Kat Booker
IQM Assessor
Kat Booker began her career as a teaching assistant in a specialist weekday residential school for children with SEMH, where her desire to qualify as a teacher was ignited.
Her early career was based in specialist provision in South East London. She has since worked in a range of mainstream and specialist settings both in the UK and in Australia, with children and young people from early years to secondary age and has continued to embrace therapeutic approaches and nurturing principles wherever she goes.
Her last post in a mainstream setting was as the SENCo. Here she initiated and led two nurture groups that also provided outreach support to local schools. In her time there, the school moved from a judgement of Inadequate to Outstanding and the nurture provision gained The Marjorie Boxall Quality Mark Award, being described by Ofsted as modelling ‘exemplary practice’.
Kat now runs her own SEN inclusion consultancy, Meet the Need Ltd, based in West Sussex. She works across the UK supporting schools to refine and develop policies and practice to ensure the accurate identification and development of provision for children and young people with SEND.
Kat has been a Team Teach tutor for over ten years, was the former South East Regional Coordinator for Nurture UK and is a trained SEND Review system leader. She was part of the working party that developed the current SEND Code of Practice and has spoken at conferences around the country on SEND best practice and her passion for inclusivity.