In this Issue:

Forthcoming Events

The DECP conference will be held on 6-8 January 2016 here in Bloomsbury, central London. The topic this year is 'Towards an inclusive psychology – do labels and diagnoses help or hinder?' This event is preceded with a Trainee Educational Psychologist day on Tuesday 5th January 2016. Trainees on all 3 years of the DECPsy programme can attend and we will pay the fee. This is a great opportunity to liaise and network with trainees from other courses and EPs from across the country. Click here for more information.

The next DEdPsy mini conference, including the celebratory lunch together as usual, will be held on Tuesday 1st December 2015. A programme will be circulated shortly to all course members.

The next Leading Edge Day will be held on Tuesday 19 April 2016. The theme for the day is Austerity: How Should Educational Psychology Respond. A full programme will be available soon on our Leading Edge Day webpage but make sure you have the date in your diary and apply for a place early (and then spread the word!)

Your News and Views are always welcome - please send us your comments

Autumn 2015

New Faces in the group

In August/September 2015 we welcomed two new members to the Educational Psychology tutor team - Academic & Professional Tutor Dr Laura Grahamslaw and Group Administrator Laura Bushell. We also greeted in September 2015 our latest cohort of DECPsy trainees: Josie Bainton, Izzah Bistamam, Aimee Cole, Harriet Courtney, Samira Dhoparee, Maike Feuerstein, Matthew Fuller, Trudy Kearney, Alethea Kerk, Claire Lewis, Hannah Lichwa, Caroline Monteith, Caoimhe Murton, Cathryn Neesam and Ruki Weerasinghe. The cohort reps for the DECPy 15-18 cohort are Trudy Kearney and Hannah Lichwa. We wish all of these now not-so-new faces a warm and slightly belated welcome!

And a post script from Prof Norah Frederickson on her retirement - "I would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who contributed to my retirement 'thesis' which brought back so many happy memories in reconnecting with the people who have made my work in educational psychology such a very rewarding experience over the years".

Awards and Graduations

July 2015 saw another round of festivities on the DECPsy programme with our class of 2012-15 completing the course and launching their careers as fully-qualified EPs. The group are pictured left in that iconic 'on the steps' last day pose and continued the celebrations later that day with a DECPsy leavers cake, some very well-deserved champagne and a fun and trivia filled end-of-programme party. Congratulations to Dr.s Agdiran, Bulman, Crane, Dean, George, Killerby, Ni Fhoighil, Rogers, Sheffield, Showunmi and White. Click here for the party photos from the group, many of whom were jetting off on exciting and very well deserved holidays after submitting their thesis corrections.

On 28th August 2015 we were delighted to welcome back many of the previous 12 months' DECPsy and DEdPsy graduates for the Educational Psychology graduation ceremony. Some of our DECPsy 11-14 grads (Drs Caroline Sivasundaram, Rosie Tamplin, Orla Hayes, Vanna Cotzia, Lexi Johnston, Sinead Neal, Lucy Ball, Pip Saffin, Rosie Freedman, Stephanie Noble, Andy Keay, Amy Law, Ying Ying Ang, Anna Hepworth and Leanna Lopez) are pictured left with Dr Sandra Dunsmuir, Prof Norah Frederickson and baby Rui Cheng!

And (right): two of our recent DEdPsy programme grads, Drs Marie Hayes and Melanie Adkins celebrate with Co-Directors Dr Tony Cline and Dr Susan Birch and baby Charlotte! Many congratulations also go to other CPD Doctoral graduates Dr Kirsty Quinn, Dr Tara Midgen, Dr Alison Ring, Dr Jasmine Murray and Dr Elaine Shaw who have also completed the programme recently.

Click here to see more photographs from the graduation day.

Congratulations also to Dr Terry Ng-Knight who has both successfully completed his PhD (A prospective longitudinal study of the transition to secondary school: exploring risk and protective factors) and obtained a Research Fellow position at the UCL Institute of Education.

Personal News

As ever, this year has seen some happy personal news in the Group, including some Ed Psych babies, weddings and sporting events.

Some graduate baby news to kick off! Slightly belated congratulations go to DECPsy 06-09 grad Dr Sarah Pryce who had a daughter, Poppy, in February 2015. Sarah and Pete welcomed Poppy into the world a little earlier than expected (10 weeks earlier to be exact), but are happy to report that she is now doing really well and keeping them both very busy! Click here for a larger photo of baby Poppy with Sarah.

Next was the turn of DECPsy 07-10 graduate, Dr Claire Douglas who was delighted to welcome her second daughter Jessica Kaitlyn into the world on 27th June 2015, weighing in at 7lb 1oz. Claire says that Lottie is proving to be a very loving big sister, and mum and dad have adapted well and are enjoying life with two little ones! Click here for a photo of a newborn Jessie as well as a larger version of Jessie taken recently at four months.

DECPsy 06-09 graduate Dr Clare Knowler provided us with news of a different kind which also merits congratulations! Having done a number of sprint triathlons in the past Clare completed her first Olympic and Middle Distance (Half Iron Man) triathlon this year. The latter involved a 1.9k swim, 85k bike and a 21k run. After a nasty ankle sprain earlier in the year Clare says she was just very happy and lucky to get round! Click here for a photo montage of what looked to be rather a gruelling day!

Continuing on the triathlon theme, in June 2015 Academic and Professional Tutor Dr Juliet Starbuck (pictured right) took part in her first 70.3 ironman triathlon. She completed the distance (1.2 mile open water swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run) in exactly 6 hours. Juliet was thrilled with her time since it was a hilly bike and run course. She was delighted to come 6th out of nearly 80 athletes in her age-group, and to finish with a big smile on her face! Juliet was especially delighted to raise a fair bit of money for Macmillan Cancer Support - and would like to say thank you to those who so kindly and generously sponsored her. Click here for a larger photo of our very own tutor triathlete!

We are delighted to announce also that DEdPsy 2014 cohort course member Mary Stanley-Duke successfully completed her relay swim across the Channel in June 2015 and managed to raise over £13,198 for SANDS, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society - in excess of her £12,000 target. Mary would like to offer a big thank you to those who sponsored her. Click here for some larger photos of Mary during her epic swim, and with her fellow swimmers on the beach in France afterwards!

In August 2015, DECPsy 13-16 cohort member Jemma Levy nee Lewis was able to take a welcome break from thesis data analysis to get married to Alex in Henley-on-Thames. The couple were extremely lucky with the weather (the frantic stalking of weather reports paid off!) and the sun shone brightly with not a cloud in sight. This meant Jemma and Alex were able to have their ceremony outdoors facing the gorgeous River Thames which was especially lovely for their 200 guests who travelled from as far as Los Angeles and Israel to be there with them. It was a great party and a perfect day but Jemma will definitely miss the planning and distraction from thesis work! Click here for some more stunning photos.

Some DEdPsy baby news next, from DEdPsy 2013 course member Bridget Simms who had a daughter, little Evelyn Beau Simms, on 1 September 2015. Proud mum Bridget says baby Evelyn is perfect and is doing very well. Click here for a larger picture of newborn baby Evelyn Beau.

And Professional and Academic Tutor Dr Cathryn Ashe brought some romance to the DECPsy programme this autumn, tying the knot with Andy Brown on Friday 30th October and leaving the London drizzle and cold behind for a honeymoon in the stunning Caribbean island of Belize. Our congratulations go to the Browns, pictured right - click here for some more photos of their big day.

Publications, Conferences and Research

Congratulations to our DECPsy graduates/DEdPsy course members on the following publications:

Dr Joe Wilson (DECPsy 08-11) Cotton, J., Baker, S & Wilson, J (2015). An exploratory case study of three children with ADHD and social difficulties: Child and parent responses to an educational intervention designed to facilitate self-regulation and deep learning. The Psychology of Education Review 39(2).

Rebecca Ashton (DEdPsy 2012 course member)
Ashton, R. (2015) Relaxation as an intervention to improve emotional and behavioural outcomes for children. Open Journal of Educational Psychology, 1, 1-17.

Ashton, R. (2015) Educational neuropsychology. In J. Reed, K. Byard and Fine, H. (eds.) Neuropsychological rehabilitation of childhood brain injury: A practical guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Prof Norah Frederickson and Dr Tony Cline have been delighted this autumn to see the last of the proofs for the third edition of their textbook Special Educational Needs, Inclusion and Diversity. It should be available by the end of the year.

Click here for a synopsis produced by the publisher.

In October the book 'Restorative Justice in Practice: Insights into What Works and Why' was published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. In the book 'ten practitioners describe a restorative encounter as seen through the lens of their own theoretical model' and one of these practitioners is academic and professional tutor, Dr Juliet Starbuck.

Click here for further details.

In other research news, in 2014 the UCL Educational Psychology Group worked with Kent Educational Psychology Service (involving Prof Norah Frederickson and Dr Ben Hayes) to make a bid to the Education Endowment Fund for funding to develop and evaluate a web-based programme for delivering precision teaching for literacy skills. Although the bid didn't quite make the cut for funding KEPS was able to fund the development of the website and UCL trainees on placement in Kent are now involved in helping to evaluating it. The website has been piloted and is now available for schools to use. If you are interested in having a look you can follow news about it on twitter at @KentEdPsy or find out more at:
http://soundprogress.co.uk/
https://prezi.com/vxirjwxpuqet/sound-progress-intro/

In conference news, at the end of October Dr Tony Cline gave the keynote address to a conference of Czech psychologists at Masaryk University, Brno, on Principles of Psychological Assessment in a Multicultural Society. In planning the visit he was hoping to find attitudes and understanding of cultural diversity much changed since his depressing previous professional visit to Brno at the turn of the millennium. That journey has begun, but as elsewhere the psychologists he met stressed how far there is still to go. The stimulus for the conference seemed familiar - the need to prepare for the professional implications of a new law on special education provision.

Congratulations also go to 08-11 DECPsy graduate Dr Joe Wilson, who has been promoted to Senior Practitioner Educational Psychologist at Leeds EPS and who also taught an Educational Psychology module at Leeds Trinity University earlier this year.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that the second Educational Psychology Group Leadership Programme for senior and principal EPs is currently well under way, having received more applications than could be accepted. Dr Roger Booker is intending to present a third programme in the summer. It has been suggested that a similarly structured course for main grade EPs anticipating a step into management would meet a need and he is currently developing this for September 2016. Please see the course webpage for further details when these are available.

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