Dr Heather Altinok-Ball, Educational Psychologist

I have been working as an Educational Psychologist in a local authority in the West Midlands since 2011 and as an Associate Practitioner with Recolo since 2013. I have experience with both local authority processes and procedures as well as specialist knowledge in the area of brain injury, rehabilitation and neuropsychology.

I am interested in research that focuses on neuropsychology and education and have published two papers titled: 'How can Educational Psychologists support the reintegration of children with an acquired brain injury on their return to school?' and 'An exploratory study of Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator's' knowledge and experience of working with children who have sustained a brain injury'. I am particularly interested in the role of Educational Psychologists in supporting children with acquired brain injury who require rehabilitation within their own community.

I am an Honorary Lecturer on the doctoral training programme for Educational Psychologists at the University of Birmingham. I am also currently undertaking further studies at the University of Bristol in the area of applied neuropsychology.

I am a member of the Health Professionals Skills Council and the Association of Educational Psychologists.

Anna Ridley qualified as an Educational Psychologist in 2006 and has 12 years’ experience working for Local Authorities. Anna is a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council. Anna specialises in working with children and young people on the autism spectrum, supporting school communities following bereavement or critical incidents and working with children and young people with an acquired brain injury.

In her work with Recolo, Anna specialises in neuropsychological assessment, interpretation and intervention. Much of her work involves consultation and training with school staff to understand the difficulties associated with acquired brain injury and the implications of this in the school environment.

For seven years, Anna has been a bereavement volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care supporting children and adults following loss and uses this experience to support her work with families and children who have experienced an acquired brain injury.

Anna is a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society and the Division of Educational and Child Psychology and a Full member of the Association of Educational Psychologists

Dr Flo Charles is an Educational Psychologist and HCPC registered Psychologist.

Following her degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, Flo started her psychology career working in schools as a Science & Psychology Teacher and an equal opportunities coordinator.

In 2014 Flo received her Doctorate from Cardiff University, writing a thesis which explored class teachers’ constructions of the application of therapeutic alliance within the classroom.

Flo chose educational psychology, as she wanted to promote positive change for young people and their families. She found that the most effective way to achieve this was through in depth and on-going therapy, applying psychology in a creative and flexible way.

Flo works in a coordinated way with other professionals to create an holistic plan for the child, helping people to move forward in a direction that suits their unique situation, supporting them to find confidence & clarity and believing better outcomes are achieved when people work together to find a way forward.

Flo is able to bring a mindful and reflexive approach to her work both within Recolo and her work in primary, secondary and specialist settings for the London Borough of Ealing.

Flo continues her professional development at University College London where she is studying for her PGDip in Clinical Paediatric Neuropsychology. Other recent courses taken have concentrated on mindfulness, addressing mental health needs in schools & communities and stress reduction.

After working extensively as a support worker for looked after children and those with complex medical needs, Emma retrained, completing her masters and doctoral training in educational psychology.

Since 2017 Emma has trained and worked as an Educational and Child Psychologist in the East Midlands and East of England. As a ‘homegrown’ educational psychologist from one of the most deprived areas of the country, she takes enormous pride in working to serve the communities and families that she grew up with.  

This has undoubtedly shaped Emma’s practice, and her recent research interest in the way language is used to talk of those from backgrounds considered disadvantaged or those experiencing complex life circumstances. She has presented work at conferences by the AEP and DECP, and is also an elected member of the National Executive Committee of the AEP.

Emma is experienced in using collaborative consultation to explore fully all problem dimensions, and in using a range of fun and accessible tools and techniques to support children to amplify their views and opinions as a crucial part of this process. Alongside this she is also experienced in using both standardised and dynamic assessments in order to fully assess the neuropsychological, social and emotional needs of children, and in triangulating all sources of information in order to generate ideas for next steps and promote positive outcomes for children in education.

Emma is passionate about creative ways of working with schools, families and other professionals, supporting pupils to attend and contribute these themselves if appropriate. Using technology for problem solving and information gathering, discovering new ways to make learning more engaging, more effective and more fun.

Dr Marie Fitzer is an experienced HCPC registered Educational Psychologist.

After completing her Doctorate in Applied Educational and Child Psychology at the University of Birmingham in 2010, Marie worked with Sandwell MBC as an Educational Psychologist until 2014. Between 2014 and 2017, Marie worked for Warwickshire LA in a number of schools and specialist provisions.  As Lead EP on a mental health project in Warwickshire with Coventry and Warwickshire PCT, Marie focused on supporting parents and schools in managing children with attention difficulties, hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour. Marie also worked on specialist placement in the Youth Justice Service where she was responsible for supporting young people on referral orders, youth rehabilitation orders and detention orders (in secure training centres and young offenders’ institutes) to find and identify ways to prevent their reoffending and to facilitate and support their transition back to education.

Since 2017 Marie has developed a successful independent consultancy. She provides independent service delivery to a number of schools, including a large academy trust (primary through to secondary), an independent girl’s school and specialist SEMH provision. In her independent work Marie collaborated with two EP colleagues to create ‘The Moving Forward Series’, which is a set of six online training webinars, which staff accessed during the Covid19 pandemic, including supporting children and young people during transition; supporting vulnerable children through the pandemic; supporting staff wellbeing; facilitating transition for children with emotionally based school avoidance; supporting children who have been bereaved; and returning to school – a trauma informed perspective. Marie has recently implemented and delivered a ‘reading project’ on a whole school level, at a secondary school which included implementing 20-minute reading lessons into the curriculum for all children, focusing on developing accuracy, fluency, reading comprehension skills and Socratic questioning. This involved extensive CPD delivery to all staff on Direct Instruction and theory of Optimal Instruction, and mentoring staff on how to successfully teach reading skills at a class level.

Marie has published two articles in the Division of Educational and Child Psychology ‘Debate’, on the use of multiple case study design in evaluation research and delivering and evaluating a programme to support parents of children with inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive behaviours (2017). She has also contributed to teaching on the Child and Educational Psychology Doctorate at the University of Birmingham.

Marie’s areas of expertise include

• Anxiety and the use of Cognitive- Behavioural strategies
• Emotionally based school avoidance
• Reading skills and Direct Instruction
• SEMH, in particular working with those affected by relational trauma and developing emotional literacy skills.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder – specifically assessment and supporting anxiety
• Executive function and metacognition
• Attachment and early years
• Families and social care (parenting capacity)
• Youth Justice Service and young offenders

Dr. Josie Bainton is an experienced Educational Psychologist working to improve outcomes for children and young people academically, socially and emotionally.  

Josie holds an MSc degree in Neuropsychology from the University of Bristol and a Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology from University College London. 

In her work as a Senior Educational Psychologist for Bath and North East Somerset Council, Josie provides assessment, advice and training to enable children and young people to fulfil their potential in educational settings. Working collaboratively in developing plans to facilitate learning and promote positive behaviour, well-being and self-esteem.  

In her work for Recolo, Josie works in partnership with school staff and families to create a safe, healthy and supportive learning environment for a child or young person after an traumatic or acquired brain injury. 

A key focus of her research work has been examining the impact of reduced sleep on school related outcomes for adolescents and exploring the sleep needs of young people who have been excluded from mainstream education. She has published a number of papers and also presented at conferences.  

Josie is registered as an Educational Psychologist with the HCPC and holds Chartered Psychologist status with the British Psychological Society. 

Coming soon

Josie Richmond qualified as an Educational Psychologist in 2006 and gained her Diploma in Clinical Paediatric Neuropsychology in 2011.

Josie has extensive experience of working as an Educational Psychologist within a Local Authority and has worked for Recolo for 10 years. She is a Senior Associate Educational Psychologist and Clinical Supervisor.  Josie specialises in working with children and young people with acquired brain injury and is active on cases in which support is required to help the child access education and thrive in the school setting. Josie is able to provide advice, support and training to schools and families to help those working with and caring for the child to understand their Acquired Brain Injury and develop appropriate support systems. Her specialist skill areas are child neuropsychological assessment, interpretation and intervention and she has a broad experience of working with a variety of educational settings, including special provisions.

Josie is a registered practitioner psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council, a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society and a Full member of the Association of Educational Psychologists.

Dr Nikki Collingwood is an experienced HCPC registered Educational Psychologist, working with children and young people with learning and socio-emotional difficulties in school and clinical settings.

Before completing her Doctorate in Child & Educational Psychology at UCL in 2016, Nikki was a Key Stage 1 Class Teacher and Specialist SEN Teacher working with pupils with difficulties in Key Stage 2 in mainstream schools. Since qualifying, Nikki has worked within a Local Authority Psychology Service and more recently as a Lecturer at the University of East Anglia, teaching across all modules of the Doctorate in Educational Psychology. She currently has a part time role as Lecturer at the Tavistock & Portman, teaching on the Educational Doctoral program there. Nikki also works at the Evelina London Children's Hospital providing outpatient neuropsychological assessments for children with brain injuries.

Nikki’s areas of special interest are in Executive Functions, Metacognition and Self-Regulation (EMS) where she has developed training around how school professionals can use this knowledge to enhance learning. Her Doctoral research involved developing a multidimensional meta-cognitive and affective intervention to address maths performance, self-regulation behaviours, self-concept and maths anxiety. 

Nikki values the importance of continued professional development, having recently completed a Diploma in Clinical Paediatric Neuropsychology at UCL.  She is currently or has supervised research in a range of areas including Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA); trauma informed schools, academic achievement in spite of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs , responding to Critical Incidents involving suicide in schools, Social-Emotional wellbeing in young people from diverse backgrounds, Professional's Perspectives on PDA and peer supported social emotional support interventions.

Nikki works with children and young people up to the age of 25 at individual, group, class and a systemic level to address barriers to learning; providing advice and training to schools to help them support pupils with affective, learning and behavioural challenges. In particular, training on how to support children and young people who have experienced attachment difficulties and trauma. Using her knowledge and engagement with research, Nikki supports the development of strategies and interventions to enhance social and emotional well-being, identifying needs to achieve the best outcomes.

Rebecca Ashton qualified as an Educational Psychologist in 2003 and gained her Diploma in Clinical Paediatric Neuropsychology in 2010.  She has been working in child neuropsychology ever since, winning a British Psychological Society Division of Neuropsychology prize in 2013 for outstanding practice.  

Rebecca has 11 years’ experience working as an educational psychologist for a Local Authority.  Since leaving in 2014 she has worked in a specialist NHS paediatric neuropsychology service, in private companies offering psychology services in the community, and directly for schools. Rebecca now splits her time between educational psychology work commissioned by schools and specialist brain injury rehabilitation for Recolo.

As well as her practitioner work, Rebecca enjoys learning, teaching and writing. Rebecca completed her Doctorate in Educational Psychology in 2016, with a thesis on sleep and working memory. She is also an accredited Video Interaction Guidance practitioner, achieving full qualification in 2018. She teaches on neuropsychology courses at UCL and Manchester University. Rebecca contributed the chapter on educational neuropsychology to "Neuropsychological Rehabilitation of Childhood Brain Injury", a book edited by the Directors of Recolo. She also has numerous articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Rebecca has also written on diverse topics including shaken baby syndrome, transition to secondary school, writing directly to children and social competence in children with brain injury.

Rebecca is a registered practitioner psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council and the British Psychological Society Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors, a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society,
and a Full member of the Association of Educational Psychologists.