Research Team
Dr. Hannah Nash is a lecturer in the School of Psychology. Her research focuses on how children learn to read and why some children experience difficulties. Hannah is the principle investigator on the ICKLE project, which means she oversees all aspects of the research.
Dr. Paula Clarke 
is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Leeds. Her research focuses on reading and language comprehension skills and includes the development of assessment and intervention approaches. On ICKLE Paula will be working on the reading progress data and will support the write up and dissemination of project findings.
Dr. Cat Davies is Associate Professor in Linguistics, based in the School of Languages, Cultures & Societies at Leeds, where she also leads the Child Development Unit. Cat's research focuses on how children develop their pragmatic abilities and on the role of language input. On ICKLE, Cat will be working on the home language environment data and will support the write up and dissemination of project findings.
Dr. Matt Homer is Associate Professor in the Schools of Education and Medicine at Leeds. His research interests include post-16 maths education, assessment and psychometrics. On this project, he is mainly responsible for quantitative data analysis.
Dr. Rachel Mathieson is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy, and is currently working across the Schools of Education and Psychology. She is responsible for the day-to-day progress of the ICKLE project, including liaising with schools, and will be involved in the writing up and dissemination of findings.
Dr. Peter Hart
is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Inclusion, Childhood and Youth (ICY) in the School of Education. Peter is assisting with quantitative data analysis on the ICKLE project.
Katy Grainger is a Research Assistant in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds. Katy plays a key role in delivering our impact project ICKLE+. Since obtaining her BSc Psychology degree at The University of York, Katy’s career has centred around working with children. Katy has previous research experience working at The Centre for Reading and Language (The University of York) and in the School of Psychology department at The University of Leeds with research interests in children’s acquisition of language and literacy skills. In addition , she has over 9 years of experience of working as an educational practitioner and completed a PGCE in Primary Education at York St John University in 2014.