Carolyn Hopkins is a lecturer in Expressive Arts and Master’s (Primary Education) at St Mary’s University. She taught in the primary sector across all phases and has extensive leadership experience in both core and foundation subjects. Further afield, she worked on national Action Research projects, for literacy, within the Primary sector and with NGOs supporting and training Primary practitioners in South East Asia. She has an MA in Education, Society and Culture and a fellowship of Higher Education. She is passionate about ensuring that her trainee teachers go into practice with the knowledge, confidence and skills that will enable them to confidently deliver expressive arts subjects discretely and for cross curricular learning. Furthermore, she is an advocate of recognising the arts as one of the most crucial tools in an armoury that empowers all children to reach their fullest potential. Her research interests include culturally responsive pedagogies, diversity within the curriculum and teacher voice.