Welcome to Katy!

Hi everyone,

After a lengthy hiatus, we are back! It feels like we are living in a very different world to the last time the blog was updated which was at the very start of the global pandemic. We hope that you are all well and have navigated yourselves smoothly through a period which has been challenging to say the least.

We are incredibly grateful to the Nuffield Foundation who have agreed to extend the project until June 2022, allowing us to fulfil our study aims.

During our ‘blogging gap year’, please rest assured that we have been very busy and have lots to update you on, however today’s post will focus on our team members.

We are delighted to say that in August 2021, our Research Assistant Emily Oxley moved on to the University of Edinburgh where she is now working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Love to Read project, also funded by the Nuffield Foundation. A huge thank you to Emily for all her dedication and hard work on the DART project. We wish her the best of luck!

Which brings us on to welcoming our newest team member, Katy Grainger. Katy joined DART in October 2021 as a Research Assistant. Below, Katy tells us a little bit about her background before joining the project.

Since obtaining my Psychology degree at The University of York in 2006, my career has centred around working with children. I have carried out various roles such as; nursery assistant, teaching assistant, learning mentor, research/intervention assistant and class teacher which have all been inspired by my interest and enthusiasm for helping children to achieve their full potential in life.

From 2010 to 2012, I worked as a Project Coordinator on the Wellcome Language and Reading Project and as a Research Assistant on The Reading and Language Intervention (RALI), both at The University of York. Subsequently, I went on to obtain a PGCE in Primary Education at York St John’s University and gained experience working as a class teacher until 2018.

As a professional working across both the education and research sectors, I have gained skills, knowledge and experience with regards to practically supporting and enabling children to speak, read and write. Furthermore, it has made me acutely aware of the barriers that some children face in acquiring these vital skills and the importance of early identification and support.

My previous experience in education coupled with research interests which lie mainly in children’s acquisition of language and literacy skills has led me to my current post working as a Research Assistant with Dr. Hannah Nash and Dr. Chris Dixon on the Nuffield Foundation-funded Dynamic Assessment of Reading Test (DART) project in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds.

We look forward to providing more project updates in the near future.

All the very best wishes,

The DART project team