Bev Peartree

Bev is an assoicate professor  in SEND and SEMH. She is a qualified teacher and youth worker and has worked in school leadership for 20 years with a focus on whole school inclusion issues. This included developing a specialist centre for children with SEMH issues funded by the DFE as an innovation project which had an  impact research and evaluation strand she worked on. This work was promoted as good practice nationally and she supported other organisations setting up similar projects around the country. Her work in education  included preparing extensive funding bids and working with various universities on impact studies linked to the ground breaking methods being developed with marginalised communities and children. Bev wrote a sucessful grant application to the National Lottery to fund the building of a youth cafe and education centre is a deprived area of Calderdale. Other succesful bids for therapuatic work in schools was to the  Arts Council and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in developing practice in the arts for children and young people with SEMH needs. 

 Bev has also worked intensively with displaced children who have experienced significant trauma due to war; collaborating with national charities to support and develop provision in schools to meet their mental health needs early in her career in London.

 Bev was also funded over 3 years by the Home Office to develop a range of intervention projects which targeted at risk young people and involved intensive research of the effectiveness of these which fed into a national strategy implementation. She has delivered at national conferences and provided consultancy to a range of statutory organisations including the police and health promotion services in the NHS linked to this work prior to her move into HEI.

Bev  was a director of a multi-academy trust for several years and is now involved in national and regional governor education for the university.  She has provided consultancy to schools on evaluating the effectiveness of SEND provision and in developing evidenced based interventions. This has included developing mock inspection role plays linked to SEND whole school leadership.  She also has extensive experience of safeguarding in education including leading and training on this area in the sector. Bev  has worked for Social Services in Children's Homes and  has also completed bespoke contracts linked to complex child protection case work. She is a SEND expert on IRPs and also acts as an investigating officer in various external complaints in the sector. Part of this work is linked to conflict resolution strategies. Bev offers coaching and mentoring to executive leaders in education outside of her role. 

Bev  developed and is the programme leader for the National Award in SEN Co-ordination at Leeds Trinity University.This work has included developing personalised training for several local authorities linked to SENCo CPD. She is now delivering nationally on the new SENCo NPQ for the Church of England. Bev  has curated and developed further courses such as our MA Mental Health in Children and Young People and the Advanced Practice in Speech, Langauge and Communication Skills. This is in partnership with the NHS. 

She is a member of NASEN and also the national SEND research forum. Bev is also a member of the national SENCo development group.  She  is a representive on the RKEC for the university and facilates the Professional Practice strand of our professoriate leadership group.  She was a member of the University group which evaluated the provision in for Mental Health  for students at LTU and advocated for developing and extending the present services to students. 

Bev is part of a group of  international academics who share practice linked to inclusion and is presently working on her Churchill Fellowship which focuses on teacher education in India and children's well-being and mental health needs. 

Bev undertakes an extensive range of CPD, consultancy, advisory work and presents at national and international conferences on SEND and SEMH. She wrote the foreword to the recently publlished BERA guide on Mental Health in Schools. 

She has been external examiner for Staffordshire University for UG and is an external examiner for Edge Hill University. Bev has offered advice and support to other universities in curriculum development nationally and internationally. 

Bev is a reviewer for the international journal of inclusion.