Brief Psychotherapy with Children in a Specialist School: An Exploration of the Underlying Issues for Children and Mainstream Schools

This thesis explores brief psychotherapy with children on placement at a specialist school setting, as part of an on-site, child psychotherapy outreach provision. The study sought to explore two research questions concerning the themes that could emerge in brief work with children and how these themes could be discussed in relation to the understanding formed by their mainstream school teachers. A qualitative research design was used to investigate these questions. The methods used to collect data were case studies, concerning the brief psychotherapy with 4 boys, aged 7 years, and and semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers. Thematic analysis was used to explore the data. The themes that were derived from the analysis were described in detail. The research found that brief work has considerable benefit for children and mainstream schools. Through the brief work intervention, the children all made significant progress in all areas of their lives a school. Contributions that the research makes to related fields, the implications that it has for policy and practice and recommendations for future research were all discussed.

The Views of Young People about an Intervention Programme Designed to Support Them with Exam Related Anxiety and Stress

Both preparing for and sitting exams can be extremely stressful for children and young people. Whilst the research within the area of exam anxiety acknowledges the detrimental impact that it can have on individuals, much of the research has been completed with university students. Limited research has been carried out with children and young people. In addition to this, there is also little research that has been completed in order to understand which interventions are helpful in reducing exam anxiety in young people. The systematic literature review highlighted that much of the research employed quantitative techniques. This means young people’s views and experiences of exam anxiety has largely been unexplored. The EPS service in which the TEP currently works is a partially traded service. Some of the schools that had bought a service level agreement requested support for certain pupils that were experiencing exam anxiety. The EPS service therefore delivered an intervention called ‘beating exam anxiety together’ (further details of this intervention can be found within chapter 1). Seven semi-structured interviews were carried out with GCSE students who took part in the ‘beating exam anxiety together’ intervention. The purpose of the interviews was to understand more about young people’s views on exam anxiety, and also their experiences of the intervention in which they took part. The research highlighted the possible detrimental impact of exam anxiety on young people in terms of their mental health, and also how able they feel to prepare for their exams. The results of the research interestingly showed that young people experience high levels of pressure from school teachers and also their parents. Furthermore, students reported that they didn't know how to revise. The results revealed that young people feel that the way in which exams are spoken about in schools is largely negative. As a result of this, the researcher suggested that it may be helpful to shift the narrative around the way in which exams are currently spoken about. In addition to this, the results indicate that the intervention was largely helpful in improving young people’s well being and their ability to be able to manage exam anxiety.

My Ideal School: A Personal Construct Psychology Approach to Understanding the School Constructs of Children Described as Anxious

This research explores the school constructs of children described as anxious. Little research exists that looks at understanding children’s school-related anxiety through the lens of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). This qualitative research design includes semi-structured interviews that followed a PCP theoretical framework. The interviews were carried out with five children aged between 7 and 11, who attended state schools in Malta, and who were experiencing school-related anxiety. Participants were asked to comment and produce drawings about the kind of school they would like to attend (their ideal school), and the kind of school they would not like to attend. The children’s constructs were organised according to whether they related to adults in school, their peers, the school and classroom environment, and the participants themselves in each of these two imaginary schools. Participants were also asked to think of how the school they currently attend can become more like their ideal school. Findings indicate the importance of relationships between teachers and pupils, relationships amongst pupils themselves, a positive learning environment within the classroom and the belongingness to a common value system and school ethos to which anxious children can relate. This research aims to shed light on the responsibility of professionals working with children with school-related anxiety to look beyond within-child factors and understand possible stressors in the child’s environment as potentially contributing to heightening their anxiety.

Talking everyday science to very young children: a study involving parents and practitioners within an early childhood centre

The acquisition of everyday scientific concepts by 3-6 year old children attending early childhood institutions has been widely studied. In contrast, research on science learning processes among younger children is less extensive. This paper reports on findings from an exploratory empirical study undertaken in a ‘stay and play’ service used by parents with children aged 0-3 and located within an East London early childhood centre. The research team collaborated with practitioners to deliver a programme of activities aimed at encouraging parents’ confidence in their own ability to support emergent scientific thinking among their young children. The programme generated children’s engagement and interest. Parents and practitioners reported increased confidence in their ability to promote young children’s natural curiosity at home and in early childhood provision. The authors see no reason for positing qualitative differences between the way children acquire scientific and other concepts in their earliest years.

How Do Young People Talk About Relationships?

Interpersonal relationships are important for young people’s social, emotional and mental wellbeing. Educational Psychologists in their work with children, young people and families play a role in promoting the social, emotional and mental wellbeing of young people. A review of previous literature suggested that young people’s voice is missing from much of the research about relationships. This research is positioned within an ontological perspective of social constructionism. It aimed to explore ways in which a group of Year 8 students used their language to talk about relationships; what meaning they drew from them, who they have relationships with and what is important about them. 13 Year 8 students participated in the study and their views were explored using semi-structured interviews. Data gathered was then scrutinised using a discourse analysis technique. Three broad discourses were drawn upon by participants: ‘Social Contract’, ‘Interpersonal Aspects’ and ‘Relationship Diversity’. Within each of these there were smaller sub-discourses and interpretive repertoires drawn upon by participants to convey action and function within their talk. Participants considered relationships as very important, though they rejected the notion of a single construct of relationships, choosing instead to draw upon relationships with different people as different types of relationship. Friendship was the primary type of relationship which young people spoke about, however, they often constructed their discourse to undermine the importance of these friendships. The research findings were incorporated within the wider literature and relevant links have been drawn between the study and psychological theories. Implications for the work of Educational Psychologists were also discussed, in terms of utilising relationships for interventions and supporting those working with young people to consider young people’s views and meaning making about relationships.