Dr Kathy Weston

Our latest Researcher of the Month, Professor Joel Talcott, has worked with a team of researchers to develop a new universal screening tool for all five and six year olds in UK schools. It will launch in Autumn 2026. Based on classroom observation, the Universal Classroom screener will be delivered and managed by teachers. It assesses a small set of key cognitive skills that support current and future learning (phonological awareness and decoding, vocabulary, attention, working memory and social-emotional processing). Here, Professor Talcott chats to us about the screener, and explores how it identifies both weak areas in children’s skills, which can then be targeted with support or intervention, alongside strengths, which can be augmented to foster further growth.