Katies undergraduate degree was a BSc Psychology at the University of Sussex where in her final year she specialised in Psychology in Education and the Psychology of Language Development. Her dissertation focused on how early print exposure impacted on later comprehension and this is where her interest in teaching literacy started. In 2005 she studied for an Early Years PGCE at the University of Cambridge. The course developed her passion for teaching young children and began a desire to promote learning though play. Katie has now been teaching for 18 years and has led a large Reception department, Year 1 team and been instrumental in whole-school phonics development in a large primary school in this time, delivered CPD to internal and external staff, provided training to ITT students and achieved an NPQLL. She is a Mum to three young boys which has given her the chance to put phonics into action at home and since 2020 has shared thousands of fun and practical literacy activities on her highly successful Phonics Family social media pages.