Educational Psychology

Our specialist educational psychologists work with parents and educational settings to understand and respond to a range of learning and emotional needs in children of all ages. We take an innovative, creative and collaborative approach to enabling children to feel safe and able to learn.

Difficulties that bring parents and schools to the Beacon House Educational Psychology service

Anxiety which impacts on learning and attendance
Emotional and behavioural difficulties in school
Challenges in the home-school relationship
Children who are not reaching their academic potential because of emotional or family difficulties
Children who struggle with relationships in school
The impact of specific learning difficulties on self-esteem and the child’s confidence as learners and friends

What we value

The primary value of our therapeutic Educational Psychology service is to understand all behaviour as a communication of an underlying need. We aim to work collaboratively, transparently and authentically with all important adults in the child’s life to build a therapeutic web of support around them.

Our approach is to think contextually about children’s needs. In other words, we aim to promote adjustments in the child’s environment at home and school which will enable them to feel safe, thrive and learn.

Our Educational Psychology service can be delivered as a standalone intervention, or it can be part of a wider package of support for children who are having therapy here at Beacon House.

Our Specialist Educational Psychology Offer

Our Educational Psychologists are able to offer bespoke packages to educational settings and families. Examples of assessment and intervention packages includes:

1. Consultation

Our aims

To bring parents and school together to jointly define and explore the concerns in school
To consider the child’s underlying social, emotional and mental health needs and how these impact on their learning
To explore the challenges in the learning environment
To identify and jointly agree strategies and supportive interventions
To identify whether further assessment is required (e.g. SALT, OT Dyslexia)
If the child is in therapy here, to support the parents and therapist with additional strategies which will enable learning.

2. Assessment

Our aims

To jointly define and explore the concerns at home and in school
To identify the pupil’s underlying social, emotional and mental health needs and how these impact on their learning
To provide a psychological assessment which takes account of the different contexts in which the child is functioning
To identify and agree supportive strategies and interventions
To make recommendations for therapeutic intervention.

3. Dynamic Assessment

Our aims:

To use dynamic /interactive methods to explore a child’s learning approaches, barriers to learning and supportive interventions which will enable progress.

4. Organisational consultation

Our aims

To work collaboratively with senior leadership teams within schools and colleges to review their whole-school approach to meeting the needs of vulnerable children and their families
To understand what becoming a trauma-informed school means for their context, and developing a plan for implementation
To identify training and supervision needs for the school

5. Supervision for education staff

We are able to offer specialist group or individual supervision to education staff. Our overarching ethos is trauma-informed. Our supervision embodies the following values within the supervisory relationship:

Safety, trust, and collaboration
The importance of having a safe, consistent, regular and reflective space particularly when working within complex contexts and complex pupils
The acceptance that we all have our own triggers and stressors which can be activated within our work. Supervision will therefore prioritise reflection, well-being and self-care
Supervision is relational. Group supervision pays attention to group processes while providing a safe space where individual voices are listened to and where these voices matter.

Aims

To enable staff to understand and respond to children’s needs and behaviours
To build confidence and knowledge about developmental challenges in vulnerable children
To strengthen team work
To promote staff well-being and self-care
To enhance the individual or team’s capacity to reflect and understand their roles and goals

Training

Our Educational Psychologists regularly provide training in schools as part of our wider training offer, with a special focus on training schools in the impact of Developmental Trauma on children and how to support them in education.

Take a look here for our training about Developmental Trauma.

We also welcome the opportunity to design and deliver bespoke training for your school setting. Please get in touch with us, and we will offer you an initial free of charge telephone conversation with our Education Advisor to decide on next steps.

Getting in Touch

We welcome informal enquiries about whether our Educational Psychology Service may be right for you. Please get in touch on 01444 413 939 or admin@beaconhouse.org.uk.