Posts by Catherine Worton
Wonderful wordless works of art
Some of our most engaging books for younger children are those which have very few words or no words at all. The illustrators of these wordless books are incredibly skilled in spinning a narrative through an unfolding sequence of pictures so exquisite, so imaginative, so carefully considered and sequenced that readers are immediately captivated and…
Read MoreEverything, Everywhere, All at Once
May you live in interesting times! In the ever-demanding world of school leadership, we are entering a period of unprecedented complexity. New national directives and frameworks, The Curriculum Review, and the new OFSTED Toolkit require leaders to reframe their educational offers. As every school leader knows, an audit of existing practice is only the first…
Read MoreEyes on the Horizon – Headteacher conference 2026
Friday 6th March will see the return of our Education North Tyneside Headteacher conference. An exciting day for Headteachers, deputy headteachers, assistant headteachers and colleagues who aspire to these roles. This year’s theme is called ‘Eyes on the Horizon’, as we look ahead to the future of Education. “Schools and trusts stand at a…
Read MoreMelody, 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…
Read MoreNurturing Possibility Thinking, Block by Block
Discussions around curriculum design and enactment in 2025 are dominated by knowledge acquisition. Educators rightly want to ensure that both teaching programmes and pedagogical approaches support schemata development so that children learn and remember more. This is the case in all key stages, including the early years foundation stage. The statutory framework makes explicit what…
Read MoreNorth Tyneside Headteacher Conference
14th February 2025 9:30am to 3:30pm The Council Chamber, Quadrant East, North Shields Now only 8 places left! We are delighted to see see sign-up from such a wide range of schools, including academies and maintained schools, secondary, middle, primary and first schools, faith schools, North Tyneside schools and schools in the wider region.…
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