Jess is a second-year, part-time PhD researcher at the School of Education, University of Sheffield. Her research project, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), aims to critically explore different concepts around starting school and school readiness in early childhood educational policy. Jess is employing Discourse Historical Analysis and Q Methodology, a mixed methodology, to explore different articulations of school readiness. By synthesising these approaches, new ways of thinking about and enacting school readiness can be identified.