Sue Palmer

Research Interests:

Sue Palmer, a former headteacher, is an independent writer and consultant on primary education, notably literacy. She has written over 200 books, TV programmes and software packages for children and teachers, and acted as an independent consultant to the DfES, National Literacy Trust, Basic Skills Agency, numerous educational publishers and the BBC. She is well known to UK teachers for her inservice courses and articles in the educational press, especially the TES and Child Education, in which she has a regular column. Her 'skeleton books' for teaching cross-curricular writing are used in over 10,000 UK schools. In 2004, she collaborated with Early Years specialist Ros Bayley to produce Foundations of Literacy, now in its third edition.

Sue's best-selling book Toxic Childhood: how modern life is damaging our children and what we can do about it (Orion 2006) was her first for a more general audience, and helped spark a national debate about the nature of contemporary childhood. It was followed by a 'self-help' book for parents, Detoxing Childhood, and 21st Century Boys: how modern life can drive them off the rails, and how we can get them back on track, published in paperback in March 2010.

Since researching Toxic Childhood she has become actively involved in many campaigns relating to children's well-being and mental health. With Dr Richard House she was co-author of two open letters to the Daily Telegraph, bringing together hundreds of experts on childhood to raise awareness of current issues. She is regularly consulted by action groups and politicians, has spoken at conferences around the world, and is regularly named among the most influential people in British education in the Evening Standard's Influentials lists.

Sue is a patron of the English Speaking Board, the Scottish Pre-School Play Association, Carefree Kids and the Children's Football Alliance. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Trustee and Fellow of the English Association, Chair of the Scottish Play Policy Forum and President of Montessori AMI UK.