Nicole taught in Canterbury classrooms for over 10 years and has always had a passion for literacy—fuelled by her love of reading and watching her younger brother struggle with dyslexia.

At university, she was trained in a balanced literacy approach, using Colour Wheel texts, running records, and MSV prompts. But in the classroom, she noticed some children simply weren’t learning to read, no matter how hard she tried.

In 2019, a local RTLit introduced her to decodable texts, which follow a structured sequence so students only read what they've already been taught. It was a lightbulb moment. Then in 2021, a friend invited her to a parent evening on Structured Literacy—and everything clicked.

Nicole began investing in resources, doing training on the side, and trialling decodables with her Year 3/4 students. It worked—her target readers were finally making progress. Soon after, her school began exploring Structured Literacy across the board, and Nicole took on a leadership role to support the shift.

In 2022, she started formal professional development, and in 2023, completed the 5-day LMIT (Learning Matters Intervention Teacher) intensive in Hamilton. Her passion was reignited. She began working 1:1 with students outside school hours, growing from one learner a week to a full schedule in 2024.

Now in 2025, Nicole runs the thriving literacy intervention business that is Literacy Launchers, supporting a wide range of learners with diverse needs—and loving every minute of it.