Dr Sarah Wall

2017   PhD, University of Birmingham

2017   PG Certificate in Working with Individuals on the Autism Spectrum, University of Cumbria

2010    Master’s in Educational Research, University of Birmingham

2002   Master of Arts in Education, Anglia Polytechnic University

1996     BA (hons) with QTS, University of Lancaster (Charlotte Mason College)

After training for a BA (Hons) QTS at Charlotte Mason College, Lancaster University, Sarah’s teaching career began as a Year 5 primary school teacher in Suffolk.  She later became a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) and Senior Teacher.  As a SENCo, she developed an interest in children and young people with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) difficulties.  Consequently, in Cumbria, she worked as a Specialist Teacher for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) and, latterly, autism spectrum conditions (ASC).  In these roles, Sarah supported individual children, young people and their families, but also with a variety of settings delivering continuing professional development for school and local authority staff. 

Most recently, Sarah has lectured at the University of Northampton - mostly in Special Educational Needs and Inclusion (SENI) - at Anglia Ruskin University and at the University of Birmingham on their Distance Learning SEBD and Autism (Children’s) courses.  Whilst lecturing, she has worked with professionals from a variety of settings including mainstream schools; special schools; pupil referral units; secure units; alternative provision and residential schools both here in the UK and Worldwide.  She has held several external examining positions including at: Oxford Brookes; Hull; Edge Hill and Plymouth Marjon.

Relational work underpins her work with students and is the basis of any consultation she gives to educational settings.  Her PhD is entitled ‘The Attuned School’: the effects, and effectiveness, of developing relationships between pupils with attachment difficulties and significant adults.  Sarah’s research explored whole school approaches to supporting individuals with attachment needs. 

Practitioner Tutor: Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties for MEd distance education and supervisor for Dissertation Module

Practitioner Tutor:  Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties pathway for PGCert/MA Inclusion distance education programme + supervisor for Dissertation Module

In both cases, she has taught on: 

• Issues in the Education of Pupils with ADHD
• Universal and Specialist Approaches
• the Developmental Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence
• Developmental Psychology
• Identification, Assessment Provision
• Strategies, Interventions and Approaches.

She has previously supervised the following doctoral level work: the views of men in primary school teaching; male mental health; universal design for learning in SEND; the lived experience of a visually impaired lecturer; the lived experience of a care leaver with SEND; careers advice for individuals with SEND.

Sarah’s past, and current, research interests include: special educational needs and disability; inclusion; social, emotional and behavioural difficulties/mental health (particularly attachment); communication and interaction (particularly autism); the legal framework of disability - particularly Associative Disability Discrimination, about which she, and her colleague from Anglia Ruskin University, most recently presented at the World Disability and Rehabilitation Conference winning ‘Best Conference Presentation’. 

She is also particularly interested in the cross-over in presenting behaviours between autism, pathological demand avoidance and attachment. With the latter, she has conducted small-scale research working with teachers on the Coventry-Grid (Moran, 2010) assessment tool, and is currently working on a project to explore its use in one three-generational family.  At the moment, she is also involved in a British Council funded research project with Sampoerna University in Jakarta, Indonesia around supporting student who are neurodivergent.

Research projects

• Neurodiversity in Higher Education –with Sampoerna University, Jakarta, Indonesia (2024) British Council
• The Coventry Grid in a multi-generation family (2024)
• Using the Coventry Grid with middle school staff (2024)
• Widening Participation: supporting autistic students (2022) Anglia Ruskin University
• The Attuned School: the effects and effectiveness of a significant adult with pupils who have attachment needs (2017) (PhD)