Ilia Papadaki
Ilia is a current PhD researcher looking into the influence of natural outdoor spaces on excluded student’s well-being, behaviour and cognition. This research takes place with KS3-KS4 children across a Newham Pupil Referral Unit. Her PhD is funded by the UBEL-DTP co-funded and collaborative studentship and is supervised by Dr Georgia Lockwood-Estrin (UEL), Dr Emma Howarth (US), Dr Sam Wass (UEL) and Kelly Dickson (UCL).
Ilia is qualified as a teacher and gained 9 years of working experience in both mainstream and special needs school settings in the UK and Greece. With a primary focus on supporting neurodiverse students dealing with challenging behaviours and Autism, Ilia developed a profound commitment to supporting alternative provisions and innovative learning pathways. Her interest in the outdoors stemmed from her work at forest school settings, where she noticed remarkable transformations in student engagement and behaviour. As an advocate for the great outdoors, her mission is to bridge the gap between science, education and our innate connection to nature.
Prior to starting her PhD research, Ilia earned a BA (Hons) at the University of Aegean, Greece, and completed her MSc in Developmental Sciences at Birkbeck. She conducted her thesis at IOE UCL, focusing on language development in Montessori schools.
