Wider Professional Learning
We are proud to work with inspiring partners to provide high-quality, school-based professional development to teachers and educators at every stage of their careers, supplementing the excellent offers of our local curriculum hubs, specialist hubs and Research Schools.
Curriculum Hubs
Unity Teaching School Hub links teachers and educators, schools and education settings to curriculum hub programmes including:
Myland English Hub
Myland English Hub is based at Myland Primary School and is one of 34 DfE appointed English Hubs across England. English Hubs are primary schools that excel in early language and literacy teaching and aim to support schools in achieving excellence in literacy teaching through the initial focus of:
- Developing early language and closing the word gap
- Developing early reading through systematic synthetic phonics
- Promoting a love of reading
Myland English Hub provides tailored support to schools. This includes:
- running events to showcase excellent practice in teaching reading
- working with local schools to develop their practice
- offering conferences and workshops
- working intensively with eligible schools to support the development of phonics, early reading and language
Angles Maths Hub
Angles Maths Hub, like all Maths Hubs, offers a variety of professional development programmes, which include national programmes on offer throughout the country, and local programmes designed to meet the needs of local teachers. The Angles Maths Hub collaborative programmes are aimed at improving classroom practise and the professional skills of maths teachers in Norfolk and Suffolk.
- Babergh
- Breckland
- Broadland
- East Suffolk
- Great Yarmouth Borough
- Ipswich Borough
- Mid Suffolk
- Norwich City
- North Norfolk
- South Norfolk
Schools in Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk are part of the Cambridge Maths Hub.
Cambridge Maths Hub
Cambridge Maths Hub is one of a network of 40 Maths Hubs in England, each led by a local school or college.
CAM Academy Trust is proud to be the base for the Cambridge Maths Hub which is promoting excellence in maths teaching. The Hub supports teachers in the continual process of improving educational standards for students in our region from the youngest child in Early Years Foundation Stage to Post-16 education.
The Cambridge Maths Hub aims to develop:
- Teachers and pupils to be confident and successful mathematicians
- Teachers and pupils who are inspired by the creativity and power of mathematics
- Schools that value a culture of collaborative and reflective practice
- Teachers’ deep understanding of maths and related pedagogy
Cambridge Maths Hub covers:
- Cambridgeshire including Peterborough,
- West Suffolk,
- King’s Lynn
- West Norfolk.
Venn Essex Maths Hub
Venn Essex Maths Hub was set up in 2020 as part of the expansion of a national collaborative network of 40 Maths Hubs funded by the Department of Education and coordinated by the National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM).
Venn Essex Maths Hub aims to ensure that all pupils, teachers and leaders have access to support, training, and innovation that will improve the enjoyment and achievement of mathematics, from Early Years through to the post 16 sector.
The Maths Hubs programme is Department for Education funded and led by the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics). We bring together mathematics education professionals in a collaborative national network of 40 Hubs each locally led by an outstanding school or college, to develop and spread excellent practice, for the benefit of all pupils and students.
The Venn Essex Maths Hub is led by St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School, an outstanding primary school in the heart of Colchester. With a dedicated team of operational partners who help carry out the Hub’s work, we work very closely with our Strategic Partners, who help plan and evaluate the Hub’s work. We work with successful, established mathematics communities across the Essex region as well as national partners and mathematics associations. Our Maths Hub covers the Essex area including Southend and Thurrock.
Teach Computing
Teach Computing is a curriculum programme delivered by the National Centre for Computing Education. The National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE) is funded by the Department for Education and supporting partners and marks a significant investment in improving the provision of computing education in England. It is delivered by STEM Learning and is made up of the following programmes:
- Teach Computing
- Isaac Computer Science
- Computing Quality Framework
The programmes aim to transform the way computing is taught in schools across the country – and enable more young people to benefit from studying this important subject. Through this, NCCE believe that their skills and career opportunities will be enhanced.
Why use the Teach Computing Curriculum?
- Resources include lesson plans, slides, activity sheets, homework, and assessments
- Each key stage has a teacher guide and curriculum map to help you get started
- Built around an innovative progression framework where computing content has been organised into interconnected networks we call learning graphs
- Created by subject experts, using the latest pedagogical research and teacher feedback
- All of the content is free for you to use, and in formats that make it easy for you to adapt it to meet the needs of your learners
Norfolk and Suffolk Music Hub
Norfolk and Suffolk Music Hub is a partnership of organisations and schools which engage with children and young people in music making. These organisations share what they do, communicate with each other and are committed to the highest quality of music education for children and young people. Our partnership serves to create the very best opportunities for children and young people to get involved in music making.
The Music Hub is funded by the Department of Education; their grant is administered by Arts Council England to create more opportunities for children and young people to get involved in music. Music Hubs are already working with 80% of schools in England, meaning that around one million children and young people are learning a musical instrument.
The National Plan for Music Education outlines core and extension roles that all hubs are required to deliver as a condition of their funding from Department for Education which is administered through Arts Council England. These roles set a benchmark for good practice for a well-rounded service within Music Education Hubs.
Core Roles
- Ensure that every child aged five to 18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice) through whole class ensemble teaching programmes for ideally a year (but for a minimum of a term) of weekly tuition on the same instrument.
- Provide opportunities to play in ensembles and to perform from an early stage.
- Ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people.
- Develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil is singing regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area.
Extension Roles
- Offer Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to school staff, particularly in supporting schools to deliver music in the curriculum.
- Provide access to large-scale and/or high-quality music experiences for pupils, working with professional musicians and/or venues. This may include undertaking work to publicise the opportunities available to schools, parents/carers and students.
The Science Hub
The Science Hub (formerly the Science Learning Partnership) supports schools and educators across Herts, Essex, Southend, Thurrock, Beds and Milton Keynes to provide a quality science education through the delivery of a local programme of impactful high quality cost-effective CPD, networking opportunities and events.
The Science Hub offers a programme for teachers of science and science technicians across all phases and all stages of their careers that is responsive to the needs of our schools and young people in our region. We have various subscription packages for schools and Trusts.
In addition to our CPD programme, we offer bespoke Science CPD for departmental meetings and inset days and school to school support.
Our annual programme also includes a number of student events for schools.
East of England Early Years Stronger Practice Hub (Suffolk) - Highfield Nursery
Highfield Nursery - East of England Early Years Stronger Practice Hub (Suffolk) is one of 18 DfE designated Stronger Practice Hubs across England. The East of England Hub will cover Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire offering bespoke support, EEF evidence informed training opportunities as well as conferences and opportunities to network with others working in Early Years. The hub is fully funded, meaning the offer will always be free to those who take part. The team running the hub are all working within the schools/settings currently and want to offer support across the whole Early Years sector.
The Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme is delivered on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE) by the National Children's Bureau (NCB), as part of the early years education recovery support package, which also includes the early years experts and mentors programme
Each Hub is led by a group-based (school-based, private, voluntary, or independent) early years provider and support settings to adopt well-evidenced practice improvements by:
- Establishing regional networks of settings to share knowledge and effective practice.
- Proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-based approaches, for example, through newsletters, blogs and social media.
- Acting as a point of contact for bespoke advice, and signposting to other funded support.
- Working with EEF to select evidence-based programmes to fund and make available to settings.
Early Years Stronger Practice Hub East of England (Essex) - REACHout - The Barn Nursery School
REACHout - Early Years Stronger Practice Hub East of England (Essex) vision is to ‘Raise Early Achievement in Children’ across Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Peterborough.
Based at The Barn Nursery School in Greenstead Green, they work in partnership with the DFE, The National Children’s Bureau, The Education Endowment Foundation and other Stronger Practice Hubs to improve outcomes for children across the EY sector.
Join our network to:
- Access fully-funded training opportunities
- Connect with experts to share strong, evidence-based practice
- Have access to bespoke training and support based on your settings’ needs.
- Participate in events and webinars to keep up to date with news and the latest developments/ research in early years
- Be able to visit a range of settings to enhance practice and develop new approaches
Attendance Hubs
Attendance Hubs are led by senior leaders in schools with effective attendance practice. Through their hubs, lead schools share their strategies and resources for improving attendance.
Eligibility
Support is available for senior leaders in all mainstream maintained schools and academies. You should:
- have oversight of attendance in your school
- be able to join virtual hub meetings each term
- be committed to applying insights and changing practices to increase attendance
What’s involved
You can access support by expressing an interest in being part of an attendance hub. After we’ve matched you to a hub, the lead school will invite you to virtual hub meetings. These virtual hub meetings are an opportunity to:
- refine your approach to managing attendance in school
- share good practice for managing attendance with others
- discuss any common challenges you’re facing
You should use what you learn during the meetings to make changes to your school’s existing processes for managing attendance.
You are also expected to play an active role in hub discussions.
Read more about the expectations for schools joining attendance hubs (PDF, 108 KB, 3 pages).
Register your interest in joining an attendance hub
Complete the attendance hub expression of interest form before Monday 15 January 2024.
We’ll contact you regarding the outcome of your application by spring 2024.
Registering an interest does not guarantee your school a place. We’ll assign schools to hubs based on a number of factors to ensure the matching is appropriate.
Behavioiur Hubs
The Behaviour Hubs programme supports school leaders by helping them to create calm, safe and supportive environments – with pupils in schools and ready to learn. Funded by the Department for Education, Behaviour Hubs has helped more than 650 schools and multi-academy trusts across all provisions to make sustainable and impactful changes to their behaviour culture.
Each school’s behaviour journey is unique, and no two settings experience the same set of challenges. Behaviour Hubs offers a blend of tailored school-to-school support, along with training delivered by expert behaviour advisers to generate lasting cultural change appropriate for your context.
Research Schools Network
Unity Teaching School Hub signpost to Research Schools Network programmes, including the Twilight series and modular programmes.
Unity Research School | Norfolk Research School | The East London Research School |