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Autumn 2011
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The after photograph features:
Back Row:
Roger Rickman, Divisional Director, Children's Services, Harrow
David Jones, formerly SEP, Hertfordshire
Middle Row:
Ann Kimber, Professional Lead for Clinical Child Psychology & Psychological Therapies, Sussex
Front Row:
Norah Frederickson, UCL & SEP, Buckinghamshire
Louise Clarke, formerly Educational Psychologist, Singapore
Giles Raymond, Occupational Psychologist, London & San Diego
Pam Gavin, formerly Educational Psychologist, Suffolk
Click here for further photos of a very memorable reunion.
Summer/autumn 2011 saw the patter of tiny feet on the DEdPsy programme as well as a splash of romance and sporting achievement on both the DEdPsy and DECPsy programmes!
The baby news kicked off in Cyprus for this edition, with DEdPsy graduate Despina Hadjigeorgiou and hubby Andreas becoming proud parents to Haritini, pictured right, on 19th May. Despina describes Haritini as her little star and confesses mum and dad are both totally smitten!
Congratulations go next to DEdPsy course member Melanie Adkins who had a baby girl, Robyn May, on 9th June, weighing a dainty 6lb 15 oz. The whole Aston family - including big brother Aston and dad Jim - is pictured left. Click here for more pics of baby Robyn.
Next the turn of the tutor team! Course Co-Director Tony Cline's family celebrated the births within three weeks of each other in August of two new grandchildren, Max and Hannah.
And finally, congratulations to course member Yvonne Olten-Dorgan who had a baby boy, Joshua, on 9th September, weighing in at 9lbs and 9oz - a little brother for Samuel and Noah. Mother and baby are pictured left.
Moving on to wedding news, on 4th June DEdPsy course member Sandy Tahan married Karim Efat in a truly global wedding in Cairo, Egypt. The couple, pictured right, tied the knot at an evangelical church in Tahrir Square, followed by a reception on the open air terrace of the JW Marriott hotel, and were joined by more than 500 guests from Egypt, Dubai, Canada and the UK (including Course Director and Sandy's tutor Tony Cline, and his wife Sue). Sandy and Karim then jetted off to Florida, Mexico and the Carribbean for an equally amazing honeymoon. Click here for more photos of their big day.
Tony reported: It was a real honour to attend this terrific wedding. Just a few months after the upheavals of the winter this celebration was huge, warm and very impressive. Those whose mental images of the Tahrir Square area were formed through TV News pictures at the beginning of the year must think again. The square was back to being a packed, noisy traffic jam, while the large church was an oasis of calm nearby, bedecked with a gorgeous flower display throughout. One of the photos in the linked display will give a flavour of one part of it.
On the DECPsy programme, congrats go to year 2 trainee Jo Roberts who got engaged to boyfriend James in Thailand over the summer!
Next, moving on to Ed Psych sporting achievements, we were impressed to hear that DECPsy 08-11 graduate and keen sportswoman Keira Keenan made sporting history back in March when she and her team became the first Irish ice hockey team to compete in the World Championships, in Sofia Bulgaria. Click here to read a newspaper article published about Keira - who also played with the University of London Dragons during her time at UCL - and her team mates.
And some of you may already know that Academic & Professional Tutor Dr Juliet Starbuck has taken up a new hobby - triathlons! In her words "to prove that an old dog can learn new tricks" she had some success recently coming an impressive second out of 99 athletes in her age group (no, really, not the 30 year olds, but the 40 to 44 years olds) in an event in Windsor. Whilst according to Juliet the swim is just a matter of survival (surely there is nothing worse than thrashing around in a rubber suit with no blue lines to follow or ropes to hang on to?) she likes the cycling element and is used to running (especially for the train!) So, all in all, she had a fine time as these pics prove!
And, on this occasion, Juliet was joined by one of our DECPsy supervisors, Jan Watson from Merton. Jan achieved a long lasting ambition and did very well in the 'novices' event demonstrating an impressive turn of speed on her approach to the finishing line!
Publications, Conferences and Research
In addition to a tantalising array of pending graduate article and book publications which we will report on next time, we were pleased to hear that 'The development of concepts of loneliness during the early years in school' was published by DEdPsy graduate Dr Maureen Liepens and Tony Cline in School Psychology International. This article, first published online in August 2011, can be accessed here.
TEP Conference 2011
Year 3 trainee Louise Lomas contributed the below article on the recent TEP conference – of particular interest to the new DECPsy 11-14 cohort.
"The TEP Conference was held at UEL this year. Trainee EPs from Years 1 – 3 attended from universities all over the country making it a great event for meeting up with our potential future work colleagues. The conference was organised entirely by the Year 2 trainees from UEL and they did a sterling job! The quality of the speakers was excellent, not least because our own Sarah Geiger was there, and the workshops were timely. The four third year DECPsy trainees representing UCL attended lectures on the future of Educational Psychology by Kate Fallon, with a review of the recent government papers; Down’s Syndrome by Sarah Geiger and a presentation from Kidscape on assertiveness training for children. The latter involved jelly babies and a hoarse voice, but was well worth it. We all chose to listen to Jonathon Solity again in the afternoon, which was even more interesting one year on with a year’s worth of experience under our belts to apply it to. The keynote speakers focussed on positive psychology: a clever way to set us off for the day in the right frame of mind.
In true TEP style, the day was rounded off with a trip to the pub. All four of us found the day interesting and thoroughly enjoyable and would definitely recommend it for TEPs next year. Rumour has it that the Tavistock are picking up the challenge for 2012; they have a tough act to follow.."
START - School Transition & Adjustment Research Team
Moving from primary to secondary school involves a degree of apprehension for most pupils. Some children settle in to secondary school easily whilst others find it difficult and may experience anxiety, find it difficult to make new friends or to cope with the new educational demands of secondary school. A team comprising Frances Rice, Chris McManus and Norah Frederickson from UCL and Katherine Shelton from Cardiff University have been awarded a grant from the Nuffield Foundation to carry out a longitudinal investigation of the circumstances under which children experience both success and difficulties in making the change from primary to secondary school. The aim is to help schools and other educational professionals to provide better support for pupils making the transition.
How you can help us - We are currently identifying co-educational, comprehensive secondary schools that might be interested in becoming involved with the project. We would be very grateful for recommendations of schools that may be interested in working with us on this project. We are able to offer financial remuneration to schools to reimburse them for time spent on the project. We will also provide participating schools with information on which transition support strategies appear to be most effective and at the end of the study we will create a booklet outlining strategies for a smooth transition which can be given to any prospective year 7 pupils.
We will be collecting information from around 1000 pupils, parents and teachers about children's experiences of moving to secondary school. We plan to track children over the move to secondary school (starting in primary school and finishing at the end of year 7) so we can learn about how they settle in over a period of time and in different ways (e.g. academically, making friends, classroom behaviour). One of the measure we are using is the School Concerns Questionnaire (SCQ) which was developed by DECPsy graduates Rosie Thomasson, Louise Field, Ciara Close and Sarah Woods when they were working as Psychology Assistants with the Buckinghamshire Educational Psychology Service. (For more information on the SCQ see Rice, F., Frederickson, N. & Seymour, J. (2011) Assessing pupil concerns about transition to secondary school. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 244-263
For further information/ to recommend a school please e-mail Norah (n.frederickson@ucl.ac.uk)
Some DEdPsy course members have been taking their EP expertise overseas in recent months, starting with 2010 cohort member Dawn Collard, who jetted off with a colleague to deliver training to members of a multidisciplinary team in Brunei back in June. This was the Basic Portage Workshop which equips participants to begin working as Portage Home Visitors, under supervision. Portage is an early years home teaching service for children with complex needs, which is offered in many countries around the world. Sean Cameron at UCL was instrumental in bringing it to the UK thirty years ago and Educational Psychologists working for local authorities typically supervise the service.
The training was delivered at the Ministry of Health where Dawn and her colleague had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Health (whom she is pictured with, right), paediatricians and other senior members of the ministry to discuss the establishment of a Portage service in Brunei. She was also asked to deliver a presentation to an interministry meeting regarding the principles underpinning the structure of early years education in the UK.
Dawn's progress during the week was reported in the local English language and Malay newspapers, including the Brunei Times. Click here for further pictures of the visit.
Meanwhile, DEdPsy student Jason Harding-Swale is currently completing the writing-up of his thesis in Cape Town, South Africa, where he is temporarily living with his family. Partner Rich has a visiting professorship in palliative care in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town, while Jason is a stay-at-home Dad (or, more accurately, a go-to-the-beach Dad). In addition to his study and beach life, Jason feels very privileged that he has been able to do some voluntary work as a psychologist working with looked-after children with terminal illnesses, supporting them to understand and come to terms with their diagnoses, and providing training and guidance to hospice and hospital staff.
Jason and Rich's young daughters, Lottie (nearly 4) and Chloë (nearly 2) love the African life - as this picture shows! The girls are becoming seasoned 'safari-ers', now very adept at identifying the wildlife they encounter. They have recently been whale-watching, but swimming in the sea is currently off-limits as a large number of sharks are presently enjoying the basking opportunities in the Cape Town area!
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