Greening unveils network to boost early literacy

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference on Sunday, Education Secretary Justine Greening said the government will be spending £12m to build a network of English Hubs in a bid to improve the quality of early language and literacy teaching.

"We know that for some children their development has already fallen behind on literacy and numeracy by the time they even start school," Greening told party delegates in Manchester.

The English Hubs will initially be created within the "Northern Powerhouse" region, whose "core cities" include Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and Newcastle, but will eventually be established across the country.

They are likely to operate in a similar way to Maths Hubs created under the former Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2014.

Maths Hubs are partnerships that work with schools, teachers and colleges at regional level to try to develop better teaching of mathematics. The 35 hubs also collaborate at national level.

Greening also used her speech to announce an additional £6m to further expand the Maths Hubs network and said the latest round of the £140m Strategic School Improvement Fund will focus on increasing literacy and numeracy in reception year children.

She said the government will spend a further £5m to trial home learning environment support programmes that focus on early language and literacy in northern England.

Greening also said the Department for Education is developing plans to reform alternative education provision, highlighting how less than four per cent of children in such settings achieve A* to C grade GCSEs in English and maths compared to more than 64 per cent of children in mainstream state schools.

She said the proposals would seek to "make sure alternative provision is the very best it can be" and gives all young people the chance to fulfil their potential.