Educational Psychology Group People

Programme Directors

Email: jessica.dewey@ucl.ac.uk

Jessica became a tutor at UCL in 2004 on the masters in Educational Psychology. She was appointed as Deputy Director (Placements) on the DECPsy in 2015 and became Joint Programme Director in 2023 alongside Dr. Susan Birch. Jessica is part of the Division of Educational Psychology Training Committee (DECPTC) engaging in partnership and accreditation visits across professional training programmes.

Initially Jessica completed her Psychology degree at the University of Birmingham and then completed a three-year preparatory programme for masters training in Educational Psychology (MSc) at Southampton University. This involved a PGCE, two years teaching in Portsmouth and action research. Jessica then undertook her professional training on the MSc in Educational Psychology at UCL in 2000. After a year's professional practice Jessica then undertook her Doctorate in Educational Psychology (DEd Psy) and completed this in 2006.

Jessica’s current research interests include: Metacognition and self-regulated learning (SRL), the teaching of thinking skills in education, and exploring the use of camouflaging in children and young people. Jessica has presented at national and international conferences on research into Activating Children’s Thinking Skills (ACTS). This research incorporated working in collaboration with Professor Carol McGuinness at Queen’s University, Belfast and parallels a sister project conducted in Northern Ireland. The work aims to ascertain the impact of ACTS at a student, staff and school level in the tuition of thinking skills.

Email: s.birch@ucl.ac.uk

Susan joined the educational psychology group at UCL as a tutor on the CPD doctorate course (DEdPsy) in 2008, becoming Programme Co-Director in September 2012. She was appointed as Co-Director of the Educational Psychology Group and Co-Director of the DECPsy in 2023.

Susan qualified as an educational psychologist at UCL in 1997 and worked as an EP, in two Local Authority educational psychology services, for more than twenty years, as a main scale EP, as a specialist EP for looked after children and as a Senior EP. Susan completed her Doctorate at UCL in 2005, focusing on using a resilience framework to explore the experiences of looked after children in education.

Susan has a wide range of professional interests, including working with schools to support the emotional health and well-being of children and young people, inclusion and bullying. Susan is also interested in ethical practice and interprofessional collaboration. She is currently working with colleagues at NatCen on a project funded by the EEF and YEF to explore school behaviour policies, school climate and student exclusions and engagement.

Email: p.stringer@ucl.ac.uk

Phil joined the UCL team as an Academic & Professional Tutor on the CPD Doctorate in Educational Psychology in September 2012 before becoming Co-Director in September 2016. In addition to Phil's role at UCL, and up until August 2020, he worked for Hampshire Educational Psychology, where he had held a number of senior management roles including principal educational psychologist. After a degree in psychology and teaching in Newcastle upon Tyne, he trained as an EP on the UCL course. He then worked in Leicester, returning to Newcastle to be a senior EP, which included four years as an associate tutor on the EP training course at Newcastle University.

Phil has wide-ranging research and professional interests, including dynamic assessment and mediated learning, the psychology of community, impact evaluation, ethical theories and dilemmas and person centred approaches.

His PhD, awarded by Southampton University in 2002, was a study into why some people become educational psychologists.

Throughout his career, Phil has promoted the value of writing about EP work, both as an author in his own right and as an editor. He was book review editor and then editor of Educational Psychology in Practice, and is now on the editorial board of Educational and Child Psychology. He is former representative of the Division of Educational and Child Psychologists on the British Psychological Society's influential ethics committee.

Core Academic, Professional, Research and Practice Team

Dr Jessamine Chiappella
DECPsy Academic and Professional Tutor, UCL & Senior Educational Psychologist, Oxfordshire
MA (Oxon), P.G.C.E., MSc., DEdPsy, C.Psychol, HCPC registered (Reg. No. PYL03523)

Research and professional interests: Nurture Groups, ELSA, Bilingualism, Working Memory, Autism and demand avoidant profiles, ADHD and Emotional Based School Avoidance.

Prof Ravi Das
Professor of Psychopharmacology,Educational Psychology Research Methods Tutor
(BSc, MSc, PhD)

Research and Professional interests: Memory reconsolidation / phenomenology and effects of illicit drug use / cognitive and mindfulness-based strategies in substance use disorders

Dr Mat Fuller
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy & Educational Psychologist, Havering Educational Psychology Service
BSc (Hons), DEdPsy, HCPC Reg

Research and professional interests: Refugee education, unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors, school based mental health support, resiliency building interventions, mindfulness, mentoring, school connectedness, executive functioning, attention, practice supervision and critical incident support.

Beverley Graham
Academic & Professional Tutor, UCL & Senior Educational Psychologist, Hackney
(Cert Ed, BSc, MSc, C Psychol, HCPC Reg)

Research and professional interests: emotional intelligence / reducing the rate of exclusion in educational settings / cognition and learning in traumatised children

Dr Ben Hayes
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy & Senior Educational Psychologist, Kent
(BSc, DAppEdPsy, CPsychol, HCPC. Reg)

Research and professional interests: Phoneme level literacy interventions / Video Interaction Guidance / School staff wellbeing and stress / Trauma and critical incidents in schools

Dr Gavin Morgan
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy, Academic & Professional Tutor, DEdPsy & Area Senior Educational Psychologist, Northamptonshire
(BSc, PGCE, MEd, C Psychol, Ed.D, AFBPsS, HCPC Reg)

Research and professional interests: the application of solution-focused techniques in change-management / social and emotional development and supporting pupils and schools with social, emotional and mental health needs / social inclusion and pupil participation

Prof K. V. Petrides
Professor of Psychology and Psychometrics & Assistant Director (Research) DECPsy
(BBA, MSc, Dip Psychol, PhD)

Psychometric Lab page

Research and professional interests: Trait emotional intelligence / Psychometrics / Personality and individual differences

Dr Patrick Sullivan
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy & Educational Psychologist, Tower Hamlets
BSc (Hons), DEdPsy, HCPC Registered Psychologist (Reg No: PYL35908)

Research and professional interests include: the use of consultation and narrative approaches within EP practice / social and emotional development and supporting children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs / personal construct psychology / alternative provisions and pupil referral units within the English education system.

Dr Gurdip Theara
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy & Educational Psychologist, Bi-borough (Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster)
(BSc, DEd Psy, C Psychol, HCPC Reg)

Research and professional interests: Community psychology / culturally inclusive practise / consultation / Autism / Mindfulness

Dr Simon Ungar
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy & Educational Psychologist, Wandsworth
(BA Hons, PhD, CCET, DEd Psy, HCPC Reg)

Research and professional interests: visual impairment and blindness / working memory / parenting and early child development / evidence-based practice and critical evaluations of educational psychology practice / community psychology

Dr Jen Wills
Academic & Professional Tutor, DECPsy
(BSc, DEC Psy, HCPC Reg)

Research and professional interests: parenting; early childhood development; sleep; therapeutic play; relational approaches; coaching.

Emeritus and Honorary Staff

Prof. Norah Frederickson, Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology

Prof. Sandra Dunsmuir, Emeritus Professor of Educational and Child Psychology

Dr. Tony Cline, Honorary Research Fellow

Dr. Roger Booker, Honorary Lecturer