Meet Our Team

Nat Brass

Nat Brass is a Literacy Intervention Teacher with a Master of Education (Inclusive and Special Education). She has specialist qualifications in working with dyslexic learners and those with specific learning differences. Nat believes that all children can learn to read so she works collaboratively with families, teachers and school leadership to ensure the best possible outcomes for the students that she supports. She is passionate about sharing the messages promoted by the Science of Reading. Nat empowers schools to take on evidence based practices that will improve schoolwide data and promote inclusion in literacy.

Sarah Hughes

Sarah Hughes qualified as a primary school teacher in the UK with a specialty in English and Drama. She has taught in both public and private schools, within England, Singapore and Australia, teaching all areas of the curriculum across the whole school from Early Years to Grade 6. Sarah was working as a member of the senior leadership team when synthetic phonics was implemented across schools in the UK, and has first hand experience of how successful and essential structured literacy is in the teaching of reading, writing and spelling. Since moving to Australia with her husband and four children, Sarah has specialised in Literacy intervention, completing training in the following programs: Multi-sensory Structured Learning (MSL), Little Learners Love Literacy and Sounds-Write. She actively continues her professional development and is an advocate for the Science of Reading. She works 1:1 to support children with specific learning differences, including dyslexia and those who may have gaps in their literacy knowledge. Sarah works closely with parents and schools, she has delivered Professional Development to small group and whole school settings. Sarah is passionate about ensuring all learners have strong foundations in literacy, hence the birth of SailAway Readers and the introduction of the Reading Ready classes.

Pippa Hemley

Pippa Hemley is the newest teacher to join the SailAway Readers team. She is an early childhood teacher who is extremely passionate about play-based learning in Kindergartens and has worked in 3 & 4 year old classrooms within independent kindergartens for the past 14 years. She has a Bachelor of Education in Primary Years and has enjoyed working in Reggio Emilia inspired classrooms where literacy and numeracy can naturally be integrated into child-lead projects. Pippa has two gorgeous girls who are both at primary school, who have each taken a different journey in learning to read. These experiences are what piqued Pippa's curiosity towards the Science of Reading. She is now trained in evidence based literacy approaches. Pippa says, "Through working with Nat and Sarah I have experienced first hand the benefits of exposing children in their early years to evidence-based reading instruction.