My research interests are in improving outcomes for children and young people in Northern Ireland using quantitative methods. My PhD involved the design and evaluation of a numeracy intervention programme using an RCT and since then I have worked on a number of projects evaluating interventions in both Primary and Secondary Schools, an international early childhood project partnering with UNICEF and most recently, two projects utilising large administrative datasets aimed at improving education and social work outcomes for children in Northern Ireland.

Projects

Social Inequalities in Education: Longitudinal Analysis of EOL data, ADRC: ESRC. (2023-2026).

The project uses the Education Outcomes Linkage Dataset to analyse social inequalities in education for post-primary children who completed an exam in 2018/2019 in Northern Ireland.

Child Welfare Inequalities, ADRC: ESRC. (2021-2023).

The project used administrative data in social work to explore trends in inequality for children in Northern Ireland between 2010 and 2020.

The NIHR Global Health Research Group on Early Childhood Development for Peacebuilding (2018-2021). 

This £2m global research programme is funded by the National Institute for Health Research and represents a strategic partnership with UNICEF, Yale, Harvard and New York Universities. LINKS is directly supporting and coordinating research teams in six low- and middle-income countries to develop and evaluate early childhood programmes that seek to contribute to sustainable development and peacebuilding (Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste and Vietnam). 

Community-Based Early Childhood Interventions for Improving Developmental Outcomes for Children Aged 0-7: A Systematic Review (2015-2016) Funder: The Atlantic Philanthropies/Bernard van Leer Foundation

The systematic review is in the process of being registered with the Campbell Collaboration and will focus on which types of early childhood programmes are most effective at improving developmental outcomes for young children.

A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Read Write Inc. Phonics & Fresh Start (2016-2018) Funder: EEF

This is a large scale cluster RCT of a literacy intervention for primary school children in England. There will be two cohorts of children who, if in the intervention group, will receive either Read Write Inc Phonics or the catch up intervention "Fresh Start." 

Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools (2013-2015) Funder: EEF

Peer Tutoring in Secondary schoools is a large scale randomised controlled trial of the "Paired Reading" literacy intervention across the Northeast of England. It involves 120 classes in 10 schools who were tested on their reading ability before and after the intervention.