In this Issue:

Forthcoming Events

Events for your diaries

The retirement party of the inimitable Dr Sean Cameron will be held on Tuesday 17th July 2012 at 5.30 pm in the Wilkins Building South Cloisters of UCL's main campus. Prior to twenty years working within the Educational Psychology Group, first as a professional tutor on the MSc, then as Director/Co-Director on the DEdPsy, Sean also completed his initial training on the UCL MSc Educational Psychology course back in 1973. Click here to see if you can spot the difference between UCL student and UCL tutor Sean!

And click here to see the many talents - and hats - of Sean Cameron!

On 4th June one of our Bedford Way IT Support team, Morgan Douglas will be doing a Sky Dive to raise money for Macmillan Cancer support. We think that it's pretty brave for someone who struggles with ladders to jump out of a plane at 13,000ft so please help Morgan to raise money for this excellent cause by going to:
http://www.justgiving.com/morgan-douglas
and donating as much or as little as you would like. You can also donate by texting EQAK72 followed by an amount to 70070 ( see example below)

To:70070
EQAK72
£5

All money raised will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Research. Morgan is covering the cost of the jump himself.

And all our DECPsy trainees please note - the next TEP Conference will be held on 31st August at the Tavistock Centre - click here for more details or to reserve your place

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

Spring 2012

New Faces and Graduations on the DEdPsy Programme

In January 2012 we were joined by our fourteenth cohort of CPD Doctorate course members. A warm welcome to Rebecca Ashton, Antonia Cobbald, Claire Darwin, Eileen Devitt, Nina Elliott, Penny Francis, Orlaith Griffith, Fiona Kelly Meldon, Yvonne Kennedy, Judith McCall, Anna Hutchinson and Siobhan O' Sullivan.

And many congratulations on behalf of the whole team to our latest group of CPD Doctoral graduates, Dr Carolyn Beecham, Dr Tamsin Cudmore-Day, Dr Owen Davis, Dr Susan Harrison, Dr Neelam Kumar, Dr Yvonne Olten-Dorgan, Dr Sima Patel, Dr Joanna Pike, Dr Caroline Ross-McCall, Dr Ruba Tabari and Dr Sandy Tahan, who have recently completed the programme. We look forward to seeing many of them graduating with the DECPsy 08-11 group on 28 August 2012.

We are also pleased to announce that Dr Phil Stringer, currently Principal Educational Psychologist of Hampshire Educational Psychology will be joining the DEdPsy tutor team in September 2012. Phil (pictured left) has for a number of years been a guest speaker on the full time Doctorate (DECPsy) providing a practical introduction to dynamic assessment for year 1 and a session on career planning for year 3. We look forward to welcoming him as an Academic & Research Tutor next term.

DECPsy HPC/BPS Approval/Accreditation Success

The Doctorate in Educational & Child Psychology's February 2012 joint HPC Approval and BPS Accreditation visit was a wonderful success, with glowing feedback from both bodies on our inclusive and positive programme. We received an unprecedented (we believe) no conditions or recommendations from the HPC and 6 commendations from the BPS. The formal outcomes will be published to our website shortly but the informal feedback from the panel should make everybody involved in the preparation of documentation for the visit and the visit days themselves very proud!

Personal News

As ever, this spring has seen some happy family and wedding news in the Group!

First up, our congratulations go to 08-11 graduate Vivien Yang who became the proud mum of baby Evan last autumn. Evan was born on 19 October 2011 at 5.04 pm. He's just over 6 months and has been babbling and smiling lots which Viv says is definitely reassuring to an Ed Psych! Mum, dad Joseph and baby are pictured right, at home in Singapore. Click here to see a bigger photo.

Next was the turn of Ed Psych Research Methods tutor Celia Morgan - now back with us following her maternity leave - who had a baby girl, Delilah, in the early hours of 28th November weighing 6 lbs 15 ozs. Particular respect goes to Celia after an incredibly long (55 hour!) labour! Proud mum, dad Chris and baby pictured left - click here to view some more recent Delilah photos, including one of her sunning herself in Florida last month!

And DEdPsy course member Nicki Carpenter received a slightly belated Christmas present on 27th December, in the form of the beautifully accessorized baby Primrose! She came along a little quickly, just 4 hours after her due date, weighing in at 6lb 14oz. Nicki says "We narrowly escaped an unplanned home delivery via an uncomfortable ambulance transfer to hospital in Ashford. Two paracetamol and 45 minutes later it was all over thanks to a rather stern midwife. I struggled for the first 6 weeks, I didn't realise how much I liked my sleep! At 8 weeks things settled very well. She now has a very mild temperament, and we are getting 8 hours sleep at night, bliss. Obviously, I now have a totally different perspective on the parenting programs I am involved in delivering!!!" Click here for more Primrose pics.

Next the turn of the DEdPsy tutor team! Course Co-Director Sean Cameron welcomed his second grandson, Alec John David Smith, into the world on 14th January in what Sean termed a 'star appearance'. Both grandparents were said to be 'overexcited, but otherwise ok'! Alec (10 weeks) is pictured right with big brother Arthur, 3.

And finally, congratulations to DEdPsy graduate and visiting speaker Michelle Sancho who had a baby girl on Monday 23rd January. Baby Nadea Anita weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and in her mother's words is 'just delightful', as this picture proves!

Click here for more very cute photos.

Christmas brought a good dose of romance on the DECPsy programme. On Christmas Day year 3 trainee Gemma Cain's partner Kieron proposed to her and the pair have booked their wedding for next summer. And on 28th December 06-09 graduate Carol Hall married Kristian James Toogood at Read's Restaurant in Faversham and became Dr Carol Toogood! The couple are pictured right - click here for more of their lovely winter wedding pics.

Valentines Day also brought romance for DECPsy 08-11 grad Louise Field and new fiancee Toby Murrill. Toby whisked Louise off to Florence for a surprise trip and proposed on 14th Feb at sunset, overlooking the Michelangelo Piazza. The couple are pictured left by the River Arno - click here for more romantic pictures.

The Educational Psychology Group is looking forward to the Olympics this summer, with two colleagues participating as a torchbearer and in the closing ceremony! We are proud to say that Academic & Professional Tutor and keen sportswoman Dr Juliet Starbuck has been selected to be a torchbearer near her hometown in West Sussex in July and DEdPsy graduate Dr Gill Matson has been selected after two auditions to take part as a volunteer in the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games in August as a character part with a movement sequence. We look forward to seeing their pictures and hearing about their experiences in the next edition.

Publications, Conferences and Research

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

'The impact of specific language impairment on performance in science and the implications for pedagogy' was published by DEdPsy graduate Dr Gill Matson and Tony Cline in the February 2012 edition of Child Language Teaching and Therapy.

'Keeping out of harm’s way' was published by DEdPsy 2008 course member Tara Midgen in Young Minds and 'Enhancing outcomes for adopted children: the role of educational psychology' was published by Tara in the September 2011 edition of Educational and Child Psychology.

Having her baby did not prevent DEdPsy graduate Dr Michelle Sancho from being academically productive too. She has an article with Tony Cline in the forthcoming special issue of Educational and Child Psychology that is based on her thesis research. The special issue concerns transitions, and this paper explores how children's sense of belonging and community might be fostered more effectively as they start a new school. Other forthcoming DEdPsy publications to watch out for include a paper on 'Early years Transition' which course member Emma Kennedy and Sean Cameron wrote and which has been accepted for the thematic issue of Educational and Child Psychology due out this summer.

And in research news, working with colleagues at the Open University and the University of Northampton, Prof Tony Cline has won support from the Nuffield Foundation through a grant for £47,000 for one year. This will make possible research into the experiences of children and teachers when pupils act as language brokers for their parents at school.

DECP Annual Conference, January 2012, Stratford-upon-Avon

This year's DECP conference featured a wide range of UCL contributions with papers from members and graduates of the Educational Psychology Group. DECPsy 08-11 graduate Dr Julia Parsonson and DECPsy tutor Dr Gavin Morgan gave individual papers on factors that impact service use among families labelled as ‘hard to reach’ and the use of a solution-focused intervention to organisational change. DEdPsy 2008 course member Tara Midgen held a workshop on Engaging with ethical and moral dilemmas in the new marketplace. And there was also a strong DEdPsy presence via the conference's DEdPsy Symposium ("Perspectives on professional engagement with vulnerable children"), organized by DEdPsy Co-Directors Tony Cline and Sean Cameron with presentations from DEdPsy graduates Dr Anne-Marie Baverstock, Dr Sarah Hatfield and Dr Charlotte Friel. You can click here to view the programme, and, for full details of the speaker papers from the 2012, 2011 and 2010 symposia please visit the DEdPsy website

Bilingual and Multilingual Interaction Conference

Tony Cline gave a keynote address on 1 April at an international conference on Bilingual and Multilingual Interaction, in Bangor, organized by the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory & Practice. The abstract of Tony's address, entitled Language difference as a barrier to learning: bilingualism and special educational needs, can be viewed here.

CPD Leading Edge Psychology Day - 29 March 2012

'Young people with severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties: What can Applied Psychology offer to stressed teachers and parents?'

Educational Psychologists, engaging in planning consultations with secondary schools and supporting young people in their families and communities, are regularly asked for advice and support for young people whose behaviour appears to be uninhibited, unpredictable and unfathomable. Such children are likely to be disengaged in lessons, defiant to staff, have difficulty engaging in positive peer relations and may engage in a high level of risk taking behaviours both within and outside school. Often they show a flagrant disregard for the conventions of the school and the community and an inability to consider long term aspirations, or indeed their own current safety. This well-attended leading-edge psychology day reviewed past and current research in this area, questioning the extent that these behaviours are influenced by within-child, family, school and wider contextual issues, what current research from Neuroscience and psychology can tell us about adolescence and the best ways to support these young people and their families.

Keynote speakers were Professor Judy Hutchings, a Chair at Bangor University, Dr Caroline White, a consultant clinical psychologist and head of the Children and Parents Service for Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation, and Dr Catherine Sebastian, UCL Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology

More information on the day 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.

EPs on the move

This edition saw the turn of DEdPsy course member Jenny Feinnman to both share and gain EP expertise overseas, while accompanying her husband Peter to Cambodia, where he has been working with the Ministry of Education on a nationwide project to look at the frequency and causes of children not attending school. Following house to house enquiries, 4000 children were invited to attend for eye, ear, general medical and psychological check ups. The photo to the left was taken in a village in Rattanakri in the 'wild east' of Cambodia. Jenny says "most children were transported to the testing centres by motorbike ..there are actually 4 children (the baby is hidden 3rd from left) and 2 adults on this one!"

Whilst accompanying Peter on his travels round the country, Jenny has been providing educational psychological services for Cambodians and the international population in Phnom Penh, carrying out psychoeductional assessments for children attending the International Schools and the French Lycée as well as running workshops for the Cambodian teaching assistants. Jenny - pictured right with the team of Cambodian Educational Psychologists - will return to France in May.

Click here to view more photographs from this fascinating trip, ranging from a typical village house, to transport by Tuk Tuk (the main form of public transport in Phnom Penh) and by Bamboo train!

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