Letting the children lead: the jeely nursery - a first interim report to the robertson trust

This is the first interim report undertaken for the Robertson Trust (RT) of an ongoing project developed by the Jeely Nursery (JN) in Castlemilk Glasgow 2007 – 2010. The Robertson Trust funding has enabled the JN to initiate a radical multi faceted programme of development focussed on children living in highly adverse socioeconomic conditions who may in addition be subject to the negative effects of living in families coping with substance abuse. They represent one of the most vulnerable groups of children in contemporary society. The task ahead for the nursery staff is complex, challenging and long term, requiring a high degree of consistency and commitment to both professional and personal growth. There is no question that the challenge is understood and accepted at all levels; that commitment to the project is well established and that a high level of motivation is sustained in spite of a number of difficult circumstances occurring over the year, unrelated to the project

The jeely nursery, letting the children lead: final report to the robertson trust

This is the final report written at the conclusion of a three year Robertson Trust funded project at the Jeely Nursery in Castlemilk, Glasgow, 2007 to 2010. The project purpose was to meet the particular needs of children vulnerable to highly adverse social and economic circumstances, including those living with parental addiction. The aim was to develop a collaborative strategy which would, by involving children, nursery staff and parents together, help to build enduring resources for the emotional resilience needed by children to overcome adversity and improve their chances of achieving educational success. The well validated premise underpinning the child-led pedagogy, Special Playtime, is that early negative attachment experiences can be transformed through direct positive experience with trained staff. The report examines the project using a three dimensional conceptual framework located in the literature on attachment, resilience and child-led pedagogy and focuses on the manner in which the several and differing relationships within the project interacted with and sustained each other

'Letting the children lead: The Jeely Nursery' - A second interim report for the Robertson Trust

This is the second interim report undertaken for the Robertson Trust of an ongoing project developed by the Jeely Nursery (JN) in Castlemilk, Glasgow, from 2007-10

Final Report of the Learning Together about Making Choices Project

The children at the centre of this project endure highly adverse social and economic circumstances including the despair of living with parental substance abuse and addiction. They are most likely to have been denied the experience of learning how to build a warm, trusting, and reliable relationship with any adult, including their parents. They have rarely if ever had the security of knowing what it is to come first in any adult’s life and they have depended on instinctive survivalist behaviours to keep themselves in perceived safety. The resulting unacceptable and/or inappropriate behaviours lock them out of the benefits of their years in primary school and ‘hide in plain sight’ their chronic distress and need for help. Traditional behaviour management responses from teachers regularly exacerbate their distrust of adults and ensure their likely continued exclusion. This project was not a survey-style snapshot but an iterative developmental process over three years, based in an ongoing interaction between the project team and teaching staff. The aim was to develop and sustain an inclusive model of support for young children disadvantaged by the impact of unmet attachment needs. The purpose was to focus on the provision of a secure base for learning that would endure through the primary school years

Galaxy Zoo: Passive Red Spirals

We study the spectroscopic properties and environments of red spiral galaxies found by the Galaxy Zoo project. By carefully selecting face-on, disk dominated spirals we construct a sample of truly passive disks (not dust reddened, nor dominated by old stellar populations in a bulge). As such, our red spirals represent an interesting set of possible transition objects between normal blue spirals and red early types. We use SDSS data to investigate the physical processes which could have turned these objects red without disturbing their morphology. Red spirals prefer intermediate density regimes, however there are no obvious correlations between red spiral properties and environment - environment alone is not sufficient to determine if a spiral will become red. Red spirals are a small fraction of spirals at low masses, but are a significant fraction at large stellar masses - massive galaxies are red independent of morphology. We confirm that red spirals have older stellar popns and less recent star formation than the main spiral population. While the presence of spiral arms suggests that major star formation cannot have ceased long ago, we show that these are not recent post-starbursts, so star formation must have ceased gradually. Intriguingly, red spirals are ~4 times more likely than normal spirals to host optically identified Seyfert or LINER, with most of the difference coming from LINERs. We find a curiously large bar fraction in the red spirals suggesting that the cessation of star formation and bar instabilities are strongly correlated. We conclude by discussing the possible origins. We suggest they may represent the very oldest spiral galaxies which have already used up their reserves of gas - probably aided by strangulation, and perhaps bar instabilities moving material around in the disk.Comment: MNRAS in press, 20 pages, 15 figures (v3

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

You need to feel what they feel - an evaluation of the first base project for the Notre Dame Centre

An evaluation of the first base project for the Notre Dame Centre

Learning together about making choices project : understanding attachment and developing relationships in primary schools

This paper discusses the 'Learning together about making choices' project. In particular understanding attachment and developing relationships in primary schools. It was presented at the Contemporary Childhood Conference, September 2014