Before joining the School of Education and Social Policy, Rhiannon Packer was a Senior Lecturer at the University of South Wales (USW) for fourteen years, teaching on the BA (Hons) Early Years, Education and Practice and the BA (Hons) Education, Inclusive Education and Early Years programmes. Prior to that she taught Welsh as a second language in secondary schools in Caerphilly and Rhondda Cynon Taf. She was also a Head of Year. Between teaching posts Rhiannon worked as a research assistant and completed her PhD which looked at the development of Welsh-medium education in South East Wales.
Rhiannon became interested in supporting children with ALN while working as a secondary teacher and wrote and designed a book for SEN Welsh second language pupils which was sold to over 40 secondary schools in the area. She later undertook a PGDip in SEN at USW where she specialised in Specific Learning Difficulties. Rhiannon has delivered British Dyslexia Association accredited courses at USW on the undergraduate programme and has worked on the MA SEN Masters programme. The impact of SpLD upon children and young people and the development of communication/language acquisition (in particular bilingual children and young people), are of particular interest to her.
Peer-refereed Journal Articles
PACKER, R., Thomas, A., Jones, C. and Watkins, P. Voice of Transition: sharing experiences from the primary school. Education 3-13
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2020.1805487
McInnes, K., Thomas, A., Pescott, C., Jones, C., PACKER, R. and Watkins, P. (2019)
Enabling Theory into Practice: Making Sense of the 'way' and the 'how' in the Early Years. International Journal for Cross-disciplinary Subjects in Education.
Griffiths, D., Tarling, C., PACKER, R. and Newby, J. (2015) Entrepreneurship in Education Live Projects in Experiential Entrepreneurship Exercises Journal Vol.1 Issue Si-ETC
Books/ book chapters
PACKER, R., Jones, C., Thomas, A. and Watkins, P. (2021) All Change! Best Practice in Educational Transition. St Albans: Critical Publishing.
PACKER, R., Watkins, P. and Hughes, M. (2017)
Playing with Words in Teaching Early Years (eds McInnes,K. & Thomas, A) London: Sage
Conference
presentations
McInnes, K., Thomas, A., Jones, C., PACKER, R., Pescott, C. and Watkins, P. (2017) Symposium on Teaching Early Years. Presented at the London International conference on Education, Churchill College, Cambridge.
PACKER, R., Williams, T and Jones, C (2015) An early evaluation of the impact of the Welsh-medium ALSA on practice. Presented at the International British Dyslexia Association Conference, March 2015, Oxford.
Other publications
2020 The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/back-to-school-how-to-support-children-as-they-head-into-a-new-class-144453 28.08.2020
2020
PACKER. R. Dyslexia in Higher Education. SEN Magazine Issue 104. Jan/Feb 2020.
24.01.20
Daily Post: Dyslexic Welsh-speaking kids ‘losing out because of English only diagnosis tests’
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dyslexic-welsh-speaking-kids-losing-17622872
23.01.20
Wales Online: ‘My dyslexic daughter can’t get the help she needs now because she’s a Welsh speaker’
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/dyslexia-wales-test-diagnose-nhs-17619658?_ga=2.265008842.497723601.1580144531-1786388944.1525091157
14.02.19
BBC Wales: Interview on Welsh medium education in Cardiff on Manylu, Radio Cymru.
19.04.19
ITV Wales: Interview on research into dyslexia screening tool on ITV Wales.
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2019-04-19/the-dyslexia-test-that-could-help-people-get-earlier-diagnosis/
02.12.19
BBC Wales: Interview on the lack of Welsh medium resources for children with dyslexia:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/50551625 2014 Anifeiliaid Peryglus y Môr Atebol
Anifeiliaid Peryglys Atebol
Pryfed yr Ardd Atebol
2008 Cyfres Tonic: I Mongolia mewn Fan Hufen Iâ CAA
Cyfres Tonic: Gwir Pob Gair CAA
Cyfres Tonic: 999 CAA
2007 Cyfres Tonic: Blwyddyn Newydd Dda CAA
Cyfres Tonic: Hwnt ac Yma CAA
2 units of work for 'Taith Iaith 4' a 'Taith Iaith 5' CAA
2006 Cyfres Brechdan Inc 'Gwastraff' Gomer
Reading book for Taith Iaith 2 CAA
Reading book Taith Iaith 3 CAA
2005 Unit of work for 'Taith Iaith 3' CAA
09.09.20 BESA: Using a targeted programme to support quiet, shy and anxious learners blog-post-using-a-targeted-programme-to-support-quiet-shy-and-anxious-learners with Dr Sue Davis.
15.07.20 BESA: Transition: Voices from across the bridge.
https://educationstudies.org.uk/blog-post-transition-voices-from-across-the-bridge/ with Dr Amanda Thomas (University of South Wales).
Podcasts
09.09.20 The importance of identifying and supporting quiet, shy children: https://lnns.co/1PHlkmGorSN with Dr Sue Davis.
05.07.20 Teaching Early Years publication: https://faculti.net/teaching-early-years-theory-and-practice/ with Dr Amanda Thomas (University of South Wales).
Awarded a grant by IC2 University of South Wales to write and deliver on-line Accredited Learning Support Assistant Course with the British Dyslexia Association (Lead project).
Awarded a grant by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to write and deliver on-line Welsh-medium Accredited Learning Support Assistant Course with the British Dyslexia Association (Lead project).
Project lead for the publication of Prawf Sgrinio Dyslexia Cymraeg: Iau with Dyslecsia Cymru/Wales Dyslexia and Pearson Education Resources
Awarded small grant by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to deliver dyslexia awareness training to Welsh-medium PGCE students (Lead project).
Education Consultant on ‘The Binks’ ASDA healthy eating project
