Flying High English Hub

Our team of experts have a wealth of experience and expertise to offer your school.

In October 2018, the government announced the names of 34 schools across England designated as national English Hubs. They will take a leading role in supporting schools in the teaching of early reading and phonics.

As defined by the DfE, each English Hub 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

Horsendale Primary School is one of the schools designated and work as part of the Flying High Partnership.

Our Engagement

Flying High English Hub aims to spread excellent practice in teaching early reading across the following regions:

• Nottingham City, Broxtowe, Rushcliffe, Erewash, Ashfield, Mansfield
• Derby City, South Derbyshire, Amber Valley, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, High Peak, NE Derbyshire

in 2024/25 schools will be prioritised on the below criteria:

• 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 EAL, FSM, travellers, etc.
• Schools referred by local partners (e.g., NLEs, RSCs, LADs, EIA teams/boards.)

Self Referral Form

If you meet some of the criteria above you can complete a self referral form here.

You will then be contacted directly by one of the English Hub team.

Phonics Providers

Flying High English Hub works with a range of Department of Education accredited phonics providers. These providers offer full systematic synthetic phonics programmes that match the National Curriculum requirements for teaching children to read and spell and have cumulatively decodable reading books that match the progression of phonemes taught in the programme. The Department of Education published a revised set of core criteria for effective Systematic Synthetic Phonics teaching programmes in January 2023, which can be found here.