It was great to see the Duchess of Cambridge supporting the first ever Children’s Mental Health Week…

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31483315

An interesting article looking at the potential benefits of mindfulness practice with children.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-mindfulness-help-students-do-better-in-school-1424145647

Huge congratulations to Christine McGovern and her husband Paul on the arrival of their beautiful baby boy Joseph Kevin who was born Wednesday 11th February 2015. We are looking forward to his first visit to the office!

Due to some changes in remits and staff going on maternity leave it has been necessary to make some changes to school allocations. The overview of psychologists by establishment has been updated, click here to view the new allocation.

If you have any queries or concerns please do not hesitate to get in touch at ps@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk or call 0141 577 8510

We would like to extend a warm welcome back to all schools. We wish you all a fantastic 2015!

The service has produced a rich picture to demonstrate Psychologists wide ranging role in supporting the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Please Click here to view the image.

Nick Smiley has been appointed as our new Principal Psychologist. Nick is already a well established member of the team as he was previously a Depute and before that a Senior Psychologist in East Renfrewshire.  He has also worked in schools across the authority and currently the Psychologist for Isobel Mair School and the Eastwood Cluster. A further introduction will be included in the next newsletter.

Congratulations Nick!

Ainsley McGoldrick gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Issac Alexander James, on the 9th September. We look forward to Ainsley’s next visit to the service so we can all meet him!

Joyce Fullarton retired from her post as Principal Psychologist after 40 years service in September. Joyce had been the Principal Psychologist for 10 years! We wish her all the best in her adventures in London!

We have added some links to resources and websites for supporting children and young people who have experienced a bereavement. To view the page click here.

Click Here to see our latest newsletter.

The parent workshops will be running again this year at Eastwood High School. In the past parents said it was “good to hear from other parents who are in the same position as yourself” and the athmosphere was “relaxed and friendly”.

Other comments included:

“superb insight with simple, yet effective techniques and strategies to improve our parenting skills”

“Very enjoyable course, would recommend it to friends. Look forward to doing the next course in a few years!”

“I found the information in the course really helpful and our home is a calmer place since I started the course”

The workshops will run from 7-9pm at Eastwood High School on:
Tuesday 29th April
Tuesday 6th May
Tuesday 13th May
Tuesday 20st May

If you are interested in coming along please call the Psychological Service on 0141 577 8510.

We have been running  Resilience to Stess workshops for emloyees of East Renfrewshire Council for the last 2 years. They focus on the different causes of stress and explore different ways of managing stress both in the work place and in our personal lives. We look at how we can build resilience by making small changes. In the past people who have attended have said:

• “Really enjoyed these sessions, helpful for both work and personal life. Should be rolled out across all people working in ERC to help them manage better their stress levels”

• “A very enjoyable and thought provoking course.”

We have just finalised the dates  for 2014 which is Friday 29th August with a half day follow up session on the 28th Novbember 2014. Employees can sign up via the My Insider website. For more infiormation please feel free to contact the service.

Derrick Bruce from the Rights, Support and Wellbeing Team at Education Scotland, presentated to all the psychologists on Restorative and Relational Approaches. Derrick has been carrying out a number of highly successful training sessions with staff from all the schools in East Renfrewshire and we were delighted to welcome him along to our staff meeting. We found the presentation very interesting and it was helpful to start thinking of ways we can support schools in taking forward this initiative. Thank you Derrick!

Suzanne Zeedyk has launched a new website with lots of useful resources (see link below). Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk is a research scientist who specialised in the field of developmental psychology. She is on the of leading figures for attachment and development in the early years and best known for the film “The Connected Baby” which demonstrates babies’ innate emotional connectedness to other people.

Homepage

Scotland’s anti-bulling service, Respect Me, has launched their new video campaign. The new campaign tag line is ‘Before you give some advice, about bullying get some” which is designed to get parents to think before giving advice such as ‘man up’ or ’hit back’.
Click on the link below to view the new campaign…

We are delighted to share with you our new  improvement plan for 2013-2016 and our standards and quality report for 2012-2013.

To view them please click here.

Click Here to view the latest  newsletter. As always we welcome your views/ feedback on any of the information provided in the newsletter. The contact details are on the right hand side of the website or the last page of the newsletter.

We are delighted to welcome back Jennifer Howitt to our team! Jennifer was as Assistant Psychologist with us and is now returning as a Trainee whilst on the MSc Educational Psychology course at Dundee University.

We would like to offer a warm welcome to Christine McGovern who has joined our team as the new Educational Psychologist (Probationer). Christine has just completed her studies at Strathclyde University. She will be working alongside Yvonne Coyle in the Mearns Castle cluster and will be the school psychologist for Hazeldene Nursery, Eaglesham Primary and Nursery, Mearns Primary and Mearns Castle (Joint with Yvonne). We are delighted to have Christine join our team!

To view a list of the schools and their allocated psychologist please click here.