BACE Team
BACE Team
- Professor Valsa Koshy: Director of BACE
- Ron Casey: Senior Research Fellow
- Carole Portman Smith: Urban Scholars Programme Director
- Linda McPhee: Urban Scholars School Link Tutor
- Jo Brown: Data Analyst
- Catherina Emery: BACE Co-ordinator
- Eileen Runkel: Urban Scholars Tutor
Associate Lecturers
- Stefani Shedden
Name: Valsa Koshy
Title: Director of BACE
Professor Valsa Koshy has been the director of the Brunel Able Children’s Education (BACE) Centre at Brunel University, since she founded it in 1996. She leads the Masters programme in Gifted Education and supervises both EdD and PhD students. Professor Koshy is the author of several books and has written numerous papers in both national and international journals.
Valsa's research interests include: Mathematics Education, Action Research, Higher Education orientation of gifted students in socially deprived areas, Critical Thinking, Curriculum provision for gifted students, nurturing talents of younger children 4-7.
Name: Ron Casey
Title: Senior Research Fellow
Ron Casey is a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Centre for the education of the Gifted and Talented at Brunel University. He is responsible for research and the theoretical development of the Centre’s work.
Ron and Professor Koshy established the Urban Schoars Programme in 2000 and he designed the specification for that programme. His research interests include: Search for and Fulfilment of Submerged Talent in Urban Areas, Giftedness in Mathematics, Critical Thinking, Creativity and the Development of Models of Teaching and Learning for Higher Ability Students.
Name: Carole Portman Smith
Title: Urban Scholars Programme Director
Carole Portman Smith is the Director of the Urban Scholars program and is responsible for the Urban Scholars Programme organisation. Within the unit she also designs and contributes to courses and conferences. As an Advanced Skills Teacher for Gifted and Talented students, the focus of her work is often effective classroom provision for Gifted students and use of the National Quality Standards for Gifted and Talented Education.
Carole is a lead practitioner for the Specialists Schools Trust.
Name: Mrs Linda Mcphee
Title: Urban Scholars School Link Tutor
Linda has previously worked as a secondary English teacher, Head of a Sixth Form and as a member of the Senior Leadership Team. She has recently worked for the London Borough of Richmond as an Adviser for curriculum development across all school and the FE college. Within this role she provided a range of extra - curricular activities for gifted and talented students and worked closely with Oxbridge to advise on outreach work and progression opportunities for students from deprived backgrounds. She recently represented Richmond on three international research projects based on the vocational curriculum in Holland, Denmark and Greece.
Name: Dr Joanna Brown
Title: Data Analyst
Dr Jo Brown is responsible for conducting research and data analysis on the Urban Scholars initiative to support the programme and to inform practice. An experienced and previous researcher into the impact of sport participation on educational and behavioural outcomes, her current research focuses on widening professional participation and fair access and, also, on parental involvement and children’s achievement.
Name: Catherina Emery
Title: BACE Co-ordinator
Catherina is the co-ordinator for The Brunel Able Children’s Centre and the Urban Scholars Programme. Catherina is responsible for the smooth running of all the programmes of the centre: the Urban Scholars Programme, MA in Gifted Education, annual national conferences, and for supporting all the staff of the centre. Her role involves liaising with the Director of Urban Scholars, the co-ordinator of Urban Scholars, LEA co-ordinators, the scholars and their parents.
Name: Eileen Runkel
Title: Urban Scholars Tutor
Eileen joined the Centre in September 2006. She works on the Urban Scholars programme supporting the monitoring and evaluation of the programme and is actively involved in developing courses to support practitioners in making provision for gifted and talented children. She has spent many years teaching in Primary schools since she completed her studies at Brunel and has a special interest in mathematics education.
Name: Stefanie Shedden
Title: National Dissemination Advisor
Stefani is currently seconded to BACE with a brief to take the Urban Scholars Programme to a wider audience. She was a tutor on the programme and saw at first-hand how scholars and their families benefitted from the experience and support. Until 2011, she was National Strategies Senior Adviser for G&T and is currently designing an innovative secondary school programme focussed on improving outcomes for disadvantaged pupils – Challenge the Gap. Stefani has written several books including ‘Raising Aspiration and Achievement: A whole-school G&T approach to tackling disadvantage’ and ‘The A* Toolkit’.
