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Special interests

Emotional Development

I have a specialist interest in emotional development.  I have worked as the link psychologist to special schools for pupils with difficulties in social, emotional and mental health development. 

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For pupils who are causing significant concern, I have facilitated on-going monthly staff supervision sessions in order to share ideas and develop plans of support over time.  This has enabled schools to successfully manage pupil needs within mainstream settings.  

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I have co-ordinated an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant project in the local authorities I have worked in.  This involves training teaching assistants in Emotional Literacy to deliver interventions within the schools they are employed in.  My role includes coordinating training and supervision of ELSAs and evaluating the impact of the project.  I am a member of the national steering group of ELSA Network and contribute to the ELSA Network Conference for educational psychologists.    More information about ELSA can be found here: www.elsanetwork.org

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Looked After Children

I have been the lead educational psychologist for Children in Care within the local authorities I have worked in. This role has involved a number of projects, including:

  • Equipping public libraries across the council with specialist resources

  • Designing a model of supervision for staff in schools who are supporting Children in Care

  • Creating a Designated Mentor project – training and supervising teaching assistants across the authority to support pupils through daily intervention.  Results have shown an average improvement of 33% in pupil well-being scores over 1-2 terms of intervention.  

 

​I am accredited by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families to undertake specialist assessment using a Story Stem Assessment Profile.   

Parental Support

I researched parental experiences of finding out their child has Special Educational Needs, for my doctoral thesis.  My research arose from my experiences of supporting children with Special Educational Needs and their parents.  Interviewing parents through the research enabled me to identify what supported them in learning about their child’s needs and areas of support they felt could be improved.   Themes of loss, sense of belonging and social comparison were identified.  These themes are relevant to most aspects of my work (e.g. feeding back assessment findings to staff and parents, exploring staff/parent concerns within consultations, delivering training to parents and supporting teachers in communication with parents).  

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I am passionate about increasing parental inclusion and support.  I have developed an approach of using graphics within consultation in order to increase collaboration.  I am developing use of collaborative mind maps within planning meetings.  Parents have identified feeling more engaged in the consultation processes. as a result of these approaches.   

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I enjoy journeying with parents through change.   I have developed sessions with parents using training, supervision models and video clips capturing positive interaction between parents and their child.  

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