AN EDUCATION consultant from Otley has rounded off a successful 2018 with a book launch.

Tony Cotton has written full-time since leaving his post as Head of the School of Education and Childhood at Leeds Beckett University six years ago. Over the past 12 months he has six books published - ranging from a mathematics programme for Jamaica to a textbook on teaching in International Primary Schools for Cambridge University Press.

His latest publication, How to develop confident mathematicians in the early years: A guide for practitioners and parents (published by Routledge), was launched at Otley Labour Rooms on December 14.

Mr Cotton says he has discovered more about learning maths from the games he plays with his grandsons, Felix and Tate, than from all the books he has read.

His book includes 60 activities developed from those games which he describes as ‘ways to play together and to explore and develop mathematical understandings collaboratively.’

Those attending the launch, at Otley Labour Rooms, got to try some of the games themselves and had a go at building towers, loading toy trucks and more.