“Being an Educational Psychologist is an endless pursuit in trying to affect positive change in children’s lives. There is always more that can be done. But what is certain, is that we must always try our best for each and every child.”
10 Minutes a Day: A Practical Approach to Boosting Academic Performance in Primary Schools
Discover how just 10 minutes a day can change learning in your primary classroom. Explore MeeMo, the Working Memory training programme that's helping pupils across the UK improve attention, boost academic performance, and build confidence. Learn how this research-based, teacher-approved tool can seamlessly integrate into your busy school day, providing benefits across the curriculum.
Working Memory | The ‘New’ IQ In Your Classroom
Imagine a classroom where every student, regardless of their working memory capacity, can thrive. Discover the hidden cognitive key that teachers and TAs are using to help boost math skills and enhance literacy. Access practical strategies that can be play an important part in transforming struggling learners into confident students.
RISE and Recovery
I think it is safe to say that 2020 has not turned out like we all would have predicted. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the lives of everyone across the world and the uncertainty and changes it has imposed upon our societies continue to be felt throughout the globe. If there is one psychological factor that I think has helped people to cope with and come through the crisis, it would have to be resilience.
Dynamic Assessment: A Journey
Why Dynamic Assessment? This blog aims to give a flavour of my DA ‘journey’ and to reflect on why is has been an important part of my practice for nearly ten years.
Reflecting back to those first impressions, and forward to where I am now, what is it about DA that has made it a frequent and consistent aspect of my practice for almost 10 years? One of the most striking elements is that I now have a language to talk about cognition that doesn’t have to involve scores, or is based on a theory of fixed abilities that has limited reliability and validity for many of the children and young people with whom I work…
RISE 3: Resilience In Schools and Education
The development of the RISE programme
The Resiliency in Schools and Education (RISE) programme is an evidence-based programme, grounded in resiliency research. We created this to give schools and teachers the tools they will need to best support build up children’s resiliency. While the principals and strategies are especially timely as children return to school following extended periods away, we also know that building children’s resiliency is always an important endeavour to protect and improve wellbeing, and to enable children to flourish and thrive.
The RISE programme is an intensive teacher course based upon eight well-established and fundamental pillars of resiliency which collectively encompass all of children’s important resiliency capacity…
RISE 2: Resilience in Schools and Education
The Importance of Resiliency
Resiliency refers to the capacity of an individual to cope with, adapt and respond to challenge, difficulty and adversity. It is not the absence or avoidance of distress or hardship, rather, resilience is the ability to confidently face challenges, adapt and even grow as a result of these.
The research literature (consisting of over 4,000 journal articles, and hundreds of relevant books at the time of writing), demonstrates that resiliency is one of the most significant factors in determining progress, success and wellbeing of children in their education, with resilient children better equipped to (amongst other things) overcome setbacks, form positive social relationships and develop personal and academic independence.
If we wish to develop resiliency in our children, it would be prudent initially to think about the differences between those able to show resiliency, and those who struggle to do so…