How educational psychologists work with schools

Schools can purchase Educational Psychology time through the traded services website.

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Portsmouth EP service includes:

• a dedicated “named contact” Educational Psychologist (EP) who will work with you to develop a detailed understanding of your school context, systems, needs and priorities.
• an educational psychology provider who’s well connected within the Portsmouth County Council. We can help you and your pupils by liaising with other local support services for children, young people and families..
• there is a range of expertise and specialist knowledge within our team that can be drawn upon as required
• continuity for casework across non-statutory and statutory activities
• support working at systems level with a school to help address areas for further development. This is with the aim of improving the outcomes at whole school level for children and young people and the staff who support them.
• the ways in which we can work are flexible and can be negotiated to meet the needs of all service users. We can use a range of approaches including meeting online, face to face consultation and/ or direct work with the child or young person.
• one day equates to six hours of EP time

Additional support from the EP team may include:

• support for schools following critical incidents and sad events
• contributing psychological advice for a child or young person as part of an education, health and care needs assessment (EHCNA)
• reviews of children’s EHCNA’s
• attendance at annual review meetings for young people with an EHC plan
• providing expert advice for special educational needs and disability tribunals

Educational Psychologists (EPs) provide support to schools to help bring about positive changes for the child or young person. This may involve psychological assessment (which includes consultation).

We believe that assessment should involve:

• working together – actively involving the child or young person and those who know them best, for example parents/carers and school staff
• assessment over time – bringing together information about what has been tried previously and how the child or young person has responded
• reviewing the context – taking account of the wider factors that might be influencing the child or young person’s progress
• forward looking – looking ahead to plan relevant strategies and actions

This will always involve consultation with key stake holders, with the possibility of further assessment work with the Child or Young Person (CYP) if required.

Educational Psychologists provide training for staff, parents and carers to support an identified need and can also work with staff to contribute to changes in school policy.

Our Educational Psychologist team draw upon evidence-based practice to inform our training.  As part of meeting the needs of your school we can offer bespoke training to ensure all within your school community continue to thrive and make progress.

Please do discuss any training needs with your link Educational Psychologist.

Here are some recent testimonials from some of the training we offer:

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA)

“ELSA training refreshed my practices with new ideas and approaches. I found the ELSA model of support to be clear, understandable and user friendly.”

Emotion Coaching

“I learnt a lot.  As a result of this training, I have better understanding of how to emotion coach and help children be comfortable with their feelings and take active steps to manage it better. The session was interesting and engaging.  Thank you.”

Precision Teaching

“This has developed my knowledge and understanding of the approach, and it has been helpful to learn more about how to use the probe sheet and plot results on a graph to see progress. I also appreciated the practical resources and activities.”

Lego Therapy

“I can’t wait to implement this with my children to help promote their social skills. I enjoyed doing this training with other schools to compare practice and share experiences. I now understand how I can differentiate Lego therapy according to the needs of my pupils. Super!”

Educational Psychologists have offered high quality supervision for staff in schools over many years.

This is highly valued because it:

• offers a structured process to support staff in identifying areas for future development and change
• offers a safe space to acknowledge and work with concerns, fears and stresses
• promotes the sharing of good practice and celebrations of success
• facilitates the opportunity for staff to think critically and reflect on personal and professional skills and work-related issues

EPs are committed to keeping up to date with current research and its recommendations about which interventions and practices produce the best outcomes.

We can provide schools with the relevant knowledge and support to plan and execute these interventions effectively.

Feel free to ask us about some of the previous evidence-based interventions we have previously supported schools with.  These have included, but are not limited to:

• Video Interactive Guidance
• Precision teaching
• CBT informed approaches
• Story Links
• Therapeutic Story-writing
• Motivational Interviewing
• Mindfulness activities and approaches