An Educational Psychologist (EP) is someone who visits schools and colleges to work with teachers, parents or carers and young people. Many young people will see an EP at some time during their time in school or college.
We try to make school better by trying to understand from you and those who know you best, your strengths, as well as exploring things that are a bit trickier for you. This might be related to learning and schoolwork, remembering things and thinking, or understanding feelings, thoughts and behaviour.
If you’ve got any questions about how we can help that aren’t answered here, let your Educational Psychologist, teachers, parents or carers know.
The Educational Psychologist (EP) may want to talk to people who know you, but they will also be keen to talk to you too and hear what you have to say. We understand that it can be difficult to talk about your thoughts and feelings, you won’t have to answer any questions or talk about things if you don’t want to. The EP may want to do activities or puzzles with you in a quiet area or spend some in your class. You won’t have to answer any questions or talk about things if you don’t want to.
The EP will only talk to adults who can help improve things or who have important information about you. The EP will suggest ways to change things for the better and may ask you or adults at home or at school to do some things differently.
They may wish to come back to visit you or the school at another time to see if things have improved.
If you are particularly anxious about meeting new people or when school routines change, it can be helpful to ask adults in school or your parent/ carer to let the EP know in advance, so that they can send some information to you about what they will do on the day they visit you, so you feel prepared. You can also have someone in the meeting with you if you would like.
It can be helpful to prepare for this meeting by considering what your best hopes are for meeting with the EP and what information you think it would be most helpful to share as well as any questions you might want to have answered.
If you are finding it difficult to be in school, we can arrange a home visit or arrange a visit in another setting.
The below video may help explain the role of an Educational Psychologist more clearly for you and give you an understanding of some of the things they might do during their visit.