About Kat...

Kat Beaton is a writer, musician and teacher who loves sharing her enthusiasm for learning with young people. She worked as a youth worker, outdoor educator, high school teacher and music teacher until finally realising that primary teaching was her thing—where else do you get to teach every subject under the sun and dress up in outlandish costumes for book week?

Kat has been working as an upper primary Montessori teacher for over a decade and is passionate about the Montessori approach with its emphasis on self-paced learning.

She has post graduate qualifications in Psychology, Education and Montessori Education. She has also completed several courses through the Australian Writers' Centre including Writing for Children & Young Adults, Novel Writing Essentials and Write Your Novel.

Kat has had two of her short stories included in anthologies—the Grieve Writing Competition in 2020 (Hunter Writers' Centre) and Tales of the Pandemic in 2021 (Eastern Regional Libraries). She has written and directed two plays which were performed by students at Beechworth Montessori School.

Kat’s middle-grade fiction novel, The HART Project, came about when contemplating AI and what the future might hold for education. She wondered—could an android possibly teach a class of rambunctious 10 to 12-year-olds? Pretty soon, her short story had morphed into a novel and her students were hassling her to hurry up with the writing because they wanted to read it.

When she’s not teaching or writing, Kat enjoys bushwalking, playing violin with her band Rosy Red Cheeks, cycling and curling up on the couch with a book. She likes nothing better than sitting by the campfire with her family on a camping holiday, preferably next to the Murray River or a beach. Kat lives with her husband and children in Northeast Victoria.