School of Psychology

Miles Thomas undertook his Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of Bath and subsequently taught in the UK and Spain. He completed his Masters in Educational Psychology at the University of East London in 1999 with the late professor Sheila Wolfendale. He is currently employed in local government as a Chartered Senior Practitioner Educational Psychologist with Havering Child and Community Psychology Service. He retains responsibility for delivering psychological services to a small patch of schools in the London Borough of Havering. He was appointed to the post of Academic and Professional Tutor on the Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology (initial training) at the University of East London in January 2007. He completed his Doctorate in 2009.

In 2008, Miles set up winepsych.com, the first website dedicated to the psychology of wine.

Miles is academic and professional tutor on the initial training doctorate for educational psychologists (Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology). He has additional responsibility as head of Stage 2 (years 2 and 3). He is theme leader for the Intervention and Therapeutic skills element of the programme. He is seconded to the UEL post for three days a week and usually works at the Stratford campus on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Miles has particular interest in the application of Solution Focused approaches in educational and community settings and the use of Goal Attainment Scaling as an evaluation tool. He has helped develop a strategy for multi-agency working within the London Borough of Havering Children’s service as a response to the Every Child Matters Agenda and Children’s Bill. He is also involved in developing the service delivery model of Havering Child and Community Psychology Service and has specialist responsibility for Continued Professional Development. He uses a range of systems tools in university and local government work and lectures on Soft Systems Methodology. He also has an interest in the social construction of attentional difficulties and working with children and families using non-deficit models. His work is increasingly informed by research from coaching, positive and critical psychology.

Miles is an associate editor of Psychologist magazine and has reviewing and commissioning responsibilities with particular reference to content relating to children and education. He is interested in applying psychological theory and knowledge to diverse areas of human experience. For example, he is currently writing a book with the working title “The Psychology of Wine”, runs a website and speaks regularly on the subject.

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