I Matter Blog and News

Professionals

Oct 19, 2015 02:01am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
5 min read

Stress in Schools: Who is responsible and why it matters

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As a practising clinical psychologist and experienced teacher I have become increasingly concerned about the levels of stress I am observing amongst my education colleagues in schools.   This last half term it seems that staff are more stressed than ever before and we are just at the beginning of the school year.  

Teachers are by and large an extremely conscientious and hardworking bunch.   My concern is that the expectations of what class teachers and senior leaders should be able to achiev…

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Oct 19, 2015 02:01am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
5 min read
Feb 1, 2015 02:15am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2015 & Theory to Practice
5 min read

The Impact of Stress States on the Performance of Adults and Children?
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Everywhere I go in the course of my work with complex children and families, I find schools and children and families and staff under huge pressure, delivering curriculum that are becoming more and more preset.  

What I hear over and over again is that the curriculum has become so super-charged that the times that used to be available in the day and week for just easing off pressure and taking a step back to explore a wider field have become more and more rare.  So, what has an understanding…

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Feb 1, 2015 02:15am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2015 & Theory to Practice
5 min read
Jan 20, 2015 02:16am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
3 min read

Are you missing something important with your tracking?
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So you know well the extraordinary investment of time, energy and finances that is currently invested in tracking children's progress.

But what if we were missing something REALLY important?

I think we are.  

We have huge concerns about rising problems of child mental health and concerns to raise educational outcomes, with huge numbers of adults being driven to monitor more and more details of what children are doing.   

But believe it or not this massive industry is are not tracking the foundatio…

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Jan 20, 2015 02:16am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
3 min read
Jan 17, 2015 02:18am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
3 min read

What is the impact of a gap between developmental and chronological age on educational and mental health outcomes? Our Action Research Group
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January 2015:  The day to day impact of child development on outcomes is the important question that our Action Research group is setting out to explore. We had our first session on Monday and I am very excited that we have got going.   We are 8 practising professionals from education and children's services.  Our goal is to make space over the next 6 months to think about what we are seeing in our settings.  

Because when it comes to outcomes, child development is the elephant - no, the ma…

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Jan 17, 2015 02:18am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2015
3 min read
Dec 19, 2014 02:20am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Theory to Practice
3 min read

Is challenging behaviour a mental health issue?
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Is challenging behaviour a mental health issue?   Of course it often is! 

As a psychologist one of the issues that has concerns me most is that people too often make a bold distinction between young people who present with oppositional and challenging behaviour and young people who present with issues such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety and self-harm.    

Challenging behaviour and anxiety and depression as examples can look very different.  At first regard they demand different skill…

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Dec 19, 2014 02:20am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Theory to Practice
3 min read
Dec 6, 2014 02:21am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2014
1 min read

Yay! The I Matter Project is now a Social Enterprise!
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Cathy Betoin Training Ltd is a limited company, registration number 07570100, that I set up to administer the work of the I Matter Project.  

In November 2014  Cathy Betoin Training Ltd formally and legally became a social enterprise.  As someone who has trained within the public sector and been deeply committed to the public sector values this was a transition that was dear to my heart.  

A Social Enterprise is defined according to 3 criteria:

i) There is a social mission - the mission of this p…

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Dec 6, 2014 02:21am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals & 2014
1 min read
Oct 10, 2014 02:38am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Why I Matter?
3 min read

Why I Matter Training? #4 Adult and child wellbeing are linked

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The fourth reason I decided to develop this training was that as I studied all the research, it became very very clear that there were so many different approaches or models but to me, many of them were missing a key and fundamental issue, or adding it as an afterthought.  

How many can you list yourself? Here are a few: Behavioural approaches, Cognitive-Behavioural approaches, Play therapy, Family Therapies, Psycho-dynamic or Person-centred counselling, Solution-Focussed approches, Webster-Str…

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Oct 10, 2014 02:38am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Why I Matter?
3 min read
Oct 10, 2014 02:36am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Why I Matter?
3 min read

Why I Matter Training? #5 Understanding improves outcomes

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So the fifth reason I became interested in creating this training is that I became convinced that to make a difference to the numbers of children who were struggling, the answer was not just more therapists and more therapy.  Therapists and therapy tend to work with an approach that is inevitably based on an individualised approach.  That is great!  

Yet we have so many children who are struggling and the work involved to help put a complex child back on track can often be so time consuming tha…

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Oct 10, 2014 02:36am
By Cathy B
Under Professionals, 2014 & Why I Matter?
3 min read

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