Empowering English Leaders: Strengthening English from EYFS to KS2
Join us for the BEP English Conference 2026 — an energising day created for English leaders from EYFS to KS2. Designed to support and strengthen subject leadership, the conference brings together expert keynotes, practical workshops and school-led sessions that speak directly to the challenges and opportunities in English today. You’ll walk away with fresh ideas, greater confidence and practical tools you can implement immediately.
WHO'S IT FOR?: Primary and Secondary English subject leaders, teachers with curriculum responsibilities, and members of SLT with oversight of English.
COST: £125 (Early Bird offer for first 10 tickets) | £150 Thereafter
DATE, TIME & VENUE: Thursday 29th January 2026 | 08.30 - 16.00 | Online
We are delighted to introduce our keynote speakers:
Andrew Percival is Deputy Headteacher at Stanley Road Primary School in Oldham. With over 25 years of experience in teaching and school leadership, he currently oversees curriculum development and teaching across the school. Andrew delivers training to schools nationwide and frequently presents at educational conferences. He recently contributed a chapter to The ResearchEd Guide to Primary Literacy on the development of Stanley Road’s writing curriculum and was a member of the sector panel that wrote the DfE’s Writing Framework. Andrew’s school welcomes over 300 teachers and school leaders annually, who visit to learn about the exemplary behaviour standards, knowledge-rich curriculum, and explicit teaching practices.
SESSION TITLE: Fluency, Clarity and Confidence: Building Sentence Mastery in Primary Writing. Writing is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks that we expect pupils to master. Given that this does not develop naturally, how can we ensure that pupils acquire automaticity in the components of writing to enable them to flourish as confident writers? In this session, Andrew will describe how his school have developed an evidence-informed approach to writing which aims to ensure all pupils are able to write with precision and clarity. He will explain how a writing curriculum which is built upon rich knowledge content and that systematically builds fluency in sentence construction provides a strong foundation for all pupils to achieve excellence in their writing.
An overview of current priorities within English at the DfE, exploring how national strategy, curriculum developments and policy decisions are shaping the teaching of reading and writing in primary schools. The session could consider the coherence between early reading, writing fluency, and spoken language as part of a joined-up approach to literacy improvement.
Geoff Barton was most recently General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, a trade union representing more than 25,000 educational leaders from all types of schools & colleges across the United Kingdom. He held this post for seven years. Prior to this, for fifteen years he was headteacher at King Edward VI School in Suffolk, an 11-18 comprehensive school of 1600 students. Geoff has written and edited various books on literature, grammar and literacy. He is patron of the English & Media Centre, a Founding Fellow of the English Association, and a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Most recently he was appointed as chair of the independent Commission on Oracy in Education to raise the profile of speaking and listening in schools and colleges, and is currently chairing a taskforce for the IPPR on inclusion. He was awarded the CBE in the 2025 New Year’s honours list for services to education.
SESSION TITLE: Speaking to Learn: Oracy as the Fourth R from EYFS to KS2. Spoken language is the thread that binds learning, literacy and life chances. In this keynote, Geoff Barton explores why oracy should stand alongside reading, writing and mathematics as a foundational element of education. Drawing on insights from the Oracy Education Commission, he will consider how purposeful talk enriches learning, strengthens inclusion and drives equity across the curriculum. The session will challenge leaders to see oracy not as an optional extra but as the “fourth R” — a right for every child and a powerful catalyst for progress from EYFS to KS2.
Christopher Such is the author of The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading and Primary Reading Simplified. He is an experienced teacher, school leader and consultant, who delivers professional development for schools, trusts and ITT providers on the subject of evidence-informed reading and curriculum development. He also works part-time as a member of Ambition Institute’s learning design team where he contributed to the design of their NPQ in Leading Literacy and primary ITT programme.
SESSION TITLE: Primary Reading Simplified – A Meaningful Approach to Post-Phonics Reading Lessons. Every school wants to build on the foundations provided by systematic phonics to maximise the chances that all pupils become capable, confident readers. But surprisingly few schools provide reading lessons from year 2 to year 6 that actually align with this goal. This is due, in part, to misconceptions about the nature of reading comprehension and its relationship to the structure of key stage 2 reading SATs. In this session, you will learn about the three essential components of whole-class reading lessons and how these can be implemented in a way that maximises outcomes and enjoyment for pupils without increasing workload for teachers. In particular, you will learn how to...
