What Educational Psychology offers
Our commissioned work
We aim to build capacity and promote inclusion in nurseries, schools, colleges and other educational settings. This means we seek to support settings when situations are in the early stages of becoming ‘stuck’ and new ideas are needed, but before crisis.
We work in a variety of creative ways as part of a graduated response to support the development, learning, and wellbeing of children and young people. As Educational Psychologists, we work at a range of different levels to maximise our impact.
Working with us
Working with the whole school
- Supporting staff wellbeing and resilience
- Developing psychologically-informed policies and procedures
- Staff training such as:
- Supporting anxious children and young people in school
- Emotion coaching
- Supporting children and young people following bereavement and loss
- Introduction to attachment
- Using Lego to develop social skills
- Precision teaching and direct instruction
- Action research and project work to support school initiatives (eg. improving maths attainment)
Working with groups
- Consultation with staff (teaching and non-teaching).
- Facilitating Team Around the Child meetings using psychological approaches (eg. Circle of Adults, Solution Circles, PATH: Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope).
- Group interventions with children, such as emotional wellbeing groups or ThinkWise.
Working with individuals
- Observation and consultation with class teacher and parent/carer(s).
- Assessment including dynamic, cognitive and play-based as part of an Assess, Plan, Do, Review graduated approach.
- Gathering pupil voice using personal construct psychology, for example.
- Staff ‘drop ins’ or coaching to discuss any concerns and to reflect, discuss and jointly problem solve.
Consultation
Consultation is a key part of our work with schools, teachers, parents, carers and other professionals. We use consultation to support collaborative thinking and gain a shared understanding about a situation or concern.
If you are looking for new ways to work with an Educational Psychologist, check out these examples of previous cases we have been involved in:
How to access our support
Schools and educational settings can purchase our Service Level Agreement (SLA) through the Traded Services website.
If you have concerns about the development of your child, or you are a young person with concerns of your own, we would advise you to speak to school or college staff and the SENDCo, in the first instance.
Our statutory work
This work is funded by Leicestershire County Council and includes:
Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs)
The SEND Code of Practice (2015) requires local authorities to seek psychological advice as part of the EHCNA process. When the Local Authority requests our advice as part of an EHCNA, we will contact the young person’s educational establishment and family to discuss how we might support the process.
Once we have written our advice, we submit a copy to the SENA team to support their decision-making process.
Inclusion forums
We regularly join the inclusion forums alongside other professionals to offer support to schools where there are concerns about a child or young person.
Critical incidents
We offer support for critical incidents affecting schools and the local community. More information can be found on our critical incidents page.