Rhymes with a message
Next week is World Nursery Rhyme Week – an annual event founded since 2013. The initiative highlights the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development, focusing on benefits like language, literacy, and motor skills. This year’s event takes place over five days from the 10th to the 14th November. Our fifth and final article…
Maths with Nursery Rhymes: A Guide for Early Years
Next week is World Nursery Rhyme Week – an annual event founded since 2013. The initiative highlights the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development, focusing on benefits like language, literacy, and motor skills. This year’s event takes place over five days from the 10th to the 14th November. Our fourth article in this series…
More Than Baby Talk: How Nursery Rhymes Can Benefit Older Students
The 10th – 14th November 2025 is world Nursery Rhyme Week and millions of children around the globe will be singing, doing the actions and exploring a range of nursery rhymes. Much research has shown that nursery rhymes are incredibly beneficial for children as they can boost vocabulary and language development; develop literacy and numeracy…
Melody, Memory and Prosody: Tuning in to Nursery Rhymes
Next week is World Nursery Rhyme Week – an annual event founded since 2013. The initiative highlights the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development, focusing on benefits like language, literacy, and motor skills. This year’s event takes place over five days from the 10th to the 14th November. This second in our series…
The Power of Nursery Rhymes
Next week is World Nursery Rhyme Week – an annual event founded since 2013. The initiative highlights the importance of nursery rhymes in early childhood development, focusing on benefits like language, literacy, and motor skills. This year’s event takes place over five days from the 10th to the 14th November. This first in our series…
Managing Emotions in the Early Years
Helping Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Children under five often show lots of different emotions in a short time. This is normal. It happens because the part of the brain that controls emotions and impulses (called the prefrontal cortex) is still growing. Young children feel emotions strongly but don’t yet know how…
The Importance of Music Education in Primary Schools
The importance of music education in primary schools cannot be overstated. It plays a vital role in children’s development, bringing joy while shaping cognitive, emotional, and social skills. The UK’s National Plan for Music Education (NPME) emphasizes the need for every child to access high-quality music education from an early age, highlighting its essential role…
Supporting EAL learners with maths
Supporting EAL Learners in Mathematics: Understanding the Challenge Mathematics is often perceived as a universal language, but in reality, it is deeply rooted in linguistic understanding. For learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL), the challenge is not always the mathematical concepts themselves, but the language used to express, explain, and apply them. Many…
Being a New PSHE Education Coordinator
What Is PSHE Education and Why Does It Matter? Being a new lead for any subject is a challenge but the role of PSHE education coordinator can often feel overwhelming initially. Firstly, what does it mean? PSHE stands for Personal, Social, Health and Economic, therefore we really should add the word ‘education’ after ‘PSHE’ for…
Celebrating 21st NALDIC North East RIG: Supporting EAL Learners with Speech and Language Challenges
On Thursday 16th October 2025, Diane Embley and Rashda Salamat from Education North Tyneside’s Inclusive Learning and Achievement Service (ILAS), hosted their 21st meeting of the North East Regional Interest Group (RIG), a forum for educators dedicated to supporting pupils learning English as an additional language (EAL). This meeting focused on strategies to support EAL learners…
A Parent’s Guide to Keeping Your Children Safe Online
Last week I was delighted to be able to deliver a short online safety session to a school hall packed full of parents and carers at one of our local schools. Family life is so busy and attendance is not always that high at these things, but it was fantastic to be able to share…
The Significance of Diwali: A Festival of Lights
Diwali: The Festival of Lights and Its Significance Diwali, known as the “Festival of Lights”, is one of the most important and widely celebrated festivals for Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs. This vibrant festival takes place annually over five days, usually between October and November, marking the start of the Hindu New Year. The exact dates…