Research being undertaken by the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth is exploring educational psychologists’ knowledge of, and perspectives on, exclusionary practices in schools in England, particularly illegal practices referred to as “off-rolling”. Preliminary findings from the survey element of a mixed methods research project are reported here. The role of business models in the provision of educational psychology services to schools is considered through the conceptual lens of Giroux, Agamben and Ball to highlight ambiguities around the client relationship and to recast individualised ethical dilemmas as systemic features that inhibit direct challenges to school practices relating to inclusion. It is suggested that traded and privatised services risk implicating educational psychologists in schools’ management of the (in)visibility of “off-rolling” and the manufactured legitimacy of varied exclusionary practices.

The proportion of pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL) has
steadily risen in recent years in the UK. The figures for 2021 show that 1.56
million EAL pupils are attending schools, which constitutes just under one in five
of all pupils aged 5-16, speaking a total of over 365 languages (Department for
Education [DfE], 2021a).
Despite Educational Psychologists’ (EPs) practice being concerned with the
removal of barriers for allowing children to fully access education (Cameron,
2007), a review of the Educational Psychology literature offers a limited account
of EPs’ response to the linguistic diversity increasingly presented by their client
group. According to Cline (2011), this is also reflected in a lack of national policy
guidelines on the competencies EPs need for their work with these students and
families. The accepted professional codes of standards and ethics specify the
need for EPs to demonstrate certain competencies, specific knowledge and
understanding, pertinent to communicating with different ethnic, socio-cultural
and faith groups (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2009, 2015; Health and
Care Professions Council [HCPC], 2015, 2016). However, there is no clear and
shared understanding of precisely what these competencies are, especially in
the development of psychological advices for children with Special Educational
Needs who also have EAL. Therefore, it becomes important to explore and
define the competencies required by EPs to address the language needs of this
population (Athanasopoulos, 2016; Johnson et al. 2012).
In an attempt to address this knowledge gap, I used a three-round Delphi method
to identify competencies required by EPs when working with linguistically diverse
populations. Round 1 consisted of one open-ended e-questionnaire presented
to a panel of experts or ‘informed individuals’ in the field of language diversity.
The panel was asked to advise on competencies needed for effective practice
when supporting the language needs of EAL children and empowering them and
their families within their practice. The responses from Round 1 were analysed
through content analysis and the competencies operationalised in terms of
knowledge, skills, and personal qualities (McAllister et al. 2010). These
statements were presented to EPs (N=20) in Round 2, asking them to rate their
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perceived relevance for their practice, as well as inviting EPs to provide
additional relevant competencies and comment on the possible applicability of
the framework. In Round 3, EPs (N=19) evaluated their response to statements
that had not met consensus after Round 2, considering the group’s opinion
overall, and also rated additional competencies collated from participants in the
previous round (Round 2).
At the end of Round 3, out of a possible 103 statements, 90 statements were
deemed as key features for EP practice with EAL students and families, which is
presented as a guiding framework for practice. Statements that did/did not meet
consensus were considered, and implications for EP practice were discussed.

The wellbeing of doctoral students is an area that is well researched; however, no research has yet explored which factors of doctoral training have most impact upon trainee educational psychologist (TEP) wellbeing. TEPs across England and Wales completed a questionnaire to explore their doctoral wellbeing. Six themes were generated from a reflexive thematic analysis in relation to how academic and professional tutors can support wellbeing: facilitating relationships; adapting models of support; ensuring clear communication; addressing placement concerns; providing practical support and mediating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctoral study. Areas reported to have most impact on wellbeing included workload, making reasonable demands on self, having confidence in research, receiving quality feedback, and experiencing trusting relationships with supervisors. Findings were consistent with previous research and implications for those involved in the training of educational psychologists are discussed, including the need to prioritise wellbeing support in all aspects of training.

Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) are the most common form of alternative provision in England and aim to provide meaningful education to those who are disengaged from and struggling in mainstream. PRUs are predominately populated by male pupils although there is an increasing female pupil population (DfE, 2021).

The current research sought to explore the reflections of young women who have previously attended PRUs and gather the views of PRU staff supporting such pupils. The aim of this was to increase knowledge, awareness and understanding surrounding their unique perspectives in order to gain an insight into how PRUs can be supported and strengthened to improve positive outcomes for female pupils.

In Phase 1, individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with three female former PRU pupils. Interviews were analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis due to the emphasis on reporting and valuing their lived experiences. Five superordinate themes were generated from the interpretative analysis including: “lack of belonging”, “influence of peers”, “feeling safe”, “support from staff”, and “general perception”.

In Phase 2, four focus groups were conducted with members of staff from Pupil Referral Units in the South West of England. Interviews were analysed through thematic analysis. Five main themes captured their experiences of supporting female pupils including: “ways of working”, “relationships”, “responding to changing cohorts”, “falling short” and “influence of wider systems”.

The main conclusions of this research were that relationships are key to supporting disengaged female pupils and ensuring they feel safe and valued; ensuring that child voice is at the centre of decision making is crucial for pupil engagement; and wider systems such as peers, family and community can all have significant impact on pupil behaviour, motivation and identity. My findings lead to several implications for future research as well educational psychology practice including the need to provide training to school staff on understanding the different presentation of girls with needs; providing appropriate supervision and support to PRU staff considering how challenging their work is; and supporting the development of positive, trusting relationships between PRU staff and pupils. Underpinning all recommendations is an emphasis on the importance of listening to the views of female PRU pupils and the staff supporting them.

‘Safe Space’ is an often-used but rarely explored term within education. This thesis aims to explore the use of the term firstly within literature related to schools in both educational and psychological journals, and then the meaning of the term to specific individuals, through interviews of parents and children, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In phase one, a systematic literature review was conducted, exploring how ‘safe spaces’ for children and young people were described and discussed in in educational and psychological literature between 2005 and 2020; 14 studies were included in a thematic synthesis which found five common themes. These were ‘physical aspects’, ‘emotional and psychological safety’, ‘relational aspects’, ‘adult facilitation’ and “peace amongst chaos” for marginalised groups’. In phase two, parent and child interviews were conducted on the topic of ‘safe spaces’ for children and young people; ten child interviews were conducted ‘by proxy’ through parental participation. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings highlighted the importance of relationships with people, pets, special objects and the importance of play to children. Parents additionally highlighted the importance of personalised approaches at school for their child’s feelings of safety. Links are made across both the phases regarding features of ‘safe spaces’, and a model is presented which highlights the transcendental nature of ‘safe spaces’ for children.

There is a wealth of research evidencing that feeling a sense of belonging at school is important and necessary. However, research suggests that one in four students do not feel that they belong at school whist children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are more vulnerable to disliking school and experiencing rejection. This two phase project addressed a gap in the literature to explore why children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs are less likely than their peers to experience a sense of school belonging and consider what contributes to their school belonging.
Within the first phase, a systematic literature review was conducted exploring how children and young people with SEN experience school belonging and what they identify as contributing to their sense of school belonging. 14 studies were included in a narrative synthesis. The findings highlighted that children with SEN appear to need more support in building school belonging than their peers. Multiple factors appear important to building school belonging, however interpersonal relationships was a dominant theme in what children and young people with SEN identify as supporting their sense of belonging at school. The review also suggested that children and young people with needs that could be described as SEMH are amongst the most vulnerable to not experiencing a sense of school belonging. This suggests that attention is warranted to explore how to promote these children and young people’s connections and relationships at school to help develop their sense of school belonging.
In light of the findings within phase one, the second phase focused on how to enhance children with SEMH needs’ sense of school belonging. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 primary school classroom teachers and Teaching Assistants (TA). The interviews explored participants’ experiences of supporting children with SEMH needs and gathered their views on how to develop school belonging for the children they work with. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggested both differences and similarities in how teachers and TAs describe their experiences of supporting SEMH. Both groups of participants highlight that it is an emotive experience including both rewarding highs and challenging lows. There was further a sense that both teachers and TAs felt unsure and inexperienced when supporting social and emotional needs. These findings suggest that mainstream teaching staff could benefit from more support to cope with this aspect of their role in addition to giving them more knowledge about SEMH and what would help. Findings also suggested participants did not view SEMH to be a clear area to understand, there was a sense that it is a broad and wide area encompassing many different aspects.
Findings further suggested that participants valued school belonging and considered it a priority. The research highlighted multiple ways to enhance school belonging for children with SEMH needs. Themes included having supportive relationships with adults, valuing children’s strengths, listening to the child, developing secure peer relationships and a school ethos emphasising wellbeing. The present research also explored the barriers children with SEMH needs face in developing school belonging. Findings suggested a range of reasons children with SEMH may find experiencing school belonging difficult. In particular, difficulties forming friendships and being excluded from the classroom were emphasised as key barriers to school belonging.

Abstract
Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of educational psychologists (EPs) and services that have started trading within their respective service delivery models to generate an income and meet service costs. Due to this, EPs have had to develop new skills, such as engaging in ethical trading practices. However, identifying ethical challenges can take experience, skill, and reflection. Moreover, upon their identification, there can be questions about the degree to which the challenges to trading ethically can be fully resolved. This research is comprised of two phases.
In Phase One, I aimed to explore the ethical trading challenges experienced and/or perceived by practising EPs, to inform EPs’ preparedness for practice-based ethical challenges. To do this, I conducted semi-structured interviews and thematic analyses with seven EPs from semi- and fully traded services, in order to generate themes related to participants’ personal and social experiences of ethical trading challenges. I found areas of ethical concern in the form of themes related to ‘fairness’, ‘competence’, ‘implications for trainee and assistant EPs’, ‘ethical communication’, and ‘markets’. This is in addition to two novel themes, ‘navigating agendas’ and ‘service models in transition’.
In Phase Two, I aimed to explore EPs resolutions to the aforementioned challenges in order to inform service level guidance on the skills and approaches required and how best to prepare and support EPs with their resolutions. To do this, I used the findings in Phase One to create three hypothetical ethically challenging trading scenarios, which I presented to four focus groups of EPs. Following this, I conducted thematic analysis, in order to construct themes related to the participants’ views on how to resolve them. I then generated six final themes on how the EPs resolve the ethical trading challenges that they encounter: ‘gathering additional information’, ‘a focus on relationships’, ‘taking intervening action’, ‘an ethical service’, ‘a well-equipped service’, and ‘service improvement efforts’.
By discussing the findings of both phases in relation to the extant literature, I concluded that the challenges cover a wide range of EP roles, while also being subjective to the individual, based on their perception of whether a decision was ethical or whether it posed a challenge to them. When faced with ethical challenges, the EPs aimed to understand the situation as best as they can whilst also ensuring that they have the resources and support in place to inform their decision-making centred around resolutions. Owing to this, it may be helpful for services shifting to these models to identify the challenges that arise in their respective contexts and to audit what ethically supportive provisions they possess, in order to enable EPs to continue to practise as ethically as they can.

Large numbers of children and young people are in need of support for their social, emotional and mental health needs; this has been described as a ‘mental health crisis’ (Gunnell, Kidger & Elvidge, 2018, p. 361). A programme widely used in schools to support children in developing their emotional literacy (EL) is the Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme (Burton, 2008). As part of their training, ELSAs may receive input on writing and using therapeutic stories. Storytelling is a useful tool for introducing emotions into the classroom in a safe, educationally appropriate way, and evidence suggests that storytelling approaches, including the use of pre-written as opposed to personalised stories, are an effective way to support the development of emotional literacy in children and young people, however writing personalised therapeutic stories is time consuming meaning that ELSAs may find it difficult to use them in their practice.

There is scant research evidence about ELSAs’ use of stories and the factors which inhibit or enable their use. In this research I therefore aimed to explore ELSAs’ views on the use of stories, as well as their understanding of the term ‘emotional literacy’, and to explore their views of how attending a continuing professional development (CPD) session on the use of stories in ELSA work has impacted on their practice.

The findings of this research show that the central reason underlying participants’ use of stories in their practice is as a relationship building tool and that stories were viewed as an effective way of communicating with children. Participants were more likely to use stories when they felt trusted by school leadership and confident in their ability; attending additional training on the use of stories increased feelings of confidence. Participants had a broadly consistent conception of the meaning of ‘emotional literacy’, however their views also took account of environmental and societal factors, which are not accounted for in the definition of EL.

Implications of the findings for further research and educational psychology practice are considered.

This study contributes to knowledge of parental involvement in education in Saudi Arabia by focusing on teachers’ and parents’ conceptualisations, attitudes and practices of parental involvement in the education of female students with learning difficulties in elementary inclusive schools. The specific location of the research is Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Three specific objectives informed the research: (1) to obtain teachers’ and parents’ views on their conceptualisations and current practices of parent involvement, (2) to document and analyse teachers’ and parents’ views about the importance of parental involvement, roles, and responsibilities, and (3) to identify the obstacles to implementing effective parental involvement practices. In this study, I used Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological system theory to provide a framework for the development of the questionnaire, data collection, analysis, and discussion. Based on the pragmatic research paradigm, I utilised a mixed-methods design with a purposive sampling strategy to collect data from 110 teachers and 105 parents. The particular design chosen for this study was a sequential explanatory type which is also referred to as the QUAN-qual research model or the explanatory mixed-method design. The research approach involved the collection and analysis of survey data followed by the collection and analysis of interview data for integration. A close-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview for teachers and parents were employed to collect data. At the interview stage, 10 parents and 10 teachers from those who responded to the questionnaire were interviewed. The survey data were transferred from the hard copy material into SPSS version 26. The data analyses included descriptive statistic of mean, standard deviations and rankings of mean scores. In addition, factor analysis, t-test, and ANOVA were performed to test the cluster of responses and variabilities in the results pertaining to teachers and parents. Further, framework analysis serves as a pragmatic approach to the analysis of the interview data.
The results indicated that parental involvement conceptualisation varied among participants. Key among their conceptualisations were: the connection between the members of the school’s community; the activities that teachers and parents participate in together; a two-way communication that helps to improve the education of students; and a contractual agreement between teachers and parents that involved trust, respectful relationship, and positive cooperation. In terms of parental involvement practices, almost all the teachers indicated that they did not involve parents in making decisions about their children’s education. More than half of the teachers indicated that they communicated to parents regularly to provide information about their children’s education. However, parents contend that teachers only communicated to them about their children’s academic problems and behavioural challenges. Regarding the availability of school-level policy on parental involvement, most teachers and parents agreed these policies did not exist. In the absence of policy to guide teachers, parental involvement practice was arbitrary, demonstrating a dissonance in practice. However, parents’ support for their daughters’ learning at home achieved the highest mean score. A major concern of parents was that school meetings were organised without consulting them which may implicate some barriers to parents’ involvement, but teachers claimed that parents’ attitudes reduced their interest in working with them. Further, some teachers alluded that their school responsibilities and lack of time made it impossible for them to involve parents. The majority of teachers affirmed that training them on how to work with parents might improve parental involvement. All parents claimed that positive and effective communication that incorporates respectful relationships can improve their relationships with teachers to participate in the education of their children with learning difficulties in inclusive elementary schools in Saudi Arabia. Based on these findings, I provided recommendations that may help in developing a contextually relevant parental involvement practice in Saudi Arabia.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is predicted to affect 5% of young people (APA, 2013) with increasing rates of diagnosis across the western world (Safer, 2018). Young Minds (2018) also report that one in four young people are experiencing mental ill health. High comorbidity rates have been identified between ADHD and negative mental health outcomes, which has sparked a wealth of research into this relationship (Roy, Oldenhinkel, Velhurst, Oreml & Hartman, 2013; Booster, DuPaul, Eiraldi and Power, 2012; & Becker, Luebbe & Langberg, 2012). With this in mind, the aims of this research were to explore the understanding, perceptions and experiences of young people with ADHD. Although this research employed a mixed methods design, utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods, it aligns with an interpretivist perspective, seeking the views and experiences of young people and those around them. There were two phases to the research; the first used an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to seek the views of Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCos) about young people’s experiences of ADHD. The second phase employed a case study design exploring the experiences of two young people with ADHD. Phase Two also sought to explore the use of tools derived from Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly, 1955) as a means to support young people with ADHD. The findings of this study are consistent with previous literature around the experiences of young people, their schools and their parents in that there may be a discrepancy between young people’s awareness of their needs and their understanding of their ADHD diagnosis. The findings also suggest that parents are not being adequately supported following their child’s diagnosis. Consistent with the literature, this thesis concluded that the ways in which young people perceive and understand their diagnosis is likely to affect their wellbeing.

Will

This thesis is formed of two papers. The first paper is concerned with the construction and design of the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure (SSEM), based upon the constructs that children have about learning to spell and findings from a literature search. The second paper further develops the SSEM, carrying out a large test administration and validation, and then exploring relationships between perceived efficacy beliefs and spelling ability.

the rationale to create a measure of spelling self-efficacy originally stemmed from conversations with teachers during my placement experiences as a trainee educational psychologist. It was often the case that children in schools were not making progress in literacy, despite ongoing and high quality intervention and support. I carried out a literature review and found that the majority of spelling support packages were focused on building children’s mastery of skills rather than any focus on the emotional aspects of learning. I had many conversations with teachers about ways in which they could support children’s beliefs in their capabilities to learn, and had positive reviews with lots of school staff about how this had helped them make interventions more personalised to the child.

the two papers in this thesis outline the steps taken to develop and construct the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure. There were originally five domains underpinning the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure: Belief in Own Ability to Learn to Spell; Belief in Learner Characteristics; Belief in the Need for Help from Others; Belief in Phonological Awareness; and Belief in Technical Understanding of Spelling. These five areas were condensed through analysis in both Paper 1 and Paper 2 to propose a revised Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure underpinned by three domains: Phonological Awareness, Learner Independence and Optimism in Abilities; Learner Confidence and Resilience.

the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure has been found to be a reliable and valid scale to explore children’s perceived efficacy beliefs about learning to spell. Consistent with existing research, significant correlations have been found between a child’s spelling ability and their level of spelling self-efficacy, as measured by the SSEM.