Kirsty Heap is the author of Silent Snow, a picture book without words, designed to help you create your own stories with your children. Each page is filled with beautiful illustrations to spark your imagination, making storytime fun and personal. Whether reading has always felt tricky, or you just want to try something different, Silent Snow gives you the freedom to tell stories your own way.

The idea for Silent Snow came from Kirsty’s own experiences as a dyslexic parent. She used to find reading to her children difficult, and when she stumbled over words, she felt like she was letting them down. But instead of giving up, she started making up her own stories based on their lives and the little adventures they had. Bedtime soon became one of their favourite times of the day.

https://kirstyheap.com/silentsnow/

https://nape.org.uk/

Find out more about our Primary First Journal –

https://national-association-for-primary-education-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Mashood Ahmad is the CEO and founder of Gigabit IQ, an award-winning UK broadband provider dedicated to delivering safer, smarter, and faster internet through fully managed Wi-Fi and industry-leading online safety tools. A recognised voice in digital inclusion and child online protection, Mashood is a Council Member at ISPA UK and a vocal advocate for stronger ISP accountability in protecting families online.

Under Mashood’s leadership, Gigabit IQ has pioneered services like FamilyGuard+, a network-level parental control solution designed to meet the real-world needs of modern families. He has spearheaded initiatives supporting vulnerable communities, including children in care, refugees, and low-income households, through fair access broadband and safety education.

Mashood is the author of the white paper “Beyond the Act: The Hidden Layer of Online Harm No One’s Regulating”, which challenges current UK online safety legislation and proposes a new national ISP Safety Rating System, akin to NCAP for cars or Ofsted for schools.

A frequent speaker on digital safety, Mashood is leading an Online Safety & ISP Accountability session at the UK Internet Parliament Conference with ISPA, and continues to work with regulators, MPs, and safety groups to shape a safer digital future for all.

https://www.gigabitiq.com/

https://parentline.ai/

https://nape.org.uk/

Find out more about our Primary First Journal –

https://national-association-for-primary-education-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

Aurora Orchestra’s creative learning programme supports teachers to bring rich musical education and experiences to all children. The Aurora Classroom programme encompasses:

• digital resources for primary and secondary schools
• flexible cross-curricular resources for SEND settings
• training for teachers from our team of experts
• world-class programme of live activity for children and young people.

Music at the heart of your primary school

Bring Aurora Orchestra into your classroom using our free music resources, designed for music specialists and generalist teachers alike. Explore our fully planned 10-week units of work or build your own music lessons from our library of hundreds of activities and audio excerpts.

Build your own unique SEND programme 

Aurora’s inclusive and adaptable resources for children with additional needs enable teachers to build bespoke units of work by selecting activities from a number of learning strands:

Live events for schools

Aurora Orchestra is a pioneering orchestra that creates concert experiences beyond the ordinary, introducing children to music in an innovative and exciting way.

https://www.auroraorchestra.com/

https://nape.org.uk/

Find out more about our Primary First Journal –

https://national-association-for-primary-education-shop.fourthwall.com/en-gbp

The AI maths tutor that gets pupils reasoning out loud.

Third Space Learning believe an AI tutor should do more than just generate questions and mark answers.

What if it could provide scaffolded support according to knowledge gaps, speaking to students and encouraging them to verbalise their reasoning as they go?

What if every pupil who needs it could work through maths problems in this way for one fixed low cost?

Meet Skye, the low-cost AI maths tutor built by expert maths teachers

Skye mimics the behaviours of a pedagogically sound subject matter expert and prompts ensures responses are effective, adaptable, and focused on improving understanding and increasing confidence.

Prompts are specified in detail for each slide, and use insights from thousands of maths tutoring sessions to teach concepts effectively, address common misconceptions and ensure Skye adapts the pitch and pace of the session and personalises the instruction to suit each learner.

‘Since 2013, over 4,100 schools have chosen Third Space Learning’s cost-effective one-to-one maths tutoring – giving them more time to focus on whole-class teaching and learning.

We’ve used all the online tutoring insights we’ve gained in the last decade to create Skye, an AI maths tutor like no other.’

Takeaways:

• The primary objective of our mission is to make effective tutoring accessible to underprivileged children, thereby assisting in closing the educational attainment gap.
• Utilizing artificial intelligence for tutoring can provide substantial scaling benefits while maintaining the essential requirements necessary for effective tutoring.
• Our tutoring programs are designed to be seamlessly integrated into school timetables, enhancing the overall learning experience and reinforcing classroom instruction.
• We have observed that the interaction between students and AI tutors fosters a low-stakes environment, encouraging children to engage more freely without the fear of judgment.
• Our approach focuses on high-impact tutoring, which necessitates a proactive and structured interaction rather than reactive responses to student inquiries.
• The transition from human to AI tutors is grounded in extensive research and data, ensuring that we continue to meet the needs of schools and students effectively.

https://thirdspacelearning.com/maths-tutoring/ai-maths-tutor/

https://thirdspacelearning.com/

National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

https://nape.org.uk/

Primary First Journal – Get the digital download at:

https://national-association-for-primary-education-shop.fourthwall.com

Ben Case is part of the Tapestry education team and a former primary and early years teacher. He works closely with settings to support their use of Tapestry and believes tech is only successful if you bring staff with you. As a teacher Ben regularly presented at TeachMeet Sussex and he now helps to host the Tapestry podcast, writes for education publications, and features in many of the Tapestry training videos to support users. He is keen to share actionable insights and foster a positive, confident approach to using technology effectively in early years settings across the UK.

Tapestry’s annual survey had some interesting findings around the use of AI in the early years; engaging with families; and supporting families with ideas for play at home.

More info about the survey: https://tapestry.info/tapestry-early-years-education-survey-2025-what-we-learnt/

Tapestry has teamed up with award-winning Playworker Amber – aka Amber Ogunsanya-William – to collaborate on a project championing children’s freedom to play. The animation shares Amber’s story, and highlights provocations for play at home.

https://tapestry.info/

https://tapestry.info/let-play-lead-the-day/

National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)

https://nape.org.uk/