Kat Booker has a background in psychology which has supported her work with children with children with challenging behaviour throughout her career. She began her career as a TA in a weekday residential BESD school in Sussex. After qualifying as a teacher she went on to work in Southwark, London in a BESD primary school. Here she worked as part of a team that redeveloped a curriculum that embraced many of the principles and practices of nurture groups. After a year living and working in Melbourne, Australia, in mainstream settings she returned to work in a range of schools from infant mainstream to secondary BESD before grasping the opportunity to develop a nurture group in a large primary school in a significantly deprived area of Nottingham. Within a year this provision had been described by OFSTED as outstanding and its impact across the school was tangible.

This spurred the development of a second key stage 1 unit which went on to offer enhanced provision placements to other schools in the locality. This inclusive intervention style played a significant part in shaping her thinking as the SENCO and as an Outreach Support Worker within the authority supporting other schools. Kat has spoken at conferences across the country and has now returned to her home in Sussex where she is director of the independent consultancy Meet the Need Ltd, which seeks to help others to identify and meet the needs of children with SEN, particularly those with SEMH. Having participated in team visioning work with Inclusive Solutions for over 10 years and seen the impact this has had on inclusivity, she is now an associate co-facilitator and provides graphics to a range of intervention work sessions.