing the screening tests between 2018 and 2019.
For links to the national statistics for the Year 1 phonics check, visit the original article, link above.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

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This piece in the TES has been flagged up via Twitter but I have responded asking why there is no information about the high-quality named programmes and their training that are also funded or part-funded in this initiative:
English Hubs: What they are and why you should use them

Need to help with early years reading and phonics? Then you could call on your nearest English Hub...


by Dan Worth

https://www.tes.com/news/english-hubs-w ... d-use-them
“I wish this had been around when I was teaching Year 1,” says teacher Hannah Abu-Ghaida.

She’s talking about the English Hubs – but there’s a good chance you may not have heard of them. Despite being around for almost two years there is, in some parts of the country at least, a disparity between schools that use them and those that seem unaware of their existence.

What is an English Hub?
In total, there are 34 English Hubs around the UK, based in schools chosen by the Department for Education (DfE) due to the quality of their teaching in areas around phonics and engagement in reading in Reception and Year 1 teaching.
No mention here of the funding for specific phonics programmes and their associated training:
Perhaps most notable, though, is the offer of funding direct to schools with up to £6,000 available as a full funding grant or £3,000 as matched funding – to help them improve their offering in these areas, such as for new books or decodable readers that pupils can take home.
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Re: Eng: Ruth Miskin Training and associates to run English Hubs Training Centre WATCH THIS SPACE!

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

It's now four and a half years since I posted about the English Hubs initiative in England and Ruth Miskin and Associates 'Training Centre'.

This announcement in Schools Week was published on 4th June 2019 along with announcements in similar publications, including via Ruth Miskin's own site, which are no longer available to see via electronic links:

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/firms-appoint ... ng-centre/

So, Ruth Miskin alone - not with 'Associates' - was awarded the government contract for the English Hubs Training Centre. I have no knowledge of the content of the commission awarded to Ruth Miskin - whether it referenced 'And Associates' or not.

26th September 2024: The update is both good and bad news:

Without doubt, many regional schools have benefited in England from additional government funding for phonics resources, decodable books and phonics training - and from the support of English Hubs' personnel.

BUT, there has been much about the conduct of the Department for Education in England, including its 'validation' process and judgements of 'Systematic Synthetic Phonics' programmes, that raises serious questions.

Education journalist, Warwick Mansell, has undertaken some investigations linked to the English Hubs' initiative which I myself have blogged about here (and provided links to Warwick's blog):

https://hepplewhite.org/2024/09/17/engl ... ently-and/

So you see, there never was an 'AND ASSOCIATES' ingredient to the English Hubs Training Centre run by Ruth Miskin.

You will also get an indication of other developments lacking in transparency and accountability including the promotion of the 'Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised' programme and associated personnel.

I write about this here:

https://hepplewhite.org/2024/09/23/sept ... s-revised/

I have long since criticised the DfE, directly, and recognised the English Hubs initiative as being 'inwards-looking' and 'unambitious'. It's not that weaker regional schools haven't improved their practice, because no doubt many have, but this is not easy to ascertain - how can the general public find out - indeed how can the teaching profession find out (those not involved in the English Hubs outreach)?

If anyone manages to use the search engines to gain any practical information about children's results and what their experiences 'look like' using different programmes and practices, do please share because I have yet to find any information!
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