CSIE mourns the sad loss of Gerv Leyden, tireless supporter of inclusive education and CSIE Trustee since 2007.

For most of his professional career Gerv had worked as an educational psychologist with children, parents and schools in respect of the education of children with significant needs or who found themselves in vulnerable or challenging circumstances. His focus throughout had been on improving systems and arrangements to support all children more effectively in mainstream settings. In pursuit of this he was also involved in the training of teachers and EPs in order to improve their skills, and understandings, and working at the systems level with schools and local authority services, to develop their capacity to include and meet the needs of all children.

Gerv had also been a member of the National Executive Committee of the Association of Educational Psychologists, Member and subsequently Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Training Committee and a Board member of the Marsha Forest Centre, Toronto.

A ray of sunshine for many whose lives he touched, Gerv’s wit, gentleness and wisdom will live on in our memories and in our stories. Watch Gerv, addressing delegates at the Toronto Summer Institute in 2008. To echo a comment on YouTube in response to this video clip: “How cool is this guy? My inspiration, love ya Gerv xx”