Members' activities

Dr Ellie Beaman - Engaging schools in biodiversity conservation

The Public Engagement with Research resources (“Superpillars Assemble!”) by Dr Casper  Breuker & Dr Ellie Beaman of Oxford Brookes University and Dr Melanie Gibbs of UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), is now included as part of the National Nature Education Park growing library of free educational resources.

"Superpillars Assemble!" involves an exciting dance workshop and accompanying educational resources for primary school-aged children to learn about butterflies, moths and their habitats.

Dr. Breuker says that “Superpillars Assemble! is one of the core activities in our Public Engagement with Research project called Butterflies Under Pressure; a suite of free resources for teachers based around the curriculum topic 'Living things and their habitats.' Designed to be used in a cross-curricular way, our resources may be more attractive to children who are not normally interested in science. Engaging primary school-aged children in biodiversity conservation is important because, at this age, they are the most receptive to education and engagement about #environmental issues.”

The resource is also hosted on the National Nature Education Park website.

Dr Ellie Beaman is a member of the Oxford Brookes Children and Young People network.

cover of superpillars assemble

Compassionate support is needed in schools to alleviate teachers’ mental health

The emotional workload of teachers is greater than people realise, with some getting home after a school day emotionally exhausted, according to a senior lecturer in child development at Oxford Brookes University. 

The doctoral research, conducted by Dr Jonathan Reid, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, explored wellbeing support received by teachers.

Two people chatting over drinks

Dr Catherine Dilnot - Unequal access to elite occupations

Dr Catherine Dilnot (Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes Business School)  is working with colleagues from the UCL Institute of Education on the "Inequalities in Access to Elite Occupations" project.

The project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and will end in July 2025.

The project team will work to understand how family background, gender, ethnicity and education influence entry to elite occupations. This will be done through the collection and analysis of data from graduate and non-graduate programmes (including apprenticeships and school leaver schemes) and will involve collaborating with businesses to obtain internal company data. 

The team will also be investigating a range of research questions, e.g. Do individuals from different groups select into occupations with lower pay or entry requirements than they could otherwise achieve based on their qualifications?

The research will improve our understanding of where and why inequalities exist in access to elite occupations.

Dr Dilnot is also a Steering Group member of the Oxford Brookes Children and Young People network.

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Dr Claire Lee - Service children with special educational needs and disabilities

Dr Claire Lee, Early Career Research Fellow (Department of Psychology) has been awarded funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust under the MOD Armed Forces Family Fund Research Grant programme for a study on Service Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). 

‘Supporting All to thrive’ will investigate how Service life affects the educational opportunities, experiences and outcomes of children with SEND. This will involve collaborating with key organisations who work with Service children and families. The project will also use lived experience to inform practice.

Dr Lee notes, ““What is exciting about this project is that it combines a clear picture of how well Service children with SEND are doing educationally, with a rich understanding of their lived experiences – not only their challenges and potential disadvantages, but also what helps them to thrive.”

Dr Lee is a Steering Group member of the Children and Young People network.

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Oxford Brookes researcher proposes that guilt may take the reins in the dietary dilemmas of teenagers

For adolescents in Ireland, deciding what food to eat mostly centres around minimising feelings of guilt, says an Oxford Brookes Nutritionist.

The research was part of Dr Aisling Daly’s doctoral work for which she was recently awarded a PhD. She is currently   a Lecturer in Nutrition in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences. While this research was conducted amongst Irish teens, the findings are likely applicable to UK teens as well.

She completed her research at a time when adolescents across Europe are finding it difficult to meet healthy eating recommendations. Obesity and obesity-related health conditions are rising, and given the negative health effects throughout life, establishing healthy eating and positive lifestyle habits early on in life is imperative.

Dr Daly’s work is addressing the lack of research into adolescent food choice decisions, which is important to understand why adolescents may choose  less healthy foods despite reporting that they are motivated by health and nutrition, as indicated in another study completed by Dr Daly.

Using focus group discussions and reflexive thematic analysis, this qualitative component of her PhD researched adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17 years from Irish schools.

Discussions with the adolescents revealed the extent to which they make very complex food choices that depend on a myriad of factors.

It was their repeated references to ‘feeling bad’ or underlying feelings of guilt in food decisions that led Dr Daly to make the role of food guilt the major subject of her published works.

Dr Daly notes, “what was most interesting in this research was often what wasn’t said, rather what was implied by a lot of the discussions. Guilt was mentioned directly a few times, but it had an underlying presence in many of the other comments when participants were mentioning ‘it depends’ quite a lot”.

She uncovers the main sources of guilt as stemming from parents, peers, and from themselves internally. 

The guilt can arise for a variety of reasons, which can change depending on the social context. Unsurprisingly, taste, enjoyment, price and convenience also influence food choices. However, there is no single key barrier to healthy eating among teens, rather conflicting priorities make the decision more challenging, and often seem to induce some element of guilt. Getting the right balance to minimise this guilt is a challenge for these teens, and often reducing one form of guilt might increase another form of guilt. 

They can feel guilty for eating unhealthily, for wasting food or for spending too much on food. Fast-food locations often provide a social setting that offers affordable food, but that is often less healthy. 

In the adolescent stage of life, independence generally increases and spending time with friends is important. For food decisions, this means that social norms begin to play a role.

The extent to which certain foods are socially acceptable to eat can lead to food guilt. Adolescents try to choose the ‘right’ food to eat but have to balance personal preferences with social pressure, balancing the effect the food might have for their physical health with their “social health”. 

As most adolescents live at home with parents/caregivers, the particular home food environment also shapes their choice. Equally, as adolescents navigate the demands of daily life, convenience also becomes a key factor in food choice.

As they balance several factors in deciding what to eat, so too they deal with conflicting emotions about physical health, mental health, emotional health, peer pressure and concerns about what is and isn’t acceptable to eat in front of others. 

They may choose to eat unhealthy foods to boost their mood, to gain favour with friends, etc., while at the same time sacrificing their physical health and possibly developing bad habits that will carry into adulthood - all the while feeling very guilty about what they are eating, especially if the food is unhealthy. 

After taking into account all the factors and if the feelings of guilt are too strong, they might change their final food choice. Food choices very much depend on balancing sources of guilt. Based on this, Dr Daly developed a conceptual model of a “food choice funnel” for adolescent food choices, with a focus on mitigating feelings of food guilt.

In public health campaigns around the promotion of healthy eating to adolescents, this research shows that the messaging would need to be very holistic. In other words, health promotion messages need to be balanced and in support of healthy growth and development while not adding more pressure to adolescents by inducing more feelings of guilt.

Dr Daly further notes “our healthy eating messages should still support adolescents to develop healthy habits and to eat a healthy, balanced diet to support their physical needs for growth and development, but we need to phrase and deliver these messages in a way that allows for enjoyment of food and eating amongst friends in a social setting, without developing food guilt or affecting emotional or mental health”.

“Helping adolescents develop a positive relationship with food, while maintaining a predominantly health-promoting diet is important, but challenging. We also can’t ignore the strong influence the food environment has on all food choices - we can only choose foods that are available to us, so more systemic work also needs to be done to help make the healthy choice the easy choice”.

Commenting on future directions, Dr Daly says that “moving forward, I would like to continue exploring this concept of food guilt, which is not completely new, but hasn’t been explored in detail. I would like some future research to involve adolescents, perhaps using a Photovoice approach, where they show us where they are making food decisions, what food is available to them, and their feelings or considerations when making food choices”.

“This should help us understand what we can do to support positive choices and behaviours, and what may need to be addressed at a wider level in terms of the food environment, as well as understanding the emotional connections to food and food choices”.

Dr Daly’s qualitative research has been published in the Appetite journal and was co-authored with John Kearney and Elizabeth O'Sullivan (Technological University Dublin). To complement this study, she has also published a statistical component with colleagues.

She is a member of the Global Adolescent Nutrition Network and the Oxford Brookes Children and Young People (CYP) Network.

All Brookes staff, research students and external partners are invited to join the CYP network.

girls eating healthy and unhealthy food
Image by master1305 on Freepik

Community gardening for wellbeing and wildlife

As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, Maryam ManiReza Shirazi and Asrin Mahmoudpour from the Oxford Brookes School of the Built Environment ran an event for families in partnership with Oxford City Farm on 11 November 2023. 

They enabled families to find out more about how community gardening is great for your health and wellbeing as well as for nature and wildlife. There was home-made pumpkin soup and hot chocolate on offer as well as activities like apple pressing and creating allotment craft to try. 

people at event

Our Lives Our Futures Art Exhibition

Oxford Brookes was delighted to host the Our Lives Our Futures exhibition of children’s artwork produced as part of a 9-country research project that supports young people and children from a refugee and/or migrant background in education.  

The exhibition held from 11 to 22 September 2023   featured artwork from children from the UK and the Maldives. 

The project is co-created by the children and young people themselves using participatory action research techniques and is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Dr Claire Lee, Early Career Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development led the exhibition hosted at Brookes. Claire is also a Steering Group member of the CYP network.

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Professor Charles Hulme - 'Why Early Language Intervention is Effective and Important'

Charles Hulme, Professor in the Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development presented research to the CYP Network about the story of LanguageScreen, the product from his spinout company OxEd.

LanguageScreen supports interventions in primary school for children identified as having language difficulties. 

Working over a 20-week period, the intervention (known as NELI) is now in half the primary schools in the UK. 

Given the large sample size, and the very high correlation between traditional language support by SEN professionals and teaching assistants using the guided NELI programme, it was particularly striking to see the relationships between free school meal provision and diagnosis of needing language support.  

infographic of a man standing in front of a psychology flyer

School nursing in the time of Covid: resources

A useful website is now available from a recent collaborative study that looked at the impact of pandemic restrictions on school nursing practice. 

The study explored the benefits and challenges to school nurses' work in supporting vulnerable children, and their work with professional partners.  

The study considered new ways of working which could be beneficial post-pandemic and was funded by the General Nursing Council England and Wales Trust and is a collaboration between Oxford Brookes University, the University of Birmingham and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The website gives details of the study, and links to publications and media coverage, as well as updating on further developments arising from the study.  For example, a consultation event in June 2023, which brought together twenty school nurses from Oxford Health to gather their feedback and input on the design, usability, and content, of a restorative reflective resource underpinned by the study evidence.  

This event was funded by an Oxford Brookes University Choice Award for Participant Engagement in Research.  Details of the resource evaluation and launch will be added to the website as they occur.

Researchers involved in the study include Dr Sarah Bekaert (Senior Lecturer in the child nursing team, Oxford Brookes), Dr Georgia Cook (Postdoctoral Research Assistant and Associate Lecturer, Oxford Brookes), Dana Sammut (Research Associate, University of Birmingham), Tikki Harrold (Community Practice Teacher. Oxford Health), Professor Julie Taylor (Professor of child protection. University of Birmingham & Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust) and Professor Jane V. Appleton (retired - Professor in primary and community care, Oxford Brookes University). 

Dr Sarah Bekaert and Dr Georgia Cook are both members of the Oxford Brookes Children and Young People Network.

group of researchers

Unequal access to higher learning: can the EPQ help with levelling up

Children and Young People Network (CYP) members, Dr Carol Brown (Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Education) and Professor Helen Walkington (Higher Education), have been awarded a Nuffield Foundation Award to the value of £151,103 for the period September 2023 to September 2025. The study seeks to explore 'Unequal access to higher learning: can the EPQ help with levelling up?'. 

Phase one will involve  a research review and quantitative analysis of the National Pupil Database (NPD) data to understand patterns of uptake and attainment. 

Phase two is focused on interviews with students who are, or have, undertaken the EPQ and with those who manage the qualification in schools with respect to practices, access and participation across student characteristics. 

The study will employ a novel map-based approach to understand access and outcomes in relation to measures of inequality. 

The research will contribute to an understanding of educational opportunity, inequality and gaps in access for young people to the EPQ and aims to evaluate its intended role in enhancing young people’s skills, life chances, progression and educational outcomes.

a woman in front of laptop

Networking the educational world: Across boundaries for community-building

Oxford Brookes University is part of the 'NEW ABC project', a 13-partner consortium which includes academic institutions, educational institutions and stakeholders from nine different countries. All partners have a shared interest in the education, psychological development, and social inclusion of young people with an immigrant background.

NEW ABC is working on nine real-life pilots for the inclusion of immigrant children and youth in education and the pilots will be tested in the nine countries involved in the project. The approach focuses not only on the academic needs of migrant students but also on their social and emotional needs.

This project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

The Steering Group member of the Oxford Brookes Children and Young People network, Professor Guida de Abreu is involved in this study. 

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Oxford Brookes University PhD student to present his research in Parliament

Sam Burden, aged 26, from Dorchester in Dorset, will present his research to a cross-party group of politicians and a panel of leading academics after being shortlisted from hundreds of applicants in a competition open to early career researchers. 

The ‘STEM for BRITAIN’ national poster competition is designed to give young UK researchers the chance to showcase their work and is organised by the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. 

Speaking before his appearance, Sam said: “What an amazing opportunity this is to present three-years of PhD work to the people that can help make changes in how children perform physical activity. 

“It would be great to plant the idea in politicians’ and leading scientists’ minds that child and adolescent physical activity guidelines may need to be altered to prevent cardiovascular disease in the young. Hopefully this work, and that of others, can lead to change in the future.” 


Opportunities for young researchers 

In July of last year, Sam appeared on CBS News Miami to discuss his research which shows that children can improve their health and fitness by spending as little as 20 minutes per day performing high intensity exercise. 

Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said: “This annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best young researchers.

“These early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our future and STEM for BRITAIN is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and understand their work.”

The competition winners will be presented with either a gold, silver or bronze award, as well as a cash prize.

The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee runs the event in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Biology, The Physiological Society, the Nutrition Society and the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, with sponsorship from Dyson Ltd, Clay Mathematics Institute, United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Warwick Manufacturing Group, AWE, British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, the Society of Chemical Industry, Institute of Biomedical Science, the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, and the Biochemical Society.

Sam Burden

Researchers team up with local charities to offer free activity packs

A team of experts, including an Oxford Brookes University researcher, have teamed up with three charities to offer free resource packs which include activities that parents can do with their babies or toddlers.

Dr Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes, joined experts from five UK universities, including Dr Alex Hendry of the University of Oxford, to research the development of young children during the pandemic, beginning in spring 2020.

The research indicated that parents who spent more time with their child engaging in different enriching activities such as reading, arts and crafts, exercise and cooking, reported that their child had stronger thinking skills. This included their ability to hold information, respond to their surroundings and work towards goals. 

High screen use was linked to poorer thinking and emotional regulation skills. Thinking and regulation skills are both very important to a child’s long term mental development and academic abilities. 

It was also discovered that during both the spring and winter 2020 lockdowns, children from less privileged backgrounds spent less time doing enriching activities, but more time using screens. This suggested that the closure of libraries and playgrounds during the first lockdown had a larger impact on less privileged families.

Following this, Dr Nayeli and Dr Hendry organised a series of online workshops with parents and early year practitioners, with the aim of finding out what the barriers were for parents’ interactions with their young children. 

Free activity packs have now been produced in collaboration with three charities in Oxfordshire. They include advice on ten activities for children aged three and under - all aimed at supporting their development. 

Dr Nayeli said: “We know that children depend on high-quality interactions to support all aspects of their development. We hope that these activity packs will help parents to build up their confidence and give them lots of opportunities to spend quality one-to-one time with their children.”

Dr Hendry commented: “Parents are doing a fantastic job in really difficult circumstances at the moment. However, what came up in our workshops, again and again, is that many parents don’t have the time, space or confidence to do long, complicated activities with their children – and very young children often aren’t interested in those kinds of activities anyway. What parents need are ideas for simple, fun activities that don’t take ages to set up or clear up.”

With support from book publisher ‘Faber’ and an ESRC Impact Accelaration Grant, the experts joined charities National Literacy Trust, Peeple, and Home-Start Oxford to create the two free activity packs for families. The packs included a book, craft materials and ideas for how best to use them. These packs are distributed to children’s centres across Oxford, as well as other organisations that work with families and children.

Sally Smith, CEO of Peeple, who helped to create the resources, said, “We are delighted to be able to share these packs with families at our Peep group sessions, and via our nursery, Little Peeple. They will really support parents to have fun with their children – and do more of the little things which make a big difference to their child’s learning and development!

The research paper, titled ‘Not all babies are in the same boat: Exploring the effects of socioeconomic status, parental attitudes, and activities during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic on early Executive Functions’, is published in ‘Infancy’.

The paper is authored by Alexandra Hendry (University of Oxford), Shannon P. Gibson (Oxford Brookes University), Catherine Davies (University of Leeds), Teodora Gliga (University of East Anglia), Michelle McGillon (University of Warwick), Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez (Oxford Brookes University).
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/infa.12460

Image credited to Peeple

Free resource packs which include activities that parents can do with their babies or toddlers