Helen Wall
Consultant
Helen graduated in psychology from the University of Loughborough and completed a one year PGCE through the School Centred Initial Teacher Training Programme based in South Essex. Helen taught 7-11 year olds in a Junior School in Billericay. She then worked as an assistant psychologist in Essex before becoming a full-time researcher on the Leverhulme funded research based at the University of Warwick. Helen has been a consultant with Optima since 2005.
Research
Helen was the lead researcher on three major school-based research projects conducted over a ten year period into raising children’s attainments in reading, writing and spelling, and mathematics. A major role was to ensure the ‘fidelity to the treatment’ and help teachers to implement the experimental teaching interventions in the classroom.
Expertise
Helen’s areas of expertise are:
- instructional psychology;
- teaching reading, writing, spelling and mathematics;
- inclusive education in mainstream classrooms;
- raising the academic standards of students from low income families;
- meeting the educational needs of children perceived to have special educational needs;
- managing children’s behaviour;
- improving school and teacher effectiveness and raising academic in both primary and secondary schools;
- writing classroom materials, derived from research outcomes that are readily accessible to teachers.