David Waugh is a former deputy headteacher who has worked in Initial Teacher Training (ITT) from 1990 at the University of Hull, where he led the PGCE course and became Head of Department. In 2008 he was appointed as a National Strategies Regional Adviser for ITT. He is currently Director of the Primary PGCE at Durham University, where he is also subject leader for English. He has published extensively in primary English, as well as developing e-learning resources for National Strategies for English, mathematics and mentoring and coaching. Angela Gill is a former class teacher who worked for more than 20 years in primary schools in County Durham and Bath and North East Somerset. For many of those years she was subject leader for English and, in more recent years, for phonics. In January 2016 she joined Durham University, where she works as part of the primary English team teaching undergraduate and PGCE courses. Her recent publications include books and articles about teaching systematic synthetic phonics and common exception words.

Susan Wallace is Emeritus Professor of Education at Nottingham Trent University where, for many years, part of her role was to support learning on the initial training courses for teachers in the FE sector. She has researched and published extensively on education, training and management of behaviour, and is a popular keynote speaker at conferences. Her particular interests are in mentoring and the motivation and behaviour of students.