This was a very successful conference and our thanks go to Morag Williamson and Sue Porter who worked so hard to organise the speakers, the venues and the social activities for the delegates.

The conference began on Friday at James Gillespie’s High School in Edinburgh. The facilities were excellent and we were treated to a series of stimulating presentations. Carol Craig, from the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing, opened the day with a thought provoking session on “Positive Psychology” in which she highlighted the possible harmful effects of raising students’ self esteem in an indiscriminate way. This was followed by an interesting talk on Charles Darwin by Joe Cocker.

The morning session ended with a presentation by Geraldine Jones, from Edinburgh Napier University, on the evidence that neuroscience has provided about the profound changes that occur in the brains of young people and the implications of these to teaching and learning.

In the afternoon we were treated to what is always a great experience at conferences like this, a presentation by psychology students, in this case from Linlithgow Academy. They tend to “tell it how it is” and these two young people gave a very interesting talk that was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Renate Schrempf, from Stuttgart, and Morag Williamson, from Edinburgh Napier University, reported on a piece of research they have been conducting for EFPTA. They are aiming to collect information to put together a profile of Psychology teaching across Europe, to include such things as the type of courses on offer, typical number of teaching hours and whether the subject is compulsory (as it is in Finland). It will also contain details of teacher training and the quality of resources available so it is hoped that this “data-base” will prove useful in the future as a means of sharing good practice.

The final session of the day was the EFPTA board meeting at which elections took place to appoint the new President and officers. Jari Honkala was thanked for his work as President over the last 5 years, during which he has worked hard to establish the EFPTA and get it registered in Finland as an official organisation.

On Friday evening 20 of us attended a Ceilidh in the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The European delegates were particularly impressed by the men in kilts!

The events of Saturday took place in “Our Dynamic Earth”, opposite the new Scottish Parliament building, and this proved to be an excellent venue. The opening speaker was Dave Perrett from St Andrew’s University and he entertained us with his lecture on “Reading Faces”. His use of technology amazed the delegates and led to a healthy stream of questions. There were then two workshops which both focused on mental health issues. The first was about safeguarding the rights and welfare of mental health service users and the second was about the introduction of Scotland’s first “Mental Health First Aid Course”. Both workshops received very positive feedback.

After a splendid lunch we had another choice of workshops. In one Marie Morrison and Jonathan Firth described the changes to SQA NQ Psychology courses from 2009 and at the same time Michelle Clark from the Astley Ainslie Hospital (NHS Lothian) gave a presentation on “Applying Health Psychology” in which she described her involvement in the production of a “Heart Manual” for patients who have experienced heart disease. It was Michelle’s first presentation of that scale and she received very positive feedback from the floor.

A series of short items, including a wonderfully entertaining item by Morag Williamson on the life and work of Robbie Burns, took us up to the ATPS AGM and wine reception, and the EFPTA general meeting, at which we discussed the way forward and how we can promote further cross-Europe projects and activities.

Saturday evening was rounded off with an excellent Indian meal and some of the European delegates were able to stay long enough to experience some of Edinburgh’s many tourist attractions on Sunday before returning to the airport for the flight home.

Thanks go to Morag Williamson and Sue Porter (ATPS) and Joe Cocker and Udo Kittler (EFPTA) for organizing a memorable event.

Dorothy Coombs