Dr Deborah Holt
Lecturer in Mental Health promotion and Health and Wellbeing

- Moray House School of Education and Sport, IETL
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 651 6609
- Email: deborah.holt@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Moray House School of Education and Sport, CH3.05c
- City
- University of Edinburgh(Holyrood Campus)
- Post code
- EH8 8AQ
Background
- I have been working at Moray House School of Education since 2010 with specialism in health and wellbeing and mental health promotion
- I have been a programme director and subject lead on ITE programmes and I was the School Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement from 2018 to 2023
- I lead, develop and teach in Health and wellbeing, positive mental health promotion, positive behaviour, resilience and grief across the School
- I am committed to enhancing the student experience for all students and particularly for our Widening Participation students. I am the School Widening Participation Champion which involves working with colleagues to enhance the experience for WP students as well as to work with partners and external agencies engaging with WP pupils in schools.
- Prior to coming to UoE, I was a Headteacher, with a focus on the pastoral role, and early years teacher and specialist MFL teacher for 4-12 year olds.
Qualifications
Doctorate in Education: The Primary School Teacher's responsibility to Promote Positive Mental Health
PGCE
BA Hons Language and Linguistics
Responsibilities & affiliations
Responsibilities
Moray House School of Education and Sport Widening Participation Champion
Health and Wellbeing lead on various programmes
Exam Board Convenor
Affiliations
Institute of Education Teaching and Leadership
UoE Thrive Network
Part of the PCRE Research cluster
Scotland’s Community of Access and Participation Practitioners
Undergraduate teaching
Course lead on Health and Wellbeing Promotion in the University Community and Beyond- open to students across the university and designed to promote student wellbeing
lead on various Health and Wellbeing electives and core course content across a range of programmes
safeguarding in Teacher Education
Postgraduate teaching
MSc Inclusive Education dissertation supervision
MSc Research methods 1 and 2 tutor
input on mental health promotion/health and wellbeing as required/invited
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I welcome applications for qualitative research relating to wellbeing in education
I supervise students in projects associated with :
mental health promotion which includes any specific contributor or threat to positive mental health
educator wellbeing
social and emotional inclusion of New Scots (refugee) children
and other qualitative studies related to health and wellbeing
Current PhD students supervised
Beth Davies- the childminder's experience during Covid - year 3
April Steffeck - how student teachers are prepared to deal with teacher directed abuse - year 3
Morgan Ludington- experiences and narratives of menstruation- year 3
Anna Jesseman- teacher wellbeing- year 2
Selin Korkmaz- Syrian families' experiences of the Scottish education system- year 2
Past PhD students supervised
Jill Steel- Reading to Dogs
Research summary
- positive mental health promotion in education
- the educator's role in promoting learners' positive mental health
- teacher and educator wellbeing
- social and emotional wellbeing support at transition between primary and secondary school
- social, emotional and academic integration of refugee children in primary school
Current research interests
Positive mental health promotion in education contexts; Teacher wellbeing; Social, emotional and academic integration of refugee children; Sex education; How ITE prepares student teachers for Health and Wellbeing as the responsibility of all in Secondary schools Support for social and emotional wellbeing at transition from Primary to Secondary school;Past research interests
Promoting metacognition through child peer learning conversations and the development of metacognitive languageKnowledge exchange
How to tutor widening access learners
Affiliated research centres
Project activity
the partnership with Place 2 Be
Working with ReAct to promote New Scot's children's inclusion
How we prepare student teachers to meet their responsibility to health and wellbeing within Curriculum for Excellence
-
Tutoring project for children from a refugee community: Tutor perspectives
In:
Educational Research, vol. 64, pp. 473-490
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2022.2135121
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Facilitating a positive transition: A case study exploring the factors that support social, emotional and mental wellbeing from primary to secondary school
In:
Pastoral Care in Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2022.2093952
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Promoting Positive Mental Health in the Primary School: Theory into Practice
(160 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429504051
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Metacognition in the Primary School: A practical guide to helping children understand how they learn best
(206 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315731636
Research output: › Book (Published)
- Promoting Positive Mental health in the Primary Classroom, October 2019. Routledge
- https://www.routledge.com/Promoting-Positive-Mental-Health-in-the-Primary-School-Theory-into-Practice/Holt/p/book/9781138587267?fbclid=IwAR14u55P3dal-cl5qdymSRodDTRDjnP0O_vOJq0lpvQdCqiGaEooXWcbtwc
- Metacognition in the Primary Classroom with Peter Tarrant, January 2016