Pat Preedy
Pat Preedy is currently Chief Education Officer for Global Education Management Systems (GEMS) UK and Executive Principal of GEMS Sherfield School (http://www.sherfieldschool.co.uk), Director of Research, Training and Development for GEMS UK and an adjunct professor at Curtin University.
Pat trained as a teacher in Birmingham and completed her Masters in Educational Management including a study investigating how schools can work in partnership with parents. In 1991, she was one of a group of teachers who contributed to the development of the baseline test for the Performance Indicators In Primary Schools (PIPS) Project developed by Professor Peter Tymms (The University of Durham). Pat is currently investigating the link between physical and cognitive development. Qualified from the Institute of Neuro - Physiological Psychology (INPP), she provides teacher training in the exercise methods as well as individual assessment and programmes for children with learning difficulties including dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Pat became interested in multiple birth children in 1992, when nine sets of twins were registered to start school. This event prompted her to begin studying for her PhD focusing upon the educational needs of multiple birth children particularly when they start school.
The research project consisted of three main strands:
- The first national survey of schools in England producing data from 3000 schools in 73 local education authorities.
- Interviews with parents of multiple birth children who had just started school
- Identification of the multiple birth sample in the Performance Indicators In Primary Schools Tests
Pat has devised a framework school policy, starting school parent/teacher questionnaire and a model to assess the personal, social and emotional development of multiple birth children.
Since starting the research, Pat has become Educational Research Consultant for The Twins And Multiple Births Association (Tamba), a member of the Advisory Board for Multiple Births Canada and Chairman of the Council Of Multiple Births (COMBO).