Educational Psychology Service

FWTSA have secured the services of a team of Educational Psychologists to work with schools within the Alliance. - individual details below.
Please contact Pam Lord at FWTSA Email:  tsa@forestway.leics.sch.uk  if you would like their assistance.

Morag Gornall
I have over thirty years’ experience as an educational psychologist within Local Authority Educational Psychology Services and as an independent psychologist. Now close to full retirement, I am planning to focus upon the early years and am open to referrals from nurseries and schools for children in Foundation Stage to the end of Year 1.
 For ten years, I was a Senior Educational Psychologist for Early Years in Leicester City and as Principal Educational Psychologist for Leicestershire, I set up the Infant Mental Health team and was part of the Early Years SEN panel. I am trained in the Solihull Approach and helped to develop this model within the Leicestershire EP service and across the authority. While I am experienced in working with all young children where there are concerns about their development, I have a particular interest in assisting schools and early years’ settings in supporting children who may have experienced relational trauma. I also have considerable experience with the identification and support of young children with a possible autism spectrum disorder.
 Early identification and intervention are essential and can make all the difference to a child’s future. I am committed to working with others to ensure that all children have a positive nursery or early school experience and achieve their potential, whatever their difficulties or additional needs.
                                                                                                 

Rachel Griffith
I have 28 years’ experience training and working in a combination of social care, educational and psychotherapeutic roles. I worked as a Local Authority Psychologist for 11 years and now work as an independent EP full time. My ethic is about integrity, equality and empowerment and I aim to make these ‘show’ through all aspects of my work. Always committed to growing as an EP, I enjoy a variety of relevant continuing professional development opportunities. My specialist training is in mental health, coaching and hypnotherapy as well as being a qualified organisational change practitioner. I have always worked within highly diverse communities (schools, colleges, alternative provisions and pupil referral units), often with the systemic factors that affect children and young people’s learning e.g. complex emotional, behavioural and health needs. For me, this puts relationship at the heart of everything so this will always be my start and end point. According to the range of people I have worked with, this appears to be one of my main strengths!

Dr Sarah Godwin
My experience as an educational psychologist comes from working with young people from a diverse range of cultural, socio-economic, and often complex backgrounds.  My work is tailored to the specific needs of the young person and the school, drawing on a wide range of assessment, consultation and intervention methods.  I work across all areas of SEN. 
I am particularly experienced at working with schools to support children with SEMH difficulties; and alongside carrying out in-depth assessments to produce comprehensive reports relating to SEMH difficulties, my work can include Functional Behaviour Assessments and the creation of multi-element plans.  In addition, I can support schools in becoming aware of mental health issues and promote emotional wellbeing in their settings. 
Training I deliver includes (but not limited to): understanding attachment difficulties; Emotion Coaching; Precision Teaching; Paired Reading; and understanding working memory.  Training packages are developed in a bespoke manner to suit the needs of individuals and schools.

Dr Maria Abijah-Liburd
I have worked for over 25 years with children, young people and adult learners across a variety of settings including community education provision, residential social care settings, youth offending programmes, nurseries, schools and colleges. I have a particular interest in work around children who are looked after, previously looked after or ‘on the edge of care’ however, I have a vast amount of experience in supporting schools with their understanding and approaches in relation to a wide range of special educational needs.
My approach to psychological assessments is grounded in collaborative consultation, holistic/ systemic assessment and strength-based/solution-focus approaches. A particular focus of my work is around supporting the emotional wellbeing and resilience of both the pupils and the adults who work in education settings. I offer a range of training around this as well as other topic areas including (but not limited to) restorative practices, understanding and supporting executive functioning skills and attachment/developmental trauma awareness  training. I also offer support to schools through the use of coaching models, the use of problem solving models (e.g. Solution Circles, Circle of Adults, Insights and Solutions circles) and through the use of organisational change systems (including PATHS, Force Field Analysis, MAPS and Appreciative Inquiry).