In this Issue:

Forthcoming Events

On 13th May year 3 trainees will be presenting their research to year 1 and 2 trainees, with attendance from thesis tutors and Research Advisors, at the annual DECPsy Research Conference, here at Bedford Way. Click here for the programme.

The first issue of a new journal, the International Journal of Nurture in Education, is appearing this month. Tony Cline is on its editorial board and has asked that a call for papers for the next issue is circulated. The deadline is 31 July 2015 - please click here for further information.

Time for a Coffee Break?

For those of you about to grab a coffee, click here for an article of caffeine based discovery, enthusiasm and yes research submitted by our very own Dr Phil Stringer!

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

Spring 2015

New Faces, Promotions and Graduations in the group

In January 2015 we were joined by our seventeenth cohort of CPD Doctorate course members. A warm welcome to Julia Alfano, Nicola Bouvier, Karen Curran, Jennifer Edmunds, Sarah Gothard, Victoria Graham, Yoshimi Hester, Jude Liberman, Ian Mann, Kathy Notley, Joanne Summers and Irene Timmons.

And many congratulations on behalf of the whole team to our recent CPD Doctoral graduates, Dr Kirsty Quinn, Dr Tara Midgen, Dr Alison Ring and Dr Jasmine Murray. We look forward to seeing them graduating with the DECPsy 11-14 group in summer 2015.

We are also pleased to announce that two familiar faces - Dr Jess Dewey and Dr Susan Birch - will be assisting Dr Sandra Dunsmuir in the leadership of the full time Doctorate (DECPsy) following Norah's retirement in August 2015. Congratulations to our new Professional Practice Deputy Director (Jess) and Academic Deputy Director (Susan)! In addition, we are currently recruiting for an additional Academic & Professional Tutor on the programme, who we hope to appoint in late May for a September 2015 start. And watch this space for a new group administrator who will be joining the team following the retirement of Helen Hosier this July after almost 20 years at UCL! We wish Helen a happy and fulfilling retirement.

Successful conclusion to the first run of our CPD Course in Developing Effective Leadership of Educational Psychology Services

The department has been hosting a course throughout the spring term to develop effective leadership in psychological services. It comprised 7 three hour early evening sessions spread over 11 weeks and was organised by our very own Dr Roger Booker with excellent admin support from Helen Hosier. There were 16 participants from services in London, the home counties and the midlands. The first half of each session consisted of a structured input on a specific aspect of leadership followed by "reflecting team" peer consultation.

In addition to Roger, three experienced PEPs (Dr Phil Stringer, Dr Julia Hardy and Dr Denny Grant) presented a session and topics covered purposive systems thinking, the distinction between leadership and management, authentic leadership, a social identity theory of leadership, leading traded services, distributed leadership, the "incomplete" leader, and strategic thinking.

The feedback has been extremely positive. Across all course members and presentations 90% were thought to be "very helpful" or "helpful". Reflecting team consultation was judged to be an extremely effective way for individuals to present current dilemmas in a secure and confidential setting and to develop a way forward. A strong group ethos developed and there was a suggestion to re-convene for a session at the end of the summer term. Examples of comments are:

• "Excellent programme; I will take a great deal from it, especially in terms of enhancing confidence"
• "Excellent course, well timed for our service context"
• "This course has provided a valuable reflective space where I have been able to consider my professional/personal approach to leadership...and will undoubtedly impact on the service's development going forward"

Personal News

As ever, we have heard of some exciting personal news in the Group, including the prerequisite new Ed Psych babies and sporting escapades!

Firstly, somewhat belated congratulations go to DECPsy 06-09 cohort graduate Dr Sajda Ahmed who became a second time mum to baby Amaan on 20th July 2014 - a little brother for 3 year old daughter Ariana. Amaan and Ariana are pictured right - click here for a larger photo. Sajda says the beguiling duo keep her busy and tired (!) but that she is enjoying every minute of being a mum

And hot on Sajda's heels was DECPsy 10-13 cohort graduate Dr Isabelle Sharples nee Harding, whose little bundle of joy came along in August 2014 on the night of Isabelle's and her husband's joint birthday party! Click here for some larger and more recent photos of Maxwell John Sharples, aka Max, pictured left with proud mum Isabelle.

A festive 2014 arrival next for DECPsy 10-13 graduate Dr Jo Riordan nee Roberts, who had Henry James Riordan on 17th December. Baby Henry is pictured left - click here for a larger photo. Congratulations to proud parents Jo and James on their bundle of cuteness!

An addition to DECPsy tutor and DEdPsy graduate Dr Owen Davis' family came in the form of a second grandson Toby Joel Herbert, left, who was born on 24th February 2015 weighing in at 7lb 14 oz. Click here for more photos of little Toby and his big brother Will, now almost 2 and a half and according to Owen a wannabe Elvis impersonator!

And congratulations to DECPsy 11-14 cohort graduate Dr Ying Ying Ang on the birth of her son, Rui Cheng Lee, who made his grand entrance on 3rd March 2015. Rui Cheng is pictured here at 6 weeks with his proud mum and Norah who was delivering training on dyslexia in Singapore in April 2015. Click here for a larger photo!

Wedding news next, from DEdPsy tutor Dr Roger Booker whose daughter Joanna was married in Pendennis Castle, Falmouth on 18th April 2015. Roger says that it was a wonderful sunny and windy day down in Cornwall and a great time was had by all, as the photo of Roger and Joanna (left) clearly shows. Click here for a larger picture.

In sporting news, DECPsy 14-17 cohort trainee Charlotte Moss will be completing her first marathon on 30th May 2015 while raising money for ‘The Winch’, a fantastic children’s charity in Camden who run a lot of youth projects and groups. Click on the links below for Charlotte's fundraising page and the charity page for more information - obviously all sponsorship donations would be really appreciated.
https://www.goldengiving.com/fundraising/charlottemossmarathon2015
http://www.thewinch.org/who-we-are/

And continuing on an athletic theme, DEdPsy 2014 cohort course member Mary Stanley-Duke will be relay swimming across the Channel in June 2015, raising money for SANDS, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society. Mary (pictured right in her rather fetching 'open water' swimming hat!) explains the reasons behind this extremely brave and chilly feat below - we wish her lots of luck! Her blog www.swimforsands.com is a truly inspiring read.

"In my first year as a fully-fledged EP, (from the last ever Masters course in Bristol), I did what all new EPs do, and got pregnant! I cruised through pregnancy, sharing the steps with all the schools I worked in. Sadly, it ended in the most traumatic way possible. Unbeknown to me, on my last day at work before maternity leave my baby made her last moves. The following day after no movements and a trip to the hospital it was confirmed she had died, at 36 weeks. She was born 4 days later, perfectly formed and to this day, no reason was found. I named her Martha.

This June, I will undertake a challenge in Martha's memory; a relay swim of the English Channel. I have a blog which gives more details about the team, the challenges and what we hope to achieve. We are raising money for SANDS, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society, who were my life line. Stillbirth remains taboo yet it is common, 1 in 246 births in the UK ends in stillbirth. Doing the job we do as EPs I have come across quite a few families who have been affected by stillbirth. It rocks a family. Yet rates of stillbirth could be reduced dramatically by some simple measures such as ensuring mums-to-be monitor baby movements and if additional scans were given to ensure baby growth continues towards the end of pregnancy.

Please visit www.swimforsands.com There is a justgiving link on the blog. Should you wish to support me and my cause, do please text DYST67 £3 to 70070....you can change the amount or do multiple texts if you please. My swim is many things; there is therapy in the swimming, the journey with old friends, the physical challenge and raising money and awareness that will hopefully prevent unnecessary loss in the future."

EPs on the Move!

Our featured EP on the move for this edition is DECPsy 08-11 graduate Dr Sara Freitag who describes her recent sabbatical experience in Cambodia below:

"I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take a 6 month sabbatical from work from October 2014 to April 2015, the first half of which I spent volunteering in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with a group of Speech and Language Therapists.  This was part of a project arranged by City University. They send a team of Speech Therapists to Cambodia every September and I managed to convince them that an Educational Psychologist would be a welcome addition to the team.

My time in Cambodia was an amazing experience, full of challenges but very rewarding. My daily commute switched from getting the tube across London to climbing into a tuk tuk or jumping on the back of a moped, travelling along dirt tracks that seemed to be there one day and washed away the next (it was rainy season!).

My time in Cambodia was split between three main settings: the Rabbit School, one of the only schools in Cambodia for children with complex needs; the National Borei, an Orphanage for children with complex needs on the same site as the Rabbit School and the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, the Cambodian equivalent of CAMHS.  The need for our work to be sustainable and continue after the team left was always at the forefront of our minds. Therefore our focus was on wider systemic issues across the settings and delivering training on a wide range of topics. The thirst for knowledge from all the staff was incredible, with people even turning up on weekends and their days off to attend our sessions.

We also managed to get some sightseeing in with the most memorable being the team's trip to Angkor Wat" (pictured above).

Publications, Conferences and Research

Congratulations to our DEdPsy and DECPsy graduates on the following publications:


Dr Jill Carden (DEdPsy 2013 graduate) - Carden, J. (in press). Problem solving in Mathematics: The significance of visualisation and related working memory. Educational Psychology in Practice.

Dr Jessamine Chiappella (DEdPsy 2014 graduate) - Chiappella, J. (2015). Part-time Secondary School Nurture Groups: An Analysis of Participant Outcomes and Possible Mechanisms of Change. International Research Journal on Nurture in Education (1).

Dr Sara Freitag (DECPsy 08-11 graduate) - Freitag, S., & Dunsmuir, S. (2015). The inclusion of children with ASD: using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a theoretical framework to explore peer attitudes International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, doi: 10.1080/1034912X.2015.1046818

Dr Emma Gore-Langton (DECPsy 10-13 graduate) - Gore-Langton, E., & Frederickson, N. (2015). Mapping the educational experiences of children with Pathological Demand Avoidance. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, doi:10.1111/1471-3802.12081

Dr Cerian Hughes (DEdPsy 2013 graduate) - Hughes, C. & Cline, T. (2015). An evaluation of the preschool PATHS curriculum on the development of preschool children. Educational Psychology in Practice, 3, (1), 73-85.

Dr Andy Keay (DECPsy 11-14 graduate) - Keay, A., Lang, J. & Frederickson, N. (in press). Comprehensive Support for Peer Relationships at Secondary Transition. Educational Psychology in Practice.

Dr Louise Tuersley-Dixon (DEdPsy 2010 graduate) - Tuersley, L. & Frederickson, N. (in press). Social Inclusion of Children with Complex Needs in Mainstream: Does Visibility and Severity of Disability Matter? International Journal of Developmental Disabilities.

We are pleased to announce that the second edition of the Educational Psychology textbook is now out - edited by our very own Tony Cline and Susan Birch together with Anthea Gulliford of Nottingham University, and with contributions from Ben Hayes and Norah Frederickson. The new edition offers a comprehensive overview of how key advances in social, developmental and cognitive psychology impact upon the role of educational psychologists working today and explores controversies and dilemmas in both research and practice. Organized into two broad sections related to learning and behaviour, the book features a selection of vignettes from EPs working in a range of contexts as well as tasks and scenarios to support a problem-orientated approach to study. Click here for further information.

Cline, T., Gulliford, A. & Birch, S. (Eds.) (2015). Educational Psychology. Second edition. Hove: Routledge.

Tony also says that himself and Norah have contributed to their heaviest book yet - a chapter on Models of Service Delivery and Forms of Provision in the second edition of the two volume Sage Handbook of Special Education.

The 2015 DECP conference in Durham featured presentations on the trainee conference day from some of our 11-14 cohort graduates on their thesis research: Dr Sinead Neal ('Reducing Anxiety Across Secondary Transition' and Dr Andy Keay ('The role of friendships and peer acceptance in adjustment over the secondary transition'), with Dr Leanna Lopez presenting a poster on her thesis research (‘Resilience, stress and perceptions of school based support of young people managing diabetes in school’.) at the event.  Leanna also presented her poster and research at the Diabetes UK Professional Research Conference at Excel London on 12th March 2015, and submitted the same poster for the Diabetes UK Psychological Care Poster Award which she won the first runner up prize for.  Congratulations Leanna!

In other professional news congratulations go to DEdPsy 2014 cohort course member Laura Dunstan who has recently been promoted to Senior Specialist for Children in Care & Children who are Adopted in Essex.

And click here to listen to a Radio 4 programme aired in February 2015 called 'Finding Your Voice' featuring contributions from our very own Dr Tony Cline. Comedy performer and broadcaster Helen Keen explores a rare condition that she herself once suffered from, Selective Mutism or SM. In this programme, Helen meets some of those affected by SM, including parents and former sufferers, as well as experts (including Tony) helping children to find their voice again.

CPD Leading Edge Psychology Day - 16 April 2015

''Educational Psychologists and infant mental health?''

Despite a history within Child Guidance clinics, the profession of educational psychology has, particularly in the past year, been focused primarily on the implementation of the SEND reforms. However, the mental health agenda has continued to call to us. A clear rationale for our work in this area is provided by the current context, with the work around the parity between physical and mental health the recognition of mental health needs within the new SEND Code of Practice, and increased awareness of the connection between emotional wellbeing and learning outcomes. Even more recently, and building on the prevention and early intervention initiatives, a number of strands have led to the identification of perinatal and infant mental health as areas in which commissioners now need to focus.Whilst a recent focus has been on work with young people 16+, given that an EP's responsibilities start from birth, it is important to maintain close attention to advances in understanding infant mental health. The focus of infant mental health is on the optimal social and emotional development of infants and toddlers within the context of secure, stable relationships with caregivers (Zeanah & Zeanah, 2001). This includes within-child factors, caregiver-infant relationships and environmental factors. Is there then a role for EPs? Over recent years EPs have strongly embraced attachment theory as a basis to inform many aspects of their work.

This exceptionally well attended Leading Edge day provided an opportunity for practising EPs to hear about current theory and practice from internationally renowned researchers and innovative practitioners in the field of attachment and infant mental health, to consider the implications of theory and research for the promotion of mental health and well-being across the life span, and to learn about possibilities for intervention in this area. Keynote speakers included Professor Pasco Fearon, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology and joint Director of the UCL Doctorate Programme in Clinical Psychology, Professor Jane Barlow, Professor of Public Health in the Early Years at Warwick University, Dr Paul Ramchandani, Reader in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Imperial College and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Shami Rait, Senior Educational Psychologist in Buckinghamshire and Penny Rackett, Educational Psychologist and Advanced VIG Supervisor in Suffolk.

More information on the day and about future Leading Edge Day conferences is available on our CPD website. DEdPsy course members and tutors can access a selection of presentations from the day on the DEdPsy course materials module on Moodle. Click here or on the image above to see larger photographs from the day.

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