Northern Lights Teaching School Hub

Leadership Conference 2025 - Putting Compassion at the Heart of School Leadership
2025-06-27 00:00 - 23:59 (Europe/London) | Ramside Hall Hotel, Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham, DH1 1TD, United Kingdom

Leadership Conference 2024 - Resilience at the heart of school leadership
2024-07-03 00:00 - 23:59 | Ramside Hall Hotel, Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham, DH1 1TD, United Kingdom
We are excited to announce our fantastic speaker line-up for the Northern Lights Leadership Conference 2024!

Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards
Great Britain’s first Olympic Ski Jumper Ranked 55th in the world, this qualified Eddie as GB’s only candidate for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympic Games. With the UK public backing the plasterer from Gloucester, Eddie hit the slopes pursued by the international press & media. Eddie competed in the 70m and 90m events during the Games but unfortunately came last in both. Although he didn’t win an Olympic Ski Jumping medal, he did win a place in the hearts of spectators around the globe. Ultimately, the public loved Eddie due to his lack of success, but more importantly, due to his determination and ‘have a go’ attitude. He has had appearances on Let’s Dance, Winter Wipeout, Splash, The Jump and most recently Dancing on Ice.

Leora Cruddas CBE
Leora Cruddas is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper, SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.

Paul Rusby
Paul is an educator with over three decades of experience. His extensive career spans twenty years as headteacher across three Church of England schools, earning him accolades such as the Teaching Award’s Headteacher of the Year for the North East. He has played key roles as a National Leader of Education, Primary Consultant Leader, and School Improvement Partner, with a deep commitment to fostering the growth and well-being of both students and educators in Church of England schools.

He is a member of the National SIAMS Quality Assurance inspection team, Diocesan consultant, school governor, and NPW facilitator and coach. Paul has a deep interest in spirituality. Blending together his theological training, SIAMS experience and leadership roles in schools, Paul provides school improvement coaching and consultancy support. In his role as a retreat leader, he integrates poetry, music, meditation, and landscape into quiet days, nurturing spiritual growth.

Alex Staniforth
Alex is a record-breaking adventurer, ultra-endurance athlete, author and charity founder from Chester who is no stranger to overcoming challenges. At 28 he has already survived the two biggest disasters in Mount Everest history as a teenager. However, his biggest challenges have been closer to home: overcoming mental ill health, epilepsy, stammering and bullying since school.

Now he is committed to help leaders and students achieve their own Everest in life. He has raised over £100,000 for charity, become the fastest person to climb all 100 UK county tops, written two books ‘Icefall’ and ‘Another Peak’, and founded Mind Over Mountains, a charity to restore mental health through nature – receiving a Points of Light award from the Prime Minister in 2023.

Amelie Thompson
Amelie Thompson has worked in education for over 20 years, including 12 years as a senior leader and headteacher. She now works at Greenshaw Learning Trust as Assistant Director of Education – SEND. She is also the regional lead with Whole School SEND for Southeast South London and lead author of the Teacher Handbook: SEND. Amelie has a keen interest in how we, as leaders, build systems and create environments that enable ‘every teacher to be a teacher of SEND’ – driven by leadership that builds inclusivity into all aspects of school practice. As a school leader, she challenges herself to consistently reflect on the operational implications and implementation of this strategic vision and is strongly committed to cross-phase and cross-sector collaboration to achieve this.

Jon Tait
Having spent over 20 years in the teaching profession and having led schools in various senior leadership positions such as Deputy Headteacher and Director of Teaching School, Jon has most recently worked for two North East Multi Academy Trusts in positions as Deputy CEO & Director of School Improvement, followed by his current role as Director of Education for Northern Lights Learning Trust. Jon is also an education author and speaker, having five books published on areas ranging from classroom pedagogy, educational research and school leadership; together with regularly speaking at national and international conferences about all aspects of education. Jon delivered a talk on the world famous TED stage in 2015, talking about ‘The Future of Learning’.

This is what last year’s delegates had to say about our conference last year:

New to EYFS
2024-06-25 09:30 - 14:45 | Benedict Biscop C.E. Academy, Marcross Drive, Sunderland, North of England, SR3 2RE
This course is designed to support teachers who are new to EYFS or within their first year. You will work alongside others to learn the theory and see it in practice at the Stronger Practice Hub’s lead EY Provision.

You will leave this course having built networks with other practitioners, practical strategies to implement and an understanding of the statutory requirements.

Fostering ECT Professionalism - ECT session
2024-06-06 13:00 - 15:00
As an experienced teacher, head of department, and PGCE mentor Caroline knows well the impact excellent teaching can have on student outcomes. Her associated pastoral work as a mindfulness teacher, tutor, and counselling and peer support lead informs her appreciation of the importance of educators at all stages in their career being happy and healthy in their vital work.

ECTs will cover the following in their session:

Building relationships

Looking after yourself

Seeking mastery

Becoming a part of your school community

We advise that your Mentor also attends the Mentor version of this training as this is a 2-part training. They can book the session here.

Fostering ECT Professionalism - Mentor Session
2024-05-23 13:00 - 15:00
As an experienced teacher, head of department, and PGCE mentor Caroline knows well the impact excellent teaching can have on student outcomes. Her associated pastoral work as a mindfulness teacher, tutor, and counselling and peer support lead informs her appreciation of the importance of educators at all stages in their career being happy and healthy in their vital work.

Mentors will cover the following in their session:

Communication and effective working relationships

Management of workload and wellbeing

Appreciation of moving from Novice to Expert

Contribution to the school community

We advise that your ECT also attends the ECT version of this training as this is a 2-part training. They can book the session here.

The Science of Learning - 6-part series of Professional Development
2024-04-23 15:45 - 16:45
In this virtual 6-part series, you will explore the Science of Learning through the topics outlined above. Each session will be virtual for 1 hour. If you are unable to attend any of the sessions, you will receive a recording so that you do not miss out. The first 3 sessions focus on the science of learning with the final 3 sessions focusing on assessment and questioning.

As well as looking at the research, you will be looking at practical examples and strategies that you can take away and use in your own classroom or school.

The Science of Learning

Assessment and Questioning

Discover the sometimes ‘hidden truths’ about how children really learn, what this means for you as a classroom teacher. We will look at how you plan, sequence and deliver your lessons in order to have the maximum chance of your students remembering and understanding what you teach.

· Part 1 – Memory and retrieval – what do we already know about memory and how can we transfer this into classroom practice

· Part 2 – Spacing, sequencing & interleaving – what this means for curriculum design

· Part 3 – Cognitive load – understanding the limitations of our children’s working memory and how we can prevent cognitive overload

This course will take a detailed and practical look at how we can use assessment as a learning tool, and not just as a measurement indicator. We will focus on how classroom teachers can understand how to select the right assessment tools, implement them with precision and understand what they say, in order to use that information to adapt their teaching.

· Part 1 – Deep thinking and effective questioning – understanding the importance of regular deep thinking as part of the learning process and practical strategies to question students effectively

· Part 2 – Dynamic in class assessment and responsive teaching – practical strategies to find out what everyone in the classroom knows and be able to use that data immediately to shape the next phase of your lesson, plus how we can learn more from students’ wrong answers than we can from their correct answers

· Part 3 – Selecting the right assessment for the right purpose and what it tells you – key differences in selecting summative and formative assessments, the difference between long term learning and short term performance gains

Grammar and Punctuation CPD
2024-03-21 09:30 - 15:00 | Lighthouse View, Spectrum Business Park, Building 2,, SR7 7PR
This full-day course, suitable for both primary and secondary teachers, is a fantastic combination of Grammar and Punctuation subject knowledge support for teachers and pedagogical approaches to secure learning. Not only will it secure teacher subject knowledge and increase confidence but ensure children enjoy grammar via fun, practical and effective activities to aid retrieval and embed in the pupils’ long-term memory. The course will also examine common grammatical teacher errors and support when reporting to parents and other professionals.

View full-sized flyer with full details about the course here
