Nicola joined the Faculty of Education team in January 2010. Nicola has a wide range of teaching experiences including working for 11 years in a Liverpool Infant School, as a Class teacher in Year 2, Year 1, Reception and Nursery. During her time at the school Nicola was Co-ordinator for PE, Science, RE and Numeracy and was a member of the Senior Management for Curriculum and Year One Leader. Nicola then made the transition into Higher Education where she became PGCE (Early Years) Co-ordinator and Professional Studies Co-ordinator for the four-year Undergraduate Programme at LJMU. This range of experience has given Nicola a particular interest and expertise in ITT Partnership working. As a consequence, Nicola moved to Edge Hill University to take up the role of Head of ITT Partnership and has worked across a number of Initial Teacher Training programmes, including Primary and Early Years, Secondary and Post Compulsory. Nicola is currently the Strategic Lead for School Centred ITT (SCITT) in the Faculty of Education, at Edge Hill University. She is working with schools and clusters of schools, at a regional and national level to support and challenge them, whilst they are seeking accreditation as a School Centred ITT provider (SCITT). In addition, as someone interested in Partnership she is External Examiner for University of Cumbria and undertakes Ofsted Inspections of other accredited providers as an Additional Inspector for CfBT, on behalf of Ofsted. In collaboration with ESCalate, Nicola undertook a pilot research investigating the perceptions of the provision of Masters Level PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) in England. The research was undertaken during the academic year 2007-8 by the University of Cumbria with nine other participating Higher Education Institutions and was supported by the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET). The research was linked to the Initial Teacher Education section of the Education Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy. Nicola was also involved in writing two case studies, case study one: on student’s experience of Early Reading, for the Primary National Strategy, in conjunction with another colleague. This was a project which involved the Primary National Strategy and Knowsley LA, and case study two: the impact of trainee’s experience of ‘Maths through Story’ upon their knowledge and understanding of oral and mental mathematics.