What is an Educational Psychologist?

The Educational Psychology Service (EPS) is a team of psychologists who have training in child development and how children learn.  Educational psychologists also have knowledge of the education system and how features of this system can help or hinder learning.

All psychologists are required to have an undergraduate degree in psychology and a specialist Masters qualification in educational psychology.

Moray Educational Psychology Service: Staffing

The Educational Psychology Service in Moray operates a “patch” system meaning that each Associated Schools Group (i.e. the secondary school, its feeder primaries and, in turn, the pre-school providers) has a named educational psychologist.

Schools are allocated time from the service, depending on their school roll and the numbers of children who might need support.

The educational psychologist will visit each school on a planned and regular basis.

So what does an Educational Psychologist do?

The role of the educational psychologist is varied.  One aspect of the job is to support schools and families if children and young people are experiencing barriers to their learning.  Children and young people can experience barriers to learning for a number of reasons (e.g. learning difficulties like dyslexia, being subject to bullying, low levels of confidence & self-esteem, difficulty in attending school, experiencing anxiety).  Psychologists work with a wide range of people to help find ways forward (e.g. parents, teachers, social work, speech & language therapists etc).

These are the types of tasks psychologists might be involved in from day to day:

• Having conversations with teachers where there are concerns about a child’s progress. These are called ‘Collaborative Meetings’. The aim of these meetings is to identify difficulties and strengths and to agree strategies and supports for the child.
• Undertaking assessment tasks to help to identify a child’s difficulties and strengths. This might include:

• Attending meetings about children - involving different professionals.
• Liaising with education officers about how to meet the needs of children

Part of the job involves delivering training to professionals and, sometimes, young people. This training can cover a range of topics. Recent work includes:

• Nurture, attachment and resilience
• Mindset and Motivation
• Mediated Learning
• Solution-oriented approaches
• Supporting service children

Educational Psychologists are also expected to conduct research and audit work. More recent work includes:

• An audit on the use of literacy interventions
• Pupil aspirations
• Using support staff / auxiliaries
• How schools consult with young people before meetings

We also publish mini-papers (also called Occasional Papers) which are designed to share research ideas with teachers and with parents. 
 

What if a parent or carer has a concern about a child's progress in school?

Parents can contact the service directly.  However, we would expect parents to discuss any concern with their child's school in the first instance.  In many cases, the school will be able to deal with the concern and put appropriate supports in place.  If not, the school can then decide whether to ask for educational psychology support.